Category Archives: Features

Student Volunteers Help Build Extreme Makeover Home

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. –Not everyone can be on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, however this year several Illinois Wesleyan University students received the opportunity to participate in the show’s latest renovation. On August 18th, the program began filming its latest project.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition surprises deserving families by demolishing their old home and building a new one in its place in just one week. It requires shifts of hundreds of volunteers, as well as designers and a local construction crew to work from early morning until late at night to complete the task.

The Montgomery family from Philo, a town nine miles south of Urbana, Ill., was selected to receive this new house and was selected for its contributions to the community. The winning homeowner, Nathan Montgomery, a former engineer, gave up his career to start a food pantry and clothing bank called “Salt & Light” in Champaign. The pantry helps feed over 250 families and provides clothing for over 300 families.

Bevin Cowie, a senior sociology major from Braidwood, Ill., was one of 18 Illinois Wesleyan students that volunteered along with Illinois Wesleyan’s Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, Kathy Cavins. The students helped keep the site clean, move bricks, and supply lunch and water to the other volunteers. As Site Coordinator, Cowie was given a list of tasks that she could then delegate to other volunteers to help her.

Alumnus Leads Construction of “Extreme Makeover” Home

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – With a deafening cry, hundreds of volunteers charged to destroy a worn down home in Philo, Ill., Thursday morning. Helping lead the charge was Illinois Wesleyan University alumnus Ed Brady. His act was one with charitable intentions. The owners of the demolished house have been chosen to receive a new home by the ABC television show Extreme Makeover Home Edition, and Brady’s construction company, Brady Homes, has been selected as the local building sponsor to donate his company’s labor and resources.

The television show chooses deserving families to receive a new home. Under the leadership of a local construction crew, the old home is razed and a new one built in about a week. For the home in Philo, shifts of construction workers and volunteers will be running from 6 a.m. to midnight in order to construct the house in seven days, a task that usually takes four months. Filming of the episode has been ongoing for the past week, and will continue until the completed home is revealed to the family next week. The episode is scheduled to air this fall.

Chosen for the show was the family of Nathan Montgomery, a former engineer who gave up a lucrative career to start the pantry Salt & Light that provides food, clothing and ministry to around 250 families in and near Philo, located southeast of Champaign. “This entire project is about the family, about communities coming together to provide food and shelter,” said Brady from the demolition site. “The Brady family is honored and happy to give back to this family who has given so much of themselves for others.”

Illinois Wesleyan Welcomes Class of 2013

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Beginning Tuesday, Aug. 18, Illinois Wesleyan University’s class of 2013 will officially “turn Titan” as part of the University’s annual “Turning Titan: New Student Orientation.” The program is designed to acclimate incoming first-year students to academic, residential and social aspects of college life. The orientation will culminate on Sunday, Aug. 23, and University classes will begin the following Monday.

The Titan Orientation schedule will combine support services with entertainment, offering events such as “Traditions Night,” where students can socialize while learning about the University’s history, and “Real World 101,” an onstage send-up of common student anxieties.

Other key events will include: New Student Convocation, an address to be delivered by Associate Professor of English Wes Chapman titled “The Right Kind of Confidence;” “One Stop Shop: a Campus Community Resource Fair,” which introduces students to local businesses and other services; and the Summer Reading Program, which invites students, faculty and staff to critically discuss a common literary work.

This year’s selection for the reading program is Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time, by New York Times No. 1 bestselling author Greg Mortenson. Co-written by journalist David Oliver Relin, Mortenson’s novel chronicles his experience in Pakistan in 1993 after a failed expedition to climb K2, which inspired his efforts to establish over 75 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the years since. Mortenson will be the guest speaker at the President’s Convocation on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 11 a.m. in the Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall (1210 N. Park Street, Bloomington).

Recent Graduate Helps Low-Income Residents Access Fresh Food

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University alumnus Danny Burke has been pioneering making fresh food available to low-income residents.

Burke, who graduated in the spring of 2009, developed a plan for benefits from SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps), to be used at the farmer’s market in downtown Bloomington. Now the Downtown Bloomington Farmer’s Market is one of just nine farmer’s markets in the state of Illinois approved to accept Link cards, which are the cards used to redeem SNAP benefits in Illinois.

“Healthy food is so connected to community development,” said Burke, who earned a double major in environmental studies and Spanish. “If you secure food and nutrition, you help develop a healthier society.”

As a member of the Illinois Wesleyan’s track team, Burke ran through many neighborhoods in Bloomington, and began to suspect several of them were what anthropologists call a “food desert” – pockets in developed countries where no fresh food is available. “Some areas do not have access to grocery stores, only corner stores and gas stations that carry mainly processed food,” he said. Burke decided to focus his senior seminar paper on providing options to alleviate possible food deserts in Bloomington.

Through his advisor Environmental Studies Director and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and International Studies Abigail Jahiel, Burke discovered the idea of allowing low-income residents to use SNAP benefits at area farmer’s markets. With the help of Jahiel and Deborah Halperin from the University’s Action Research Center, Burke connected with several local organizations, including the West Bloomington Revitalization Partnership, the Heartland Local Food Network, Harvest of Hope, and Downtown Bloomington Association, which operates the farmers’ market. “Danny saw a need and studied and worked to answer that need,” said Marsha Veninga, co-chair of Heartland Local Food Network, who took on Burke as an intern. “He has gone way above and beyond any class project.”

Portland Theatre Company Showcases Wesleyan Talent

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A group of Illinois Wesleyan University students, faculty, and alumni will present a free of charge musical in Portland, Oregon this summer.

Tin Pan Alley Theatre Company (TPA), which was started by an IWU alumnus, will present the musical Triumph of Love at the Artist’s Repertory Morrison Street Theater in Portland. Although the production is free, tickets can be reserved by e-mailing iwantfreemusicals@gmail.com or calling (503) 708-7553. The show will debut on Friday, August 7 and run until Saturday, August 22. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. PST Wednesday through Saturday, and at 2 p.m. PST for the Sunday performance on August 15.

Tin Pan Alley’s co-founder and artistic director is David Rubin, a Portland native and 2009 Illinois Wesleyan graduate with a bachelor of fine arts. “The idea behind the production,” said Rubin, “is to dedicate Triumph of Love to the average person who is ready to have some fun this summer.” According to production promotional materials, the company hopes to continue to offer free musicals in the future with the support of donations through the Web site and at performances.

The show will feature extensive involvement by Illinois Wesleyan School of Theatre Arts students, faculty, and alumni. Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts Scott Susong is the director. TPA’s managing director Natalie Buccomini, ’08, will direct the music (with Rubin choreographing). The musical also features students Maia Diaz, ’10, Neil Stratman, ’10, Melina Rey, ’11, and graduate Tony Lopez, ’08, in lead roles.

400 Years of Galileo: Myths, Facts and Influence of a Renaissance Man

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Galileo Galilei has been called the father of modern astronomy, the father of modern physics and the father of modern science. As the international science community celebrates the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning his telescope to the skies, Illinois Wesleyan University Professor of Physics Linda French talked about the continuing influence of this Renaissance man.

“Anyone who has ever taken physics, or even looked through a telescope, has some knowledge of Galileo’s findings,” said French, of the man who discovered four moons of Jupiter, and promoted the idea that the earth was not the center of the universe.

It was the latter idea that ran Galileo into trouble with the Inquisition. “I think more people remember him for his problems with the Inquisition than his mathematical interpretation of physical properties,” she said. “Whether he wanted to or not, he fought a battle that had to be fought.”

Liberal Arts Opportunities Inspire Change in Poet Alum

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – When Mark Yakich entered Illinois Wesleyan in 1988, he never imagined becoming an award-winning poet with four published books and another on the way. The political science major, who later earned multiple graduate degrees and is currently an associate professor of English at Loyola University, New Orleans, did not enjoy English studies and notes that he only read two novels — Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being and J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye — before age 25.

Yakich is a multi-focused artist who, according to Susan Larson of The Times-Picayune, “makes the reader re-evaluate what a word can do, what a word can mean, even what history as we know it is all about.” Here, Yakich explains via e-mail Illinois Wesleyan’s integral role in his winding path to poetry and how he became an actor, of sorts.

When you were selecting your undergraduate university, what drew you to Illinois Wesleyan?

My mother drew me to IWU. Mom didn’t want me to go far away from home, so it was either the University of Illinois or Illinois Wesleyan. I believe she liked the brochure we got in the mail. We took a visit to IWU, a day trip, and I thought it was nice and not too big. I liked the idea of a small, liberal arts university and I didn’t want to be a number [like I could have been] at the University of Illinois even though I had a small plan to go there to major in architecture. I still love architecture and have kept many of the drawings I did of cotter pins, flywheels and one of a fireplace inlaid with black marble and bordered by stained glass in a tool chest in my closet for many years.

Council for IWU Women Inspiring Students, Graduates

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Inspiring students to discover self-confidence is one of the keystones of a liberal arts education. Illinois Wesleyan University is meeting that need in students with groups such as the Council for IWU Women, which was created to instill confidence in female students with the help of a plentiful resource – successful alumnae.

Marsha Guenzler-Stevens, a 1978 Illinois Wesleyan graduate and founding member of the council, recalled her own experiences at Illinois Wesleyan as a female in the male-dominated major of biology in the 1970s. “A sense of self was a gift I received from Illinois Wesleyan,” she said, noting former Professor of Biology Dorthea Franzen as one of her strongest mentors. “I was embedded with a great sense of courage and a magnificent mentorship from Dorthea. She opened doors for me she didn’t even know she opened.”

At Illinois Wesleyan, a task force was created to explore whether female students’ attitudes reflected the national studies. The task force reported its findings to the Alumni Council Executive Board in 2005. “The Board heard data which implied Illinois Wesleyan women come to the University with talent and unending potential, but have less confidence than their male counterparts,” said Guenzler-Stevens.

“It’s a balancing act for women in leadership,” said Pat Wilson, another founding member of the Council for IWU Women and the wife of University President Richard F. Wilson. “If women have a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude and exhibit traits typically thought of as tough, it can be received as abrasive. It can be confusing to women, which is why it is so important for women to have other female role models.”

Students Explore World Through International Internships

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – From French patisseries to Italian art galleries and Eastern European news media outlets, Illinois Wesleyan University students have gained a wide variety of career experiences and opportunities from international internships.

Senior international studies major Lauren Nelson, who held an internship last year with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, an organization that provides uncensored news to countries with regulated media, in Prague, Czech Republic says she gained valuable experience. Nelson’s position involved a wide range of responsibilities from contacting foreign political officials to writing news overviews for broadcast. Although stationed in Czech-speaking Prague, as the Russian information services intern, Nelson had an opportunity to practice her Russian language skills in the office as well as learn some of the Czech language outside of the office.

“The internship allowed me to prepare for future international career opportunities by practicing my linguistic and professional skills in a culturally diverse setting,” said Nelson, who will pursue her master’s degree in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies next year at Stanford University.

Language skills are not the only benefits students reap from international internships. Junior international business major Katie Feriozzi, who worked as an art gallery intern in Milan, Italy last fall and who will return to Italy this summer for an internship with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, appreciated the opportunity to connect with professionals in the art world.

“I know that I want to pursue a career in arts business and to live and work in Italy. These internships will provide me with great networking in the field,” said Feriozzi.

International internships are available either as part of a study abroad program or separate from organized programs.

Theatre Students Exchange Feedback With Lyricist

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – It was a chance theater students do not have when they perform Shakespeare – to hear what the playwright thinks of their performance, and to offer suggestions of their own.

On Saturday, April 25, successful composer, lyricist and librettist Lawrence Rush attended the Illinois Wesleyan University performance of Winter in the Fall, his musical drama. The next day, Rush spoke with students of the Music Theatre 483 class, who performed in the show under the direction of their instructor, Assistant Professor of the Theatre Arts Scott Susong.

“You did an incredible job. It was thrilling to sit in the audience and watch how you interpreted the show,” said Rush, speaking to students in the E. Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre. “You are helping to bring the show to a whole new place.”

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