Category Archives: Students

Student Senate Hosts Gender Issues Week

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Judy Shepard, mother of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard, will give the keynote speech on the acceptance of gay rights and equality on March 5 at 8 p.m. in the Hansen Student Center (300 E. Beecher Street).

This event is part of Illinois Wesleyan University’s annual Gender Issues Week which sets out to inform, educate and provide programs dealing with issues pertinent to women and men, and it is free and open to the public.

On October 8, 1998, Matthew Shepard, an openly gay man from Wyoming, was murdered in his college town of Laramie, Wyo. His death was the result of a hate crime and his mother, Judy Shepard, has since then committed her life to fighting for gay rights. His death was also the inspiration for the HBO movie turned play, The Laramie Project.

In May of 1999 Shepard testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act where she said, “I can assure opponents of this legislation firsthand, it was not words or thoughts, but violent acts that killed my son.”

WESN Now Webcasting

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – After several years of research and planning, Illinois Wesleyan University’s student-run radio station, WESN 88.1 FM, began Webcasting its music programs on February 5. Listeners can access the Webcasts through WESN’s Web site, www.wesn.org

“We really wanted to boost our listenership levels, and the only way to do that was to stay abreast of new technology,” said WESN Promotions Manager Kari Irwin, a junior religion and philosophy major from Palatine, Ill.

The WESN staff decided that Webcasting was necessary in order to compete with online music services and video streaming sites such as YouTube. “We conducted surveys of the student body and found out that no one really listens to the radio anymore,” said Irwin, who has been on the WESN staff for three years. “Webcasts have completely rejuvenated the station.”

Sophomore Tests Mind Power in International Bridge Competitions

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – While classmates were home for the Thanksgiving holiday, enjoying traditional feasting and relaxation with family, Illinois Wesleyan sophomore Sam Katz spent 10 days competing in the North American Bridge Championships (NABC) in San Francisco.

Katz achieved his personal best in “blue ribbon” pairs competition. His father also competed, placing fourth in “open pairs.”

Whether influenced by nature or nurture, Katz stands to inherit impressive skills: Both of his parents and his grandparents are competitive bridge players. His mother won in national competition at a young age. His grandparents compete regionally, and his father, Ralph — the most successful of the Katz clan — placed second in recent World Team Championships, sponsored by the World Bridge Federation.

Last summer, Sam Katz won a NABC Mini-Spingold team event in Nashville, Tenn. Before enrolling at IWU, he competed in World Bridge Federation contests in Thailand and in Verona, Italy.

Katz explains his enjoyment of the card game by quoting his dad, who says, “You never stop learning in bridge, because there are so many hands and so many things you can do.”

A Hinsdale Township Central High School graduate and resident of Burr Ridge, Ill., Katz is majoring in economics at Illinois Wesleyan with a minor in math. The analysis of probabilities that he enjoys in his math studies relates directly to the mental competition of bridge.

“It really uses your mind,” Katz said. “You think and visualize all the cards in everyone’s hands. You can figure out what they have from what they’ve played.”

Students Capture Goal with ‘Nets’

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— Illinois Wesleyan University students are helping to fight malaria by raising more than $1,200 in a little over a week for the Nothing But Nets campaign.

Students decided to assist the international group after working on a class project for Health 280: Perspective in International Health. “One of our class assignments was to write a research paper recommending a global health issue and international organization that was making a difference.” said Katie Winkler, a senior biology major from Mount Prospect, Ill., and co-coordinator of the student effort. “Three or four of us chose malaria and Nothing But Nets, and the class decided to raise funds for them.”

Nothing But Nets is a grassroots organization, which purchases and distributes mosquito bednets in developing countries, especially Africa. “Malaria is on the rise in certain areas, and more than 408 million people worldwide suffer from malaria,” said Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies and Health Laurine Brown, who teaches the class. UNICEF reports 3,000 people a day die from the disease. “A mosquito net costs about $10, and can reduce transmission of malaria by up to 90 percent in affected areas, but that is out of reach for many people in developing nations.”

Students decided to raise $1,000 for Nothing But Nets under the team name IWU 4 Nets. “We thought $10 a net was an attainable amount for college students,” said Sara Koller, a senior biology major from Apple Valley, Minn., who also helped coordinate raising funds, and noted one net can help as many as four people.

Tips for Dealing with Stress During Finals Week

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — As finals week descends upon Illinois Wesleyan University, students may find themselves struggling with stress. IWU Staff Counselor Bob Rogers offers students some tips on getting through the week.

Set goals and reward yourself:

With projects coming due and multiple tests looming, students can easily lose sight of what is important, said Rogers, who works with the University’s Counseling and Consultation Services. “The best thing a student can do is to plan and organize,” he said, noting students should think about the “the Ps”: prioritize, plan and protect. “Students need to identify what their top priorities are, understand how much each project or test is worth, and make sure they understand what needs to be studied or done,” said Rogers. Creating a plan of attack when it comes to finals can help. “Decide the best time to focus on each topic, and then stick to it and protect that plan,” he said.

When students do meet goals in their plan, Rogers advises them to reward themselves. “If you’ve set a goal of studying for two hours, or finishing typing several pages, then reward yourself,” said Rogers. “Just make sure the goal precedes the reward. Goals should be realistic and achievable and can often give people a much-needed sense of direction.”

Take care of yourself:

It sounds like an easy idea, but during finals week, health is an early casualty, said Rogers. “Sleep is usually one of the first things students sacrifice, which makes studying tougher because it is difficult to function or retain information on limited sleep,” he said.

Though finals week may make the sales of Red Bull rise over the nation, Rogers advises students to watch what they eat and drink. “When students get stressed out, they may find themselves drinking a lot of caffeine to stay awake and study, or skipping meals and then eating a greasy snack late at night,” he said. “Students may think this helps in the short term, but although caffeine and carbs give a quick boost, it is followed by a big crash, which means students will not be feeling their best when they wake up the next morning. Take care of your body – eat well, sleep enough and exercise to burn off excess stress and energy”.

Give yourself space:

When it comes to studying, Rogers suggests a quiet space where students can focus. “Think about where you are studying. Will there be distractions like phone calls or friends stopping by? Or would you be better off in a quiet nook of the library?” he asked.

Cramming for finals may be a time-honored tradition for college students, but Rogers said it may actually cost students valuable study time. “Students who try to cram in a semester’s worth of knowledge in five hours will probably find they have only been able to truly focus for an hour and a half,” said Rogers. “The rest of the time will have been wasted.” Instead, he suggests an hour of studying with short breaks in between. “Give your mind time to process everything, and give your body time to relax,” he said, even if it is just a quick trip for a healthy snack.

Face reality:

One of the toughest things for students to see during finals week is the big picture. “Students are not going to be successful if they exaggerate the situation. You can’t do well if you look at a test and say, ‘If I fail this test, I will not get into graduate school.’ That’s too much pressure for anyone,” said Rogers, who said if students have done well in a class throughout the semester, they will most likely do well on the final. “Worrying and panicking is not helpful, and will only hinder students in their overall goals. Practicing techniques that help you relax is also very important.”

The best defense against panic during finals week is to locate a middle ground. “The key is finding a balance of work, rest and play,” said Rogers. “Try to be happy with a less than perfect performance from yourself. All you can do is your best.”

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Senior Builds Filmmaking Repertoire

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Sehaj Sethi expects a bright future working on film sets after graduating from Illinois Wesleyan University.

The senior English-writing major from Inverness, Ill., who is co-head of IWU’s filmmaking organization, 9×9, has already helped to coordinate a film festival for Cinema/Chicago, a not-for-profit multicultural and educational organization, and worked on several projects for 9×9. A producer in her own right, Sethi has also made three independent films.

“In my films, I always like pushing the boundaries and doing things no one else has done because the moment you take people out of their comfort zones, you have their attention,” said Sethi.

For example, in the opening scene of Sethi’s third independent film, Piccavi, which means “I have sinned” in Latin, “a terrible act is combined with beautiful imagery and sound,” said Sethi.

With one line of dialogue, “He weighed 155 pounds,” Sethi presents the viewer with the first subtle clue that something is amiss, using this single phrase to manipulate the viewer’s perception of the lead character’s seemingly innocuous actions.

Both Piccavi and Sethi’s first independent film, Baby Boy America, were chosen as official selections for Cinema/Chicago’s 2007 Future Filmmakers Festival, which accepts film submissions from filmmakers 20 years of age or younger.

Undaunted by sensitive subjects, Sethi based Baby Boy America on a poem by Patricia Smith titled “Skinheads.” The seven-minute film is composed of images relating to this poem.

“When Baby Boy America was showing at the festival, I was shaking and hyperventilating because I didn’t know what the audience would think,” said Sethi.

Sethi’s anxiety about the film’s reception was relieved when two viewers gave a standing ovation while they applauded.

“It hit me like a boulder to my chest. I was stunned that I had impacted some audience members that way,” said Sethi, adding that the moment, which has remained a pinnacle in her life as a budding filmmaker, marked her decision to use cinema as her medium to continue influencing others.

Sethi’s fascination with film began when she was seven during her first trip to the movie theater, to see Jurassic Park with her uncle and cousin. “They were terrified of the film and I was head-over-heels in love with this magic movie world that came to life for me.”

She attributes one of her teachers at William Fremd High School who “was as crazy about film as I was” with sparking her interest in the filmmaking process during her senior year. “Until I took his film appreciation class, I didn’t realize what effect editing, sound editing, camera angles, or lighting had. After that, I was starving for information,” said Sethi.

Upon arriving at IWU, Sethi began working with 9×9 and its founder, Mike Gabriele, class of 2007. Along with Gabriele, Sethi researched and compiled filmmaking equipment for the group.

Dunlop Named Student Laureate by Lincoln Academy of Illinois

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Marcus Dunlop, a senior business administration and economics double major from Maywood, Ill. and graduate of Proviso East High School, has been named a Lincoln Academy of Illinois Student Laureate.

The Lincoln Academy of Illinois, founded in 1965, honors distinguished citizens of Illinois for their contributions to society. For each of the past 33 years, the academy has recognized one accomplished student from each four-year degree-granting institution of higher learning in Illinois.

Every year each institution’s president nominates an outstanding senior who has demonstrated exceptional academic and extracurricular achievement. The award recipients receive a medallion, a check for $150 and a certificate.

Dunlop has been a member of the national honor society Phi Kappa Phi since his junior year. He has also presided over the Risk Management and Finance Society as president for the past two years. A running back for the Illinois Wesleyan varsity football team, Dunlop has been a four-year starter and was twice named an all-conference player.

Team to Discuss Groundbreaking China Research at Asian Studies Colloquium

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Three Illinois Wesleyan University students and a professor who traveled to China this summer will speak about the groundbreaking work of their team at the Asian Studies Colloquium Series on Tuesday, Nov. 13, from 12:10 p.m. to 1 p.m. in Room E 103 of the Center for Natural Sciences (201 Beecher Street). The event is part of International Education Week on campus, and the public is invited to attend.

The Series is an opportunity for faculty and students to share findings from their specialized research on Asia. The presenting research team, led by Thomas Lutze, associate professor and chair of history at Illinois Wesleyan, journeyed to the Chinese cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Peking and Hangzhou, to explore urban planning in post-Revolutionary China. It is an area that has been relatively untouched in the field of Chinese history, according to Lutze.

“This is a significant research topic in modern Chinese history that has been overlooked in Western literature, and not very widely researched in China,” said Lutze, whose team investigated how the Communist government of 1949 addressed the chaos of post-war China. “After eight years of World War II and three years of Civil War, the infrastructure of urban China had been pretty much destroyed. There were a lot of people who were in desperate need of housing, of health care, of schooling.”

In order to explore the issue, the team received an ASIANetwork Freeman Student Faculty Fellows Grant that allowed them to travel for nearly three and a half weeks in June and July to universities, archives and sites in the three cities. The five IWU students on the team were each assigned a topic to research: pollution, education, housing, sanitation and health care. “We were able to go into the stacks and look up articles, with the help of translators of course,” said Christy Ivie, a junior sociology major who studied efforts of the government to provide housing. “We walked through the housing built by the government. It was incredible to actually see what we were researching right in front of us.”

Senior Selected as Finalist for Chemistry Award

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Jamie Rogers, a senior chemistry major from Elmwood, Ill., has been chosen as one of 11 finalists for the Frank and Sara McKnight Prize in Undergraduate Chemistry.

The prize, established by Dr. Steven McKnight, chairman of University of Texas Southwestern’s Department of Biochemistry, and awarded by the university, acknowledges undergraduate achievement in chemistry research.

In November, Rogers will attend the UT Southwestern Biochemistry Research Retreat in New Braunfels, Texas to present her research along with the other finalists in a poster session. The prize’s selection committee will judge the finalists on their presentation as well as the gravity of their research.

“Being a finalist for this highly competitive award is an honor in itself,” says Ram Mohan, professor of chemistry at IWU, who supervises Rogers’ research in his lab.

Rogers’ research explores replacing toxic chemical processes with more environmentally friendly ones, particularly by utilizing the element Bismuth. In her nominated research project, Rogers used bismuth-based catalysts to replace more toxic catalysts previously used to synthesize molecules of interest to the pharmaceutical industry.

Portfolio Class Worth a Million to Students

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Studying the market trends, researching companies on the S&P 500, considering long-range performance – these are all practices of any investment analyst. The only difference in this case is that the analysts are students.

The Illinois Wesleyan University class in Portfolio Management challenges students to research and evaluate an investment portfolio. Unlike other college portfolio classes, the stocks these IWU students manage are real.

“Students learning to understand investing through classes is growing throughout universities across the country, but many of them have undergraduate students use phantom funds,” said Elisabeta Pana, assistant professor of finance at IWU. “Our students have made educated suggestions to an actual Client Board. This is not a hypothetical situation.”

The portfolio fund at Illinois Wesleyan is in the form of an endowment, donated in the early 1990s by Savannah, Ga. businessman C. Leroy Benner, who learned of IWU from his friend, 1949 alumnus Jack Liston. The two decided to provide more than $100,000 for a fund where students could learn the real impact of investing. Other donations followed, including a recent gift from the Benner estate. Students began analyzing the portfolio in 1995, and after 12 years of student management, the fund now tops more than $1 million.

“This is a great opportunity,” said senior business administration major Michael McQuillan. “I’m looking forward to going into job interviews and telling them I’ve already worked on a million-dollar account.”

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