Category Archives: Students

Muriello Receives David Nott Scholarship

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University senior Joseph Muriello, a voice major and art studio minor from Oak Park, Ill., received the David Nott Collegiate Choir Scholarship at the group’s annual home concert on March 22.

Muriello said he was honored to receive the award for his dedication to the choir. “Throughout the three years I’ve been a part of the Collegiate Choir, it’s never felt like work,” he said, “Having the privilege to make such phenomenal music is a life-fulfilling reward.”

The David Nott Scholar is selected by the Collegiate Choir Director J. Scott Ferguson and in consultation with the Director of the School of Music Mario Pelusi.

The award honors the legacy of the late David Nott, professor emeritus of voice and former director of choral activity at IWU.

John Wesley Powell Research Conference to Feature Pioneer of Acoustical Ecology

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Composer, natural-science researcher and pioneer in the field of acoustical ecology David Dunn will be the keynote speaker at the Illinois Wesleyan University John Wesley Powell Research Conference on Thursday, April 9 at 1:30 p.m. in the Center for Natural Science Learning and Research (CNS) (201 E. Beecher St., Bloomington).

The conference provides an opportunity for students who are pursuing individual research projects to present those projects in a public forum. Students will present academic posters, oral presentations, music compositions and art displays throughout the day. “The level of talent, variety of fields represented, high professional standards, and large number of student participants make this event a wonderful showcase for the university,” said conference chair and Professor of Music David Vayo.

Record Number of IWU Students Accepted to Oxford Program

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A historic number of Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU) students will be heading to historic Oxford University with the Pembroke Scholars Programme in the fall.

Seven IWU students have been accepted into Pembroke College of Oxford under a special exchange program that allows them to spend a year with students from universities such as Brown, Bryn Mawr, Boston College, Columbia, Cornell, Duke and Georgetown.

“Competition for the Pembroke Program was unusually intense this year,” said IWU Director of the International Office Stacey Shimizu, who noted IWU usually has one or two applicants selected annually for the program. “I was delighted that we had so many exceptionally qualified students interested in applying, and I’m absolutely thrilled that we will be sending a record number of IWU students to Pembroke. It testifies to the quality of our students and our faculty.”

Henle Named ACS Collegiate Scholar of the Year

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Jeremy Henle, an Illinois Wesleyan University senior from Hanover Park, Ill., has been named the 2011 Collegiate Scholar of the Year by the Illinois Heartland Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS). He will be honored at the annual ACS banquet in Peoria, at a banquet on March 3.

The award is presented to those who actively use chemistry in a positive way. Henle has been engaged in research of sickle cell disease with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Brian Brennan. “Throughout Jeremy’s academic career, he has excelled both in the classroom and in the research laboratory. He is passionate and dedicated to science and truly deserving of this prestigious award,” said Brennan.

Ryan Lambert ’10 Conducts Crime Survey

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The doorbell rings. You peer outside your window to see if it’s anyone you know. No. It’s a well-dressed young man holding papers….It could be a door-to-door salesman or someone handing out pamphlets. You may choose not to answer the door, but many residents on the west side of Bloomington did, and met Illinois Wesleyan University student, and now alumnus Ryan Lambert ’10.

Lambert was conducting a crime survey as part of his Spring 2010 internship with the IWU Action Research Center (ARC), which coordinates research projects undertaken by IWU students, faculty and staff in partnership with groups in the larger Central Illinois community. A political science and history double major while at IWU, Lambert walked door-to-door, asking over 200 west side residents nine questions regarding crime in their neighborhood.

“The survey focused on why the residents in this neighborhood have a higher rate of fear and anxiety regarding crime and why they have a higher rate of victimization,” said Lambert, who noted that the parameters of the survey were south of Empire St., west of Roosevelt St., north of Oakland St. and east of the railroad tracks in Bloomington.

Although Lambert had no previous knowledge or attachment to the project, he quickly became devoted to his work. “Initially, you hear that the neighborhood isn’t the best and you shouldn’t venture there at night,” said Lambert. “But after getting to see the neighborhood, it’s really just another neighborhood. It opened my eyes to a different part of Bloomington that I didn’t appreciate before.”

Lambert worked in conjunction with ARC Coordinator Deborah Halperin, IWU librarian and Bloomington alderwoman Karen Schmidt, Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science James Simeone, Professor of Political Science Tari Renner, the Bloomington Police Department (BPD) and fellow student Drew Wolschlag ’11 to compile the survey questions. Questions included rating on a scale of 1 to 10 how safe one feels in their neighborhood, whether the respondent has ever witnessed a crime, the type of crime and what crimes are most frequent in their neighborhood.

Senior receives ASIANetwork honor

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University senior Chao Ren was recently selected as the winner of the ASIANetwork’s first annual Marianna McJimsey Award: 2011 Student Paper Competition.

Ren will receive the award for his paper, “Revisiting Tagore’s Visit to China and India in the Early Twentieth Century,” at the ASIANetwork Annual Conference April 15-17 in Oak Brook, Ill. The paper will also be published in the spring 2011 edition of the journal ASIANetwork Exchange.

According to their website, the ASIANetwork is a conglomerate of over 170 colleges in the United States. The organization attempts to strengthen the role of Asian Studies within the framework of liberal arts education in order to help prepare succeeding generations of undergraduates for a world in which Asian societies play prominent roles.

Students Named New Weir Fellows

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Two Illinois Wesleyan University students have been named the 2011 Weir Fellows. Senior Kaitie Fancher of Noblesville, Ind., and junior Matt Hill of Lake Forest, Ill., were honored for their commitment to community service.

The $1,250 fellowships are distributed through Illinois Wesleyan’s Action Research Center (ARC), which links Illinois Wesleyan students with research projects with not-for-profit organizations. Students chosen as Weir Fellows must have previously worked closely with community partners and proposed collaborative projects with them. Both fellows have projects planned with the Western Avenue Community Center, a local not-for-profit organization.

Senior Aims to Bring Lessons from South Africa to the South Side of Chicago

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University senior Bianca Spratt knows that having the support of a university can make all the difference.

A sociology major, Spratt is a first-generation college student from Chicago’s South Side. “Where I come from a lot of people don’t make it out and go to college or graduate from college,” said Spratt, who knew she wanted a degree that would enable her to return to her community and open a youth center. “At home, I had a lot of mentors who took me under their wing and showed me what community organizing was about, how to organize youth, how to allow youth to lead.” Spratt said she knew she would find the same mentoring relationships at Illinois Wesleyan.

That mentoring began with the Summer Enrichment Program (SEP) the summer before her first year at IWU. SEP offers minority students the opportunity to engage in an internship and connect with mentors. “It was a great way to begin my college career,” said Spratt.

Although her dream is to return to work in her Chicago neighborhood, Spratt said she also chose Illinois Wesleyan because of where it could take her. “I’ve always wanted to study abroad in Africa, and IWU is one of the few school that gives you the opportunity to study abroad and to graduate on time,” she said. To prepare, Spratt absorbed information from across the campus. “I took classes like Politics in Africa and African Expressive Art,” she said. “I spoke with Wesleyan students from Africa, who shared with me thoughts about their home.”

How to Survive Finals Week

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – While children across America are “nestled all snug in their beds” having hung their stockings “by the chimney with care,” Illinois Wesleyan students are more likely to be found snuggling next to their fifth cup of coffee as they frantically memorize those last few equations and read the novels that seemed to have slipped away earlier in the semester in preparation for finals.

While some students rely on tradition and superstition to survive finals week, such as Jaclynn Sullivan, a junior psychology major, who eats an entire Papa John’s pizza before taking her first test or Sarah Carlson, a senior nursing major, who has used the same pencil on every final since her freshman year on campus, others look for techniques that are a little more conventional. Bob Rogers, mental health counselor at Counseling and Consultation Services, offers tips to help students achieve their final goals.

• Avoid stressful people

Some people feel more relaxed when they can get others around them to feel stressed or worry with them. Avoid these folks during exam week because they will raise your anxiety and you will become less productive in your study habits. You may even find yourself taking care of them.

• Do Not Procrastinate

Procrastination leads to nothing good. It also increases anxiety and makes you feel overwhelmed. Most people procrastinate because it is a way to avoid anxiety. Anxiety and procrastination go hand in hand. Logically we know that it is not a good idea to cram a whole semester’s worth of information into one night of caffeine induced studying. The way to overcome this is to plan ahead. Attack your hardest exam and seek resources to help you if necessary. Set a schedule and stick to this schedule. Practice the 3 P’s of time management – Prioritize (your hardest exam/or what is most important), Plan (set up a schedule to study) and Protect (stick to this schedule and do not allow distractions).

Junior Accepted into NSF Research Program

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University junior Derrick Rohl has been accepted into the Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (REU) of the National Science Foundation.

Rohl, a physics major from Glen Ellyn, Ill., will spend January to March of 2011 conducting research at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in La Serena, Chile. His research, supervised by Illinois Wesleyan Professor of Physics Linda French, focuses on Trojan asteroids, which revolve around the sun in the same orbit as Jupiter.

It will be Rohl’s second trip to Chile. He visited Cerro Tololo this summer for a seven-night observing run with Sue Lederer of NASA to collect images of the asteroids. “We are looking at how the asteroids rotate,” said Rohl, who took hundreds of images at one of the telescopes in Chile. “On campus, I spend time measuring the brightness of the asteroids in our images to produce light curves, which let us see how fast each asteroid is spinning.”

Rohl’s research with French and Lederer was presented at a conference in California this fall.

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