Civil Rights Scholar to Speak at Martin Luther King, Jr. Fellowship Dinner

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Civil Rights scholar and author Bob Zellner will be the keynote speaker at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Fellowship Dinner on Sunday, Jan. 23 at 5 p.m.

Co-sponsored by Illinois Wesleyan University and the United Community Gospel Singers of Bloomington and Normal, the event will be held in the Young Main Lounge of the Memorial Center (104 University St., Bloomington).

Zellner, former field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), is the author of The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement.

Alumnus Welcomes IWU Students to Barcelona Study Abroad Experience

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – As he wanders the tree-lined streets of Barcelona, passing cafés and tiendas selling churros and café con leche, Illinois Wesleyan alumnus Rich Kurtzman feels at ease navigating the capital of this region of Spain, a place he has called home since 2002.

Kurtzman, who graduated from IWU in 1998, came to Barcelona to work as a recruiter and adviser for IES Abroad, a study abroad company with a program in Barcelona. Now, eight years later, he is the director of his own study abroad company, Barcelona Study Abroad Experience, which will partner with the Illinois Wesleyan Barcelona Program in the spring of 2011.

Last year the University decided to shift studies in Spain from Madrid to Barcelona. The University saw benefits of situating the program in Barcelona, said Director of the International Office Stacey Shimizu. “With Barcelona, the city’s physical location–on the Mediterranean, close to France–and its multicultural history and nature means a wider range of faculty can design courses that take advantage of its resources, courses that perhaps take a more comparative or cross-cultural perspective.”

Starting in January, 18 IWU students will spend four months abroad with the new IWU Barcelona Program, taking classes through Barcelona SAE. The program will take place each spring semester. According to Shimizu, “Barcelona SAE was able to offer a program much like IWU had administered in Madrid, but addressing all the issues of concern, such as lower-level language classes, housing assistance and financial sustainability.”

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).

Alumnus Elected President of Texas Music Organization

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University graduate George W. Jones ’77, was recently elected to serve as president of the Texas Music Administrators’ Conference, an organization of 150 Fine Arts Administrators from across the state of Texas.

According to the Texas Music Educators’ Conference (TMAC) mission statement, the group focuses on promoting and supporting “music education and music educators through collaboration, networking, and the sharing of best practices so that every child in Texas is assured of receiving quality instruction in the understanding, appreciation, and performance of music.”

“It is critical in this day of high stakes testing and budget cuts that we continue to educate the whole child by including a quality fine arts education curriculum” said Jones in a recent interview. Jones holds a master’s degree in music from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. In addition to his membership in TMAC, he is a member of the Texas Music Educators’ Association, the Texas Bandmasters Association, and Phi Beta Mu honorary music fraternity.

After serving 18 years as a band director in the Garland (Texas) Independent School District (ISD), Jones was appointed to the position of Director of Fine Arts in 1997. The Garland ISD is in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and serves approximately 58,000 students on 68 campuses. Jones oversees the Fine Arts Department consisting of over 250 teachers.

Alumna Takes Business Training into Operating Rooms

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University Alumna Jennifer Van Dyke ’99 was recently featured for her work as a Process Improvement Leader at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH). An Economics and Business Administration double major while at IWU, Van Dyke applies economic methods known as “Six Sigma” to improve hospital outcomes.

NMH credits Van Dyke for assisting with reducing a hospital complication, known as deep vein thrombosis, by more than 50 percent hospital-wide last year. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a blood clot that forms in a deep vein in the body, often occurring in the lower leg or thigh. DVT can lead to pulmonary embolism and is potentially fatal.

In order to reduce the likelihood that patients will develop these blood clots, Van Dyke worked with a team of doctors, nurses and pharmacists to develop a hospital protocol to help prevent this complication. Van Dyke spent hours in the operating room observing surgeries to better understand the problem.

Alumna Named Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ‘Nurse Faculty Scholar’

November 29, 2010

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Shannon Zenk ’95, an Illinois Wesleyan University School of Nursing alumna, has been named a Nurse Faculty Scholar with the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The Nurse Faculty Scholars program aims to strengthen the academic productivity and overall excellence of nursing schools by developing the next generation of national leaders in academic nursing.

Zenk, who is currently an assistant professor at the College of Nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago, won the competitive grant for her studies of how social factors influence rates of obesity in vulnerable populations. She is one of just 12 nurse educators from around the country to receive the three-year $350,000 Nurse Faculty Scholar award this year.

With the grant, Zenk will continue her research, which focuses on the contributions of neighborhood physical and social environments to racial and socioeconomic inequalities in health.

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.

Alumna Assisting Special Needs Inmates

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – For Illinois Wesleyan University alumna Lisa (Beal) Buhs ’94, work is a prison, and she would have it no other way.

Buhs is a clinical psychologist at Racine Correctional Facility, a medium security prison in Wisconsin, where she works with developmentally disabled and mentally ill inmates. “It’s a very fulfilling job and I know I am helping people,” she said of the 30 offenders she assists at the prison, that houses 1,600 men.

Graduating Illinois Wesleyan with a degree in psychology, Buhs originally planned for a career working with children. After she earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of South Dakota, she decided to join a student loan repayment program, which sent her to work in the Wisconsin prison system. “I found it more challenging and rewarding than I could have imagined,” she said. “I’ve been here for 11 years.”

According to Buhs, the demand for those who can work with special needs inmates has grown over the last few decades. “In the past these inmates would have been placed in some type of a group home setting. They never would have been in the criminal justice system,” said Buhs, “but now the expense has forced states to close many of those facilities, so a lot of the men end up with us.”

Alumnus to Debut at The Met

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – On Friday, Dec. 31, alumnus Kyle Pfortmiller ’92 will make his debut performance at The Metropolitan Opera in New York. Pfortmiller will sing the role of Marquis d’Obigny in Verdi’s La Traviata with world-renowned soprano Maria Poplavskaya and tenor Matthew Polenzani. The show will run from Friday, Dec. 31 to Saturday, Jan. 29. A live radio broadcast will take place on Saturday, Jan. 15 from 12:00-2:50 p.m. central standard time.

Pfortmiller will also perform the role of the servant in Strauss’ Capriccio alongside Grammy award-winning soprano Renee Fleming, who will play the role of the Countess. The performance will debut on March 28, 2011 at The Met and will run until April 23, 2011. A live radio broadcast of the show will take place on Saturday, April 23 from 12:00-2:45 p.m. central standard time.

While at Illinois Wesleyan, Pfortmiller studied with Professor of Music Linda Farquharson and received a bachelor of music degree. He performed several roles in IWU productions, including Top in Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land, a king in Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors and the wolf in Cesar Cui’s Little Red Riding Hood.

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