Grant Supports Tutoring-Mentoring Partnership

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. –The Educational Studies Department at Illinois Wesleyan University has received a $25,000 grant from the William T. Kemper Foundation-Commerce Bank, Trustee and the Commerce Bancshares Foundation. The grant award will support the Promise and Potential Partnership between Illinois Wesleyan University and Bloomington Junior High School (BJHS). This partnership, administered by Professor Robin Leavitt at IWU and Counselor Mary Aplington at BJHS, was formalized in 2001 with a start-up grant from the State Farm Companies Foundation.

The primary mission of the partnership is to support the promise and potential of all students, particularly those vulnerable students who may be struggling in school and who may lack the social, structural or institutional support required to succeed academically. The secondary mission of the partnership is to prepare future teachers and other child and family professionals to work with diverse student populations. All IWU undergraduates enrolled in Education and Social Justice, and Studying Children and Adolescents spend two semesters mentoring and tutoring BJHS students. During each fall and spring semester, approximately 56 IWU student tutor-mentors contribute a total of more than 100 hours at the school working with pairs of BJHS students. More than 100 BJHS students participate in the program each year.

IWU Sophomores Selected to Study at Oxford

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University sophomores Jennifer Ceisel and Amanda Williams have been selected to study at Oxford University through Illinois Wesleyan’s Pembroke Program. The two will study in England for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Ceisel, who is an international studies major with a double minor in economics and Spanish, will study in the Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) program. She will focus on politics.

Having family in England, Ceisel is especially enthused to study at Oxford University. “My Grandpapa went to Oxford for two years and studied PPE, but was drafted and never able to finish his degree. Needless to say, my entire family is excited. I can’t wait to spend the holidays in England with them,” said the Chicago native.

Williams, who is an English literature and theatre arts double major, will study English literature while at Pembroke. Acceptance into the Pembroke Program is something she has been working toward since her first year at IWU. “It’s been a dream of mine for a long time and the realization of that dream is one of the most rewarding feelings I’ve experienced in my life. It’s an absolute honor to be accepted to study at Oxford and will no doubt be a life-changing experience!” said the native of Alhambra, Ill.

The Argus Honored by Illinois College Press Association

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University’s student-run newspaper, The Argus, garnered 11 awards at the recent Illinois College Press Association (ICPA) convention in Chicago.

The Illinois College Press Association serves 40 member schools and honors the work of student journalists whose newspapers are members of the ICPA. Entries to the annual ICPA Contest are judged by professional journalists. The students earned awards for the 2009 issues of The Argus.

“We made a lot of changes to the newspaper last year,” said junior Nicole Travis from St. Charles, Ill., who was news editor in 2009, and is currently editor-in-chief of The Argus. Under then-Editor-in-Chief Garrett Rapp, a senior from Harvard, Ill., and Managing Editor Laura Spradlin, a senior from Morton, Ill., The Argus changed size, added color and poured focus into the content, said Travis. “Getting the recognition for all that work meant a lot to us,” she added.

Virtual Worlds Offer a ‘Sandbox’ for Learning – and Earning

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – There are worlds where dinosaurs can talk with tigers, and gravity is only a suggestion to those who fly from island to island. This is not a world of literature, but a virtual world, accessible to anyone with a computer.

One of the most successful virtual worlds, Second Life, recently announced a new interface that could offer a more user-friendly door into these computer-generated worlds. That development could mean more educators will be able to take advantage of the virtual world with much greater ease, said Sascha Vitzthum, Illinois Wesleyan University’s assistant professor of business administration.

“Right now in the virtual world, everything has to be done by key strokes – every gesture, every move,” said Vitzthum, who teaches a course on emerging technologies and working on creating the information systems concentration in business administration at Illinois Wesleyan. “Whether the virtual world becomes user-friendly enough to let people behave the way they want to behave will be the key, but I believe it is going to get there.”

According to Vitzthum, there are around 80 virtual worlds currently operating on the Internet, which allow participants to create an online version of themselves, known as avatars, and interact with one another in the computer-generated world. People from across the globe “meet” in virtual worlds, such as Second Life, where they can talk, play, shop and learn.

Author to Offer Tips on Getting a Job in a Bad Economy

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Bestselling author, speaker and consultant Lindsey Pollak will offer tips on finding employment in these rough times with a talk, “Getting from College to Career: How to Get a Good Job in a Bad Economy,” on Tuesday, March 23 at 7 p.m. at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Hansen Student Center (300 E. Beecher St., Bloomington).

The event is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow. This event is rescheduled from January.

Specializing in Generation Y career and workplace issues, Pollak has a decade of experience teaching young professionals how to build successful careers. She also works with advising organizations, helping them to maximize the potential of the new workforce.

A graduate of Yale University, Pollak is the author of two books, Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World (Harper Collins, April 2007); and The Saavy Gals’ Guide to Online Networking (or What Would Jane Austen Do?) (Booklocker, October 2007), that she co-authored with Diane K. Danielson.

Pollak’s advice has been featured in such media outlets as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, CNN.com and National Public Radio and NBC Nightly News.

“Lindsey Pollak is an engaging speaker with a wealth of knowledge about the career issues of Generation Y,” said Warren Kistner, director of the Hart Career Center at Illinois Wesleyan. “She is a perfect blend of approachability and experience with the added benefit of knowledge in the world of social media, specifically LinkedIn, used by many job seekers today.”

Service Award Established in Honor of Alumna

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The women of Zeta Phi Beta plan to name a Community Service Award in honor of their sorority sister and Illinois Wesleyan University alumna Monica Taylor, class of 1988. The first ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 10 from 2-4 p.m. in the Davidson Room of Illinois Wesleyan’s Memorial Center (104 University St., Bloomington).

Taylor, who passed on Oct. 21, 2009, was the director of Illinois Wesleyan’s Multicultural Affairs for 11 years before she joined State Farm Insurance Companies in 2004. While on campus, she supported the Black Student Union, the Council for Latin American Student Enrichment and the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega. With her help, the Kwanzaa program and the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Gospel Festival were established and organized.

In 2008, Taylor was recognized by the Normal Human Relations Commission for her dedication to improving cooperative and respectful relations among diverse groups in the community and was the recipient of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award. She was also awarded the 2008 Spirit of State Farm honor for Community Service.

Action Research Center Initiative Wins $100,000 Grant

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A new joint initiative from Illinois Wesleyan University’s Action Research Center (ARC) has received a nearly $100,000 grant from the State Farm® Youth Advisory Board (YAB). The grant was announced Monday in Hansen Student Center on campus.

The Blank Canvas Program, an effort of ARC and Illinois State University’s College of Fine Arts (ISU), aims to cultivate the creativity of low-income, minority youth in Bloomington-Normal to help communicate the challenges they face in thinking about college, said co-creator of the program Deborah Halperin. “This project put the question to the very people targeted, ‘What would you do if you were in charge?’” said Halperin.

The grant is part of the $1 million the YAB is giving away this year nationally aimed toward closing the achievement gap in higher education. Over the past two years, the board has granted $12 million to service-learning projects across the United States and Canada, but this is the first to be awarded in McLean County.

Illinois Wesleyan University sophomore Karin Unruh is a member of YAB, which is comprised of only 30 students, ages 17 to 20, from across the nation. “It will be exciting and rewarding to personally experience the results this grant will have on our local community,” said Unruh, an elementary education and sociology double major from Algonquin, Ill.

Blank Canvas is the brainchild of Halperin and Dick Folse, an Illinois Wesleyan graduate who works for ISU’s College of Fine Arts. “The idea is to show the value of college and the college experience and expose young people to the arts,” he said. The grant provides four new computers with state-of-the-art design software, digital cameras and color printers to three community partners: the Jesus House, Western Avenue Community Center and UNITY Community Center.

International Students Help Peers in China Discover Their Passions

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University sophomore Li Haoda spent the first 10 years of his life in a small village in China before he moved to a nearby city of Guangzhou. Years later, when he returned to visit to the rural village, he realized his childhood friends had few educational opportunities.

“The people I went to school with [when I was very young] were just as smart as I was, but about one in five of them dropped out of school,” said Li. “The rural schools just did not have the opportunities that were available in the city.”

The disparity of educational opportunities spurred Li to join the Peer Experience Exchange Rostrum (PEER), a not-for-profit organization geared toward bringing educational equality to China. The group recruits Chinese students studying abroad to volunteer at summer tutoring camps for students in rural, impoverished areas of China.

“We dedicated ourselves to a seemingly impossible mission: to provide resources for disadvantaged children in China, supporting their continued education to change their lives,” said Li, who joined PEER in 2008 when the organization only had 10 volunteers. “We faced obstacles in our work, such as enduring an eight-hour bus ride to a remote rural school, and coordinating multi-national volunteers in nine-hour online meetings, but with each minute devoted to my work, I better prepare volunteers, thereby helping the poor students gain more from our summer camps.”

Now in is third year with the group, Li became executive director last year. “When you create opportunity, people can discover their passions,” said Li, an Illinois Wesleyan sophomore with a double major in political science and economics. “That works both for those getting help, and the volunteers providing it. People can have a passion, but no opportunity. This is an opportunity.”

Founders’ Day Celebrated With Donation, New Atrium, Expert’s Talk on Environmental Justice

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – It was a day top celebrate the new and honor traditions past at Illinois Wesleyan University during Founders’ Day on Wednesday. This year marks the 160th anniversary of the 30 founders who gathered to sign Illinois Wesleyan’s charter.

At the Founders’ Day Convocation, President Richard F. Wilson said he believes the University is on course to fulfill the vision of the founders. “We must keep in mind their admonition which appears on the Founders’ Gate: ‘We stand in a position of incalculable responsibility.’ That instruction requires us to be vigilant about our work as teachers and scholars,” said Wilson.

In carrying on a responsibility to the founders, Wilson announced University alumnus and benefactor Byron Tucci has established a new endowed professorship for Illinois Wesleyan University. The 1966 graduate has created the Byron S. Tucci Endowed Professorship in honor of the faculty who assisted him. “Byron views this gift as a way to acknowledge the caring faculty members who make students the center of their attention and whose accomplishments over an extended period are key to the stature of the University,” said Wilson.

Speaking in Westbrook Auditorium on Wednesday as part of the Convocation, Dorceta Taylor connected struggles for sustainability with the history of inequality in the United States.

bullet Hear her remarks (mp3)

“To have a sustainable society, one has to have a just society,” said Taylor, an associate professor of environmental sociology and Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan, who helped to develop one of the nation’s first environmental justice programs.

Tucci Gift Establishes New Endowed Professorship

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – University alumnus and benefactor Byron Tucci has established a new endowed professorship for Illinois Wesleyan University. The gift will be announced by President Richard F. Wilson on Wednesday at the annual Founders’ Day Convocation. It is the latest gift in the University’s Transforming Lives capital campaign.

Endowed professorships celebrate the combined talents of professors who excel in teaching and scholarly activity, said Wilson who added, “Endowments allow our faculty to remain on the leading edge of their fields and bring new knowledge into the classroom for students.”

Tucci, a 1966 Illinois Wesleyan graduate with a double major in business administration and economics, said supporting the professors is imperative for the long term health of universities. “There have been many outstanding people in my life,” said Tucci, “but the personal contact with the professors at Illinois Wesleyan served as a model for me that I have drawn upon throughout my life. It afforded me focus, direction, discipline, and the hard work ethic that led to success in business.” Tucci pointed to such faculty members as Greg Gardner, a retired accounting professor who took an interest in him while he attended IWU and he continues the relationship today. “The professors at Illinois Wesleyan made education personal,” he said.

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