Senior to Bike Across Country for a Cause

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – It is tradition for many graduating college seniors to go on vacations with friends before entering the “real world.” Adam Bohr, Illinois Wesleyan University senior and 2003 graduate of Aurora Central Catholic High School, found a way to combine both a fun activity and a way to give back to the community while taking advantage of one last summer vacation. The accounting major will bike approximately 3,700 miles cross-country as part of the Bike & Build program before starting work in real estate tax at Ernst and Young in September.

Bike & Build aims to raise funds for affordable housing projects while introducing young adults to the cause and engaging them in a unique and interesting way. The group has contributed more than $750,000 to housing groups to fund projects planned and executed by young adults. In the process, its participants have collectively biked thousands of miles and educated countless communities across the country about the affordable housing crisis in America. Bike & Build’s grant program also supports projects involving young people all throughout the nation, including many Habitat for Humanity endeavors.

The nine-week bike trip will begin on May 17 in Virginia Beach and end on July 25 in Cannon Beach, Ore. Along with nearly 30 other bikers and three group leaders, most in their 20s, Bohr will bike through Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho before ending his trip in Oregon. The group will bike during the day, starting out with easier rides and working up to 100-mile days through flat terrain, stopping at nine different sites to help with building efforts. Local churches and community centers will provide the group with dinner and a place to sleep throughout their journey.

“I’ve always wanted to do a program like this, but have held myself back,” Bohr said, expressing excitement about his upcoming trip. “There’s something so great about being outside, going on an adventure, and being able to help others in the process.”

Erin Anderson Wins National Award from Society of Women in Chemistry

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Erin Anderson, a senior chemistry major at Illinois Wesleyan University, was awarded the annual Undergraduate Award for Excellence in Chemistry by Iota Sigma Pi, the National Honor Society for Women in Chemistry. The award is presented annually to only one student in the nation.

The Freeburg, Ill., native and 2003 graduate of Freeburg High School will receive a certificate and $500. According to Ram Mohan, IWU associate professor of chemistry, “The Iota Sigma Pi award, designed with the objective of promoting interest in chemistry among women students, recognizes first and foremost excellence in chemistry. It is indeed a testimony to Erin’s outstanding academic achievements, especially in research, that she was selected as this year’s winner.”

Anderson has worked as a research assistant in synthetic organic chemistry for Mohan since 2004, and presented the results of her work at the annual American Chemical Society meetings in 2005 and 2007. She has also authored and co-authored two articles published in leading international organic chemistry journals.

IWU’s Suspended to Travel to Japan

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University’s a cappella group Suspended will travel to Asahikawa, Japan in June as a part of the 45th anniversary of the Bloomington-Normal/Asahikawa Sister City relationship.

Traveling to Japan will be the group members, as well as retired IWU associate professor of music Todd Tucker and several Twin City officials and residents. Suspended and Tucker will perform at a large gathering and possibly a few smaller venues.

“We’re really looking forward to the opportunity to share American culture through music,” said Suspended member and manager Matt LoPresti, a senior finance and political science double major from Glenview, Ill. “Illinois Wesleyan really focuses on intercultural relationships and studying abroad. This puts into play all that we’ve been taught for four years.”

Suspended, who arranges much of their own music, will also release their upcoming CD, Until Further Notice, on April 27.

Students Get Legal Lessons in Simulated Trial

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Robert Kearney’s final exam gets taken to court – literally.

As the final examination for the Illinois Wesleyan professor’s business law class, students take a real case and argue it in front of a real judge. “We take cases that are ripped from the headlines, just like ‘Law & Order,’” joked Kearney, associate professor and chair of business administration who has been teaching at Illinois Wesleyan since 2002. “It’s much more interesting to do a companion case to something real and truly complex.”

This year, the class will argue the case of the Chicago “cable murders,” in which a cable installer was accused of raping and murdering two women while installing their Comcast cable systems. The students will deal with the suit against Comcast and a subsidiary contract company that employed the installer. The trial will be 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 25 at the McLean County Law & Justice Center (115 E. Washington St., Bloomington).

Though this is the first time the class has tackled murder cases, the trials for the last four years have similar qualities. “I always pick cases that are business-related, involve deep pockets and have complex litigation,” said Kearney, whose past topics included a suit against the airlines for negligence in 9/11, and the Midway plane crash that killed a 6-year-old.

The business law class is unique and intense for students, said Kearney. The entire class is dedicated to one case with the 20 seniors planning and executing every part of litigation. “In law school, you take a class on how to file a complaint. You take another class on how to present yourself in front of a jury,” said Kearney. “In this class, the students spend four months doing everything an actual, practicing lawyer does. There is nothing like it in any law school I know, not to mention an undergraduate class.”

Sammie Robinson to Speak at Chamber of Commerce Luncheon

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Sammie Robinson, assistant professor of business administration at Illinois Wesleyan University, has been invited to speak at the McLean County Chamber of Commerce’s 2007 Administrative Professionals Luncheon on April 24 at the Doubletree Hotel and Conference Center (10 Brickyard Dr., Bloomington).

The Bloomington Chamber of Commerce hosts the event annually with State Farm Insurance Company and Connoisseur Media. This year, Robinson will address many influential administrative professionals on the theme “Shaping The Future.”

“The future is beyond our control, it is not promised,” Robinson said of the theme. “At best, we can make attempts to shape our future.” In her talk, she plans to address three major ways that people can mold their destinies. She will suggest that audience members seek truth by identifying personal touchstones of belief and self through honest recognition of personal worth. For Robinson, though, the most important way that people can shape the future is through finding what she calls their event. “We need to find that thing we do really well and make that our life’s work,” Robinson said. “My event happens in the classroom. My event happens when I connect with people.”

Marina Balina Wins Pantagraph Award for Teaching Excellence

Illinois Wesleyan Professor of Russian Studies Marina Balina was named as the 2008 winner of the Pantagraph Award for Teaching Excellence at the University on Wednesday, April 18, at the annual Honors Day Convocation in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall.

Listen to the Convocation.

“This is the highest honor that Illinois Wesleyan can give, and I am honored and thrilled and happy and overwhelmed,” said an emotional Balina as she received hugs of congratulations from fellow faculty members and staff.

The $1,000 teacher-scholar award is the University’s top teaching honor and is sponsored by the daily newspaper headquartered in Bloomington that services eight counties and more than 60 communities in Central Illinois. The honoree is selected by Illinois Wesleyan’s Promotion and Tenure Committee based on nominations received from members of the faculty.

A native of Russia who earned her Ph.D. at Leningrad State University (now St. Petersburg), Balina joined IWU’s faculty in 1989 and is now a member of the University’s department of modern and classical languages and literatures. Along with teaching the German and Russian languages and Russian literature, she has published more than 20 articles and four books in three different languages, and earned an international reputation for work with children’s literature. She has been the recipient of grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the Austrian Ministry of Culture, the American Association of Learned Societies, the National Endowment of Humanities and the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.

Patrick Beary Wins Technos International Prize

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University student Patrick Beary, a senior international studies major from New Lenox, Ill., was awarded the Technos International Prize by the Tanaka Ikueikai Educational Trust in Japan. The public announcement of the award was made at the Illinois Wesleyan Honors Convocation on Wednesday, April 18 in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall.

“This is such an honor for me, because I know Technos does so much in developing international relations,” said Beary, who plans to follow a career in human rights and foreign policy.

While selection of the Technos award recipient is up to the discretion of the University, it is preferred that the student be connected by studies or activities to the international spirit of the award. Beary is no stranger to international travel, having spent time studying in South Africa, Switzerland and Guatemala.

After graduation, he will become a Rotary Ambassador Scholar at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina. An Illinois Wesleyan football player in the 2003-2004 season, Beary is a member of the honorary societies of Alpha Lambda Delta, Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma.

Orion Samuelson Addresses IWU Luncheon

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The greatest characteristic defining American agriculture is change, according to Orion Samuelson, renowned agribusiness director of WGN and Chicago’s “Voice of Agriculture” since 1960. More than 350 area business leaders turned out to hear Samuelson speak at the spring Illinois Wesleyan Associates Luncheon on Tuesday, April 17 at the IWU Shirk Center Performance Gym (302 E. Emerson St., Bloomington).

“The word I hear more often than any other today is change: the change in your land and in my land, in your profession and in my profession, in agriculture and industry and education,” said Samuelson. “And as human beings we resist change. We tend to fight change and be comfortable with the status quo.”

In his lecture titled “From Reaper to Satellite,” Samuelson spoke about the transformation agriculture has faced over the past eighty years, from the introduction of the tractor in the 1920s to today’s globalization of the market, which provides food for 300 million Americans and millions more overseas. “Think for a moment of the change you and I have seen over our lives,” he said, adding that what happens in agriculture affects us all. “If you eat, you are involved in agriculture.”

IWU Campus Responds to Virginia Tech Shooting

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — In response to the deadly shooting at Virginia Tech that horrified the nation, Illinois Wesleyan University invited all students to congregate in Evelyn Chapel Monday evening at 8 p.m. for an informal opportunity to seek or share comfort.

About 20 students gathered for quiet reflection and to share their feelings in the wake of the tragedy. Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Kathy Cavins, counselors, resident assistants and members of the Student Affairs and Residential Life staff were available to offer support and respond to questions about how a similar tragedy would be handled at Illinois Wesleyan.

“Our first priority would be to assure the safety of our students and that all people are accounted for,” Cavins said. “We would then enact our plan for communicating with our IWU community, parents and other stakeholders of the University and offering counseling and other support resources as necessary.”

New Spanish Class Encourages Community Interaction, Service

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – For Illinois Wesleyan University sophomore Danny Burke, the end of the semester will mean more than taking tests and heading home—he’ll have to say goodbye to Jorge, the third-grader he has mentored this spring as part of his coursework for Spanish 240: Spanish for Social Justice.

The course, offered for the first time this spring, is part of an effort by the Hispanic Studies department to “strengthen course offerings at the 200-level, as well as involvement in the community,” said Professor of Hispanic Studies Carolyn Nadeau. The 10 students in the class spend three hours each week using their Spanish language skills to serve the community in a variety of field projects.

Burke mentors for the Grade-school Achievement Program (GAP) at Bent Elementary School and helps at the Immigration Project at the Western Avenue Community Center. Other projects include State Farm’s PALS program (high-school tutoring) and working with families of pre-school children at Heartland Head Start.

Spanish 240 is comparable to the established 230 course, Medical Spanish and Cultural Competency for Healthcare, in which students learn the vocabulary to speak about medical issues and then apply their skills as volunteers in a local clinic. Instead of healthcare, the new course focuses on five other social justice issues: immigration, housing, education, employment and citizenship.

“This course is unique in that it offers students both theory in the classroom and practice in the community,” Nadeau said. “We are also serving as a model of possibilities for classroom collaboration with with IWU’s Action Resource Center.”

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