1. Announcements
The 18th Annual CSUN Student Research and Creative Works Symposium was on Friday, February 14th, and CSUN’s English students were well represented, with oral presentations from Yollotl Lopez, Susana Marcelo, Katilin Pollard, and Dylan Altman. Congratulations to all the students for their impressive work, and to Yollotl especially for taking First Place in the College of Humanities. Ten of the student winners will go on to represent CSUN at the 28th Annual California State University Student Research Competition at CSU East Bay on May 2 and 3, 2014, and here’s wishing Yollotl best of luck there!
This just in from From Bob Chianese: The new president of Cal State LA is William Covino, a graduate of our English MA program and one-time student of Bob’s, now a personal friend. Here is a profile of him from the LA Times, www.latimes.com/local/le-me-calstate-la-20140101,0,4970135.story, and thanks to Bob for bringing our attention to this neat news.
The 2014 Terry Piper Lecture is fast approaching. Dr. Laura Rendón will be giving her talk,“Leveraging Student Strengths to Support Student Success” next Monday, March 3, 2014, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., in the USU Northridge Center. Dr. Rendón is the Distinguished Professor of Higher Education & the Co-Director of the Center for Research and Policy in Education at the University of Texas, San Antonio. Her research interests include student access and success issues related to low-income, first-generation students, Latino/a students in higher education and contemplative education. This event will be co-hosted by the divisions of Student Affairs & Academic Affairs at CSUN. Previous distinguished speakers in the Terry Piper Lecture Series have included Vincent Tinto (2013) Marcia Baxter Magolda (2012).
If you know of any students interested in working for intelligence, the 8th Annual Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence Colloquium will take place on Friday April 11, 10:45 a.m. to 4 p.m., and will feature an analysis of a challenge project by Ryan Hansen and a presentation by the students of the Winter Strategic Intelligence Seminar as well as a number of representatives from agencies of the U.S. Intelligence Community, federal law enforcement, the GAO, the U.S. State Department, and a private corporation. Invitations and registration forms will be available soon. For more information, please contact Bobby Lopez at rolopez@csun.edu.
Good news for students needing a little extra help — and for their instructors — the LRC is now offering a variety of workshops on topics that are frequently encountered there, including MLA and APA format, writing Personal Statements, helping students learn to find their own errors, and preparing for the Writing Proficiency Exam. Students can sign up for most of these workshops on line at www.csun.edu/lrc.
Speaking of the LRC, Ann Kellenberger is, once again, looking for promising students to be SI leaders next fall. Please let her know now if you have students you want to recommend as she need to identify, interview, and (provisionally) hire them before the end of March if they are to receive priority registration.
2. Reminders
The deadline for faculty awards nominations is tomorrow, but there is still time to put forward the names of those colleagues of ours you admire most. These awards honor: Outstanding Faculty (up to 2 awards, $1,700 each), Distinguished Teaching, Counseling, or Librarianship (up to 3 awards, $1,200 each), Preeminent Scholarly Publication(s) ($1,200), Exceptional Creative Accomplishment(s) ($1,200), Extraordinary Service ($1,200), and Visionary Community Service-Learning ($1,200). The nomination is fairly straightforward, and then you (and your nominee) will have another month to gather supporting materials.For full information, please see http://www.csun.edu/senate/awards.html.
3. Opportunities
The 2014 Panetta Congressional Internship Program is now accepting applications. One CSU student from each campus will be chosen to participate in the Fall intern program which sends the student to Washington to work for a member of the California Congressional delegation. A scholarship covers all expenses. This is a wonderful opportunity for students, open only to sophomores and juniors who have not yet applied for graduation, so please spread the word. Applications are due by Friday, February 21, 2013, at 4 p.m. in the Undergraduate Studies office (UN 215, MD 8203). For more about the program and how to apply, go to PanettaInstitute.org. And feel free to contact Mary Ankeny in the Undergraduate Studies office if you or your students have any questions.
4. Achievements
Scott Andrews has three pieces accepted by The Yellow Medicine Review: a poem titled “Ethnic Ambiguity” and two works of flash-fiction, “The Lone Ranger’s Black Veil” and “Stomp Ground Time Machine.”
Last summer, Scott Kleinman was part of the One Week | One Tool Team that developed the web application Serendip-o-matic, a “serendipity engine” that extracts key terms from your chosen text and delivers similar results from the vast online collections of the Digital Public Library of America, Europeana, Trove Australia, and Flickr. We are now happy to announce that Serendip-o-matic has won the Best use of DH for fun category in the Digital Humanities Awards 2013!
Stephanie Satie gave four performances of Silent Witnesses at River City Repertory Theatre in Shreveport, Louisiana. She was also also invited to return in 2014 to the United Solo Festival on Theatre Row in NYC (as one of a few Encore performers) after her sold-out performance of Silent Witnesses last November. Finally, she was just invited to join the League of Professional Theatre Women.
And in a more exciting news from our creative writing students, CSUN has yet another Honorable Mention in the Glimmer Train New Writers Competition. Gina Srmabekian (BA, CW, 2013; current graduate student) has joined the ranks of CSUN finalists of Glimmer Train’s best new writers! Gina joins past honorees, Karlee Johnson (BA 2013) and Justin La Torre (BA 2013), with her phenomenal story, “Damages.” Congratulations, Gina!