·Whammy!! World Premiere Set For Dec. 2 at
SIUE's Metcalf Theater
·Kwanzaa Celebration Set For Dec. 15 In East St.
Louis
·Entrepreneurial Spirit Reigns In SIUE’s CEO
Club
·SIUE Extends Alternative Tuition Rates To Eastern
Missouri Students
·Changes
·SIUE Constructors Club Not ‘Playing Around’
But Building For Future
·Centralia Native Named SIUE's Student Laureate
By Prestigious Lincoln Academy
·A Season For The Child Continues Dec. 12 At SIUE With
Bah! Humbug!
·Upward Bound Students Visit SIUE For Transportation
Institute
·Design Build Team At SIUE Takes Second In Regional
Competition
·R. Crail Named Employee Of The Month For November
(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) The world premiere of Whammy!!: The Seven Secrets to a Sane Self , a play written and directed by Chuck Harper, is set for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, at the James F. Metcalf Theater at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Harper, a professor of theater and dance at SIUE and head of the performance area in the department, said the play explores America’s obsession with, and addiction to, self-help and self-actualization.
“Whammy! began with a question: What would happen if you took the idea
of ‘self-help,’ and the industry that surrounds it, smashed it together
with Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 comic film, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad
World, and then looked at this smashup through the lens of a dream? Over
the course of my research I ended up with two questions: 1) “How is it
that the most affluent and comfortable society in the history of the western
world can produce so many profoundly unhappy or unsatisfied people?” and
2) As Walker Percy asks in his book, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help
Book, ‘Why is it possible to learn more about the Crab Nebula, which
is 6,000 light years away, than you presently know about yourself even though
you’ve been stuck with yourself all your life?’”
The play has been called a “montage-based original performance that combines
video, movement, found text and original text, as well as real-time audience
‘happiness’ quizzes.” Harper explained that the play went through
developmental workshops in St. Louis over the course of two weeks. “The
original two questions posed were discussed and several of the movement sections
were created by me and collaborator Mikey Butane,” he said. “In September,
rehearsals started with the SIUE cast, and we all began keeping dream journals.
As an ensemble we wove these dream images together with the elements of song,
dance, and text, through structured improvisation, into the thing audiences
will see on stage here—play? dance? performance?”
Whammy! will continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 3-5, and
Friday-Saturday, Dec. 11-12, as well as 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6 and 13. Tickets
are $10 for adults, and $8 for senior citizens, non-SIUE students with a valid
student I.D, and SIUE faculty, staff and alumni. All SIUE students with a valid
I.D. are free thanks to the Campus Activities Board. For tickets or more information
call the SIUE Fine Arts box office, (618) 650-2774, or toll free, (888) 328-5168,
ext. 2774. Visit the Web site: www.siue.edu/THEATER.
A photo of the cast is available by clicking here. From left, members of the cast include: Phil Leveling, Maggie Conroy, Sarah McKenney, Anna Skidis and Rachel Fenton. In the back is Spenser Greentree. (SIUE Photo by Bill Brinson)
(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) The Eugene B. Redmond (EBR) Writers Club and the Southern
Illinois University Edwardsville Department of English Language and Literature
will present their 23rd annual holiday family Kwanzaa celebration on Tuesday,
Dec. 15, in Room 2083 of Building B on the Higher Education Campus, 601 J.R.
Thompson Drive, East St. Louis. Kwanzaa: A (Free) Community Celebration
begins at 6 p.m. and features a Kwansaba candle lighting ritual with the Soular
Systems Ensemble—Roscoe Crenshaw, Susan Lively, Charlois Lumpkin, Patricia
Merritt, Darlene Roy and Treasure Williams, under the leadership of Eugene B.
Redmond, professor emeritus of English Language and Literature at SIUE, poet
laureate of East St. Louis and founder of the EBR Writers Club.
The evening also includes A Suite of Kwansabas for 2009, an open mic
session and a bazaar with books, gifts and fabrics for purchase. The kwansaba,
invented by the Writers Club in 1995, is a poetic form consisting of seven lines
of seven words each with no word containing more than seven letters. Exceptions
to the seven-letter (maximum) rule are proper nouns and some foreign words.
For more information, call the SIUE Department of English Language and Literature,
(618) 650-3991, or write the EBR Writers Club, P.O. Box 6165, East St. Louis,
IL 62202-6165. The EBR Writers Club co-publishes Drumvoices Revue, a
multicultural journal, with the SIUE English department. Club trustees include
noted authors and poets Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Avery Brooks, Walter Mosley,
Quincy Troupe and Lena Weathers. Past trustees included celebrated authors/institution
builders Margaret Walker Alexander (1915-1998), Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000),
Raymond Patterson (1929-2001) and Barbara A. Teer (1937-2008).
The event is cosponsored by the East St. Louis Cultural Revival Campaign Committee, Drumvoices Revue, the Black River Writers Press and the Renaissance Literary Arts Press.
(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) The one thing that keeps Drew Foster up at night is the
fear that he will become 40 without having at least tried to attain his dream
of owning a business. So, the Cox Scholarship winner from the Southern Illinois
University Edwardsville School of Business has been working to ensure sweet
dreams for himself and he’s a step closer by winning the “30 Minutes
with an Entrepreneurial Hero” national competition.
The economics and finance major had planned a career in corporate law. “I
came to SIUE on a Meridian Scholarship, and since then I’ve received the
Cox Scholarship from the School of Business, all of which has allowed me to
save some money, with the idea of going to law school,” Foster said. “My
plan was always to go to law school, but I recently attended the national Collegiate
Entreprenuers (CEO) Conference where I heard someone say: ’Don't let your
biggest fear be looking back at the ‘me’ I could have been.’
I began to think about myself practicing law years from now, working in torts
or contracts, and I would look back and regret not taking the plunge to start
my own business, becoming an entrepreneur.”
Foster now has traded his plan for a juris doctor with a plan to earn
an MBA. “One of the business ideas I’d been considering was a bike
share program at SIUE such as they have in Europe,” Foster explained. “But
I decided that would be too costly right now.” A shared bicycling program
would involve a large outlay of expense to provide free bicycles for the entire
campus. So, Foster has put that on hold.
After Foster received the Cox Scholarship, he learned of the SIUE CEO Club,
which has been dormant for a few years. “I decided to start it up again,”
he said, “and in response we received 100 applications to join the first
year. Now that we have a core following again, we’re planning some projects,
trying to build up the group to more than it had been in the past.” Foster
said the club is planning speed networking sessions and lunch with a CEO. “Another
of the plans we’ve discussed—‘Project eBetterment’—involves
coming up with a business idea, an innovation to make the University even better.”
Returning to the subject of the CEO competition, Foster said he interviewed
Theresa Wilson who runs the Blessing Basket Project, an organization dedicated
to reducing poverty “in developing countries by paying Prosperity Wages®
for artisan products,” according to the project’s Web site. The Web
site goes on to state: “This unique financial model creates a cycle of
entrepreneur driven growth resulting in permanent financial independence for
the artisan.”
“I wrote an essay about Theresa and the project and submitted it to the national CEO competition; in about two weeks I was notified I had won the $1,000 first-place prize.” As a gesture of giving back, Foster said he is working hard with the revived CEO Club at SIUE to make it a vital organization again. “I wanted to give back in some way; my plan for the CEO Club is to become a foundation for youth entrepreneurship in the Midwest, to literally inspire, to innovate and to give youth the idea they can forge their own future, that they can break away from the usual path and they can be their own boss,” Foster said. “It all furthers the idea that as an entrepreneur we take that risk, take that plunge. I want to do that by actually starting new businesses through the CEO Club with the help of the 42 core members we have now."
Foster said the CEO Club contains members across a wide spectrum of majors, not just business. “We have about 30 percent business majors but also artists, musicians and others. I want to see this blossom into something amazing for the students and for the University,” he said. “My dream is to return in 10 years and find that perhaps 20 of those members have started their own businesses. I’m excited about the possibilities.”
(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Chancellor Vaughn
Vandegrift has announced the University’s alternative tuition program for
the 2010-11 academic year-for high-achieving and talented students in nine Eastern
Missouri counties as well as the city of St. Louis. In 2008, the SIU Board of
Trustees established a geographic enhancement award program at SIUE that provides
an alternative tuition rate for qualified students. Today’s announcement
focuses on qualified students from Eastern Missouri counties, including St.
Louis, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, St. Charles, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve,
Warren and Washington.
Under the new guidelines, a typical Eastern Missouri scholar who declares Illinois
residency during sophomore year could save $33,000 over four years. During freshman
year at SIUE, a student must live on campus to qualify for the discretionary
tuition rate—1.2 times the current in-state (Illinois) rate. They also
must file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Scott Belobrajdic,
assistant vice chancellor for enrollment management, said the first-year tuition
for these students under the program will be much lower than the usual out-of-state
rate. “They will receive what will amount to an $8,000 scholarship during
their freshman year,” Belobrajdic said. “And, if they elect to follow
the simple process for establishing Illinois residency during that first year,
their tuition will drop to in-state (Illinois) rates for years two, three and
four; hence, the savings of some $33,000.
“We are offering this special rate to qualified admitted students with
a 23 composite ACT score or higher.”
The program, according to Belobrajdic, promotes geographical access and a campus
climate of academic excellence to the benefit of all SIUE students. “As
a premier metropolitan University, this program allows SIUE to compete for the
best students in the region,” he said. “It helps us maintain our growing
reputation as we offer our quality academic program to a wider audience.”
Two high school counselors from Missouri said they agreed the program gives
students more option for making important decisions about future academic pursuits.
“I have a good number of students applying every year,” says Julie
Kampschroeder from Pattonville High School, “however, the current out-of-state
tuition prohibits my students from attending SIUE. I am thrilled our students
with a 23 ACT or better, who apply by early December, will have the opportunity
to attend SIUE at the in-state cost. Our district is only 35 minutes from Edwardsville
and now my students have another great financial option and wonderful majors
to choose from so close to home.”
Beth Brasel, at Lafayette High School in St. Louis County, said she’s
excited by the news that Missouri students have a chance to consider SIUE. “With
the increasing cost of higher education and the current economy, this allows
students opportunities to pursue an education at a fine institution close to
home and at a reasonable cost.”
Belobrajdic pointed out that a completed application must be received electronically by Dec. 11, or must be mailed and postmarked by that date to qualify for the award program.
Other new faculty may be found at www.siue.edu/news/archives/ArchivesSEP2009.shtml#NewFac
(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Constructors
Club, made up of construction management majors from the SIUE School of Engineering,
has been resurrected to do what they do best—construct. And, the newly
revived club recently finished its first project—constructing a playground
for the village of Summerfield, near Lebanon.
Nick Heinz, the newest president of the student organization, decided the club
had been dormant long enough. “I felt we needed to become more involved
in the community,” Heinz said. Heinz heard from Assistant Professor Chris
Gordon, chair of the Department of Construction, Summerfield officials had purchased
playground equipment for its park and needed help with construction of the playground.
“Professor Gordon suggested it would be a great project for us and we decided
to take it on,” Heinz said. He said the playground equipment was placed
in a 40-foot by 40-foot area in the city’s park. “The playground equipment
consists of large plastic and metal pieces—slides and walkways. “It
was a large project but it went up pretty quickly,” Heinz said. “I
was surprised it went so quickly but we started on Friday and had it done the
following Sunday.”
It’s been estimated that the city would have had to pay a contractor some $10,000 to get the job done. “It was not an easy job, by any means,” Heinz said. “The spec book itself was about an inch thick.” Heinz explained that one of the student’s father owns an excavation company in Aviston. “Matt Marcus’ father owns Markus Backhoe & Trenching Service and he himself works for his Dad. So, Matt already has all the excavating skills. Without Matt and his father’s generosity, we would not have succeeded on this project.”
Heinz said they had enough volunteers who put in a total of about 300 hours
to get the job done quickly. “We first had to survey the area,” Heinz
pointed out. “We then drilled 34 concrete footings (foundations) and assembled
the playground pieces, setting anchoring pieces in the foundation holes. After
that we poured the concrete. The project was in large part preplanned and managed
by senior Garth Hand,” Heinz pointed out, “who coordinated the logistics
of bringing volunteers to the site, matching volunteers to tasks and troubleshooting
the installation process.”
Once the project was finished, city inspectors looked over the work and pronounced
it rock solid and safe, Heinz said. “We had to have it inspected by the
village and it passed with flying colors.” According to Melissa Stoltz,
who acted as a liaison with the mayor’s office, the playground was already
in use and is being enjoyed by residents.
In addition to looking for more construction projects, Heinz is trying to bring speakers to campus who are in the construction trade to help students better learn about the industry. “I’m also looking at the club helping with a Habitat for Humanity project in Glen Carbon behind the Wal-Mart,” he said. “With Dr. Gordon’s help, we’ve gotten the group going again,” Heinz said. “We had elections in the spring and, in addition to me, the current officers are: Vice President Tyler Doughty, Secretary Garth Hand and Treasurer Dan Einhorn.” Heinz will graduate soon with a degree in construction management and a minor in business administration but is returning next year to SIUE to begin MBA studies in the SIUE School of Business. “My career plan is to be skilled in construction and grounded with a solid business education to one day own my own company.”
Click here for a photo suitable for print. In the photo, Garth Hand, a construction management major from Freeburg, helps with the assembly of the playground equipment. (Photo by Chris Gordon)
(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) Stephen Garland, a senior English education major from Centralia, recently received the Student Laureate Award for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville from the Lincoln Academy of Illinois.
Each year, the Lincoln Academy honors outstanding seniors representing the values and virtues of America's 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. The state's four-year degree-granting colleges and universities each select a single recipient to represent institutions annually. As SIUE's current recipient, Garland received a medallion and a certificate from the Lincoln Academy during a special ceremony at the Old State Capitol in Springfield. He also had lunch at the Executive Mansion and the opportunity to mingle with state legislators and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn.
"When I learned that I had been selected, I was excited because I doubt I will be afforded many other opportunities to have lunch with the Governor of Illinois," he said.
Garland looks at the award as a chance to be recognized throughout the state for his achievements. He said he is honored to have been chosen for the Lincoln Laureate Award, and proud of his academic and extra-curricular work while at SIUE.
"My key to success has probably been my sociability," Garland said. "I looked forward to every first day of class because I got to make new friends who could help me on a paper or meet me for coffee when I was stressed out over a tiny detail."
Garland also was the recipient of SIUE's Emergent Student Leader Award in spring
2009 and the Student Volunteer of the Year Award in 2008.
Currently a student teacher in the Alton School District, Garland expects to
graduate in May 2010. He will have endorsements to teach speech communication
and mathematics at the high school and middle-school levels.
"English teaching jobs are not the easiest to find and, hopefully, my Lincoln Laureate status will give me another positive edge," he said.
Click here for a photo of Stephen J. Garland, a native of Centralia, Illinois and a student at SIUE, is recognized as a Student Laureate by the Lincoln Academy of Illinois during a special convocation November 7 at the Old State Capitol State Historic in Springfield. Shown presenting the honor, left to right, are, Lincoln Academy Chancellor John B. Simon; SIUE Dean Carl Springer; recipient Stephen Garland, Jill Anderson of SIUE and the Honorable Richard Mills, Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois.
(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) Bob Cratchit works in an ATM machine and Scrooge throws
the remote at ghosts. Fractured Christmas tales? No, it’s the Southern
Illinois University Edwardsville Friends of Theater and Dance (FOTAD) holiday
show, part of the organization’s A Season for the Child. This year
it's the return of Bah! Humbug! staged in two performances by the Imaginary
Theatre Company (ITC) , the traveling arm of the Repertory Theatre Company of
St. Louis, at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12, in SIUE’s Dunham Hall theater.
The ITC has been working with FOTAD for nearly two decades and continues to
produce family-oriented theater.
In ITC’s version of A Christmas Carol, audiences will travel with
the three spirits on a journey through past, present, and future as old Ebenezer
Scrooge learns the joys of kindness and giving. Can Christmas be saved for the
Cratchits? Playgoers will find out in this musical romp that promises to put
a smile on the “Scroogiest” of faces.
Bah! Humbug continues A Season for the Child, in its 20th year of presenting family-oriented theater to Southwestern Illinois audiences. The series, sponsored by FOTAD, TheBANK of Edwardsville and Ameren Illinois Utilities, features professional theater troupes from St. Louis that stage adaptations of various children’s stories, using interactive techniques that not only delight children and parents, but also provide a learning experience. Next month, Piwacket Theatre Company will present one of the most popular fairytales of all time—The Emperor’s New Clothes—at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, in Dunham Hall theater. Tickets are $5 per person and may be obtained through the SIUE Fine Arts box office, (618) 650-2774.
(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) About 20 Upward Bound students recently graduated from a program through the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Engineering's Cooperative Transportation Institute, in conjunction with SIU Carbondale.
The students involved in the institute participated in several activities, including building Popsicle®-stick bridges, operating a driving simulator and competing in "Transportation Jeopardy." The students also took part in an incident management demonstration, assuming the roles of police and firefighters.
The students involved in the institute interacted with SIUE School of Engineering Formula 1, Solar Car and Mini Baja teams.
Competing against several regional construction schools at the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Great Lakes Regional Competition held recently, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's Design Build competition team through the School of Engineering placed second.
The competition challenged student teams to design, schedule, estimate, write and present a proposal for an ambulatory care facility within a 24-hour period. Team members Ashtyn Doty, Garth Hand, Henry Fylstra, Mark Schaefer, Chris Lovellette and Casey Nell, all seniors, made up the SIUE construction engineering team.
Congratulations: Rhona Crail, office support specialist in the Office of Clinical Experience, Certification and Advisement in the School of Education, is the November recipient of the Employee Recognition Award. In the photo, Crail is receiving the award from Assistant Vice Chancellor for Administration Richard Walker. Crail was nominated for the award by Gretchen Fricke, director of the office. In addition to the plaque she has been presented, Crail was awarded a $25 gift certificate to the SIUE Bookstore and two complimentary lunch coupons to the University Restaurant or other Dining Services locations, as well as parking close to her office for the month. (SIUE Photo by Denise Macdonald)
Cick here for the photo suitable for print.
