Archive for March, 2010

Lauren Johnson, an International Studies major now in ACU’s Study Abroad program, started writing a blog, Tráigame Uruguay, about her experiences in Montevideo.  The Costa Mesa, CA, newspaper wrote an article about how Lauren’s blog is helping her former teacher, Christine Navakovich, Spanish teacher at Mariners Christian School, teach second-graders Spanish and learn about Latin American culture.  The American Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) with nearly 7,000+ members nation-wide, highlighted the story in this month’s brief.

So,…

Over seven thousand foreign language educators across the United States have seen how an ACU student is using mobile technology while at ACU’s Montevideo program to connect Montevideo with her home town of Costa Mesa, CA.

Read all about it:  Daily Pilot – Serving Newport Beach & Costa Mesa, California.

This image is from a village on the northern edge of the famous Port Meadow, a thousand-year-old plot of land where development is strictly prohibited.   The spires of Oxford can be seen in the distance.  This vantage point is a mere 20-minute bicycle ride from the ACU houses.

If you want the most up to date information on contemporary French words (a French dictionary/ not a French English dictionary) you should go to “Trésors de la  Langue française” at : http://atilf.atilf.fr/tlf.htm
This is the most complete French dictionary in existence and is sponsored by the “Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique”
Yann Opsitch

From: Prof. Haley

A former student of mine, Joe Cotten Drisdale, is teaching in China. In a recent email he told me that they can use many more teachers, the pay and housing are good, and most English B.A. students would presumably be qualified. Joe writes:

…this school will triple enrollment next fall, and needs more foreign Oral English teachers, They don’t have to have the ESL certificate, as training is provided.  Min. requirement is a bachelors, but if they have a masters the pay is more. The housing is new, comfortable, and similar, I would guess, to a flat in Abilene renting for about $600. Both the Dir. of English Dept. and the recruiter asked me to help with referrals, so if you think this would be of interest to any of your students, please give them my email.

If you’re interested, contact Joe:  drisdale@email.com

The Department of Foreign Languages will offer the following advanced courses. During the Summer 2010:

• FLFR 388 Advanced French Conversation

During the Fall 2010:

• FLSP 352 Peninsular Spanish Culture
• FLSP 440 ST: Medieval to Golden Age Lit
• FLSP 480 Hispanic Drama
• INTS 301 Language and Culture

Click on the links for more information.  We hope to see you in class next summer or fall!

Registration is right around the corner!  If you are interested in studying one of the languages below, simply click on the Dialektos introduction page, read up on the Dialektos methodology (it’s not like an ordinary language class), and fill in the application to request entrance into the program.  Next fall, we will offer beginning and intermediate tracks in:

• Arabic
• Japanese
• Mandarin (Chinese)
• Portuguese
• Russian

Read all about it and sign up today!

Are you a native speaker of one of the languages above?  Would you like to meet people interested in you and your culture?  Would you like to help English-speaking students learn your language?  If so, we want to hear from you.  Find out more about becoming a Native Conversation Partner here.

Dr. Chris Willerton is home from a successful research trip to the Midwest and New York. He’s on administrative leave during spring 2010, a reward after 25 years as ACU’s honors director, and is using the opportunity to continue his work in detective fiction and theology.

CW’s first project was interviewing detective writer Terence Faherty in Indianapolis.  Faherty has two series of novels, one featuring amateur detective Owen Keane, a failed seminarian, and the other featuring Scott Elliott, an actor who becomes a Los Angeles sleuth after returning from World War II. Faherty told CW that his Catholicism comes through most strongly when his characters suffer from unconfessed crimes. He puts in enough gunplay and rough language to satisfy his publisher but is most interested in the way his characters use little mysteries to find clues to cosmic mysteries.

CW’s next project was to present a paper, “Dorothy L. Sayers, the Trinity, and the Creative Reader” at the Northeast Conference on Christianity and Literature, in New York. This was the first CCL regional meeting to feature detective fiction, and it drew papers on Chesterton, Sayers, Collins, Chandler, and even J. K. Rowling.

The photo shows CW meeting the plenary speaker, Dr. Dale Ahlquist, president of the American Chesterton Society. In between sessions, CW hiked across Brooklyn Bridge, visited the site of the World Trade Center, and saw an off-Broadway murder mystery, Perfect Crime.

Finally, CW spent three days in the Marion Wade Center at Wheaton College, reading manuscripts and letters of Dorothy L. Sayers, author of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries and translator of Dante. Having written papers extending Sayers’s aesthetics with Reader Response theory, CW focused on her 1941 book The Mind of the Maker and her 1944 lecture “Towards a Christian Aesthetic.” As one critic puts it, Sayers was “highly intelligent, opinionated, and combative,” and CW ended each day’s reading woozy from both her handwriting and her argumentation.

The Wade is an internationally known research center for Lewis, Tolkien, Sayers, Chesterton, Charles Williams, and others associated with the Oxford Christians. Its artifacts include desks used by Tolkien and Lewis and the wardrobe that helped inspire The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In the photo, CW inspects an overcoat used by Maj. Warren Lewis (C. S. Lewis’ brother Warnie).

Photo credits: Wade Center photos by Rachel K. Mink, staff. Brooklyn Bridge photo through the kindness of strangers.

Are You A Student in Financial Need?

ACU’s administration and Board of Trustees are committed to providing a high quality education at an affordable price. Even with the price increase to $717 per credit hour ($21,510 for 30 hours), ACU is priced well below the median tuition rate for a private college or university ($26,273 in 2009).

Even so, ACU realizes there may be returning students who will struggle with the rising cost of attendance and in response has created the Application for Additional Financial Assistance to award an additional $500,000 to those in need for the Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 semesters.

Eligibility Requirements –

Returning undergraduate students (excluding BAS) seeking additional financial assistance must:

1) Complete the Application for Additional Financial Assistance at www.acu.edu/additionalassistance.

2) File the 2010-11 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at www.fafsa.ed.gov.

3) Submit all required documentation (e.g., Institutional Verification Form, Disclosure Statement and Residency Affidavit [DSRA], etc.).                                                                                                                                                                                                       Forms are available at www.acu.edu/sfs/forms.

4) Participate in the Federal Direct Stafford Loan Program at the annual loan limit for their grade level ($3,500 up to 29 hours; $4,500 up to 59 hours; $5,500 greater than 60 hours).

The 2010-11 Application for Additional Financial Aid Assistance is due by April 30, 2010. Students requesting additional aid will be notified by email to their ACU student account by   5 p.m. on Friday, May 7, 2010. Any questions regarding the application or the process of awarding additional financial assistance should be directed to The Depot at (888) 588-6083.

Welcome to Graduation Central!

We have all the information you need to know to graduate and participate in Commencement. Click on the links below to discover the processes and forms that must be completed before you can become an ACU graduate.

Commencement Ceremony
Steps to Graduation
Graduation Requirements
Applications and Deadline
Intent to Graduate Form
Alumni Records Information Form
Commencement Information Form

Only complete this form if you have been notified by the Registrar’s Office that you have been cleared to participate in Commencement in May 2010. If you have not been cleared, please contact your advisor.