Archive for ‘Announcements’

An International Adventure, Right Here in Abilene

0 Commentsby   |  11.03.11  |  Announcements

Jealous of those study abroad friends of ours, always talking about England and Uruguay and Germany? As if Abilene isn’t exciting enough for some people. But for others, Abilene really is a destination location; the peace and quiet offers a place to rest and start over. Since 2003, the International Rescue Committee has resettled more than 1200 refugees from 20 countries in our town–about 200 each year.

These global travelers have overcome difficult-to-imagine situations just in order to get here. We have a chance to help them feel at home.

ACU for the IRC is our campus group that serves as a bridge between our community and the local IRC branch. Each year, the group hosts a Thanksgiving dinner for our local refugees. It’s a wonderful opportunity to share our cultural traditions with people who are just getting to know our country, and to reach out and show love and hospitality to these courageous people, separated from their friends and families.

You can watch a short video of one of the dinners from a few years ago on YouTube to get a betterpicture of what it might look like.

If you can volunteer to participate in this year’s dinner, we need volunteers!

You can help cook, serve, possibly transport some of the refugees to and/or from the event, and just sit down and get to know the individuals and families who’ll join us.

The dinner will take place over lunch on Saturday, November 19. I’ll post the exact times as soon as they’re determined.

If you’re interested in helping, please contact me, Heidi Nobles, at heidi.nobles@acu.edu (I’m a faculty sponsor for the group this year), or Allison Horten, the group’s president, at alh07c@acu.edu.

Baby Sanders Is Here!

1 Commentby   |  10.10.11  |  Announcements

Last week, Shelly and Nathan welcomed Heath Nathan Sanders on October 4, at 9:04 a.m. He was 8 pounds, 3 ounces, and 21-1/2 inches long, with LOTS of dark hair. The family is doing great! Welcome Heath, and congratulations Shelly and Nathan!

As Big as Texas: More Student Wins

0 Commentsby   |  08.31.11  |  Announcements, Creative Writing

Image from academics.itep.edu

News of the best variety arrived in Writer in Residence Al Haley’s email in-box last week.

It was notification that two students he had nominated earlier in the summer had placed in their respective genres in the student writing contest sponsored by the Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers (TACWT). Not second or third, but…

First place.

Tanner Hadfield in fiction.

Bethany Bradshaw in poetry.

This follows on the heels of ACU student wins in the annual Christianity and Literature Student Writing Contest (see post).

First place winners of the TACWT contest receive $100 and an invitation to read their work at TACWT’s annual meeting which this year will be held in Austin, Sept. 23-24.

“This is a wonderful result,” Prof. Haley said. “In TACWT we’re competing with schools that have established MFA and MA programs in creative writing like the University of Houston and Texas Tech.

“Often their undergraduates have worked with the graduate faculty who are numerous and many of whom are much published writers themselves. So for a school like ACU to come along and win two out of three first places makes a kind of statement about the caliber of our classes, teachers, and students.”

Tanner Hadfield’s story, “Snowing in Darling,” is a magic-realism sort of tale that he wrote in Prof. Heidi Nobles Fiction Workshop last fall. Tanner got the news at the University Colorado where he had just begun his first semester as an MFA student.

He wrote back that already he’s taught his first class of undergrads as a graduate teaching assistant, is  working on a novella, staring up an art-zine, judging a poetry contest for Subito Press, and tutoring. And, oh, yes he’s taking classes.

Out on the East Coast the news about her poetry win found Bethany Bradshaw beginning her first semester of classes as an MA student in literature at the University of North Carolina in Raleigh. In her email response she expressed excitement over the outcome and noted, “I am sitting with my books and coffee watching the rain soak our yard full of trees (not to gloat or anything). So yes, I am loving Raleigh.”

Prof. Haley concluded, “Combined with the student work  that place earlier this year in the Christianity and Literature contest, these results show that we have a very good thing going with creative writing at ACU. I encourage any student, regardless of his or her major, to take one of our three workshops. There’s something offered every semester and it’s a chance to meet the challenge to do quality work. And I think that’s what a lot of our students are really looking for. A serious challenge.”

For anyone interested, Eng. 320: Creative Nonfiction Workshop is offered in the Spring; Eng. 322: Fiction Workshop and Eng. 323: Poetry Workshop meet in the Fall.

 

 

PCA Award

1 Commentby   |  08.04.11  |  Announcements, Faculty Spotlight

Congratulations to our newest faculty member, Dr. Suanna Davis, who received the award for best Science Fiction/Fantasy paper at this year’s Popular Culture Association conference in San Antonio, Texas. In addition to this honor, Dr. Davis was also asked to submit her paper to Femspec, a feminist journal devoted to the science fiction and fantasy genres. Dr. Davis’ paper was entitled “Speculative Fiction Representations of Rape: From the Survivor’s Perspective.” 

CCTE Awards

0 Commentsby   |  04.25.11  |  Alumni Spotlight, Announcements, Faculty Spotlight

Congratulations to Dr. Nancy Shankle, recipient of the Frances Hernández Teacher-Scholar Award.  Dr. Shankle was presented this award at the Conference of College Teachers of English luncheon on March 5, 2011, in Stephenville, Texas.

Each year the Conference of College Teachers of English honors the memory of Dr. Frances Hernández, longtime member of CCTE, with this award given to recipients who manifest the excellence in teaching, scholarship and service exemplified by Dr. Hernández herself.  Specifically, this award acknowledges recipients’ dedication to the profession through outstanding teaching; service to CCTE, to college or university, and to other professional organizations; and academic and scholarly achievement.

ACU graduate student (MA in English) Brent Dill won the William E. Tanner Award for the best rhetorical paper by a graduate gtudent. The title of his winning paper was “Ghostbook: A New Rhetoric of Grief.” His paper will be published in the 2011 issue of CCTE Studies.

ACU English professor Dr. Mikee Delony presented a paper on popular culture titled “Cinematic Guinevere.

An Evening of Mystique with Prof. Haley

0 Commentsby   |  04.06.11  |  Announcements, Creative Writing

On Thursday, April 14, from 7 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. we will be having a literary gathering during which our writer in residence, Prof. Al Haley, will share some of what he has been writing the past three years while serving as the James W. Culp Distinguished Professor of English.

We will meet in the “old” Brown Library auditorium (now the Core Classroom).  For your entertainment and emotional/physical sustenance there will be:

  • Student jazz quintet
  • Guest appearance of the doppleganger of a best-selling author
  • Two students reading their published poems
  • Guest appearance of an English faculty member in disguise
  • Reading from Prof. Haley’s novel-in-progress
  • Door prize with a retail value of more than $50!
  • Coffee and cookies

We hope, schedule permitting, you can come to this event.

P.S. Why is this being called an “Evening of Mystique”?  Prof. Haley says, “It’s because I seem to have written a novel about suburban Christians who encounter ‘signs and wonders.’ As you might imagine, these episodes are quite perplexing.  It’s not ‘magic,’ but does it amount to bonafide ‘miracles’?  At this point we’re just going to refer to it as ‘mystique’…  “ 

Careers in Non-Profit

0 Commentsby   |  02.25.11  |  Announcements, Career Planning & Information, Job & Volunteer Opportunities

The 2nd Annual Careers in Non Profit Event will take place on March 8th, from 5:30-7:30 pm in the Hunter Welcome Center.

Students will be able to talk with representatives from Boys and Girls Club, Disability Resources, Love & Care Ministries, and the Noah Project.

The Keynote Speaker will be Janet Ardoyno, VP of Agency Development for Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Light snacks will be served.

Students should RSVP to www.acu.edu/careercenter

Information Session – ACLE – Teach English in Italy

0 Commentsby   |  02.25.11  |  Announcements, Career Planning & Information, Job & Volunteer Opportunities

Monday, March 7th | 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Living Room | McGlothlin Campus Center

Two ACU students, Matthew Hale and Trevor Cochlin will be speaking about their experiences with the ACLE organization. They will explain how they taught English through sports, music and a variety of other activities at summer camps throughout Italy.  Students should RSVP through ACU CareerLink

Application for English Department Scholarships

0 Commentsby   |  02.14.11  |  Advising Information, Announcements, Scholarship

Guidelines

The English Department at ACU offers the scholarships listed below to English and English-Education majors on a competitive basis.  To be eligible, students must be juniors, seniors, or graduate students when applying and must plan to return to ACU in the fall after the scholarship award is announced in the spring.  Previous recipients of scholarships are invited to reapply. The amount of the awards varies from $1000 to $1500 per semester.

The Watson Scholarship
  • Awarded for character, scholarship, and need
The Garrett-Watson Scholarship
  • Awarded to an English major with at least a 3.0 GPA
The Ellis Scholarship
  • Awarded to students with unusual potential in the profession of English whether in writing, teaching, editing, or other areas
The Mima Williams Scholarship
  • Awarded to excellent students of language and literature with creative and social competence who plan to teach and who are good all-around students
  • Recipients should plan to teach in either college, middle school, or high school; have a record of compliance with university rules; have an outstanding moral and spiritual reputation; excel academically but also be well-rounded, not strictly an English scholar; and show unusual potential as a teacher.  Need is not a factor.
The Jack Welch Scholarship
  • Award based on character, academic ability, and financial need

How to Apply

  1. Prepare a one-page letter of application outlining your eligibility for an English scholarship.  Be sure to describe your career goals, your financial need (if applicable), activities that indicate your good character, and your academic performance while enrolled at ACU.  Also, please detail any scholarly work you have done or scholarly activities you have been involved in (e.g., original research, paper presented or published, awards or publication for creative writing, participation in a conference).
  2. Prepare a one-page résumé outlining your academic work, your extracurricular activities, and your employment history.
  3. Submit the resume and letter of application to Dr. Shankle, ACU Box 28252 or Chambers 308.

Deadline:  February 28, 2011

Vickie Smith, 1948-2011

0 Commentsby   |  02.07.11  |  Announcements, Faculty Spotlight

Vickie Smith

Vickie Smith, instructor of English, passed away on Saturday, February 5, after a brief illness.  During exploratory surgery on January 24, doctors discovered widespread cancer.  Prof. Smith lived the last days of her life as she had all of her life, with a passion for the Lord.

Prof. Smith earned her MA in English from Abilene Christian University in 1992 and began teaching for the English Department in 1992 (part-time) and in 1995 (full-time).  She taught first-year English, sophomore literature, and Business and Professional Writing.

If you ever had a class with Prof. Smith, would you post a short remembrance?  We’ll use some of your comments in the memorial service.