Get Your Picnic On

 Dr. Jason Murray:  "Just a reminder that our end of the year picnic and graduation celebration is scheduled for Tuesday, May 1^st at 6 pm at Wintersmith."

ECU's STD Numbers are Growing

From left to right:  Lindsey Dugan, Robert Darling, Noelle Hurt, Jaime Worden, Macy McDonald, Sarah Berger.

Seven members of ECU's English and Languages department were inducted into the Upsilon Pi chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English honor society at our last meeting of the year on Friday, including:   Sarah Berger,  Robert Darling, Lindsey Dugan, Noelle Hurt, Macy McDonald, and Mary Newport.  We also celebrated the service of lecturer Jim Hunter, who has actively supported ECU's STD events these past two years (and will be moving to greener pastures next fall), and Dr. Trisha Yarbrough, a long-time member of Sigma Tau Delta, who is retiring after 25 years at ECU.  We gave Jim a commissioned word-art portrait (thanks, Jim Benton!) with a French-theme, in recognition of Jim's work on ECU's French Film Festival; it features words and phrases we hope he will remember us by and others we will will remember him by (many of them curse words).

"A life should leave / deep tracks..."

We gave Dr. Yarbrough a framed print of a poem, "Things Shouldn't Be So Hard," by Kay Ryan, in recognition of Dr. Yarbrough's infectious love of literature, and the countless poems she has shared with the ECU community during her tenure here (click here to read the full poem).  Dr. Yarbrough honored us with a reading of Ryan's poem and later regaled us with tales of departmental mischief from days of yore.  (My favorite quotation of the afternoon has Dr. Yarbrough insisting, "I am not going to let you handcuff me!")

Thanks to all who turned out, brought food, broke bread with us, contributed to the art projects, and otherwise supported STD activities over the past year.  Our next meeting is Friday, September 7th (with subsequent meetings to be held on the first Fridays in October, November, and December).  Hope to see you then!

And if you can help with our  service project,the Better World Books Drive, by donating books or helping us box and ship them, please let us know!  Our collection bin is outside the ECU bookstore.

We Haiku

Dr. Hada's Non-Western Literature class is haiku-ing . . .

waiting for the bell,
nervous, losing much control
freedom comes at last

a blanket of snow
covering the land below
spring is only near
                        -Hannah Cochran

Sleeping child awakes
Like capricious wind blowing
Life whirls by and leaves

Happy world, good friends
Bullfrog drinks fruit of the vine
Sharing, drinking, joy

Thunder rips the sky
Dr. Hada makes us write
Poems cleave the mind

Water flows downhill
Autumn days turn to winter
Snow piles up in mounds
                        -Teresa Buretta

2011-12 Scholarship and Award Winners

Congratulations!

Daisy Moore Duvall Scholarship:  Jaime Worden

Margaret Peggy Nims Scholarship:  Noelle Hurt

Young Family Scholarship:  Macy McDonald

Reed Loving-Watt Scholarship:  Lindsey Dugan

Geraldine Burns Award:  Megan Cooper

Outstanding Student Teacher:  Megan Cooper

Senior Portfolio Award:  Sarah Berger

LeMoine Blake Crabtree Russian Award:  Rayel Schinnerer

Gary and Linda Ainsworth Award:  Jacob Stevens, Alexis Brendle, and Catherine Phipps

Paul Hughes Awards
1^st: Allan Adams

2^nd: Caitlyn Stephens

3^rd: Mary Newport

Eleanor Waner Dedmon Award: Joseph Lawrence Hagan-Zertuche

Ozella Elizabeth Waner English Award: Ashley Bean and Kaitlin Forest

N.A.S.A Scholarship: Noelle Hurt

Best Essay Awards

Upper-level literature course:  Lindsi Bonar, “Class is as Class Does”

Lower-level literature course:  Jaime Worden, “That Ol’ Kate Sure is an Eccentric Broad.”

Language course:  Noelle Hurt, Review of Andrea Lunsford’s Easy Rider.

Writing course: Daphine Peck, “The Language Fallacies of ‘Homophobia’”

English Department Writing Awards

The Categories
Best Essay in an upper-level literature course
Best Essay in a lower-level literature course
Best Essay in a language course
Best Essay in a writing course

The Rules
Essays must have been produced in a literature, language, or writing class at East Central University during the 2011-12 academic year. A student may submit in multiple categories. Please, submit photocopies as submissions will not be returned.

The Process
Submit one copy of your essay to Dr. Jason Murray – Horace Mann 335B. Please, make sure to write on the essay your full name, the semester of composition, and the class for which the essay was composed. Winners will be announced at the annual departmental awards on Monday, April 23rd.

The Due Date
Deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. on Friday, April 13th .