Students Created New Shelter Web site
The students in Dr. Amy Watkin's Writing for the Web class did more than hone their skills. They created an entirely new Web site for Churches United for the Homeless, Moorhead.
As they learned about characteristics of quality Web writing, the nine students simultaneously evaluated the shelter's old Web site. They also volunteered at Churches United two hours a week for the entire semester to better understand the organization.
"I've used service-learning in several classes and have found, without fail, that it makes students better writers," Watkin says. "They develop a new kind of confidence and begin to realize the power of words."
Working as a team, they drafted proposals and formally presented them to Churches United executive director Durk Thompson. Their final copy was used in the new Web site, created by Jodell Teiken, Concordia instructional designer.
"I liked being able to help out Durk to make his Web site more effective," says Adrienne Gahm '12, Morris, Minn.
Commencement
Scholarship and Activities
Dr. Rebecca Moore (political science) presented a paper, "Partnership Goes Global: The Role of Non-Member, Non-European Union States in the Evolution of NATO," at the annual convention of the International Studies Association Feb. 15-18 in New York.
Molly Flaspohler (library) had her article "Librarian Sabbatical Leaves: Do We Need to Get Out More?" published in The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 35.2 (2009): 152-161.
Dr. Arland Jacobson's (CHARIS/Communiversity) review of Odette Mainville's "Les Christophanies du Nouveau Testament" was published in the current issue of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly.
Dr. Rebecca Moore (political science) was an invited speaker at the March 11 "NATO at 60: Reflecting on the Past, Anticipating the Future," a conference sponsored by the Danish Institute for International Studies,
in cooperation with NATO's Public Diplomacy division, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Alec Sonsteby (library) presented a session, "VuFind: The MnPALS Experience," March 18-19 at the Library Technology Conference at Macalaster College, St. Paul, Minn. Conference attendees learned the basics of VuFind, an open source project that is the basis of a new Web 2.0 library catalog interface used by the Consortium of MnPALS Libraries.
Dr. Mark Jensen's (chemistry) paper, "Using Web-Based Resources to Incorporate LabVIEW into an Instrumental Analysis Course," was published in the April 2009 edition of the Journal of Chemical Education.
Dr. Barbara McCauley (classical studies) presented "Euripides' Heracleidae and the Cult of Heroes" at the 105th annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South April 2-4 in Minneapolis.
Dr. James Postema's (English) photo is featured on the home page header of ValleyFloodWatch.com, operated by Go Radio Broadcasting. The photo, taken during the 2006 flood, depicts overland flooding from the Buffalo River near Georgetown, Minn.
The Office of Assessment and Institutional Research is profiled in the spring 2009 edition of New Directions for Institutional Research, titled "Using NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) in Institutional Research." Concordia is one of seven institutions described in the chapter "Effectively Involving Faculty in the Assessment of Student Engagement." Concordia is also profiled on the NSSE Web site, which includes an excerpt from an interview with Kay Schneider (assessment).
Dr. Rick Chapman (history) published a review of Rodolfo F. Acuña's "Corridors of Migration: The Odyssey of Mexican Laborers, 1600-1933" in the spring 2009 issue of Agricultural History.
Dr. Matthew Lindholm (sociology) presented "Managing Diversity and Public Identity in an American Mosque" April 2 at the University of Pennsylvania conference Global Islam in Everyday America. The conference was sponsored by the university's Asian American, Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies departments.
Dr. Peter Schultz's (art) article "The North Frieze of the Temple of Athena Nike" has been published in Art in Athens During the Peloponnesian War, ed. O. Palagia (Cambridge University Press).
Please send scholarship and activities submissions to kappes@cord.edu.
Students Embark Overseas
The college is sending off 149 students this summer to experience and study other countries and cultures firsthand.
Students are traveling on six May Seminars to numerous countries, including Egypt, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Czech Republic and Australia.
Three Summer School Abroad programs are traveling to Holland, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, China and Mexico. A Summer Field Study group is also traveling to Rwanda.
Students and faculty from the mathematics and theatre May Seminars, as well as the nursing and religion Summer School Abroad, will be writing about their experiences and sharing photos on a new blog.
Follow along at http://blog.cord.edu/maysems/.