November - University of Maryland Eastern Shore

Volume 6 Issue 3
Follow Your Passion
November 2005
Award Winning Actor/Director’s Advice
A
INSIGHTS
U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D E A S T E R N S H O R E , P R I N C E S S A N N E , M D 2 1 8 5 3
D I V I S I O N O F A C A D E M I C A F F A I R S , S C H O O L O F T H E A R T S & P R O F E S S I O N S
D E P A R T M E N T O F E N G L I S H A N D M O D E R N L A N G U A G E S
Many English majors
interested in careers in
movies and television heard
valuable advice recently
from someone who knows
first hand.
Tim Reid, emmy-nominated
actor, producer, director,
and co-founder of New
Millennium Studios, visited
the UMES campus to
deliver what he called “a
provocative seminar.” His
presentation was entitled
“Black Images in the Media:
Where Do We Go From
Here?”
Nearly two hundred
students, faculty members,
and staff gathered in the
Student Services Center
Theater for a discussion that
traced the historical role of
African Americans in the
entertainment industry.
Mr. Reid shared his concern
that stereotypical negative
images of African
Americans will continue to
dominate the media
landscape until more people
of color “tell (their) own
stories.”
seat in defining (its) culture.”
While he admits seeking a
decision-making role in the
media is a difficult objective
to achieve, Mr. Reid
cautioned UMES students it
will only be possible with
equal measures of passion,
sacrifice, and hard work.
Mr. Reid is a graduate of
Norfolk State University and
told his UMES audience that
he is particularly pleased to
bring his message about the
power of the entertainment
industry to other Historically
Black Colleges and
Universities.
Tim Reid delivers seminar at
UMES
Photo by Matthew Whittiker
He worries that “black
America has taken a back
English majors were anxious
to learn more about their
career prospects. Mr. Reid
obliged with a lengthy
question and answer session
following his presentation.
Student Radio Station Staff Gears Up
The management of WHWK, the UMES
student-run radio station, is stepping up its
efforts to recruit more members.
The station was a high profile participant at
the recent “First Look Fair.” The event,
organized by the University’s student
activities staff, is designed to give the
campus community a close up look at many
of the extra curricular activities available at
UMES.
WHWK set
up a
karaokelike booth
so that
interested
students
could get
an
opportunity
to hear
themselves
Students get a chance to hear
their on-air persona at the
WHWK “First Look” booth
“on the air.”
The station
successfully
recruited a
number of
new staff
members
through the
“First Look”
Promotions manager Shelita
process, so
Hampton (L) and disc jockey
the
Sean Brewster at WHWK Mixer
managers
arranged to
hold a “mixer” to give those new members
an opportunity to mix and mingle with other
members of the station’s staff.
WHWK is heard on 1620 AM and 88.3 FM.
The station is both a career-building extra
curricular activity and a teaching tool in the
Department of English and Modern
Languages. The station’s three production
studios were created with Title III funds.
Up Close and Personal
UMES STUDENTS TRAVEL TO D.C. JOB FAIR
It’s a senior English major’s dream:
nearly one hundred employers all
under one roof, ready and waiting to
talk jobs.
relations, advertising, newspapers, and
magazines. Universities that offer
graduate degrees in the field were also on
hand to discuss their programs.
Each year, Howard University’s
School of Communications in
Washington D.C. hosts a job fair and
invites students from all over the East
Coast to participate. For the third time
in four years, UMES students
interested in communications careers
took the opportunity to talk about their
Aaron Burkley found the experience
productive. “I was able to see a lot of
firms….Everybody was real helpful,” he
said.
Some of the English majors who attended
the communications job fair on the
Howard University campus
The trip was co-sponsored by the English
department and the UMES Office of
Career Services.
future with the experts. “I was able to
develop connections that I’ll be able to
use after graduation,” said Ronnetta
Stanley.
B-Plus (L) from Radio One talks to
UMES senior Tanesha Davis following a
workshop on how to break into radio
Ms. Stanley was part of a busload of
UMES English majors who attended
workshops, discussed internships, and
passed out resumes to prospective
employers. Participating companies
represented a broad range of businesses
including television, radio, public
UMES senior Richard Rudasill (L)
meets with Sam Davis, internship
coordinator from the Baltimore Sun
Extra Help Available
All UMES students must pass the English Proficiency Exam
(E.P.E.) before they graduate. The exam is administered as
part of the English department’s composition instruction.
Many students do not find the writing exercise difficult; for
those who are apprehensive, the department offers special oneon-one tutoring.
Liz Bellavance schedules tutoring appointments with students
on Tuesdays and Wednesdays each week. The sessions are
held in the department’s conference room on the second floor
of Wilson Hall.
International students, for whom English is a second language,
find the instruction particularly helpful. Tosin Osho, a
construction management major, passed his E.P.E. after help
from Ms. Bellavance. In a recent email, he offered his thanks
for her attention. “I am finding my writing skills a bit more
polished now ,” he said.
While the tutoring sessions are designed primarily to prepare
for the E.P.E., Ms. Bellavance is also available to assist ENGL
101 and 102 students with writing help as her schedule permits.
Thirty or sixty minute sessions can be scheduled on Tuesdays
between 12 p.m. and 4
p.m. and on
Wednesdays between 9
a.m. and 4 p.m. Ms.
Bellavance can be
reached by email at
ebellavance@umes.edu.
English majors also
offer peer tutoring
through the
University’s Access and
Success program.
Ms. Bellavance
Insights is edited by faculty member Marilyn Buerkle
with the assistance of Instructional Design Specialist
Kaye Pinhey and composition instructor Ron
Webster. If you have information you would like to
appear in this publication, please contact our editor
at 410-651-8349 or email her at
mlbuerkle@umes.edu.
Bienvenu Benjamin Cooledge
It’s Official !
Newest English Department Arrival
English Major Crowned Mr. UMES
When this publication went
to press last month, Benjamin
Cooledge was just a few
hours old. So, this month
we’ve had a little more time
to gather information and
collect his photograph.
Benjamin is the second son of
two members of the English
department—Drs. Susan and Benjamin Cooledge
Photo by Dean Cooledge
Dean Cooledge. Benjamin
weighed 6 pounds, 2.8
ounces and was 19 and a half inches long at birth. He joins his
big brother William at home. Dr.
Susan Cooledge is resting
comfortably at home as well.
“It was wonderful!” That’s senior English major Michael
Cooper’s reaction to his coronation. Mr. Cooper was officially
crowned Mr. UMES in a formal ceremony held on campus late
last month .
In her absence, French classes are
being taught by Hilary Bailey. Ms.
Bailey recently relocated to the
Salisbury area.
Madame Bailey
Prior to her assignment at UMES,
she taught French language courses
at the University of Virginia.
Mr. Cooper will serve as an ambassador for the University
through the remainder of the school year.
A native of Newark, Delaware,
Mr. Cooper is a member of the
UMES Honors program, has
served as an English department
tutor, and has led the UMES
chapter of the English Honor
Society, Sigma Tau Delta.
Miss UMES Shalani
Vanterpool and Mr. UMES
Michael Cooper
Photo by Matthew Whittiker
Keeping academics as his top
priority, Mr. Cooper realizes this
will be a busy year. “It will be
challenging, but with the proper
execution of time management it
will be easy to accomplish all
my goals,” he said.
Mr. Cooper’s partner is Shalani
Vanterpool. She was crowned Miss UMES at the same
ceremony.
Tribute to Senator Sarbanes
English Students and Faculty Member Attend
Senator Paul Sarbanes has a soft spot when it comes to the
University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
At a recent dinner honoring his public service, Senator
Sarbanes described the scrimmages his high school
basketball team played against the UMES Hawks to prepare
the Wicomico High School players for tough competition.
Since these interracial games occurred years before the U.S.
Supreme Court ordered the integration of public schools, the
Senator told his audience he learned some of his first
important lessons about the value of cultural diversity on a
UMES basketball court. They are lessons, he said, that have
lasted a lifetime.
(L to R) Ashlie Morris, LaToya Fewell, Evan Burton, Sen. Paul Sarbanes,
The event was sponsored by the Salisbury Neighborhood
Housing Service and held on the UMES campus. Among the Richard Rudasill, Stacy Woods, Desirae Tinsley, and Joi Horn
guests that evening were a group of UMES English majors.
They were invited by an English faculty member, Marilyn Buerkle, who served on the planning committee for the evening’s event.
In addition to remarks by Senator Sarbanes and other elected officials and local dignitaries, the program featured an audio-visual
presentation produced by Ms. Buerkle and Robin Hoffman, a UMES English alumni. The presentation, “The American Dream
Fulfilled,” detailed the remarkable accomplishments of Senator Sarbanes. The son of Greek immigrants, Senator Sarbanes grew up
in nearby Salisbury, Maryland and attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School on full scholarships. He also was
selected as a prestigious Rhodes Scholar and studied at Oxford University in England. He was first elected to the Congress in 1970
and is now the longest serving U.S. Senator in Maryland’s history.
MENTOR
HONORED
Department
Chair Richard
Keenan will
receive the
Honor Society
of Phi Kappa
Phi’s Mentor
Award. He was
nominated for
the prize by
Jamie Grangier,
a senior English
major and
Princess Anne
native.
NEW A.L.P.
STAFF
Dr. Rose Aziza of Delta State University
in Abraka, Nigeria, will become the lead
consultant in Nigeria for the Izon and
Urhobo language corpus building
activity supported by UMES’ African
Language Research Project. That’s
according to Dr. Chester Hedgepeth,
principal investigator and a member of
the UMES English department faculty.
Dr. Keenan and Ms.
Grangier
Photo by Matthew
Whittiker
The mentor award is presented to a
faculty member who has earned a
reputation as an outstanding classroom
teacher, has shown a willingness to work
with individual students, and has
demonstrated a commitment to the
University of Maryland System and to
his or her individual campus.
Dr. Keenan will be presented with the
mentor award in early December.
Dr. Aziza will collect spoken and written
texts in both languages to provide as
large a database as possible. Once the
corpus is complete for these languages,
level two and three readers will be
developed, expanding the linguistic
resources available to the communities
in which these languages are spoken.
Dr. Aziza received her Ph.D. in
linguistics from the University of
Ibadan. Currently she is working on a
grammar in Urhobo and is also involved
in documenting folktales of the
Southwestern Edoid group made up of
Eruwa, Isoko, Urhobo and Uvwie
languages.
ET TU,
BRUTE?
Faculty member Will Rose put his acting
talent to work when another UMES
public speaking instructor asked him to
visit her speech classes. Ms. Linda
Baines invited Mr. Rose to discuss with
students how to develop and strengthen
their voices.
An experienced actor, Mr. Rose
entertained the students with a
monologue from A Soldier’s Play. He
and Ms. Baines also demonstrated the
effective use of voice by performing a
scene from Julius Caesar.
Ms. Baines as Portia and Mr. Rose as Brutus
Gospel Musical Staged
Recruiting Rep
The UMES Drama Society, under the direction of English faculty member Della
Dameron Johnson, will present Lost in a Dream this month. The production is
described as an exuberant, entertaining, and spiritually moving gospel musical
based on the story of the prodigal son.
English faculty member Mignon Holland
Anderson has been practicing her sales
and marketing skills.
The students involved in this presentation
have the advantage of dealing directly with
the playwright. Lost’s author, Bill Stone, Jr.
recently relocated to Princess Anne, and he
has attended campus rehearsals to help the
students realize his vision.
Hzara Kawah (L) and Chris
Raleigh rehearse for this month’s
production
Lost in a Dream will be staged Wednesday,
November 2, at 10:00 a.m.; Thursday,
November 3 and Friday, November 4 at 7:30
p.m.; and Saturday, November 5 at 2:00 p.m.
and 7:30 p.m.. General admission is $8;
students and senior citizen tickets are $5.
She represented the
English department at
the UMES Student
Recruitment
Visitation Day to
encourage
prospective students
to major in English.
Ms. Anderson
She will also
represent the
department during the Annual UMES
Tri-County College Fair this month to
encourage prospective students to attend
UMES and to become English majors.
Adjunct English Faculty Member Presents Research
Jaqueline Kane-Parham led a discussion of “The Music of the Civil Rights Movement, 1957-67” at the recent USM Diversity
Network Faculty Conference. Ms. Kane-Parnham suggested that the music used in spirituals echoed the legal inequities and social
frustrations of African Americans. She told her audience that the music provided the public an opportunity for greater
communication. Ms. Kane-Parham teaches English composition as an adjunct instructor.