Sarah Bexell

Sarah Bexell is one of very few American conservationist researchers who have had the opportunity to work on panda conservation in China at the Chengdu Panda Base. This honor is by invitation only from the Chinese government and is reserved for exceptional candidates who stand out in their fields.

Bexell is just that: an exceptional researcher impassioned by her love of science, nature and wildlife.

She originally planned to pursue a degree in pre-veterinary studies, but quickly realized this wasn’t a path that suited her. “I hate cutting and blood. I passed out, literally, several times while observing surgeries during class.”

Stalwart in her childhood dream of studying wildlife and the environment, Bexell was challenged to consider other avenues that would allow her to study what stoked her passion. She graduated with a B.A. in biology, and started to search for universities that suited her needs.

She found what she needed in NIU’s physical anthropology program in 1993.

“I really wanted to work with Dan Gebo. I was fascinated by his research on primates, and I knew that NIU was where I wanted to go for my graduate degree,” Bexell says. “My time at NIU was formative to the future of my career in wildlife and environmental conservation. It was the first time I ever heard about endangered species. Dr. Gebo was saying in lecture, ‘This monkey is endangered, and this lemur is endangered,’ and it was the first time I got mad and sad and knew what I wanted to do.”

Dan Gebo

Gebo remembers Bexell as a driven, hard-working woman who knew exactly what she wanted to do.

“She wanted to focus on primate behavior, which isn’t my area of expertise, but I was happy to help her find the resources she needed to succeed,” Gebo says. “She ended up doing research on the golden lion tamarin at Brookfield Zoo, which was very impressive and exciting for her.”

Bexell emphasized how extraordinary it was to have Gebo as a guide and resource.

“He pointed me to a wealth of resources and supported my needs and passions as a student despite the fact that he focused on primate evolution, and I wanted to focus on primate behavior.”

NIU’s location provided a strategic advantage of NIU’s location. “It was perfect for me because I wasn’t ready to go too far from home, but the university is so close to countless research opportunities in the city [Chicago], like Brookfield Zoo, the Art Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry.”

Her research has moved beyond focusing on primate behavior, to researching conservation efforts world-wide and studying other threats toward wildlife behavior, including giant pandas, red pandas and black-footed ferrets.

Bexell’s ambitious nature provided her with the energy needed to carve out her own niche in the world.

Since her time at NIU, she’s acquired a master’s degree in science education and a Ph.D. in early childhood education from Georgia State University. She’s combined her degrees to research effective methods of teaching children about their behaviors, and how they can develop or change those behaviors to assist in conservation efforts.

Her current research focuses on ways to educate children about conservation efforts to foster environmental stewardship at an early age.

“Early childhood is the time when concepts of morality and compassion are being cemented in a child’s brain. These are really formative years for kids,” Bexell says. “So, if we can teach them at this age how their behaviors and actions can negatively or positively affect nature, they can carry that with them throughout life.”

Bexell has just co-authored a book with a colleague in China, Zhang Zhihe, titled “Giant Pandas: Born Survivors.” The book explores giant panda behavior, current trends in conservation efforts, and “shatters myths” about these “amazing beings.” She says the book is about “who” pandas are, not “what” they are, reflecting how she often thinks of animals – as “whos,” not “whats.”

To learn more about Bexell’s conservation efforts at Cehngdu Panda Base, listen to or read the transcripts of her interview with NPR and her interview with NBC.

by Natalie Santiago

Heather Jurs

As the recipient of the Richard E. Dahlberg and Elizabeth J. Schwantes scholarships, Heather Jurs knows full well the impact a scholarship can have on a student’s experience.

“These scholarships have made a huge difference in my education,” says Jurs, a senior geography major in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“They have allowed me to pay back some of my student loans before I even graduate and have also allowed me to complete student teaching without having a part-time job, so I can fully concentrate on my student teaching experience.”

Students interested in applying for scholarships should contact the NIU Scholarship Office and also talk to their academic advisers. Jurs noted that the application process is fairly straightforward; in most cases, students complete an application and write a personal statement about their educational and career plans.

A transfer student from Highland Community College in Freeport, Ill., Jurs said the decisions to major in geography and to transfer to NIU were clear choices.

“I had always loved geography, but I selected it as my major because I had two great teachers in my high school and community college that opened my eyes to the world around me. I chose NIU because of its great geography and teaching programs,” she says. “The transition from Highland to NIU was really smooth. All of my classes transferred easily, I was able to begin my major and teaching classes as soon as I transferred, and I was able to complete my degree in the same number of years it would have been if I had started as a freshman at NIU.”

Jurs liked living in the Stevenson Towers residence hall, on a transfer student floor where all the residents had entered NIU at the same time.

“It was a great supportive community,” she says. “I would definitely recommend NIU to incoming transfer students because there is a wealth of resources available specifically for transfer students.”

Jurs is now seeking a social studies teaching position in Illinois and plans to teach geography at the middle or high school level, utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology as much as possible. GIS is a system that manages, manipulates and analyzes geographical data, combining cartography, statistical analysis and database technology. She is already getting hands-on experience in using the technology.

Last summer, Jurs completed a paid GIS internship in the Planning Department of the Kane County Forest Preserve District. Her work there included updating and adding detail to the map of the more than 70 forest preserves in Kane County using aerial photos and parcel maps, allowing for a more accurate calculation of the acreage owned by the Forest Preserve District.

She also installed ArcGIS Explorer, a free, user-friendly GIS system, on district computers and trained planning personnel to use the interactive forest preserve maps that they had created.

David Goldblum

David Goldblum, the associate professor in the Department of Geography who told Jurs about the internship, notes how important these experiences are for students.

“The education Heather received in the geography department prepared her to take advantage of the opportunity we give our students to earn NIU credit for off-campus internships,” Goldblum says. “This internship provided valuable real-world experience that will undoubtedly help her transition to a career as a professional geographer.”

Jurs, a member of Gamma Theta Upsilon, the International Geographic Honor Society, had some advice for students as they consider choosing a major.

“Pick your major based on what you love doing and don’t worry about what others think. I can’t tell you how many times I had to answer the question, ‘What are you going to do with a geography major?’ ”

by Pam Roesner

Clockwise, from top left: Bobby Browning, Yanelly Villegas, Jimmy Zucker and Chris Michels.

The NIU Forensics team extended its winning streak at the Pi Kappa Delta Nationals at Webster University in St. Louis, Mo., held from March 13 to 16.

Eight members of NIU’s Forensics Team competed against 89 other schools to win the “Team of Excellence” award.

Debate Team competitors were Chris Michels, Benjamin Donovan, Yanelly Villegas and Kyle Larson. Individual events competitors representing NIU were Bobby Browning, Jimmy Zucker, Bernard Chestleigh, Kyle Larson and Kevin Bartelt.

Individual results for the Pi Kappa Delta national tournament were:

• Browning received superior in After Dinner Speaking, superior in Persuasion and excellent in Impromptu Speaking.
• Chestleigh received showcase and superior ratings in Program Oral Interpretation.
• Larson received excellent in Extemporaneous Speech.
• Zucker received superior in Impromptu Speaking, excellent in After Dinner Speaking and Excellent in Persuasion.

Superior awards are reserved for the top 10 percent of competitors in individual, debate and combined categories.

Back row, from left: Kyle Larson, Yanelly Villegas, Nicole Autry (coach), Lisa Roth (coach), Judy Santacaterina (coach). Front row, from left: Chris Michels, Jimmy Zucker, Bernard Chestleigh, Robert Browning, Kevin Bartelt.

Judy Santacaterina, Nicole Autry and Lisa Roth served as coaches for the event.

“This was a great experience for our coaches and students,” Santacaterina said.

“Pi Kappa Delta is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, so it offered us not only a wonderful competitive experience, but an opportunity to embrace our past, as well,” she added. “As I took pride in the accomplishments of our students, I couldn’t help but think of the late M. Jack Parker and Dorothy Bishop, who were the heart and soul of NIU Forensics. I know they would be proud.”

NIU’s team isn’t finished yet, though.

In early April, Browning, Chestleigh and Lauren Scott will travel to Hutchinson, Kan., for the American Forensics Association’s National Individual Events Tournament. This elite national competition requires a very difficult qualification process, with Browning, Chestleigh and Scott representing NIU in more thaneight different speaking categories.

NIU’s new robotics team, having just formed in the fall of 2012, was eager to compete in its first challenge.

And so it was Saturday, March 9, that NIU Robotics traveled to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 26th annual Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition.

The rules are simple; teams must design, create, and race their robots during a series of bracket play.

The robots must capture territories by picking up their team’s cones and placing them on scoring rods placed throughout the arena. To earn points, teams must form a continuous line of claimed territories starting from their home base. During each competition, four teams race each other for 7.5 minutes.

Most veteran teams, understanding how difficult it is to create a flying robot, focus on building speed into their structures, hoping to race through the arena and grab cones as quickly as they can. NIU Robotics aimed higher and created the first ever successfully flying robot in the history of the Jerry Sanders competition.

Needless to say, teams won’t soon forget this young, vibrant club from the cornfields of DeKalb.

Over the past 26 years, teams have tried and failed to successfully navigate the course while flying.  There have been so many failures, in fact, that the course officials stopped securing the safety nets over the arena.

Treasure Pettee Guerrero laughs as she talks about first arriving at the competition.

“When we arrived, I am not going to lie, I was nervous. The place was huge, there were 26 seasoned teams, and the judges told us they haven’t bothered to use the net in years, because no robots could successfully fly for more than a few seconds at a time. Here we were, our first year, and we were banking on ours flying.”

When it was finally time for NIU compete, the arena stood silent as all 26 teams waited to see if this brand new club could pull off the impossible. “Our adrenaline was pumping when we finally saw the robot lift and raise up over our heads. We couldn’t believe it! All our competitors were screaming and clapping. It was such a great feeling to watch an object that we built with our hands, come to life,” Guerrero says.

Of course, there were still those darn cones to pick up.

After the first few rounds of completion, QUIN – as the robot is named – suffered some damage. But the team worked through the night to repair broken propellers and other small issues, thanks to last minute donations from other teams and some local corporate support. “We did learn that we’ll need to make adjustments to QUIN in order to more effectively pick up the cones,” Guerrero says. “That is probably the best thing we learned in this first competition.”

In the end, the team was able to grab cones, but did not place in the overall competition. However, thanks to their flying QUIN, the team earned Most Innovative and will go down in history as the first to ever fly a robot during competition. “We honestly cannot wait until next year!”

The team’s success does not come as a surprise to Omar Ghrayeb, associate dean of the College of engineering and Engineering Technology. Ghrayeb has supported the team since their inception last August.

“I knew right away that this unique mixture of students would be successful, because they are innovative, engaged, and willing to work hard. This is exactly how we hoped the robotics team would showcase their talent to the State of Illinois. We couldn’t be prouder.”

NIU Robotics was founded by junior electrical engineering major Ryan Riddel, but is open to all majors throughout NIU.  More information on NIU Robotics, including a listing of sponsors, is available online.

A member of the NIU Gamelan Ensemble helps to break the “quiet” rule inside the Rare Books Room of Founders Memorial Library.

Being loud might not be in the nature of librarians.

When it came time to open the Center for Southeast Asian Studies’ third 50th anniversary exhibit, however, University Libraries’ Southeast Asia curator Hao Phan was determined to draw attention to the subject of the show.

And so it was at 4 p.m. on a sleepy Monday, March 4, the sounds of NIU’s Balinese gamelan rang through the Rare Book Room to officially open “50 Years of CSEAS and the Donn V. Hart Southeast Asia Collection.”

The exhibition, which features selected materials from the Hart Collection and CSEAS archives, which will be on display through Saturday, March 30, as part of the center’s anniversary.

Considered one of the top five academic repositories of Southeast Asia research materials in the country, the Hart Collection contains thousands of books, periodicals, films and photographs as well as rare antique maps, palm-leaf manuscripts, original research materials and digital materials.

It is located on the fourth floor of Founders Memorial Library, where the collection has been since a 1977 relocation from its original home in then-Swen Parson Library.

Donn V. Hart

During the opening ceremony, which began with welcoming remarks by University Libraries Dean Patrick Dawson, CSEAS Director Judy Ledgerwood recalled how assembling a Southeast Asia collection at the NIU library began within two years of the center’s founding in 1963.

Ledgerwood also noted the contributions of late anthropology professor Hart and library staff and curators over the years.

“For those of us who use the collection, we owe a great debt to professor Hart and the other founders who had the foresight to collect materials over the years, and to the dedicated staff who have worked to care for the materials and make them accessible,” Ledgerwood said.

Phan told how early acquisition efforts often fell to Southeast Asian Studies faculty, often at the energetic behest of Hart, a Philippines specialist who came to NIU in 1971 and served as CSEAS director until 1981.

“As [political science professor emeritus] Clark Neher recalled in a recent interview,” Phan said, “back in those days, before leaving NIU for Southeast Asia faculty members were specifically asked by Dr. Hart to acquire books for the library. He would say something like this to professor Neher: ‘Clark, now I want you to bring back 43 books. Now here are the boxes and here’s the address, and if you don’t bring back those books, look for another job!’”

Hao Phan

But Hart’s urgency and creativity in securing funds to purchase materials, and in cajoling NIU’s growing number of Southeast Asia specialists to help, paid off in a collection that today draws scholars to NIU from around the country and the world. “From the very beginning,” Phan said, “Dr. Hart realized the importance of building a library collection that could support the studying, teaching and research for Southeast Asian Studies at NIU.”

In recognition of his efforts, the collection was named after Hart in 1985, two years after Hart’s death in 1983.

Today, the collection is still growing. But Phan, as curator, now makes the trips to Southeast Asia himself to look for and purchase new acquisitions.

“The collection has grown so much that it isn’t easy any more to ask a faculty member just to go to a bookstore in Southeast Asia and buy books for the library,” said Phan, who recently returned from such a trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. “It’s a time-consuming process and yet, the materials that are often of the most research value, that make our collection unique, are the materials donated to the collection by faculty members.”

Most recently, history professor Kenton Clymer facilitated the donation of films and documents produced by the late King Sihanouk of Cambodia and anthropology professor Ledgerwood donated the research archives of pioneering Cambodia anthropologist May Ehibira, which were given to Ledgerwood after Ehibira’s death in 2005.

Christopher McCord and Catherine Raymond

Representatives from NIU will take part in a delegation of 10 U.S. universities that are traveling to Myanmar this week to learn more about the state of higher education in the country and to explore potential partnership opportunities.

Catherine Raymond, director of the Center for Burma Studies, and Christopher McCord, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will represent NIU in the delegation.

The project is part of the Institute’s Myanmar higher education initiative which seeks to help the country rebuild its capacity in higher education.

Allan Goodman, president and CEO of Institute of International Education, is leading the delegation along with Meghann Curtis, deputy assistant secretary of state for Academic Programs.

Representatives from the U.S. Embassy also will join the group, which will visit universities, organizations and government entities in Yangon, Mandalay and Naypyidaw, including Yangon University, Yangon Technological University, the Myanmar Institute of Theology, Dagon University, Myanmar Institute of Economics and Mandalay University. The visits will take place from Sunday, Feb. 24, to Friday, March 1, and delegation members will produce a report on higher education needs in Myanmar based on the findings of their meetings.

This is the largest delegation of U.S. universities to travel to Myanmar. Participating universities are NIU, American University, Arizona State University, Ball State University, Hawaii Pacific University, Northern Arizona University, Rutgers University, Samford University, the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and the University of Washington

The colleges selected have experience with Myanmar, whether through diaspora students and faculty on their campuses or through previous work in the country.

This delegation represents a commitment on the part of U.S. higher education to participate in the process of building connections and capacity at the host universities. Members of the delegation will deliver lectures on a variety of topics. The lectures will be open to educators and other university representatives, and will include companion materials translated into the Myanmar language.

Lectures will include such topics as: the Role of Universities in Civil Society and Economic Development; New Teaching Methodologies; the General Education Curriculum; Internationalization of the University; Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education; University Governance and Management; Private-Public Partnerships in Higher Education; University Shared Governance; Student Services/Student Affairs; Promoting Engaged Learning Among Students; as well as lectures in field-specific topics.

The Myanmar initiative includes a series of bi-national conference calls to increase higher education cooperation between the United States and Myanmar. The universities are taking part in IIE’s International Academic Partnership Program (IAPP) with Myanmar, a six-month program that assists colleges and universities in developing a strategic plan for partnering with counterparts in Myanmar.

In addition to the February visit, they have participated in informational webinars, conducted a guided strategic planing exercise, benefited from expert mentorship, and gained access to IIE’s partnership resources.

Several distinguished Myanmar experts have played a key role in guiding the Myanmar Initiative.

Advisory board members include:

• Priscilla Clapp, retired minister-counselor, U.S. Foreign Service and senior adviser at the Asia Society;
• Suzanne DiMaggio, vice president, Global Policy Programs with the Asia Society;
• Zachary Klim, associate director of Academic Initiatives and Global Programs, New York University; and
• Robert Rotberg, former director of the Program on Intrastate Conflict at John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and former president emeritus, World Peace Foundation.

According to the Open Door Report on International Educational Exchange, published annually by IIE with support from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, 796 Myanmar students studied in the United States in the academic year 2010-11, a 14.5 percent increase from the previous year. These numbers are expected to grow as the country continues to open up to the world.

The Institute of International Education is a world leader in the international exchange of people and ideas.

An independent, not-for-profit organization founded in 1919, IIE has a network of 18 offices worldwide and more than 1,000 member institutions. IIE designs and implements programs of study and training for students, educators, young professionals and trainees from all sectors with funding from government agencies, foundations, and corporations. IIE also conducts policy research and program evaluations, and provides advising and counseling on international education and opportunities abroad.

Related:

• NIU joins Institute of International Education for new Myanmar Higher Education Initiative
• International Burma Studies Conference brings dozens of scholars, music to NIU

Jessica Reyman

The National Council of Teachers of English/Council on College Composition and Communication (NCTE/CCCC) has awarded associate professor of English Jessica Reyman its 2013 Technical and Scientific Communication Award in the category of Best Original Collection of Essays in Technical or Scientific Communication.

The award was given for a special issue of Technical Communication Quarterly, “Technical Communication and the Law,” which Reyman co-edited with Mary Lay Schuster.

“It’s an honor to receive this award,” Reyman said. “I hope that it will bring more visibility to the collection and to legal issues related to technical communication.”

Legal issues continue to emerge as people find novel ways to use new and existing social media to facilitate communication. While this opens up new channels for connecting with one another, it also can present ethical and legal challenges, Reyman said.

“Participation and composition online often occur on commercial sites that collect and store users’ data: details about their social networks, shared conversations, text, pictures, videos and music. In this evolving rhetorical environment, a new level of awareness is required for reading and writing online, she said.

“User contributions on the social web are made under new and uncertain circumstances; while many are intentional acts of rhetorical agency in the form of user-generated content, others are unknown or incidental contributions of user data each time someone uses Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc., ”she added. “Often, these contributions are made without clear understanding among everyday users about ownership and privacy rights to what they have authored, about who has access and how it can be used.”

Reyman, who spent her fall 2012 sabbatical researching and writing about online privacy and ownership issues, offers some suggestions for those who inhabit the dual role of reader-writers on the web:

• Be aware of the filters through which you are accessing the Internet. What services are you logging into when you read and write online? What information is being tracked and collected by these services? What cookies are enabled on your machine?
• When writing online, be sure you fully understand the ways in which your contributions are being appropriated and used by social web services for different purposes, including consumer profiling and target marketing. You will want to know whether a site or service automatically assumes ownership of your posted material, how they will share it, and how they may use it.
• Remember that on the social web, the social web services are not a product you are using; rather, you are the product, creating the value within the site through your participation. Your contributions are, in turn, appropriated, researched, bought and sold in many ways that you do not intend and may not even be aware of.
• Read terms of use policies and stay current on legislative actions relating to online privacy and ownership. We should neither ignore the problem of the lack of control on the web, nor should we resign ourselves to the situation.  Take action by modifying settings within the social web services that you use, educate yourself and others about terms of use, and choose services that offer more user control. Continue to participate online, but do so with awareness.

by Deborah Fransen

Related:

• NIU Facebook Page Reaches 30K Milestone

Amy Levin

Amy K. Levin is no stranger to “firsts.”

Among her many credits are “Africanism and Authenticity in African-American Women’s Novels,” one of the first texts to study African influences in novels by African-American women. She also edited and wrote parts of “Gender, Sexuality and Museums,” the first major repository of key articles, new essays, and case studies for the study of gender and sexuality in museums and the first reader to focus on LGBT issues and museums.

She also was the first recipient of NIU’s Outstanding Mentor Award from the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.

At the end of January 2013, Levin will add two more “firsts” to her list: She will travel to Burma/Myanmar on her first Fulbright fellowship, teaching a series of workshops and working with faculty and students as the first U.S. professor of literature to collaborate with universities there in 30 years.

“I’m a novice to the Fulbright fellowships,” she says. “I have traveled abroad often, and I never lived in the U.S. before attending college, but this is completely new to me.”

Levin, professor and chair of the Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, applied to join the Fulbright Specialist roster two years ago, with the goal of learning more about higher education in other countries. When the opportunity to work in Myanmar came up, she was especially intrigued, due to NIU’s strong ties to the country through the Center for Burma Studies, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the number of students from the region who come to NIU to study each year.

Earlier in her career, Levin’s research focused on women writers, but for the past 10 years she has pursued another passion: museum studies. This resulted in her writing a book on local museums and another on gender, sexuality and museums. Most recently, her research has returned to literature, with a focus on contemporary novels about U.S. health care ventures around the world.

Health care has been a topic of interest for Levin for quite some time.

For many years, she facilitated book groups for hospital staff as part of the Illinois Humanities Council’s “Literature and Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Healthcare” program.

The program aimed to empower health care professionals by providing humanistic perspectives and insights to help them do their work better. Through the IHC program, doctors, nurses, hospital trustees and support staff met monthly for facilitated literary discussions related to patient care.

Levin says that those candid conversations gave her new insights about and sparked her interest in the complexities of health care, especially as it relates to U.S. initiatives in less-developed parts of the world.

“Do these efforts constitute a new form of colonialism?” she wonders. “I’m intrigued by this topic, which is central to globalization, and I look forward to learning about health care in Myanmar.”

While in Myanmar, Levin will work closely with students and faculty at the University of Yangon through several activities. She will teach a series of workshops for graduate students, focusing on U.S. literature of the last 30 years.

In addition, Levin will lead a series of faculty workshops highlighting newer pedagogical strategies for teaching U.S. literature.

She will also meet with 25 students who are working on doctoral degrees in U.S. literature to discuss dissertation topics, deliver a weekly lecture on recent U.S. literature and present two programs at the American Center in celebration of Black History Month.

What is Levin’s goal in Myanmar?

“I hope to give my students a sense of the wonderful diversity and vibrancy of contemporary American literature, especially by women and minorities,” she says. “As for the faculty, I’d like to offer them an opportunity to revise syllabi or course units similar to what we offer in our summer Multicultural Institute here at NIU.”

Levin hopes that others will take advantage of the short-term nature of the Fulbright Specialist awards, which offer much greater flexibility than the traditional year- or semester-long Fulbright.

Before she leaves for Myanmar at the end of January, Levin is also seeking advice and input from friends and colleagues.

“When I first learned I would be traveling to Myanmar, I posted a question on the English Department’s Facebook page, asking what texts from the last 30 years would be essential to bring up in Myanmar. I loved the thoughtfulness and breadth of the answers I received. So, I would ask the same of those who are reading this article: If you were going to present one work of U.S. literature from the past 30 years to an audience abroad, what would you choose?”

by Deborah Fransen

Related:

• NIU Joins Institute of International Education for new Myanmar education initiative
• International Burma Studies Conference brings dozens of scholars, music to NIU
• ‘Five Ponds’: Antique bronze drums of Burma find new voices thanks to NIU School of Music

Interested in graduate school? It is not too late to sign up NIU’s Graduate School Prep Seminar.

The seminar begins at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Yordon Center.

Students have the unique privilege to interact with, and receive advice and resources from, a variety of NIU’s colleges and departments.

Students can meet with faculty matched toward their specific field. Additionally, representatives from campus resources that  support the graduate school application process, such as Career Services, the University Writing Center and the University Honors Program, will be there to answer personal questions.

This event is sponsored by the Office of Student Engagement & Experiential Learning and the Graduate School with additional support from representatives from college departments, student campus resources and Intercollegiate Athletics.

To register, students must fill out this brief application. Space is limited. Registration is NOT complete without submitting a $5 (cash only) registration fee at the OSEEL office located in the Chick Evans Field House Room 110. Come through the south entrance near Graham Hall to enter.

Also included are lunches, resource materials and a chance to win Huskie apparel and other prizes.

For more information, contact Joy Mitchell at jrmitchell@niu.edu or engage@niu.edu.

CTP fellows work on the development of revised course goals and student learning outcomes at the September 2012 meeting.

The Course Transformation Project (CTP) is a Vision 2020 initiative to enhance student attainment of NIU baccalaureate student learning outcomes and to increase student opportunities for experiential learning through academic enrichment.

Faculty interested in finding ways to make large introductory classes more interactive and engaging are invited to attend one of two CTP informational sessions next week.

Sessions will be offered in Altgeld Hall 203 at:

• 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 10
• 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16
• 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29

The sessions will be facilitated by CTP administrative team: Anne Birberick, vice provost; Julia Spears, director of the Office of Student Engagement and Experiential Learning (OSEEL); and Michaela Friedrichova, assistant to the director at OSEEL.

Faculty selected to participate could receive up to $12,000 in funding to transform large, lecture-based classes into more interactive experiences that incorporate things such as multimedia rich online learning, small group projects and experiential learning.

Beyond an overview of the project, facilitators will discuss the outline of the expectations, allowable uses for the funding for participants and the types of support that will be made available by the Office of Student Engagement and Experiential Learning, the Office of Assessment Services and others.

The CTP is a key part of the university’s efforts to meet its Vision 2020 goal that ensures that, by the year 2020, at least half of all students who graduate from NIU have some sort of engaged learning experience.

NIU’s CTP was modeled after the Next Generation Course Redesign Project at the University of North Texas.

That program has successfully demonstrated that these kinds of courses not only can be transformed but that their redesign promotes a learning environment in which students are cognitively engaged – developing critical thinking skills necessary to deepen learning – and socially engaged – developing relationships with faculty and peers.

For more information, contact Spears at (815) 753-8154 or jspears1@niu.edu or Friedrichova at (815) 753-8155 or mfriedrichova@niu.edu.

Below are some of the best photos, videos and tweets collected on social media chronicling the NIU football team’s experience at Orange Bowl events in Florida leading up to the Jan. 1 game.

NIU Huskies in Miami

Follow the NIU Huskies as they prepare for the Jan. 1 Discover Orange Bowl against the FSU Seminoles.

Storified by NIU· Fri, Dec 28 2012 06:36:09

DeKalb Public Library Youth Librarian Theresa Winterbauer, left, helps Center for Southeast Asian Studies Outreach Coordinator Julie Lamb, center, and graduate assistant Nicole Loring set up the Southeast Asia children’s book display at the library.

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies has set up a display of its collection of Southeast Asia-themed children’s books at the DeKalb Public Library, all of which are available for checkout through Jan. 31.

Library visitors are invited to browse through 68 volumes ranging from picture books for young readers to chapter books, some nonfiction, for middle-school readers. Titles include Angkat: The Cambodian Cinderella (Cambodia), Brothers Wu and the Good Luck Eel (Philippines), Malaysian Children’s Favorite Stories (Malaysia), Nine-in-One, Grrr, Grrr! (Laos), Peek: A Thai Hide and Seek (Thailand), Rice is Life (Bali), Song of the Buffalo Boy (Vietnam) and The Dancing Pig (Indonesia).

All of the books are written in English or are bilingual. A few are translations of favorite American storybooks, such as The Rainbow Fish, which is available in the languages of Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines. “Exploring these books is a great way for children to learn about this part of the world,” said center outreach coordinator Julia Lamb. “Some of the books include Southeast Asian arts and crafts activities as well as wonderful stories and folk tales.”

The display was designed to call attention to center’s 50th anniversary coming up in March and is one of a number of free activities open to the community on campus, Lamb said.

A celebration of Southeast Asian performing arts will take place at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at Boutell Memorial Concert Hall. The exhibit “Rarely Seen Southeast Asia: Art, Artifact, Ephemera” is on display through May 15 at the NIU Anthropology Museum, open weekly Tuesday through Saturday. Another exhibit, “50 Years of CSEAS and the Donn V. Hart Southeast Asia Collection,” will go on display March 1 for a month at Founders Memorial Library.

Movie buffs can view Southeast Asia films being screened by the center’s Southeast Asia club January through April. Films and dates are Jan. 23: The Overture (Thailand, 2004), 6 p.m., Room 110, Art Building; Feb. 13: Here Comes the Bride (Philippines, 2010), 6 p.m., Room 100, Campus Life; March 6: The Lady (France, 2011), 6 p.m., Room 110, Art Building, and April 17: Yes or No (Thailand, 2011), 6 p.m. Room 100, Campus Life..

For a complete list of events, see the 50th Anniversary Calendar on the CSEAS website. Visitors to the website also may explore the center’s history at NIU on an online interactive timeline.

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies was established in 1963, two years after NIU was chosen in 1961 to be one of the first Peace Corps training centers in the country for volunteers headed for Malaysia. Today, the interdisciplinary center teaches six of the seven major Southeast Asian languages and is one of seven federally funded National Resource Centers for Southeast Asian Studies. Its faculty experts, past and present, are known worldwide in fields as diverse as anthropology, art history, history, language, political science, music, and geography.