In 1975, John Hartmann, a young professor of Thai language and culture at NIU, received his first research grant to conduct linguistic fieldwork in, of all places, Iowa.
Turns out, that’s where large numbers of Lao refugees had been air-lifted following the Vietnam War.
Hartmann soon compiled a dictionary of Tai Dam, a minority language with origins in northwest Vietnam.
With leftover grant money, he hired a graduate student to write a computer program converting the alpha-numeric field data into printable Tai Dam script, which previously could only be reproduced by hand with Chinese brush and ink.
It wasn’t long before the National Security Agency, which was trying to develop its own computer-aided instruction programs, contacted the young researchers, asking them to produce a much-needed font for standard Thai — an historic first.
So it was that the seeds of Hartmann’s academic career — one that has taken him across the globe and deep into the languages of Southeast Asia — were sown in the Midwest. The Tai Dam project demonstrated the first glimpse of Hartmann’s sweeping vision of language learning and technology, setting him on a path-breaking course. It also initiated a career-long friendship and partnership.
The graduate student, George Henry, is now NIU’s assistant computer science chair. Hartmann, along with Henry and his wife, Patricia, a foreign languages professor, went on to create SEAsite, a worldwide online resource for Southeast Asian languages and cultures. All three are faculty associates of NIU’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
Over the years, Hartmann and his many collaborators have received more than $3.3 million in funding — from the likes of the National Science Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Thai government and U.S. Department of Education — to create online instructional tools benefitting students and teachers around the globe.
Hartmann’s scholarship includes 80 professional papers and 40 published articles. He speaks five languages, sits on editorial boards for academic journals published in Thailand and has served on numerous thesis and dissertation committees, including for Thai students at U.S. and Thai universities.
“Professor Hartmann is a leading figure in the field of Thai Studies,” says Professor Boike Rehbein of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. “His name has to be included in any list comprising the founding fathers of Tai linguistics.”
Hartmann also contributes scholarship on other Southeast Asia cultures, and his work frequently crosses disciplines. In recent years, he and NIU geographers were the first scholars to apply GIS mapping to the study of place names in Thailand and southern China.
Named a Presidential Teaching Professor in 2006, Hartmann’s commitment to students, who are often key collaborators, also is legendary.
“In his research and teaching, John has never been afraid to think outside of the box,” says Katharina Barbe, foreign languages and literatures chair. “Nor has he ever been afraid to take risks by helping others.”
Hartmann regularly teaches a heavy load of courses, ranging from beginning Thai to graduate-level studies. And he has been known to help newly minted graduates find jobs — including one who now works for NASA and another who fled Laos as a child and now serves as executive director of the San Francisco-based Center for Lao Studies, which Hartmann helped found.
That many former students are now peers is among Hartmann’s greatest accomplishments.
“Countless scholars of my generation have been nourished by his unbounded generosity,” says Professor Theodora Bofman of Northeastern Illinois University. “John Hartmann is the very heartbeat of Thai scholarship in the United States and abroad.”
Date posted: March 29, 2011 | Author: Thomas Parisi | Comments Off on John Hartmann: Citizen of the world
Summarizing the career of finance professor Gerald Jensen, one colleague drew upon the lingo of the field, noting that there are no “penny stocks” in Jensen’s portfolio.
Indeed, since he joined the faculty of the NIU College of Business in 1987, Jensen has generated high yield results. He receives outstanding reviews from students; he was a major contributor in the creation of the college’s core curriculum; and he has carved out a name for himself as one of the most prolific authors ever in the field of financial research.
“Dr. Jensen truly exemplifies the type of individual the Board of Trustees Professorships are designed to honor,” said Denise Schoenbachler, dean of the NIU College of Business. “He excels in every aspect of his job — as a teacher, as a mentor, as a researcher, as a contributor to the college and as a colleague. He is a pillar of the university and is most deserving of this honor.”
His students agree.
From freshmen new to the study of finance, to 30-year business veterans returning to secure MBAs, all praise his ability to make complex topics easy to grasp. “His enthusiasm for the subject spills over to the students, and they can’t help but be fascinated by his lectures,” one student said.
Unbeknownst to most students, Jensen influences the education of every undergraduate enrolled in the college.
He was part of a team of four faculty that led the development of UBUS 300, the nine-credit hour, cross functional course that introduces students to business principles — an effort that Schoenbachler described as “Herculean.” He was also part of the team that taught the course for its first six years, refining and molding what has become a signature piece of an NIU business education.
Jensen also guides a team of students tasked with investing thousands of dollars on behalf of the NIU Foundation. Under his mentorship, the group has out-performed the market in each of the last three years.
While respected for his teaching, Jensen is almost in a class unto himself when it comes to research and publishing in the fields of monetary policy and security returns. In 2005, the Journal of Financial Literature ranked him in the top 1.56 percent of most prolific authors over the previous 50 years.
Jensen also has a knack for making that highly technical research accessible to lay audiences, which has made him a media favorite. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Forbes and USA Today and has appeared on television and radio. His work has also been cited in several text books.
Additionally, Jensen is deeply involved with the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, grading and writing CFA exams and attending conferences, and each year sponsors several students who wish to join the CFA Society of Chicago, an association that he says allows him to bring the latest professional developments into the classroom.
The Board of Trustees Professorship is the latest in a long line of honors earned by Jensen. It is also one of the most satisfying because the recognition comes from peers, and it takes into account both teaching and research.
“One of the things that I like about NIU is that it gives me the opportunity to devote equal emphasis to the two dimensions,” Jensen said. “My research and my involvement with the Chartered Financial Analyst organization allow me to bring cutting-edge knowledge to the classroom and ensures that my students are up-to-date on the latest research and professional developments.”
Date posted: March 29, 2011 | Author: Thomas Parisi | Comments Off on Gerald Jensen: High yield
Northern Illinois University will hold a “teach-in” on the crisis in Japan, with a panel of experts speaking on topics ranging from tracking earthquakes and tsunamis to the hazards of radioactive emissions.
The event, titled “Responding to the Human Tragedy in Japan: Challenges and Complexities,” is free and open to the public.
It will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29, in the Capitol Room South of the Holmes Student Center. Space is limited, so call (815) 753-1038 or (815) 753-4410 in advance if bringing a group.
Teach-ins are educational sessions on current events designed to inform people, answer their questions and provide opportunities to take action.
“When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, we realized that many people in the NIU community would be seeking information beyond what appeared in the press,” said Amy Levin, who will moderate the panel of NIU faculty and staff.
“We decided to make use of the resources available on campus to provide an educational program,” Levin said. “We hope to answer questions that people might have. For example, how do non-profits mobilize when there is a crisis? How might the Japanese people respond to tons of aid? To what extent can anyone predict an earthquake or tsunami? Our program will focus on the human costs of the tragedy, so the scientific portions will be presented in terms the public can understand.”
Three NIU faculty members and one staff member will make up the teach-in panel:
Judith Hermanson, NGOLD center director, will discuss how nonprofit or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) mobilize during crises. Hermanson previously served as second in command of CHF International, a large NGO that provides relief and development worldwide. She directed CHF operations following the 2004 Indonesian tsunami and has led humanitarian-aid missions on five continents.
Blair Kamin, the Pulitzer-Prize winning architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, will give a public talk on the NIU campus next month.
Kamin’s presentation is titled after his new book, “Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age,” and will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 7, in the Staff Lounge on the lower level of Founders Memorial Library.
Kamin will survey the period bracketed by the September 11 terrorist attacks and the opening of the world’s tallest building in Dubai. As his new book reveals, this was an era of extreme oscillation–between artistic triumph and urban disaster, frugal energy-saving architecture and giddy design excess. It was a time of terror and wonder, and buildings were central to its narrative.
Kamin has held the post of architecture critic at the Chicago Tribune since 1992. He has won more than 30 awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, which he received in 1999 for a body of work highlighted by a series of articles about the problems and promise of Chicago’s greatest public space, its lakefront.
Kamin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College and a master’s degree in environmental design from Yale University, as well as honorary degrees from Monmouth University and North Central College, where he serves as an adjunct professor of art.
He has lectured widely and has discussed architecture on programs ranging from ABC’s “Nightline” to WTTW-Ch. 11’s “Chicago Tonight.”
The University of Chicago Press has published two collections of his columns: “Why Architecture Matters: Lessons from Chicago” (2001) and “Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age” (2010). He also wrote the commentaries for “Tribune Tower: American Landmark,” a guide to the newspaper’s neo-Gothic skyscraper published in 2000.
Call (815) 753-9838 for more information.
Date posted: March 21, 2011 | Author: Thomas Parisi | Comments Off on Tribune architecture critic to give April 7 talk
About two dozen high school students from across the region visited Northern Illinois University this week for a history lesson — and we’re talking ancient history, as in the birth of the universe.
The students learned how high powered particle accelerators replicate particle collisions that happened in the micro-moments after the Big Bang.
The students learned about subatomic particles and the products of their collisions in a massive particle accelerator that is 17 miles in circumference. They also reviewed the same data that top scientists study at the CERN research facility near Geneva, Switzerland.
CERN is home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful particle accelerator on the planet. The accelerator crashes together protons moving in opposite directions at nearly the speed of light to recreate conditions after the Big Bang.
Justin Larson, a senior at Byron High School, used a chart to identify electrons and muons and then did some detective work, learning how to use subtle clues to tell if these and other particles were produced when the protons collided. “It was cool,” he said.
Students and teachers taking part in the masterclasses at NIU also came from Metea Valley, Neuqua Valley and Sterling high schools.
Dhiman Chakraborty
NIU physics professor Dhiman Chakraborty, who serves as mentor for the students and their teachers, said the program is designed to show a dimension of science not seen in high school textbooks or classrooms.
“By inviting them to campus, our goal was not to turn the students into scientific experts,” Chakraborty said. “We want them to be interested in science and have an awareness and understanding of what scientists do.”
Via videoconference, the students also were able to interact with and compare findings with other students and teachers involved in QuarkNet, a professional teacher development program funded by the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy.
QuarkNet aims to involve high-school teachers and their students in state-of-the-art research that seeks to resolve some of the mysteries about the structure of matter and the fundamental forces of nature.
“This is information I could never teach in a science class,” said Mike McHale, a math and science teacher at Byron High School who attended the program. “We’ve talked about supercolliders in class. This information shows exactly what they do to particles.”
Scientists at 100 universities and laboratories in 23 countries participated in the International Hands on Particle Physics Masterclasses program.
Date posted: March 18, 2011 | Author: Thomas Parisi | Comments Off on A big bang: NIU exposes high school students to wonders of particle collisions, supercolliders
The NIU Women’s Resource Center will sponsor the DeKalb area’s second annual Rock Against Rape benefit concert at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 31, at The House Café, 263 E. Lincoln Highway.
Admission is $5 for students and community members. All proceeds will go to the national organization PAVE, for Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment. Through art, education and grassroots action, the nonprofit group works to raise awareness and advocate for victims of sexual violence.
Rock Against Rape concerts are held annually in communities and on college campuses nationwide as fundraising events for domestic violence and sexual assault agencies.
Ticket purchasers for DeKalb’s Rock Against Rape event will get the opportunity to check out the local music scene, as well as contribute to an agency that provides essential victim advocacy services.
Socially conscious local bands and artists who are donating their time and talent to DeKalb’s Rock Against Rape concert include Arian Seeley, Mike Fingsten, Magna Junta, Lady Tiger Lily and Olive, Emanuel Vinson, Mother Folkers, Lester Chesterfield and Solid Silver Car. The diverse lineup promises to satisfy any musical taste.
This event is open to the public. No reservation is required, though some tickets are available for pre-purchase. More information is available online or call (815) 753-0320.
Date posted: March 16, 2011 | Author: Thomas Parisi | Comments Off on March 31 ‘Rock Against Rape’ concert to benefit advocacy group for victims of sexual violence
A seismogram from the March 11 Japanese earthquake recorded at the NIU seismic station in Davis Hall.
Despite DeKalb being roughly 6,000 miles away from Japan, the seismic station on campus at NIU was able to detect the devastating March 11 earthquake and record a seismogram.
A seismogram is an image created by a seismograph, a device used to record earthquake vibrations.
NIU geology professor Philip Carpenter still was reviewing digitized recordings Monday, March 14, from the magnitude-9.0 quake that occurred off the eastern coast of Japan, touching off a deadly tsunami.
“The waves go through the earth and cause vibrations,” Carpenter said. “Even here in DeKalb, you can get small vibrations in the ground. I’m confident we recorded aftershocks from the Japanese quake as well.”
Carpenter said it’s not unusual for NIU’s seismic station, located in the basement of Davis Hall, to record earthquakes in Japan with a magnitude of 6 or greater.
The station also recorded the Indonesian quakes of 2004 and 2005, as well as the Chilean earthquake in February 2010, and it regularly records data on any temblor of magnitude 5 or greater in the United States.
“The instrument we have magnifies ground motion millions of times,” Carpenter told WIFR-TV in Rockford.
Geology Professor Philip Carpenter is interviewed on WIFR-TV
Compared to the magnitude-3.8 quake that rattled northern Illinois 13 months ago, the Japanese quake released “something like 24 million times as much energy.”
Carpenter plans to display the seismogram images in his geology classes when students return next week from spring break.
Twenty-four NIU faculty members will spend part of their summer transforming their classes to make them more inclusive of race, class, gender and other forms of diversity.
The Multicultural Curriculum Transformation Institute, to be held from May 16 to May 20, is designed to assist faculty, instructors and Supportive Professional Staff in revising or developing courses so they reflect multicultural perspectives and experiences.
The keynote speaker will be Maurianne Adams, professor emerita in the Social Justice Education program of the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
She is also editor of the journal Equity and Excellence in Education, and she has spoken at major conferences across the nation, including the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity.
A reception in her honor will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday, May 16, at the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center. Adams will be presenting on the following day, May 17. A schedule of open institute sessions will be available online in April.
The 2011 Multicultural Curriculum Transformation Institute participants will be honored at the institute’s reception as well.
This year’s cohort includes:
Sally Arnett (Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences)
Pat Braun (Nursing and Health Studies)
Suzanne Coffield (English)
Lori Czerwionka (Foreign Languages and Literatures)
Reva Freedman (Computer Science)
Melissa Gilson (Teaching and Learning)
Todd Gilson (Kinesiology and Physical Education)
Joanne Haeffele (Nursing and Health Studies)
Karen Haley (Counseling, Adult and Higher Education)
Arlene Keddie (Nursing and Health Studies)
Lichuan Liu (Electrical Engineering)
Mary Lombardo (Teaching and Learning)
Thomas McCann (English)
William McCoy (BELIEF Initiative, College of Business)
Doris Macdonald (English)
Kathryn Maley (History)
Ismael Montana (History)
Shanthi Muthuswamy (Technology)
Orayb Najjar (Communication)
Carol Patitu (Counseling, Adult and Higher Education)
LanHui Ryder (Foreign Languages and Literatures)
Brian Sandberg (History)
Alicia Shatteman (Public Administration)
Patricia Tattersall (Allied Health and Communicative Disorders)
The new institute participants will join almost 200 others who have received grants since the institute began in 1994. The participants also will hold fall 2011 workshops based on their curriculum transformation projects.
For additional information, contact Amy Levin, chair of the Multicultural Curriculum Transformation Committee, at (815) 753-1038 or alevin@niu.edu; or Rachel Stade, Task Force assistant, at (815) 753-8557 or mcti@niu.edu.
Date posted: March 14, 2011 | Author: Thomas Parisi | Comments Off on Institute to promote multicultural curriculum
Cancer might touch everyone, but its touch does not always have to be devastating.
Narayan Hosmane, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at NIU, will discuss research into a promising experimental form of cancer treatment during a Board of Trustees Professorship Seminar at noon Tuesday, March 22, in the Illinois Room of the Holmes Student Center. Refreshments will be served before the seminar at 11:30 a.m.
During the hour-long lecture, Hosmane, a world-renowned cancer researcher, will explain his work exploring the viability of using boron drugs, in combination with neutron capture therapy, as a way of effectively combating cancer while reducing treatment side effects.
Board of Trustees Professor Narayan Hosmane
The boron drugs are injected into cancerous tissue samples, which are then radiated with neutrons. The interaction between the boron and the radiation beam is designed to kill the boron-injected cancer cells without harming healthy cells.
Known as Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT), the process has shown some promising results with certain cancers in an initial clinical trial in Japan, Hosmane said. He has been working longer than a decade to advance BNCT.
His research group includes NIU undergraduate, graduate and post-doctorate students.
“This has been proven effective at any stage of the tumor as long as it is localized and hasn’t spread,” Hosmane said. “This is a unique treatment that can help many people.”
Hosmane was one of three NIU faculty members to be among the first group of recipients of the Board of Trustees Professorship in 2008. The Northern Illinois University Board of Trustees Professorship was established to recognize faculty members who have achieved a consistent record of excellence in teaching, scholarship or artistry, service and outreach and academic leadership.
Those recipients also have earned national and international reputations for professional achievements, and are deemed likely to make continued and substantial contributions in higher education.
Hosmane has garnered attention for his cancer treatment research in his native India, the United States and throughout the world.
“During his career, Dr. Hosmane has done an exemplary job of using his research experiences to engage, captivate and mentor chemistry and biochemistry students,” NIU Provost Raymond Alden said. “We’re thrilled to have him share his knowledge, experiences and professional successes with the campus community in this second Board of Trustees Professorship Seminar.”
Date posted: March 8, 2011 | Author: Thomas Parisi | Comments Off on Board of Trustees Professor Narayan Hosmane to present March 22 seminar on cancer research
Northern Illinois University will welcome a leading expert on the Emerald Isle to campus for the 2011 Irish Studies Lecture — appropriately scheduled in the wake of St. Patrick’s Day.
Timothy G. McMahon
Timothy G. McMahon, a professor of history at Marquette University and one of the leading Irish historians in the United States, will deliver his talk from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Monday, March 21, in the Heritage Room of the Holmes Student Center.
McMahon’s lecture, titled “Eire-Imperator: Ireland’s Imperial Ambivalence,” will examine the complexity of Ireland’s late 19th-century position as both a participant in and victim of British imperialism. The event is free and open to the public.
“Professor McMahon is one of the leading Irish historians in the country and an excellent public speaker. His talk about the complexity of turn-of-the-century Irish attitudes toward the British Empire speaks to issues of identity and imperialism that should be of interest to us all.”
Farrell notes that NIU has a scholarly strength in Irish Studies, with faculty experts and Irish Studies courses in the departments of communication, English and history, along with two Study Abroad programs to Ireland. Farrell added that he hopes to make the Irish Studies Lecture an annual event.
Date posted: March 7, 2011 | Author: Thomas Parisi | Comments Off on Prominent historian of Ireland will visit campus to speak March 21 at Irish Studies Lecture
More than 100 Northern Illinois University students are headed for warmer climes during the university’s upcoming spring break, but their main objective isn’t to soak up rays on the beach.
Instead, they’ll be working with the poor in West Virginia, building homes for Habitat for Humanity in Florida and Tennessee, helping victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, doing chores at an animal sanctuary in Oklahoma and cleaning up hiking trails in Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest.
Once a novelty, alternative spring break trips continue to grow in popularity among NIU students.
“Students are always looking for meaningful service opportunities,” says Becky Harlow, assistant director of NIU’s Office of Student Involvement and Leadership Development. “The chance to do this in combination with traveling to a new place is an added bonus. It’s a movement really. Last year, over 80,000 students across the country went on an alternative break.”
NIU students will be on spring break during the week of March 14. Student Involvement and Leadership Development has a total of 52 students participating in three separate trips. That’s more than double the number of students that Harlow signed up for alternative spring break outings three years ago.
One of Harlow’s spring break groups will work this month with Rebuilding Together New Orleans, an organization that helps renovate and rebuild homes devastated by storms in the Gulf.
The second group will work with Katrina’s Kids, a project founded to assist children impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. And the third group will work at Safari’s Interactive Animal Sanctuary in Broken Arrow, Okla. The sanctuary is a refuge for wildlife of all kinds, including big cats, wolves and bears.
“What’s great is that our students are truly devoted to the service aspect,” Harlow says. “The biggest compliment I can receive is when a student comes back year after year or wants to step up and take a leadership role to create an impactful experience for his or her peers.”
Buikema, a junior political science major from Fulton, is a veteran alternative spring breaker, having gone on two previous trips with Harlow. This year he has served as a planning leader for the group that will work with Rebuilding Together New Orleans.
“I just think it’s more worth your while to spend spring break helping people,” Buikema says.
“I like doing community service work, and on the trips you get to meet so many interesting people who obviously have a shared interest,” he adds. “My first trip was to Galveston, Texas, a place I had never been before, with 22 strangers. Some of those people I still hang out with today.”
Freshman Sarah Pollack, a special education major from Skokie, is going on her first alternative spring break while at NIU—to the animal sanctuary in Oklahoma. But she’s no stranger to service trips.
“I decided to go on the trip because I have done two volunteer trips with my high school,” she says. “They are so much fun. I can gain experience and meet new people—and (the trips) are opportunities I may never get again.”
In addition to the Student Involvement and Leadership Development trips, NIU students will participate in alternative spring break outings run by three other groups:
NIU’s Recreation Services is taking 15 students to Georgia to volunteer with the U.S. Forest Service. They’ll be conducting trail maintenance in the Chattahoochee National Forest.
The Newman Catholic Student Center is running two trips. Sixteen students will head to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to work with Habitat for Humanity, and 13 students are going to Wyoming County, W.Va., to work with the Passionist Volunteers.
Sociology instructor Jack King is running his annual trip to Pensacola, Fla. Twenty four students, six alumni and several faculty members will help build Habitat homes. The trip is headed into its 18th year. Over that span, NIU groups have built more than 25 homes—enough to fill a small subdivision.
“The idea of engagement in community service during spring breaks has really grown,” King says. “When I first started this at NIU, it was an idea floating around. Now it has become institutionalized at universities.
“NIU has really supported it,” he adds. “We’ve convinced kids that service learning makes sense. I think the students who do that get a lot more out of it — and they’re telling their friends.”
Note: Registration for all of the alternative spring break outings mentioned above is now closed.
Date posted: March 7, 2011 | Author: Thomas Parisi | Comments Off on Alternative spring break trips continue to grow in popularity with students looking to give back
Five of seven current and retired Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) associates who served as volunteers in the Peace Corps, and whose lives changed course through their experiences, came recently to the center’s weekly lecture series to hear CSEAS graduate assistant Maria “Rai” Hancock tell the story of NIU’s formative role in the early days of the Corps.
Patricia Henry buys bread from a vendor on bicycle outside the Henry home in Sungai Penchala, Malaysia, outside of Kuala Lumpur, circa 1969. “The ‘village’ is now quite a well-to-do suburb,” Henry said. “Most of the inhabitants have cars, and I doubt anybody sells bread from a bicycle anymore!” (photo courtesy of Patricia Henry)
Hancock’s Jan. 28 presentation was scheduled in honor of Corps founder and director R. Sargent Shriver, who died Jan. 18. This week, Feb. 28 to March 6, is Peace Corps Week, the prelude to this year’s 50th anniversary celebration of the organization established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.
In her talk, Hancock explained how the Corps’ training program for volunteers headed for Malaya (now Malaysia), and later Thailand and the Philippines, came to NIU in the 1960s through the efforts of then-history department chair and eminent Malaya scholar J. Norman Parmer.
The program also laid the groundwork for the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, established in 1963.
DeKalb, the third training site in the Midwest, was chosen for its central location, its rural “lab” setting for agricultural training and NIU’s commitment to Malaya studies, Hancock said.
Local business partners included International Harvester, Caterpillar and DeKalb Ag. Volunteers were invited to dinners, asked to give public speeches and featured in local newspaper articles regularly.
By the time the NIU program was relocated to Hawaii in 1968, about 1,200 volunteers had trained in DeKalb for what would become a life-altering experience for many of them serving in Southeast Asia.
Among former Peace Corps volunteers attending Hancock’s lecture were CSEAS director Jim Collins, Patricia Henry (foreign languages and literatures) and Grant Olson (foreign languages and literatures), along with retirees Clark Neher (political science) and Arlene Neher (College of Liberal Arts & Sciences External Programming).
As it turns out, none of them trained in Illinois, though the state was an early Peace Corps supporter.
But all agreed that the Corps experience continues to ripple though their lives.
After being one of the first volunteers accepted to the Corps, Clark Neher convinced his wife, Arlene, to submit her application so that the young couple could go together, he said.
Arlene and Clark Neher
The two served in Thailand from 1963 to 1965, with Clark teaching on the political science faculty at Chulalongkorn University and Arlene teaching English at Prasarnmit College of Education.
Their first son was born in Thailand in the middle of their tour in 1964.
Before they left the country, the Nehers decided to write a thank-you letter to Thailand’s King Bhumidol Adulyadej.
The king sent back an invitation, via royal limousine, requesting the couple’s presence for a brief audience with the monarch at his palace.
“We ended up spending several hours with him,” Clark recalled. “The American ambassador contacted me and asked how we managed such a long audience with his majesty.”
Four years after their Peace Corps assignment, Clark joined NIU’s political science department as a Southeast Asia specialist, and Arlene eventually became director of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ External Programming office.
They’ve since returned to Thailand for research and to visit, and have traveled to other parts of Southeast Asia as well. During his time at NIU, Clark was appointed CSEAS director from 1996 to 1999, and later established the Clark and Arlene Neher Graduate Fellowship for the Study of Southeast Asia at the center.
“The Peace Corps dramatically changed my life,” Clark said.
“First, going to Thailand as a teacher at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok subsequently provided me with a career. Now retired, I taught for some 30 years at NIU in the field of Southeast Asian politics. I would never have gone into this area without the Peace Corps experience. Second, my Peace Corps time in Thailand provided countless new friends. Third, my family became a major part of the Thailand experience. Joining the Peace Corps was the most important and best decision I have made.”
Grant Olson (left), Clark Neher and Arlene Neher reminisce about their Peace Corps experiences at a Jan. 28 Center for Southeast Asian Studies lecture about NIU’s early connection to the program. (CSEAS photo)
Olson, head of the Multimedia Learning Center in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, joined the Peace Corps in 1978 after a stint teaching English in rural Minnesota.
“I was reading Asian philosophy and my life was already changing. After the school district burned the book I was teaching (‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’), I talked to a Peace Corps counselor,” Olson said. “After she listened to me for 45 minutes, she said, ‘You must go to Thailand!’ ”
Olson signed up and left for Thailand to serve three years as an English teacher at a teachers college.
During his volunteer orientation in Thailand, Olson became friends with one of the Thai trainers. Grant and Chalermsee Olson later married. Eventually finding his way to NIU, he continues to pursue Thai studies independently — currently translating the autobiography of a Thai artist — while Chalermsee is associate dean of collections and technical services for Founders Library.
Professor Patricia Henry served in Malaysia from 1968 to 1970 with her husband, Jim Henry. Pat taught math and English and Jim taught math and science at rural primary schools in an area now a suburb of Kuala Lumpur.
“The Peace Corps language training in Malay/Bahasa Malaysia, combined with the intense experience of living in a village where my husband and I were the only English speakers, gave me a new perspective on language learning,” Pat recalled in her department biography. “I distinctly remember walking along a road in the village, overhearing a mother calling for her child to come inside and get his chores done, and realizing that what would have been total gibberish six months previously was now meaningful language.”
In his biography, Jim recalled: “We served in Malaysia, a place I could not easily have found on a map at the time, but which was fascinating and shaped my life in ways I could not have guessed. A few years later, my wife and I spent another two years in Indonesia, where she worked on linguistics research, translation of an Old Javanese poem and teaching. I taught English, took pictures and immersed myself in a culture of ancient temples, shadow plays and gamelan music, as well as the experiences, issues and problems of a developing third-world country.”
After returning to the U.S. for graduate school, the couple came to NIU in 1979. Pat joined the foreign languages faculty to teach Indonesian and Indonesian literature. Jim turned to computer science. The two have continued to put their Peace Corps and Southeast Asia experiences to use on the center’s pioneering Southeast Asia website, SEAsite. Jim also serves on the center’s executive and financial oversight committees.
Pat said she would not have become an Indonesian teacher had it not been for her Peace Corps experience.
“I would certainly encourage people to volunteer today,” she said. “It gives an opportunity to get inside another culture, to learn the language and have a function in another society. That is much more educational than tourism or even field work.”
Jim Collins
Collins also served in Malaysia from 1968 to 1970.
“I was in the tuberculosis control program administered by the National Tuberculosis Center,” Collins said. “My job was to visit health clinics and hospitals to explore ways to decentralize the TB program.”
Collins also assisted in the first national epidemiological survey of TB prevalence run by the center with World Health Organization technical advice, he said.
Based in Kuala Lumpur, Collins received permission to live in Kampung Bharu, an enclave of Kuala Lumpur where only Malays were allowed to live. At his request, his Malay family and friends only spoke Malay with him so he emerged from his Peace Corps experience a fluent speaker in the language.
By the time the future linguist returned from Malaysia, “language seemed like an option,” he said.
Since 1970, Collins has returned repeatedly to Malaysia for research and teaching, including two stints at the National University of Malaysia (1980 to 1983 and 1995 to 2008) where he taught linguistics and led research teams studying Austronesian languages in Indonesian Borneo. In 2008 he was invited to become the CSEAS director. Continuing to draw on his Peace Corps experiences, he established the Malay language program at NIU and recently negotiated the signing of four memorandums of understanding with Malaysian and Indonesian universities.
Language professor and CSEAS associate John Hartmann also was a Peace Corps volunteer; he served in Thailand from 1964 to 1967, and now teaches Thai at NIU.
And the center’s Peace Corps legacy continues: current Southeast Asia Youth Leadership Program coordinator and graduate assistant Sean Dolan was a Peace Corps volunteer in 2002.
by Elizabeth Denius
Date posted: March 3, 2011 | Author: Thomas Parisi | Comments Off on Changing course: Southeast Asia Peace Corps volunteers have fond memories of their service
