Share Tweet Share Email
Tag: Michael Konen
Shannon McCarragher
Shannon McCarragher is in a class of her own – literally. Last month, the NIU doctoral student successfully completed her degree requirements and became the first Ph.D. graduate of the Department of Geography. “It’s the culmination of an educational goal that I set for myself about 10 years ago as an undergraduate, so it feels...
Photo of a bison
NIU student Angela Burke hails from blue-collar Burbank, Ill. With its prevalence of mom-and-pop restaurants and the regular roar of low-flying passenger jets from Chicago’s Midway Airport nearby, the southwest suburb certainly seems more city. So, for a week in August, it must have seemed to Burke like she was on another planet – or...
Michael Konen, Michael Morris, Brendon Swedlow and Jeanne Jakubowski
Teachers cannot fake or hide genuine enthusiasm for knowledge. They cannot keep it to themselves, or can they control when they spark it in their students. This month, NIU honors three of its teachers – Michael Konen, Michael Morris and Brendon Swedlow – for passing their zeal onto their undergraduate students. The trio is this...
Mike Konen cannot keep from chuckling when he talks about his job teaching soil science and physical geography to graduate and undergraduate students. The subject itself is not funny, but the attention and excitement he attaches to what many people refer to as dirt, casts it in an ironic light. To further the irony, the...