February 27, 2012 - March 26, 2012

William Carroll (President’s Office) was the keynote speaker at the 56th Annual Freedom Fund and Scholarship Gala sponsored by the Dupage County NAACP on February 26 at the Wyndham Hotel in Lisle. More than 500 people attended the gala, which helps to raise thousands of dollars for various programs and initiatives.

Hai Ri Han (Graphic Arts and Design) is one of 71 artists selected to have her work exhibited in the Maryland Federation of Art’s (MFA) 35th Annual Art on Paper national juried exhibition March 22-April 22 at the MFA Circle Gallery in Annapolis, Md. The entries were selected by Susan Badder, an adjunct faculty of Art HIstory at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Joyce R. Jeewek (Education) presented a session at the Illinois Reading Council Conference on March 16 in Springfield. Her presentation, “Add Excitement to Reading: Use Newspapers as a Teaching/Learning Tool...Integrate Content Areas with the World ,” was a part of this year's conference theme, “Literacy in the Land of Lincoln.”

Vicki Jobst (Undergraduate Business) was elected to the Board of Directors of the Illinois Jump$tart Coalition. The mission of the Illinois Jump$tart Coalition for Financial Literacy is to be a catalyst for enhancing the financial capability of young people for cooperation, collaboration and communication among members. Members include corporations, nonprofit, academic and government organizations who partner together to achieve this mission. The Illinois Coalition is part of a network of 49 affiliated state coalitions under the umbrella of the National Jump$tart Coalition.

Tim Marin (Chemistry) published two articles in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B. The articles were titled “Radiation-Induced Fragmentation of Diamide Extraction Agents in Ionic Liquid Diluents” and “Electron Localization and Radiation Chemistry of Amides.”

Pete Nelson (Physics and Biology) presented a paper titled “Teaching biophysics with the marble game” at the 56th national meeting of the Biophysical Society held February 25-29 in San Diego, Calif. This work was funded by NSF Grant DUE-0836833. He also had a teaching resource “Teaching Physiology with the Marble Game 2: Algorithms and Tylenol®” peer-reviewed by the Archive Board of the American Physiological Society (APS). It is currently featured as an "Inquiry-Based K-12 Science" item on the front page of their National Science Foundation-funded online portal, “The APS Archive of Teaching Resources - A Collaborative Digital Library of Life Sciences." This resource covers introductory (second week) material in Nelson's BIOL 310 - "Physiological Modeling" and BIOL/CHEM/PHYS 323 - "Biophysics" classes currently offered at Benedictine and provides an introduction to computational science that is accessible to high school students. This work is funded by National Science Foundation Grant DUE-0836833.

Tanesha D. H. Pittman (Moser College) was nominated among hundreds of other community leaders and selected as one of the 2012 Chicago Defender 50 Women of Excellence.  She will be acknowledged and celebrated for being an African-American woman who personifies the exemplary qualities of respect, responsibility, passion, sisterhood and leadership. Past honorees include Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Carol Moseley Braun, Melody Hobson, Linda Johnson-Rice and Merri Dee. Pittman will be honored at the Chicago Defender’s sixth annual Women of Excellence celebration on April 26 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. She will also be featured in a commemorative edition of the Chicago Defender.  The Chicago Defender was the first African-American newspaper in Chicago.

Alandra Weller-Clarke (Education) published a paper, “The Method Behind the Madness: Embracing Constructivism in Making a Documentary Video,” in the online summer 2011 Journal for the Practical Application of Constructivist Theory in Education.  She also presented two peer-reviewed papers in January at the Hawaii International Education Conference, “Preservice Teachers Use Their i’s (iPads,iPods and iPhones): Creating Individual Behavior Interventions with Video Modeling” and “Using your i’s (iPads, iPods and iPhones): Social Skills Technology for Students with Behavioral Disorders.” Clarke will also be presenting a peer-reviewed paper at AERA (American Educational Research Association) in April at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The paper was one of 2,000 accepted of 11,000 submitted to AERA.

Ovid Wong (Education) published two articles. The first one is a peer reviewed article titled, “Is the iPad the Swiss Army Knife for Science Education?” in the SPECTRUM (an Illinois Science Teachers Association journal), Winter 2012, Volume, No. 3. The article reports the study of using the iPad in the NTSC 111 class last semester with student survey data in the conclusion. The second one is an editorial reviewed article titled, “iPad Reflecting the Culture of Convenience,” in Herald Monthly, Volume 25, No. 2. The article discusses the culture of convenience focusing on the use of iPad.

Jan Writer (Education) was invited by the Autism Society of Illinois (ASI) to present a featured workshop on evidence-based practices for students with autism at ASI’s Eighth Annual State Parent and Professional Networking Conference on March 24. Her interactive skill-building session focused on the design of visual support strategies that foster the personal independence and public school inclusion of children and youth with autism. Writer was one of only 20 professionals from Illinois who received invitations to present at the ASI conference.

Daniel F. Rigby (Board of Trustees) was honored with the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Boy Scouts of America Three Fires Council in November 2011.