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JAMES MEIERHOFF FOUND HISTORY IN HIS OWN BACKYARD

PRESIDENT THROWS OUT THE FIRST PITCH

C2V: STUDENTENTREPRENEURS PITCH GOOD IDEAS

SPORTS INJURY SETSRIDDLE PRIZE WINNERON HIS CAREER PATH

For the community of the University of Illinois at Chicago

April 29

2015VOLUME 34 / NUMBER 30uicnews.uic.edu

INSIDE:CAMPUS NEWS 4CALENDAR 12STUDENT VOICE 13POLICE 14PEOPLE 15SPORTS 16

PUZZLES 14

2015 SILVERCIRCLE WINNERS

more on page 7

2 uicnews.uic.edu I UIC NEWS I APRIL 29, 2015

PROFILE

James Meierhoff ’s study of Mayan refugees for his Ph.D. led his father to say, “You know 2,000 years of ancient Guatemalan history, but you know noth-ing about Chicago or Illinois.”

It got Meierhoff looking around his own backyard.

When he learned that thousands of German prisoners of war were held in the northern suburbs during World War II, he was fascinated. Before long, he be-came an expert on the subject, sharing what he learned in lectures to suburban audiences.

By far the largest POW camp was at Fort Sheridan, where 4,000 German prisoners were held in barracks that had emptied out when the war began. Else-where in the northern suburbs, much smaller camps, with names like Camp Pine, Camp Thornton and Camp Skokie Valley, housed 200 or so.

“The camps were built specifically to put the prisoners to work in local indus-tries, mainly agriculture,” Meierhoff said.

One such business was Pesche’s Gar-den Center, a 7-acre plant nursery that still operates in Des Plaines near what was Camp Pine during the war.

At the Des Plaines Historical Society, Meierhoff discovered photos of local growers and POWs at Camp Pine, wav-ing and smiling at the camera.

“They had to hire 10 [prisoners] at a time, for at least a week,” he said. “So you had 10 to 40 guys, at the going rate for labor.”

Being in one of these POW camps was very little like being in prison. The book Stalag Wisconsin, by Betty Cowley, notes that many of the prisoners blended with the local community, drinking at taverns and dating local women.

Their familiarity with residents caused

resentment among returning American soldiers, Cowley writes.

In the north suburbs, Meierhoff said, “The Germans got along surprisingly well with citizens, after an initial nervousness. This was probably because a lot of local families were of German extraction.”

The prisoners could listen to the radio and buy newspapers and magazines, unlike their American POW counterparts in German prison camps whose access to news was restricted.

Security was lax enough that occasion-ally a German prisoner managed to escape. Meierhoff heard the tale of one who disap-peared and ended up working in a Chica-go bookstore, which he later purchased. According to another story, an escapee

who had no interest in returning to Ger-many, where his hometown was held by the Soviets, made his way to California and became a tennis pro.

Many of the prisoners liked living in this country so much that they returned at war’s end to become permanent resi-dents, Meierhoff said.

Nationally, the U.S. government grossly underestimated how many Ger-man prisoners it would have to place in camps here. The number was thought to be 50,000 to 75,000, but ended up being 420,000 by the time the war was over.

Meierhoff, who lives in Morton Grove, grew up in the northwest suburbs and earned bachelor’s and master’s de-grees at UIC.

“You know, I think it’s possible or I wouldn’t be doing it.”

Beth Richie, director of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy and a member of the NFL policy group developing league programs on domestic violence, April 22 WFRV-TV, Green Bay, Wisconsin

“Imagine the district needing to borrow money in the future. Are you going to trust a school district that has not honored its commitments in the past?”

Michael Pagano, dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, on a proposal to deal with the Chicago Public Schools budget deficit by declaring bankruptcy, April 22 Chicago Tribune

By Gary Wisby — gwisby@uic.edu

He’s working on his Ph.D. in anthro-pology, studying Mayan refugees in Gua-temala in the 1850s who fled a civil war known as the Caste War of Yucatan, in which native Mayans revolted against those of European descent.

“They were getting rid of the coloniz-ers,” Meierhoff said. “One group that wanted to remove themselves from the violence fled to the jungle and built villag-es in Belize and Guatemala.”

When he started delving into local history, he also became interested in the Black Hawk War of 1832.

“It was the last Indian insurgency east of the Mississippi River,” he said. “And the last battle was fought in Illinois, in Kellogg’s Grove in Stephenson County.”

“In the early rounds, they need to back off high-stakes interpretive use of the scores.”

James Pellegrino, distinguished professor of psychology and education and co-director of the Learning Sciences Research Institute, on glitches in Florida’s online testing system for schools, April 26 Tampa Bay Times

send profile ideas to Gary Wisby, gwisby@uic.edu

James Meierhoff, graduate student in anthropology, is an expert on POW camps based in the northern suburbs during World War II, such as a camp at Fort Sheridan that held 4,000 German prisoners. — Photo: Joshua Clark

Uncovering POW camps in suburbs

JAMESMEIERHOFF

3APRIL 29, 2015 I UIC NEWS I uicnews.uic.edu

More than 7,500 honored at commencements Maria Hinojosa, four-time Emmy

Award-winning news anchor and correspon-dent for CBS, NPR and CNN, and cardio-vascular researcher Victor Dzau, president of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, are among the fea-tured speakers at next week’s graduation cer-emonies.

More than 7,500 students will be hon-ored May 6 through 10 at ceremonies for 14 colleges.

Hinojosa will receive an honorary degree and Dzau will be awarded the College of Medicine Medal of Honor.

Here’s a list of ceremonies and speakers:• HonorsCollege: May 6, 7 p.m., UIC

Forum. Diane Primo, founder and CEO of IntraLink Global and founder of a West Side homeless shelter

• Nursing: May 7, 1 p.m., UIC Pavilion. Bonnie and Mark Barnes, founders of the DAISY Foundation and the DAISY Award for extraordinary nurses

• AppliedHealthSciences: May 7, 2 p.m., UIC Forum. Grant Korgan, extreme sport and adventure athlete overcoming spinal cord injury

• Education: May 7, 6:30 p.m., UIC Pavil-ion. Nell Bernstein, author of Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison

• Pharmacy: May 7, 7:30 p.m., UIC Forum. William Fitzsimmons, UIC alumnus and executive vice president of Astellas Pharma Global Develop-ment Inc.

• JaneAddamsCollegeofSocialWork: May 8, 9 a.m., UIC Pavilion. Mark Mattaini, associate professor of social work

• UrbanPlanningandPublicAffairs: May 8, 10 a.m., UIC Forum. Lee Fisher, president and chief executive officer of CEOs for Cities

• Medicine: May 8, 2 p.m., UIC Pavilion. Victor Dzau, president of the Institute of Medicine

• PublicHealth: May 8, 3:30 p.m., UIC Forum. LaMar Hasbrouck, executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials

• BusinessAdministration: May 9, 9 a.m. UIC Pavilion. Steven Fradkin, president of wealth management busi-ness, Northern Trust

• Dentistry: May 9, 10 a.m., UIC Forum. Clark Stanford, dean and distinguished professor

• Engineering: May 9, 2 p.m., UIC Pa-vilion. Jenny Zhao, UIC alumna, gener-al manager of Google Beijing and

director of engineering for Google Search

• Architecture,Design,andtheArts: May 9, 7 p.m., UIC Pavilion. Mike Delfini, UIC alumnus, executive vice president and chief operating officer of

the Shedd Aquarium• LiberalArtsandSciences: May 10, 10

a.m., UIC Pavilion. Maria Hinojosa, news anchor and reporter.For more information on the ceremo-

nies, visit commencement.uic.edu

Commencement ceremonies for 14 colleges will take place May 6 through 10 at the UIC Pavilion and UIC Forum. — Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

Incoming University of Illinois President Timothy Killeen poses with the team after throwing out the first pitch at the Flames baseball game ver-sus Milwaukee Friday at Granderson Stadium. Although UIC lost the game, the Flames are back on top of the Horizon League after winning the other two games in the series. Killeen, who was vice chancellor for research and president of the Research Foundation of the State Univer-sity of New York, officially becomes U of I president May 18. For more UIC baseball, see page 16.

— Photo: Joshua Clark

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT THROWS FIRST PITCH

Peoria medical students enter ‘99 Differentials’ in music contestBy Nicole Cardos — ncardo2@uic.edu

A study break could be dinner or a movie, but second-year medical stu-dents Sakina Karimjee and Sabirah Kasule entered a music video contest.

With their classmates at the Col-lege of Medicine at Peoria, they creat-ed the video “99 Differentials” for the Memmys, a medical version of the Emmys sponsored by the University of South Carolina School of Medi-cine.

The music video, online at go.uic.edu/99peoria, is a satire of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems.”

“What we were thinking about is the problem of patients not understanding medical language, and how the miscom-munication can have an impact on them,” said Kasule, who produced the video. “So we wanted to start an open dialogue on how to fix that.”

Making the video was motivation to study during their hardest unit, cardiopul-monary renal anatomy and physiology.

“We were excited, and that excitement allowed us to get to the books,” Karimjee said.

The contest calls for fun videos that ex-press the experience of being a medical student, but Karimjee said they wanted to do more.

“We wanted to send a message and use it as a social commentary,” said Karimjee.

Winners will be announced in late May or early June. The selection process starts from the top five videos with the most

“likes.” From there, a panel of judges de-cides on first, second and third place. Win-ners receive money for the school’s health sciences library.

“Even if we don’t win, we want to get the message out and start a conversation,” Karimjee said.

In the video, physicians try to diagnose a patient who doesn’t understand the med-ical vocabulary, while hospital staff rap and dance to lyrics written by Karimjee and Kasule. Third-year medical student Justin Zheng does the break-dancing.

The message: “In order to be good doc-tors, there’s more than just science. We have to be humans, too,” Kasule said.

The music video is a satire of a Jay-Z song.

4 uicnews.uic.edu I UIC NEWS I APRIL 29, 2015

A ‘love letter’ to Chicago Imagism art movementBy Anne Brooks Ranallo — aranallo@uic.edu

The Jane Addams Hull-House Museum invites all to a free film screening and panel discussion Thurs-day on the 1960s art movement Chi-cago Imagism.

The museum will screen “Hairy

STUDY ALL NIGHTThe Daley Library and Library of the

Health Sciences-Chicago will have ex-tended hours through the end of finals week.

The Daley Library is open around-the-clock through 7 p.m. May 8. Stu-dents, faculty and staff must show valid i-card to enter the building from 9 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.

Until May 7, the Library of the Health Sciences will be open Sunday 9 a.m. to 2 a.m., Monday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 2 a.m., and Friday 7 a.m. to midnight. A valid i-card is required to enter after 7 p.m.

NETWORKING NIGHTA networking meetup will be spon-

sored May 14 by the Chancellor’s Com-mittee on the Status of Women, 5 to 7 p.m. at Three Aces, 1321 W. Taylor St.

RSVP to lcarna2@uic.edu

SUMMER U-PASSThe summer session Ventra U-Pass

will activate May 13 for students regis-tered full time for summer by May 5.

Ventra cards for summer session students who haven’t previously had a U-Pass will be available May 13 for students who registered and had their i-card photo taken by May 5. Ventra cards can be picked up at the student ID centers.

Students not registered full time for summer session can continue to use their

Ventra U-Pass by adding funds to their account online at ventrachicago.com or vending machines located at CTA stations. They will be charged regular full fare until five days before fall semester.

For more information on the Ventra U-Pass, visit uic.edu/depts/idcenter

WHAT’S YOUR BRAND?A professional development workshop

May 14 will discuss individual communica-tion styles and personal branding.

The free workshop, sponsored by the Academic Professional Advisory Commit-tee, will be led by Elizabeth Herrera, assis-tant director of career services in the School of Public Health.

It will be held noon to 1:30 p.m. in 932 School of Public Health, 1603 W. Taylor St. Register online at go.uic.edu/brand

CHANCELLOR DISCUSSES BUDGETThe university’s strategic plans in the

face of proposed cuts in state funding will be discussed at a town hall May 5 with Chancellor Michael Amiridis and Janet Parker, associate chancellor and vice provost for budget and resource planning.

The town hall, 1:30 to 3 p.m. in the Moss Auditorium, College of Medicine Research Building, is open to all faculty, staff and students. The event is sponsored by the Academic Professionals Advisory Committee.

Register by April 27 at uofi.uic.edu/fb/sec/2024760

A documentary screening and panel discussion Thursday focus on the 1960s Chicago Imagism art movement, described as graphic, comical and absurd.

CAMPUS NEWSsend information about campus news to Sonya Booth, sobooth@uic.edu

Who & The Chicago Imagists,” a 2014 documentary film directed by Leslie Buch-binder that the Chicago Tribune described as “a love letter.”

A panel discussion, “Gender Equality in the Visual Arts,” will follow, with curator

and critic Claudine Isé, executive direc-tor of Woman Made Gallery, Barbara Rossi, a Chicago Imagist, and artist Sue Williams. The discussion will be moder-ated by Judith Russi Kirshner, deputy director for education, Art Institute of Chicago.

“Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists” is a lavishly illustrated documentary on Chicago Imagism, the 1960s art move-ment that challenged Pop Art’s status quo, then faded from view. Forty years later, its funk and grit inspire artists from Jeff Koons to Chris Ware.

Variously described as graphic, comi-cal, absurd, pugnacious, puerile and scat-alogical, Chicago Imagism celebrated a different version of popular art from that

of the detached cool of New York, Lon-don and Los Angeles.

The post-screening panel discussion will focus on gender equality in the vi-sual arts, which is discussed in the film. Many Imagist artists have advocated the equal treatment that male and fe-male artists in their group enjoyed. Some describe this quality as one that set Imagism apart from the male-dom-inated environments in other art cen-ters.

The event at Gallery 400 begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by the film at 6 p.m. and the discussion at 8 p.m.

For more information, call 312-413-5353.

“HAIRY WHO & THE CHICAGO IMAGISTS”

5:30 P.M. THURSDAYGALLERY 400

Officials and scholars from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas will speak on global trade today and Thursday at “Cities Across the Globe,” the annual symposium of the Great Cities Institute.

Diego Aulestia, minister of internation-al trade for the Republic of Ecuador, will open the symposium at 9:30 a.m. today, speaking on “Global Exchange: Building Local Economies Through World Trade.” An economist, Aulestia will present alter-native growth strategies that have helped Ecuador and may apply to other econo-mies.

A panel discussion will follow on devis-ing a national economic agenda to produce commodities for export while bringing capital back into neighborhoods. Panelists are Thomas Bartkoski, World Business Chicago, Laura Ortega-Lamela, Interna-tional Business Council of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Raul Raymundo, The Resurrection Project, and Teresa Cór-dova, Great Cities Institute.

On Thursday, scholars from around the U.S., Australia, Mexico, Turkey, West Afri-ca and the U.K. will join UIC faculty to discuss urban design, urban diasporas, so-cial welfare, taxes and corporate responsi-bility.

The free symposium is co-sponsored by

By Anne Brooks Ranallo— aranallo@uic.edu

Leaders explore global trade issues at Great Cities Institute symposium

World Business Chicago, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and the UIC Of-fice of International Affairs. For more in-formation, visit greatcities.uic.edu

Diego Aulestia

CITIES ACROSS THE GLOBEGREAT CITIES SYMPOSIUMToday–Thursday, greatcities.uic.edu

5APRIL 29, 2015 I UIC NEWS I uicnews.uic.edu

Aspiring entrepreneurs make their pitchesSTARTUPS WIN THOUSANDS IN CASH AT CONCEPT2VENTURE CHALLENGEBy Jeffron Boynés — boynes@uic.edu

Aspiring entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to judges for a chance to win up to $5,000 at UIC’s Concept2Venture Startup Challenge business plan competition April 17.

Thirty-five semifinal teams — students and alumni from nine different colleges

— presented startup ideas in 60-second elevator pitches before a packed house in Lecture Center A.

After the semifinals, seven teams re-mained to compete for the grand prize. Their ideas ranged from a process that recy-cled waste material into micron-sized car-bon spheres, to an app-based consulting service to improve sports performance and health.

“C2V showcases the talent, tenacity, cre-ativity, courage and entrepreneurial spirit that pervades UIC,” said Nancy Harvey, executive director of the Institute for En-trepreneurial Studies, which hosted the event. “It’s a real thrill to see the vast diver-sity of the UIC community brought to-gether by the zeal to launch a startup and the passion for making a difference.”

Anautomy, an auto repair price aggrega-tor, won the top prize of $5,000.

“We attribute our success at C2V to our belief that Anautomy has the capability to be a disruptive force in the auto repair sec-tor,” said Aman Choudhury, Anautomy co-founder and business grad. “We have the capacity to significantly change how auto repair is done and how the public views the entire experience overall.”

Choudhury and Anautomy co-founder Roy Moran, an engineering undergrad, re-ceived help from strategic adviser Hrish

Students from 35 semifinal teams presented their startup ideas in 60-second elevator pitches at the Concept2Venture business plan competition April 21. — Photos: Joshua Clark

Lotlikar, managing director of the early-stage venture capital funds Startup Labs and East-Labs.

The second place prize of $2,000 went to Little Genius Games, a platform for inter-active digital educational games. GPS Campus, a free app to help students make the most of their college experi-ence, won $1,000 in the ele-vator pitch/fan favorite category.

SOUK, a platform bridg-ing Middle East artisans and North American consumers, won $500 in the best early venture category.

The remaining finalists each won $500.

The 10th annual C2V was the biggest to date, with more than 60 teams.

“For me, perhaps the most exciting aspect is realizing that through these startups, UIC students not only bring innovation to life, but they find paths that transform their lives and make an enduring social and commercial contribution to the greater community,” Harvey said.

C2V was sponsored by the College of Business Administration, Caterpillar, the Coleman Foundation, Microsoft, Bright-star Corp., 7 Wire Ventures, TLC Man-agement, FONA International, Trillium and Rabine Group.

Aman Choudhury (left) and Roy Moran won the top prize. — Photo: Joshua Clark

A new minor in social justice, begin-ning fall semester, will study issues of equality and inequality in society.

The minor will be offered in the gender and women’s studies program, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“UIC students have long been at the forefront of critical social justice move-ments in Chicago and beyond,” said Jennifer Brier, associate professor and director of gender and women’s studies.

“We hope that this interdisciplinary minor will provide all students, no mat-ter their major or college, with a critical understanding of justice and equality as well as inequality and marginality, and the struggles to redress them.”

Students in the minor, which re-quires a total of 16 credit hours, will learn about historical and contempo-

rary strategies for social change, work with social organizations and study the connections between local and global movements.

The minor includes two new social justice courses, a capstone communi-ty-based learning experience with a partner organization and six elective credit hours.

The first of three required courses will be taught by Barbara Ransby, direc-tor of the Social Justice Initiative and professor of African American studies, gender and women’s studies and history. Students will explore personal narratives, memoirs and biographies of people en-gaged in social and political change.

More more information, visit go.uic.edu/sjminor or email Natalie Bennett, ndab1@uic.edu

Minor in social justice to focus on issues of equality, inequalityBy Brian Flood — bflood@uic.edu

6 uicnews.uic.edu I UIC NEWS I APRIL 29, 2015

The race is on around the world for sci-entists striving to develop a new generation of batteries that perform beyond the limits of the current lithium-ion based battery.

UIC researchers have made a significant step toward a battery that could outper-form the technology used in electric cars such as the Chevy Volt.

They replaced the lithium ions (each carrying a single positive charge) with magnesium ions (which have a plus-two charge) in battery-like chemical reactions, using an electrode with a structure like those in many of today’s devices.

“We hope that this work will open a credible design path for a new class of high-voltage, high-energy batteries,” said Jordi Cabana, assistant professor of chem-istry and principal investigator on the study.

The research is part of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research — a Depart-ment of Energy Innovation Hub led by Argonne National Laboratory — that seeks revolutionary advances in battery performance.

Every battery consists of a positive and negative electrode and an electrolyte. The electrodes exchange electrons and ions, which are usually of positive charge. Only the ions flow through the electrolyte, an electric insulator that forces the electrons to flow through the external circuit to

By Jeanne Galatzer-Levy — jgala@uic.edu

Scientists a step closer to discovering better batteries

power the vehicle or device.To recharge the battery, the exchange is

reversed. But the chemical reaction is not perfectly efficient, which limits how many times the battery can be recharged.

“The more times you can do this back and forth, the more times you will be able to recharge your battery and still get the use of it between charges,” Cabana said.

“We want to maximize the number of electrons moved per ion, because ions dis-tort the structure of the electrode material when they go in or leave. The more the structure is distorted, the greater the ener-gy cost of moving the ions back, the harder it becomes to recharge the battery.

“Like a parking garage, there are only so many spaces for the cars,” he added. “But you can put a car in each space with more people inside without distorting the struc-ture.”

Establishing that magnesium can be reversibly inserted into electrode material’s structure brings researchers one step closer to a prototype, Cabana said.

“It’s not a battery yet, it’s a piece of a bat-tery, but with the same reaction you would find in the final device,” he said.

The study is online in advance of print in the journal Advanced Materials.

Chunjoong Kim, postdoctoral research associate in chemistry, was first author of

the paper. Co-authors are Tanghong Yi and Ryan Bayliss, chemistry; Patrick Phil-lips and Robert Klie, physics; Baris Key, Sang-Don Han, Zhengcheng Zhang and Anthony Burrell, Argonne; Dennis Nord-

lund, SLAC National Accelerator Labora-tory; Meinan He, Argonne and Worcester Polytechnic Institute; and Young-Sang Yu, UIC and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Magnesium ions could replace lithium ions used in high-voltage batteries, says UIC researcher Jordi Cabana. — Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

7APRIL 29, 2015 I UIC NEWS I uicnews.uic.edu

Since 1966, the Silver Circle Award has been presented to some of UIC’s best teachers. Winners, who are honored at their college commencements, receive $500 and their names join a long list of distinguished colleagues. But what makes the award especially meaningful is its selection committee: the graduating seniors.

— Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

There was a time when Mark Canuel wanted to go to law school.

“After speaking to people who were in law school, and who had gone into careers after law school, I realized that what they were doing was not what I wanted to be doing,” Canuel says.

Instead, he became a scholar of literature and professor of English. “What I was most interested in was political and legal theory, as they connected to the history of litera-ture and culture.”

The author of four books and editor of an anthology of essays, Canuel studies the connection between political action and literature in the British Romantic era.

“Believe it or not, I think that Jane Austen has some say about those issues,” he says.

Canuel’s next book will look at the way Romantic writ-ers imagined politics during that era.

“The exciting aspect of scholarship is the thrill of discov-ering works,” he says.

In addition to his specialty, Canuel teaches classes on novels, Romantic aesthetics and survey courses in British literature. Next fall he’ll teach a course on Romanticism and the Gothic.

“My expectations of the students’ response to a text don’t always align with their actual reaction,” he says. “It’s one of the things that is a constant joy.”

While he enjoys sharing research in class, many times it’s the students who make him see things in new ways.

“That’s the really special thing about UIC,” he says. “We have all kinds of students who enrich the university.”

Joseph Hummel’s undergraduate course isn’t the most popular class on campus.

It’s Computer Science 109, required for engineering students who aren’t planning to become computer scien-tists.

So Hummel was surprised when students recognized him with a Silver Circle award.

“It means that a lot of students went out of their way to say nice things, which is really remarkable,” says Hummel, research associate professor of computer science.

Each semester, he teaches 230 students about C++ and programming with MATLAB. He makes the large lecture hall feel smaller by using clickers to get students involved.

“I try to make the class interactive,” he says. “I use a model called peer instruction, where you ask questions during class. Students answer them, then discuss amongst themselves. It’s effective — more people come to class, the grades are better and I think the learning is better.”

Hummel also teaches CS 341, an upper-level program-ming languages course for computer science majors.

He was a researcher at UIC from 1998 to 2000, then left to teach at Lake Forest College. He returned in 2012.

“I like the energy of the students,” he says. “I like their diverse backgrounds and that they are motivated. I enjoy what they bring to class.”

Hummel’s interest in computer science started in high school. His current research focuses on parallel program-ming — how to make programs run faster on today’s com-puter hardware.

“You get to build stuff and it’s fun,” he says.

“Coming out of a class that went really well makes my whole day,” John Ireland says.

Ireland, associate professor of French and Francophone studies, teaches students from every year and level at UIC, from French 201 through master’s-level courses.

His research and teaching touch upon a range of sub-jects, including 20th century theater and prose, avant- garde theory and practice, theater and theatricality, Sartre and existentialism, and French Canadian literature, film and critical theory.

He helps his undergraduate students understand “what an intensely social phenomenon literature is, with all sorts of reverberations.”

“I really enjoy the moments when a discussion reaches a point where every participant has forgotten everything else about themselves except for their involvement in an idea, a character’s dilemma, or the implications of a particular nar-rative strategy,” he says.

Ireland considers Introduction to French Literature I as one of his most important courses.

“I enjoy the challenge of presenting 19th century French literature as a crucible in which so many of our examined and unexamined ideas and mythologies about literature and culture today, here in the United States, are formed,” he says.

He often cites a noted philosopher when giving advice to students.

“Jean-Paul Sartre once said, ‘L’intelligence est une exi-gence.’ Intelligence is the demand we make of ourselves to think further, not to be self-satisfied.”

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISHCollege of Liberal Arts and Sciences

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCECollege of Engineering

JOSEPH HUMMELASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE STUDIESCollege of Liberal Arts and Sciences

JOHN IRELANDMARK CANUEL

2015 SILVER CIRCLE AWARDS

By Jeff Boynés, Nicole Cardos, Brian Flood, Jeanne Galatzer-Levy, Sam Hostettler, Christy Levy, Sharon Parmet, Anne Brooks Ranallo, Gary Wisby

WHAT MAKES A GREAT TEACHER?YOUTUBE.COM/UICMEDIA

— Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin — Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

8 uicnews.uic.edu I UIC NEWS I APRIL 29, 2015

SILVER CIRCLE AWARDS

— Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

Mike Jones’ interests have drawn him to widely dif-fering pursuits, including a national tour of the Disney musical “Beauty and the Beast” and 13 years as a mas-sage therapy instructor.

But it’s teaching that “makes me want to get out of bed — early! — every morning,” he says.

His Silver Circle was awarded for his first year of teaching at UIC, but it’s not the first UIC award for Jones, who earned his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. here. As an undergrad, he received the Chancellor’s Award for Service and second place in life sciences at the Student Research Forum. As a graduate student, he won teaching awards in 2012 and 2013 and was voted the most out-standing teaching assistant in kinesiology.

“Learning on a daily basis” is what Jones likes best about his job.

“I enjoy working side by side with students in applied settings — anatomy labs, research, mentoring — to make discoveries,” he says. “There is no other profession as dynamic and meaningful as being an educator.”

Asked what kind of student he likes to teach, Jones replies, “a humble student.”

“True learning rarely involves a pretty process,” he says. “Inquiry necessitates confusion, which begets self-reflec-tion. Any student who is willing to humble themselves before the hard work of learning is someone I relish teaching.

“Great teaching is about facilitating how to learn. As one student said to me recently, ‘You taught me to appre-ciate the process.’ I can’t express the notion any better.”

His work enables him to serve others, Jones says.“Certain people throughout my life have directly in-

fluenced my path. To be in a position to pay that forward is an honor.”

Maripat King knows what her patients are going through.

As a child, she was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkin-son-White Syndrome, a condition that causes rapid heart-beat. She sat for hours in doctor’s offices, passing the time by looking through the colorful pages of medical books the doctors let her borrow.

“I understand illness and illness prevention and what happens to people when they become sick,” says King, now a nurse who specializes in cardiovascular diseases.

King sees each patient’s chart as a puzzle; she carefully reviews every piece of data to find what patients need to restore their health.

“I believe one of the most important things as a nurse is, you have to have a natural curiosity about the entire patient

— their family background, where they live, what access they have to health care. I want my students to look at a patient in a holistic way, not just treat them.”

King is always seeking new ways to teach her students. One of the programs she developed, along with several colleagues, is transitional care, where students follow up on patients once they leave the hospital. Students call patients or visit them at home to ensure that they understand their discharge instructions.

“We want our patients to avoid rehospitalizations, and this is a way to decrease readmission for the first 30 days after going home,” King says. “It’s worked really well.”

In her 10 years as a UIC instructor, King has won the Silver Circle Award four times.

“I work with so many amazing people and I’ve been blessed to be a part of an amazing faculty. It’s a great honor to win this award,” she says.

“I really love what I’m doing. I love coming to school every day.”

Paul Malchow is open to any strategy to better engage his students, combining new technology with tried-and-true methods.

Malchow’s Bios 100 class has nearly 350 students, but with Blackboard, he creates a class picture to study on his commute. As a result, he knows each student’s name.

“It’s a lot of fun to hand a microphone to someone and say, ‘Joe, what do you think?’” Malchow says. “It makes a very different dynamic.”

He assigns short animations, so that students come to class already familiar with the topic. “If you ask a student to read a chapter, they won’t,” he says.

He likes class demonstrations, involving as many stu-dents as possible. To help them understand the cell cycle, he brings them to the front of the room to walk through the process of replicating DNA and dividing.

“The feedback that I’ve gotten from the students is that these demonstrations really serve to clarify concepts which, for a beginning student, can be challenging and mystifying.”

Malchow’s research concerns the retina — how its cells talk to one another using various chemical cues.

“I view it as a happy part of the brain to study, easily ac-cessible and readily stimulated in natural ways,” he says.

“I like the blending of teaching and research. One in-forms the other and that’s a good thing.”

To make students feel more comfortable, Malchow holds office hours in two informal locations: an atrium near his lab in the Science and Engineering Laboratories building and at the African American Cultural Center li-brary.

He likes the moment “when you see that light bulb go on,” he says.

“Suddenly there’s an ‘aha!’ moment. It’s addicting, that ‘aha!’ moment.”

CLINICAL ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF KINESIOLOGY AND NUTRITION College of Applied Health Sciences

CLINICAL INSTRUCTOR OF BIOBEHAVIORAL HEALTH SCIENCECollege of Nursing

MARIPAT KINGASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCESCollege of Liberal Arts and Sciences

PAUL MALCHOWMICHAEL JONES

— Photo: Alicia McConnell-Hatch — Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

2015

9APRIL 29, 2015 I UIC NEWS I uicnews.uic.edu

SILVER CIRCLE AWARDS

— Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

“I want my students to think holistically about what public health means,” says Linda Rae Murray. “It’s not just about people. It’s about the whole planet, including climate change, animals, plants, humans and social structures and social justice.”

Murray, who earned her bachelor’s, M.D. and master’s in public health at UIC, has more than 40 years of experi-ence as a public health professional — and she’s still a stu-dent herself.

She retired as chief medical officer for the Cook Coun-ty Department of Public Health in December and hopes to finish her doctoral thesis in the next few months. Her topic: the role of public health departments in monitoring local health equity.

She also sees patients once a week at the Woodlawn Health Center.

Murray, who mentors minority students interested in the health professions, is enthusiastic about undergraduate studies in public health. The first class of students earning a bachelor’s in public health from UIC graduated last year.

“Undergraduate students are really able to see the big picture when it comes to public health because they haven’t narrowed down their focus or specialties quite yet,” she says.

Murray, adjunct assistant professor of health policy and administration, co-teaches two classes: Using the Public Health Toolbox and a four-week course that uses literature to examine the relationships between public health, culture, politics, social movements and medicine.

“Some of the things I learned years ago in medical school are no longer relevant because facts, especially in medicine, are constantly changing,” she says.

“My goal in the classroom isn’t to have my students memorize facts, but to teach them to think critically and challenge assumptions so that they can solve problems.”

Like many of her students, Sharon Oiga went to public schools and worked her way through college, graduating with a bachelor’s in graphic design at UIC.

“I can relate to the students and they can relate to me. We’re similar, so they find me approachable,” she says.

Oiga earned a master’s of fine arts at Yale, then returned to Chicago and worked at StudioLab, a firm headed by Marcia Lausen, director of the School of Design.

Oiga joined the UIC faculty in 2003, where she teaches courses in typography to undergraduates and a thesis devel-opment class to graduate students. She is on sabbatical this semester, working on two books, two typography confer-ences and a solo exhibition.

She finds the class that most impresses students is Ty-pography III: Dimension. Each student designs a letterform in two and three dimensions, documented with a book, a poster and an exhibit. They also work together on a publica-tion.

“It’s such a whole experience. They feel immersed, they’re living it. It’s complex and has so many components,” Oiga says.

Her students have won top honors from the University and College Design Association.

“I like to help students find their own sensibility. I don’t want them to make things like I’d make them,” says Oiga, who encourages students and alumni to get involved in pro-fessional conferences.

“All of their work develops so differently. I have high ex-pectations, so right away they know I believe they can do it.”

Oiga stresses three things. “Good old-fashioned hard work,” she says. “There’s no

getting around it. Self-initiation. You have to want to do it, not wait to be told. And attitude — unceasing positivity. Take advantage of every door that opens.”

Jennifer Olson taught for 10 years at Chicago’s Harper High School, which underwent two turnarounds in 11 years, before she started her doctoral studies in education at UIC.

Olson did her dissertation on how students in two other urban high schools were affected by turnarounds — a pro-cess where the Chicago Board of Education replaces a school’s administration, teachers and staff.

Those experiences showed Olson the value of relation-ships between educators and students, so she appreciates receiving a Silver Circle after only two years of teaching at the college level.

“It’s so meaningful for me to have an award given by my students,” says Olson, visiting clinical assistant professor.

“Teaching is absolutely what’s most important to me.“I struggled with leaving my job as a high school teacher.

I loved it so much. Now that I’ve been here two years, I know I can teach my students to make connections with their own students, and that way I can make an impact on more students.”

Olson especially enjoys teaching the course in curricu-lum, instruction and assessment that immediately precedes student teaching. By then, her students have studied theo-ry; they need practical tools and strategies.

“I’m able to make connections between theory and prac-tice, because I pull from my experience as a high school teacher. If we talk about classroom management, I give them examples and tell them what worked for me.”

Before their student teaching, Olson’s students do a 60-hour practicum in Chicago high schools. She gives them feedback after watching a lesson.

“That’s exciting, because for many of them, it’s the first time they’ve been in front of real teenagers. Those conver-sations afterward are really fun,” she says.

ADJUNCT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HEALTH POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION School of Public Health

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF GRAPHIC DESIGNCollege of Architecture, Design and the Arts

SHARON OIGAVISITING CLINICAL ASSISTANT PROFESSORCollege of Education

JENNIFER OLSONLINDA RAE MURRAY

— Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin — Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

2015

10 uicnews.uic.edu I UIC NEWS I APRIL 29, 2015

— Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

Brenda Parker specializes in human geography: the interplay between physical space and social relations. So it’s no wonder she guides her students to empathy and a sense that they can bring about change.

“Cities are for all people, so we should be bothered when women are harassed on public transportation, for example, or when large populations live in slums or so many people of color are imprisoned,” she says.

“I want my students to understand how inequity comes to be, and how they are the lever to make things better as planners, activists or citizens. Not the government; we are the government. Our daily actions matter.”

Parker, assistant professor of urban planning and policy, teaches mostly undergraduate classes on gender, political economy, globalization, and places and institutions.

“I try to offer different ways to find passion in the work, whether it’s through discussion, debates, papers or films,” she says.

Parker’s research concerns urban homesteading — people who are self-sufficient by growing food, bartering goods and services and doing household projects.

“Sometimes my students raise questions that make me go back and explore,” she says. “Working with students helps me know how I need to communicate my research.”

Before joining UIC in 2008, Parker worked for Ameri-Corps and taught at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She comes by her empathy naturally, having grown up as the third of 11 children.

“There’s high energy in a household with a lot of kids, and it engenders possibilities and a sense of justice,” she says.

“I really want to bring out the best in my students,” she says. “I make them work hard, but in the end, I’m proud, and they’re proud.”

The Behavioral Sciences Building may be a maze to some, but not Karina Reyes. Many of the psychol-ogy classes Reyes took as a UIC undergraduate are in the same building where she now teaches.

“I have never stopped identifying with undergrad-uate students,” Reyes says. She vividly remembers her days as a UIC student and incorporates some of the things she learned from her instructors into her own teaching.

After graduating from UIC, Reyes received a mas-ter’s and Ph.D. in clinical community psychology at DePaul University.

“I wasn’t sure about my future in the field because of how competitive it is,” she says. “I feel privileged and happy about how things have turned out for me, especially here at UIC. This is really where I grew and found my passion as a teacher.”

Growing up on Chicago’s South Side, Reyes at-tended a high school where academic success fell vic-tim to outside influences such as gangs, drugs and violence. She left that neighborhood behind, but its influence remains — her research asks why some high-risk kids don’t finish high school, while others succeed.

Her research is assisted by graduate and under-graduate students.

“UIC students are wonderful to work with,” she says. “They are so bright and eager to learn.

“I want to provide them with the best education possible. I tell them, ‘Use me, use me. I’m here to help you make the best use of your college education.’

“I have been fortunate to win several teaching awards, but winning this one feels extra special some-how.”

The satisfaction of positive feedback from students makes teaching worthwhile for Renata Tarasievich, who mixes case studies, discussions and student presentations with instruction to transform her classes into learning labo-ratories.

“They appreciate the real world aspect of many of our topics and they benefit from that. In many cases, the benefit is for years down the road,” says Tarasievich, lecturer in managerial studies.

In addition to courses in organizational theory and orga-nizational behavior, she teaches Family Business Manage-ment, Human Resource Management and Managerial Effectiveness Through Diversity.

“I think the more relatable I can make a topic, the more likely a student will be to understand the material and be able to apply it in their careers,” she says.

The work ethic of UIC students inspires Tarasievich.“I mean that figuratively and literally,” she says. “Many of

our students worked or work full time. They are able to apply what we talk about later that same day in some cases. They also see — first-hand at their workplaces — how ben-eficial a college degree is, and that motivates them.”

Tarasievich, who joined the business faculty in 2004, be-lieves what students learn in the classroom is only part of their work.

“Sometimes it is about the process as much as the results,” she says. “The college diploma itself is of course significant, but what you learned and gained along the way is substan-tial as well. I gain tremendous insight in preparing for my classes and the process of preparing makes my results, I hope, that much more meaningful.”

Winning her third Silver Circle Award is a memorable moment in her career, Tarasievich says.

“I am humbled to be recognized by my students,” she says.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF URBAN PLANNING AND POLICY College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGYCollege of Liberal Arts and Sciences

KARINA REYESLECTURER IN MANAGEMENTCollege of Business Administration

RENATA TARASIEVICHBRENDA PARKER

— Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin — Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

SILVER CIRCLE AWARDS2015

11APRIL 29, 2015 I UIC NEWS I uicnews.uic.edu

— Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

Andrew Tillotson began his career teaching physics at a Chicago high school where he got to know each stu-dent. It was a big change when he joined UIC in 2008, teaching as many as 100 students in each class in a large lecture hall.

“It felt like there was this invisible wall between me and them, and I was up here doing this performance,” said Tillotson, clinical assistant professor of physics. “That’s why what I’ve been going after is getting the students in-volved.”

Most students in his Physics 107 course are planning careers in the health sciences. “They’re usually not super excited to have to take physics to begin with,” he says. “Right out of the gate, you have a challenge trying to get their attention.”

So Tillotson “flips the classroom.” Students read course materials and watch videos of him lecturing outside

CLINICAL ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

ANDREW TILLOTSON

of class. Class time is for active learn-ing. Tillotson uses Learning Catalytics, which lets student answer questions, draw graphs or make sketches with their smartphones or laptops during class.

“It really gets students involved without forcing them to raise their hand,” he says.

Tillotson, who also runs a research lab on physics education, is honored to win the Silver Circle — especially since most of his students are not physics majors.

“For a student to reflect back on their entire experience at UIC and re-member me and say, ‘That guy helped,’ is an honor,” he says.

Tillotson’s advice to graduating stu-dents: plan for the future.

“Don’t just expect things to happen,” he said. “Come up with a goal first. Once you have a goal in mind, the plan can come from that.”

The classroom relationship between preschool educators and their students is one of Katherine Zinsser’s many research interests.

She identifies effective social and emo-tional teaching practices and classroom environments that promote teacher and child well-being.

“I walk into my college- and gradu-ate-level classes and have in my head what it is to be a great preschool teacher, and map that onto what it takes to be a great higher education instructor,” says Zinsser, assistant professor of psychology.

“It comes down to relationships and being a trusting, respectful person.”

That means creating a college class-room where expectations are clear and students are encouraged to engage in dis-cussion, she says.

“I am going to respect you as an indi-vidual and an independent thinker. I am going to try to create a positive classroom environment where you have a voice and

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGYCollege of Liberal Arts and Sciences

KATHERINE ZINSSER

you feel comfortable as a learner,” Zinsser tells her students on the first day of class.

Her developmental psychology course, which focuses on how individuals’ behav-iors and mental processes change over a lifespan, is “inherently interesting to stu-dents.”

“We talk about issues around identity formation and the transition from adoles-cence to adulthood, how workplace cli-mates impact life satisfaction,” she says.

“They are poised and hungry for infor-mation about what is it going to be to be an adult.”

Zinsser, who came to UIC in 2013, is grateful for the different perspectives and backgrounds her students bring to the classroom, particularly in discussions.

“I couldn’t ask for a richer database,” she says.

“The students in my classes have had practically every experience under the sun and that means there will always be a great example for their classmates to learn from.”

— Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

SILVER CIRCLE AWARDS 2015

12 uicnews.uic.edu I UIC NEWS I APRIL 29, 2015

Send information about campus events to Christy Levy, christyb@uic.edu

EXHIBITS

COMMENCEMENT

More than 7,500 students will be honored at ceremonies for 14 colleges. View complete schedule of events, information and FAQ at commencement.uic.edu

UIC Pavilion, UIC Forum

MAY 6–10

FOR MORE UIC EVENTS, VISIT EVENTS.UIC.EDU

CALENDAR

LECTURES

SPECIAL EVENTSAPRIL 29

Lavender Graduation

Event honors the academic achievements of LGBTQ students and their allies at UIC. Key-note speaker is Angelica Ross, executive director and CEO of TransTech Social Enterprises

5–10 p.m.

APRIL 30

Choral Masterworks

The UIC Choirs are joined by a professional chamber orchestra, the Janus Ensemble, to perform Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Haydn’s Missa pro Defunctis. Conducted by Michael J. Ander-son and Andrew Lewis

7:30 p.m. St. Francis of Assisi, 813 W. Roosevelt Road

APRIL 29

Zumbathon

UIC Campus Recre-ation is partnering with the New Life Volunteer Society for the event, which raises money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Cost is $5 for students; $7 for others

5:30–7:30 p.m.

APRIL 29

Building the Great Lakes Basin Railroad

Frank Patton, managing partner of the Great Lakes Basin Railroad, LLC, discusses plans for a 275-mile railroad that would operate between Janesville, Wisconsin, and Michigan City, Indiana. Sponsored by the Urban Transportation Center

Noon–1:30 p.m. / 217 SRH

MAY 5

Budget Outlook

Town hall with Chancellor Mi-chael Amiridis and Janet Parker, associate chancellor and vice provost for budget and resource planning. Sponsored by the Academic Professionals Advisory Committee

1:30–3:30 p.m. Moss Auditorium, COMRB

APRIL 29-30

Cities Across the Globe

Symposium sponsored by the Great Cities Initiative. Keynote speaker Diego Aulestia, minister of international trade, Ecuador. Topics include spatial planning, public space, economic restructuring and more

greatcities.uic.edu

THROUGH JUNE 30

“GSC 20/20”

Highlighting 20 years of LGBTQ and allies education, activism and community on campus. Sponsored by the Gender and Sexuality Center

Hours: Mon.–Thurs. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Fri. 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

Gender and Sexuality Center Gallery, 183 BSB

genderandsexuality.uic.edu

MAY 8 THROUGH AUGUST 8After Today

Exhibit includes seven artists’ projects that respond to Chicago’s social, political and economic conditions. Curated by Lorelei Stewart

Hours: Tues.–Fri. 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Sat. noon–6 p.m.

Gallery 400, ADH

13APRIL 29, 2015 I UIC NEWS I uicnews.uic.edu

STUDENT VOICEWant to contribute a story? Email Christy Levy, christyb@uic.edu

By Aneta Murphy — amurph22@uic.edu

With finals around the corner, it is time to start studying extra hard. Late-night cram sessions the night before a final are no fun, so here are some study tips to help you prepare this week:• If you are making flashcards or rewriting your

notes, try using different colors. It will help.• Prepare a quiet study area. Make sure it’s clean

and organized, and that there are minimal dis-tractions. Studying in your living room near the TV is distracting and you will most likely end up watching a show instead.

• If you don’t have a quiet study area, try the li-brary. If you are studying with a group, you can reserve a room.

• Speaking of groups, pick your study group wisely – people who will actually study with you and not be a distraction. Sometimes study-ing with your friends is not the best idea be-cause you can get off topic.

• If your professors offer an optional review ses-sion, go. I know it’s tempting to just stay home, but these review sessions are extremely helpful.Hope these tips help you ace your finals.

Good luck!

TIPSto help you

ACE YOURFINALS

Selwyn Varghese studies for finals in the Daley Library. — Photo: Timothy Nguyen

It’s August 2011. Do you remember what you were doing? If you’re graduating this year, maybe our August was similar.

I was packing everything up to move to UIC. Then I was moving into an unfamiliar place, knowing only one other person living in the residence halls. The next thing I knew, my family was gone and I was on my own.

That’s when the panic set in. I was embarking on an entirely new journey and completely terrified. This terror carried into the next few days as I met roommates and other eager freshmen.

On my first day of class, I learned just how different college professors are from high school teachers – just one of the many big changes in my life. I knew the only way to feel a sense of belonging and potentially ditch the home-sickness would be to join leadership organizations. So I did.

I started with my building’s hall council. It seemed like a sense of sameness to me, as I was so involved with my high school’s student council. I attended countless other things, and in January 2012, I was inducted into the Na-tional Residence Hall Honorary, perhaps my favorite thing I’ve done while at UIC.

Then I was hired as a resident assistant in my building. I was thrilled and couldn’t wait for another new experi-ence to begin.

By Holly Brenza — hbrenz2@uic.edu

Until it was August 2012 and I was moving in. I felt like I was losing weeks of my summer by having to move back early (spoiler alert: this feeling comes back every year). But serving as a primary resource to 60 freshmen residents really made me forget about some of the strug-gles I was facing.

Things only got better. I took some of my favorite classes sophomore year, learning about everything from the universe to professional media writing. Sophomore year was when I discovered what I want to do as a career. This was a huge moment for me, as I’m sure it is for all of us.

I came back to campus junior year feeling accom-plished; I had completed an amazing public relations in-ternship over the summer, and suddenly, college had a purpose to me. I knew I was headed in the right direction. I loved meeting my residents (this time only 25) and help-ing them in whatever way possible. I was voted to the ex-ecutive board of the National Residence Hall Honorary. I started blogging for “I am UIC.” Blogging meant so much to me and made me feel so connected with the entire UIC population. I realized that whether we live on campus, commute, are faculty or staff, we are all UIC, and there are a lot of things we have in common from being a part of such a great university.

In the winter of 2013, I started another internship, and

that’s when the bug hit me. I loved internships, and with the little time I had left in college, I vowed to do as many as I possibly could. A huge part of my junior year was writing a proposal to reinstall a senior student staff posi-tion, which would allow me to serve as a resource to RAs. I got the job – in the same building where I had lived since freshman year.

I came back to campus this year more excited than ever. I was going to do everything I hadn’t in the past three years and get straight As (the first probably didn’t happen but the second did!). In my new supervisory role, I helped new and returning RAs with many parts of the job. I started a yearlong internship on campus that made me feel even more connected to UIC.

Being involved and making great friends defined my college experience. I am not just a blogger for “I am UIC”

– I am UIC and always will be, long after the final box of things is packed and the skyline is in the rear-view mirror.

“I am UIC, and always will be, long after the final box of things is packed and the skyline is in the rear-view mirror,” says Holly Brenza, who graduates next week with an English degree. — Photo: Jenny Fontaine

14 uicnews.uic.edu I UIC NEWS I APRIL 29, 2015

CRIMES REPORTED TO UIC POLICETheft: 3Assault: 1Battery: 1

Criminal damage: 1Harassment by telephone: 1Narcotics possession: 1

UIC Police emergency: 312-355-5555Nonemergency: 312-996-2830TDD: 312-413-9323

Visit the UIC Police crime mapuiccrimemaps.org/mapand the Chicago Police CLEAR Mapgis.chicagopolice.org

POLICE

APRIL 20–26

ARRESTS BY UIC POLICEApril25: A man was arrested for assault

at 3:02 a.m. at 913 S. Aberdeen St. A man was arrested for narcotics

possession-hallucinogens at 9:03 p.m. at the UIC Pavilion.

Editorial: . . . . . . . . . . (312) 996-7758 Advertising: . . . . . . . (312) 996-3456 Fax: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (312) 413-7607

Editor Sonya Booth . . . . . . sobooth@uic.edu Associate Editor Christy Levy . . . . . . . christyb@uic.edu Assistant Editor Gary Wisby . . . . . . . . gwisby@uic.edu Visual Communications & Design Anna Dworzecka . . . adworz1@uic.edu Associate Graphic Designer Megan Strand . . . . . mstran2@uic.edu

Editorial Interns Justin Mendoza, Matthew Pozo

Editorial Associates S. K. Vemmer . . . . . . svemme1@uic.edu Nicole Cardos . . . . . ncardo2@uic.edu

Advertising Coordinator Samella Wright . . . . uicnewsads@uic.edu

Advertising/Marketing Intern Vana Povrzenic, Emily Waas

Senior Director for Public Affairs Bill Burton. . . . . . . . . burton@uic.edu

Photography, UIC Photo Services Roberta Dupuis-Devlin & Joshua Clark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . uicphoto@uic.edu

Student Photography Contributors Timothy Nguyen, Joseph Horejs

Published on Wednesdays during the academic year (monthly during summer) by the Office of Public and Government Affairs of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

601 S. Morgan St. - 1320 University Hall (MC 288) - Chicago, IL 60607-7113

uicnews.uic.edu

UIC News Staff

WORD SEARCH: CHICAGO BULLS

Find the words listed below in the word bank. Words can be found in any and every direction. Enjoy! — Puzzle: Emily Waas

BAIRSTOWBROOKSBUTLERGASOL

GIBSONHINRICH

MCDERMOTTMOHAMMED

MOORENOAHROSESNELL

WORD BANK

SUDOKU: ULTRA EASY

Use logic and process of elimination to fill in the blank cells using the numbers 1 through 9. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and 3x3 block.

Find the answer to this week’s puzzle online at go.uic.edu/puzzle429

Su

do

ku P

uzz

ler

by

Ian

Rie

nsc

he,

ww

w.s

udok

upuz

zler

.com

Former students and colleagues of Dan Milt-ner, a faculty member in the Office of Mathemat-ics Education who died suddenly on March 25, 2014, remembered him with a tree-planting cere-mony April 24.

Miltner, 46, was assis-tant director of the Office of Mathematics Educa-tion and clinical assistant professor in the College of Education and College of Liberal Arts and Sci-ences. He received two Silver Circle Awards and a teaching award from the Council for Ex-cellence in Teaching and Learning.

The memorial on the east side of the grove near the Science and Engineering Offices building includes a young oak tree and a plaque that reads “beloved teacher and colleague.”

“It’s something that will always be here on the campus, and thus will serve as a con-stant reminder that Dan will always be here with us,” said Alison Superfine, associate professor and director of the Office of

By Sharon Parmet— sparmet@uic.edu

Students, colleagues remember professor with tree-planting ceremony

Mathematics Education.Those who spoke at the ceremony in-

cluded Brooke Shipley, professor and head of mathematics, statistics and computer science; math professor emeritus John Baldwin; Evan Taylor, one of Miltner’s stu-dents; and math department colleague Kelly Darke.

Students hung paper leaves from the tree with one word that finished the sen-tence, “As Professor Miltner’s student, I learned and will always remember that a teacher needs to be ...”

A tree and plaque are a memorial for Dan Miltner, who died last year. — Photo: Erin Schubert

15APRIL 29, 2015 I UIC NEWS I uicnews.uic.edu

During his sophomore year, Cody Lee spent 20 weeks on crutches with a stress fracture in his femur. The injury kept him on the sidelines of the UIC cross country and track team for a year.

“I felt like a new person,” Lee said. “I just wanted to get back to running and being who I was.”

The injury had a major impact on his career choice. A student in the GPPA medicine program and Hon-ors College, Lee knew he wanted to go to medical school, but spending so much time with his orthope-dic surgeon showed him what specialty to pursue.

“It’s weird to say, but it was actually a hidden bless-ing,” he said. “I realized that what I want to do for a living is to bring people back to their passion.”

Lee is this year’s winner of the Donald and Leah Riddle Prize for Outstanding Graduating Senior. The prize, named for a former chancellor and his wife, is among UIC’s top undergraduate honors.

Since completing his studies in December, Lee has interned with an orthopedic surgeon in Hindsdale, photographing and videotaping knee and shoulder surgeries.

“I get to be involved in something medically relat-ed but take a different, creative approach to it,” he said.

He will attend medical school next fall and dreams of being a physician for a professional sports team.

By Christy Levy— christyb@uic.edu

“My No. 1 goal is to be a physician who is compas-sionate and understands his patients on more than a medical level but as a human,” he said. “Broken bones or a torn ACL are really debilitating and take you away from who you are.”

Lee finished his dual-degree program in biochemis-try and Spanish in three-and-a-half years.

“Biochemistry was a great way for me to prepare for classes in medical school but Spanish was my interest-ing major,” he said. “It was a way for me to explore a different academic world.”

He managed his rigorous schoolwork while compet-ing on the cross country and track team. He vividly re-calls his best race at the beginning of sophomore year.

“It felt like an out-of-body experience,” he said. “I was running and my mind was totally free. I didn’t feel the pain of running a 5-mile race. I felt like I was run-ning like a champion.”

Time management and a passion for running kept him going, even though his days were tightly scheduled.

“The magic recipe is that everything you have to do is something you actually want to do,” he said. “I didn’t have an athletic scholarship and I wasn’t one of the best ones on the team. I was purely there because I wanted to be there. The friendships I built with other student athletes really made my college experience special.”

Lee said he will always cherish his time as a UIC

student and Flames athlete. “UIC is going to be a big player in my future career and

something I reflect on a lot,” he said. “It’s an institution that I foresee myself going back to and hopefully serving in the future.”

Cody Lee is heading to medical school in the fall.— Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

CODY LEE Injury helped shape Riddle Prize winner’s future

PEOPLE

Cristian Nuno plans a career in municipal finance and urban policy, making complex information easier to un-derstand for government leaders and the public.

Nuno, a junior in the Honors College, was named a 2015 Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation scholar, a highly competitive award for students planning careers in government or public service. He will receive $30,000 for graduate school.

Nuno, a dual-major in economics and urban and pub-lic affairs, is one of 58 Truman Scholars selected nation-wide. Scholars also receive leadership training, career and graduate school counseling and internship opportunities with the federal government.

Inspired by researching public-private partnerships, Nuno enjoys the challenge of analyzing complicated mu-nicipal finance information.

“My biggest passion is taking something that people don’t care about and making it relevant,” said Nuno, a res-ident of Glen Ellyn.

A 2012 graduate of Glenbard South High School, Nuno is a first-generation college student. He was in the inaugural class of the President’s Award Program Honors Scholarship, a four-year tuition and housing scholarship for exemplary first-year Honors College students.

By Brian Flood— bflood@uic.edu

UIC research and leadership programs, such as the Summer Research Opportunities Program, the Urban Public Policy Fellowship and the Graduate Pathways to Success Program, were valuable preparation for the rigor-ous Truman selection process, Nuno said.

“UIC lets you be great at whatever you want to be great at. We have students that feel comfortable enough to learn whatever they want to learn,” he said. “Thanks to my time at UIC, I am excited to be a social scientist.”

As the third UIC student to earn the Truman scholar-ship since 1993, he hopes his selection will inspire other UIC students.

“The resources we have can take students anywhere they want to go,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you go to school. It’s what you do with where you are.”

This year’s scholars were selected from among 688 can-didates nominated by 297 colleges and universities. They were chosen in a multi-stage process that concluded with regional interviews by 16 independent selection panels.

The scholars will gather May 19 for a leadership devel-opment program at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. They will receive their awards in a special cere-mony May 24 at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.

CRISTIAN NUNOTruman scholarship winner wants to simplify complex information

Cristian Nuno plans a career in municipal finance and urban policy. — Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

16 uicnews.uic.edu I UIC NEWS I APRIL 29, 2015

BASEBALLBy Mike Laninga — mlaninga@uic.edu

Tyler Detmer had two hits for the Flames versus Milwaukee Sunday. — Photo: Steve Woltmann

The baseball team (20-17-1, 15-6 HL) is back on top of the Horizon League standings after a doubleheader split against Milwaukee (24-15, 10-10 HL) Sunday after-noon.

The Flames won two-of-three versus the Panthers over the weekend. UIC has won all seven conference series this season.

UIC heads to Wright State for a three-game series beginning Friday and returns home Tuesday to host Michigan at 6 p.m. at Granderson Stadium.

The Flames pounded out 11 hits in game one but could push across only two runs in a 7-2 defeat. Joe Pavlovich (4-1) tossed a complete game for the Panthers and threw 136 pitches. The Flames left two runners on base in each of the final three innings.

UIC starter Ian Lewandowski (4-4) allowed seven runs on 11 hits over 6.3 innings. Noah Masa relieved Le-wandowski in the seventh and tossed 2.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen.

Tyler Detmer, Jeff Boehm and Rob Calabrese had two hits for the Flames. Boehm and Alex Lee both drove in runs on sacrifice flies. Boehm and Zenon Kolakowski scored UIC’s runs in the second and eighth innings.

Milwaukee scored three runs on three hits in the first inning before UIC got one back in the bottom of the sec-ond. Boehm led off with a double to left center and scored on Lee’s sacrifice fly to center.

The Panthers extended their lead to 7-1 with two runs in the fifth and seventh innings. The Flames scored their final run in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Kolakowski walked with one out and advanced to third

on Detmer’s single through the left side. Boehm brought Kolakowski home on a fly ball to left field for his team-leading 46th RBI of the season.

Kolakowski was the hero in the series finale as he slapped a game-winning infield single in the 10th inning that plated Conor Philbin, giving UIC the 3-2 triumph. Kolakowski came in to pinch hit for Gabe Dwyer and recorded the walk-off hit on a 0-2 pitch.

Trevor Lane got the starting nod for the Flames and allowed two runs over seven innings. He scattered eight hits, walked six batters and struck out three.

Cody Bohanek went 3-of-4 from the dish and im-proved his team-leading batting average to .353. Mickey McDonald scored an RBI, going 2-for-5 from the plate.

The Flames got on the scoreboard first with one run on three hits in the bottom of the first inning. Bohanek sin-gled with one out and advanced to second on Detmer’s single up the middle. McDonald drove in Bohanek with a two-out single to left field.

Milwaukee tied the score at 1-1 with two hits in the top of the fourth inning. The Panthers had two hits and one run in the seventh inning but Lane left the bases loaded to limit the damage.

UIC pushed across the tying run in the eighth. Mc-Donald and Philbin singled with one out before Lee walked to load the bases. With two outs, Dwyer reached on an error by Milwaukee’s Tell Taylor and Philbin came around to score.

Senior Ryan Hinchley tossed the final three innings and picked up the win as his season record improves to 2-1.

SPORTS

BACKON TOP

The softball team (21-18, 12-5 HL) pulled together for a 3-2 win Sunday against Wright State (16-29, 11-6 HL) to take the series, 2-1, at the WSU Softball Field. With the win, the Flames take sole possession of second place in the Horizon League standings.

The Flames play their final nonconference game of the season at 5 p.m. tonight at Northern Illinois in DeKalb.

It was a low-hitting affair as the two teams combined for 12 hits, with UIC taking just five. Tiana Mack-Miller registered her 12th multi-hit game of the year as she tal-lied two doubles. Eleni Polites, Dana Capocci and Savan-nah Soppet also had hits for the Flames.

Elaine Heflin threw her 12th complete game en route to her 10th victory, ninth in conference. Heflin struck out seven batters and gave up no walks in 107 pitches.

“It was great to see Elaine (Heflin) and Erica (Hamp-ton) be in control throughout the game,” head coach Mi-chelle Venturella said. “Our offense did a nice job of having some long offensive innings. ”

After leaving the bases loaded with a trio of walks in the first, UIC worked the free base again in the second. Erica Hampton and Soppet drew back-to-back walks, Polites singled, then Mack-Miller doubled for the 13th time this year to score two.

The Flames put up another run in the third. The Raid-ers responded with two runs in the bottom half.

By Laura White— lwhite88@uic.edu

Softball wins series at Wright State

Elaine Heflin threw her 12th complete game Sunday at Wright State. — Photo: Steve Woltmann

FLAMES RECLAIM FIRST PLACE INHORIZON LEAGUE

Julian Torres, ranked the No. 3 center in Illinois and the 44th-ranked player overall according to PrepHoopsIllinois.com, will join the men’s basketball team next season.

“Julian will add great size and skill to our frontcourt,” head coach Steve McClain said. “He has an incredible skillset and I look forward to developing his game.”

Torres (F/C, 6-9, 240, Bolingbrook) attended Bolingbrook High School, where he averaged 9.5 points and 7.2 rebounds during his senior year. He helped guide the Raiders to a third-place finish in the 2015 4A State Championships, the highest finish in program history. Bolingbrook ended the year with a 25-7 record and a ranking of No. 4 in the final Super 25 Boys Basketball Poll.

Torres competed for the Mac Irvin Fire on the AAU Circuit, where he averaged 10.9 points per game.

Men’s basketball adds No. 3-ranked centerBy Mike Laninga — mlaninga@uic.edu

Julian Torres