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Mass communication at Texas Wesleyan continues to take steps into the digital world by implementing career advancing trips for students and personal interactions with local professionals. Associate Professor of Mass Communication Dr. Kay Col- ley said the idea for the trips stemmed from the South Central Broadcasting Society Conference and the Broadcast Education Association Dis- trict 5 Conference, hosted on campus last fall. “In my Mass Communica- tion 3351 Survey of Public Re- lations class, students helped with the conference,” Colley said. “One of the reasons I wanted to host that conference was because I wanted our stu- dents interested in broadcast- ing to be able to meet a variety of local broadcasters.” Dan Landson from South- west Airlines also came to the conference and talked about what he does for the airline, which led to a trip to the so- cial media listening center at Southwest Airlines. Senior mass communica- tion major Samantha Rodri- guez said it was a great expe- rience. “I got a feel for how a pro- fessional job would be and what they expect out of col- lege graduates,” she said. Another interactive experi- ence that linked students with communication professionals was a visit from Andrea Ah- les, reporter for the Star-Tele- gram. A trip to CBS 11 also took place on April 8 and was planned by students. “e reason that I really wanted to get into this is be- cause internships are required for our students,” Colley said. “We do have some sites here in Fort Worth where students have completed internships and have had successful expe- riences.” Senior mass communica- tion major Michael Acosta took a tour of Studios 121 and NBC 5 during the SCBS Con- ference last fall. “Studios 121 was really cool,” Acosta said. “I got to go in, be a part of their set and meet professionals. Both stu- dios were fast-paced.” Colley said the students are responding well to this expe- riential, immersive learning. “Students seem to be more excited about these aspects of their education than maybe they had been before because they see how it’s working in real life,” Colley said. “And that’s what we want to see.” ESLEYNOTES W Communication for the digital age Connecting you with the School of Arts and Letters I am happy to present the Spring 2016 edi- tion of Wesleynotes. In this issue, we expanded student participation by involving three Mass Communication cours- es. For the first time, we profile both a staff member and an adjunct professor: Jacob Sanchez (’15), the administrator for eatre Wesleyan and Kate Sierra, who teach- es French and is also a nationally-ranked saber fencer. Another first for this issue--results of this year’s program review (Mass Communication and Religion). A review of academic programs within Arts and Letters will continue in future issues. I am really proud of the work these students have done, and I hope you enjoy this issue. -Dr. Steven Daniell Dean, School of Arts and Letters Photo courtesy of Kay Colley Mass communication students toured the social media listening center at Southwest Airlines. In this issue Study abroad................... e 39 Steps.................... Program Review ............. Alumni Profiles.............. Student Profiles.............. Student Profiles.............. President`s Concert....... Faculty Profiles............... Dean`s List.................... 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Vol.3 Issue 2 Spring 2016

Wesleynotes Spring 2016 Edition

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Page 1: Wesleynotes Spring 2016 Edition

Mass communication at Texas Wesleyan continues to take steps into the digital world by implementing career advancing trips for students and personal interactions with local professionals.

Associate Professor of Mass Communication Dr. Kay Col-ley said the idea for the trips stemmed from the South Central Broadcasting Society Conference and the Broadcast Education Association Dis-trict 5 Conference, hosted on campus last fall.

“In my Mass Communica-tion 3351 Survey of Public Re-lations class, students helped with the conference,” Colley said. “One of the reasons I wanted to host that conference was because I wanted our stu-dents interested in broadcast-ing to be able to meet a variety of local broadcasters.”

Dan Landson from South-west Airlines also came to the conference and talked about what he does for the airline, which led to a trip to the so-cial media listening center at Southwest Airlines.

Senior mass communica-tion major Samantha Rodri-guez said it was a great expe-rience.

“I got a feel for how a pro-fessional job would be and what they expect out of col-lege graduates,” she said.

Another interactive experi-ence that linked students with communication professionals was a visit from Andrea Ah-les, reporter for the Star-Tele-gram. A trip to CBS 11 also took place on April 8 and was planned by students.

“The reason that I really wanted to get into this is be-cause internships are required

for our students,” Colley said. “We do have some sites here in Fort Worth where students have completed internships and have had successful expe-riences.”

Senior mass communica-tion major Michael Acosta took a tour of Studios 121 and NBC 5 during the SCBS Con-ference last fall.

“Studios 121 was really cool,” Acosta said. “I got to go in, be a part of their set and meet professionals. Both stu-dios were fast-paced.”

Colley said the students are responding well to this expe-riential, immersive learning.

“Students seem to be more excited about these aspects of their education than maybe they had been before because they see how it’s working in real life,” Colley said. “And that’s what we want to see.”

E S L E Y N O T E SW Communication for the digital age

Connecting you with the School of Arts and Letters

I am happy to present the Spring 2016 edi-tion of Wesleynotes. In this issue, we expanded student participation by involving three Mass Communication cours-es. For the first time, we profile both a staff member and an adjunct professor: Jacob Sanchez (’15), the administrator for Theatre Wesleyan and Kate Sierra, who teach-es French and is also a nationally-ranked saber fencer. Another first for this issue--results of this year’s program review (Mass Communication and Religion). A review of academic programs within Arts and Letters will continue in future issues. I am really proud of the work these students have done, and I hope you enjoy this issue.

-Dr. Steven DaniellDean, School of Arts and Letters

Photo courtesy of Kay ColleyMass communication students toured the social media listening center at Southwest Airlines.

In this issueStudy abroad...................The 39 Steps....................Program Review.............Alumni Profiles..............Student Profiles..............Student Profiles..............President`s Concert.......Faculty Profiles...............Dean`s List....................10

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Vol.3 Issue 2Spring 2016

Page 2: Wesleynotes Spring 2016 Edition

Students enjoy more international studies Arts & Letters 2 School of Arts & Letters

Photo courtesy of Alejandro HernandezJust one of many beautiful waterfalls students visited while on the summer 2015 two-week study abroad trip to Costa Rica.

Learning for students within Texas Wesleyan’s School of Arts and Letters ex-tends beyond the walls of the classrom.

Last year, students studied Spanish in Costa Rica. Religion and political sci-ence in Thailand, Singapore and Cam-bodia. This year a trip to Russia has been planned for students studying music, history and humanities.

Dr. Amy Bell, associate professor of Spanish, led Spanish students last sum-mer to Costa Rica, where she witnessed firsthand the benefits study abroad has on students.

“I like to see how awed the students are,” she said. “There’s so much natural beauty, and I just like to see students’ re-actions.”

Students stayed with native families to develop a deeper connection with the culture.

“A lot of students notice that Costa Ri-cans work to live instead of live to work,” Bell said. “Family and community are a lot more valued.”

Alejandro Hernandez, senior Spanish major with a secondary in education major, found the natural beauty of the

beach to be the most memorable. “It was the first time that I’d actually ever been to the beach,” he said. “We didn’t waste any time in heading there when we arrived. We swam for hours!”

Hernandez found the trip helped him grow both academically and personally.

“I learned a lot about Costa Rica, but this trip also helped me to be more so-cial,” he said. “I don’t usually tend to be social with people I barely know, but be-ing with people all day kind of forced me to.”

Hernandez said what he learned in class helped him prepare for Costa Rica.

“Dr. Bell did a good job of preparing us with a trip itinerary and by teaching us about Costa Rica,” he said.

Costa Rica isn’t the only chance for students to study abroad. Students will be traveling to Moscow and St. Peters-burg, Russia in May.

Dr. John Fisher, professor of music, believes that students at Wesleyan have an advantage when it comes to these op-portunities.

“Tuition generated from two required three-hour courses is allocated to help

defray the cost of the trip, making it very inexpensive.”

Fisher also has seen firsthand how stu-dents fall in love with the experience.

“Every year they want to go on the next one, because they know what a benefit this is,” Fisher said. “Travel becomes like a bug – you get infected with it.”

Brianna Kessler, senior mass commu-nication major, has definitely been in-fected with the travel bug. She said she loves experiencing new cultures.

“I’m really excited about the upcom-ing Mother Russia trip,” she said. “It’s my graduation gift to myself.”

This won’t be Kessler’s first study abroad trip. She traveled to Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore last summer.

Kessler is especially thankful for this opportunity as it was made financially possible to her through the help of the-Student Government Association’s Trav-el Abroad Scholarship.

“I never would have gotten to leave the country if it wasn’t for study abroad programs like Wesleyan’s,” she said. “I’m so fortunate to receive the SGA’s scholar-ship. It’s a dream come true.”

Page 3: Wesleynotes Spring 2016 Edition

Theatre Wesleyan’s 39 Steps is a great success

Photo by Michelle PhillipsThe 39 Steps was directed by Bryan Stevenson and starred only four cast members, who played 10 characters each.

The 39 Steps is a hysterical comedy with a mysterious story line that kept audiences guessing to the end.

The play, directed by Bryan Stevenson, is loosely based on an Alfred Hitchcock movie and a 1915 novel by John Buchan of the same name, stars only four cast members, who play 10 characters each.

Carlos Brumfield, senior theatre ma-jor, said being able to play multiple char-acters allowed the cast to broaden their acting style and was a fun challenge.

“From the 10 characters, there’s two I equally liked,” Brumfield said. “Mrs. Mc-Gairrgle and Mr. Dunwoody.”

Brumfield played the role of two com-pletely different characters in the same act. In one scene, he was a grumpy old man, Mr. Dunwoody, and in the next scene, he was a funny Scottish house-maid, Mrs. McGairrgle.

“Playing these chraracters gave me the opportunity to learn a Scottish accent, which was tricky,” he said.

“The biggest challenge was switching my characters from Mr. Dunwoody to Mrs. Gairrgle, but I enjoyed the experi-ence.”

Brumfield said the show was a huge success and everything ran smoothly.

“Just like in a relationship, in theatre, you require an amount of trust with each other,” he said. “Luckily for me, I had re-ally smart cast members who together helped put on a fantastic show.”

Clarissa Murillo, sophomore theatre major, said the interactive play, which takes the audience through a European spy chase, was exciting for the viewers as well as the cast members.

“It was a lot of fun,” Murillo said. “The crowd really loved it; they couldn’t be-lieve that each of us played different roles in the show.”

Murillo said each role was different and set a new scene for the audience.

“In every role that I played, I was the love interest of all the scenes,” she said. “I

was also a German spy named Annabel-la in one scene.”

Anthony Harper, sophomore forensic accounting major, said having friends as theatre majors was a reminder to go watch the show.

“I’m an RA and most of my residents are theatre majors,” Harper said. “I want-ed to watch the show and support my friends.”

There was no one in the audience who disliked the show. The Thad Smother-man Theatre was filled with a big crowd of cheering people, and you could see that everyone enjoyed every minute of it.

“It was a great turnout,” Harper said. “There were a only few seats left, on the last day of the show.”

The show was performed live seven times, had an interesting mixture of ro-mance, action, mystery and laughs.

The show kicked off the Spring 2016 semester of productions, which also in-cludes Clue: The Musical April 21-24.

Arts & Letters 3School of Arts & Letters

Page 4: Wesleynotes Spring 2016 Edition

Arts & Letters 4 School of Arts & Letters

Wesleyan’s Program Review Commit-tee met in March to consider changes to the religion and mass communication programs.

Dr. Steven Daniell, dean of the School of Arts and Letters, said the purpose of program review is to ensure that pro-grams meet students’ needs.

Associate Provost Dr. Helena Bussell said the program reviews address pro-gram centrality to the university mission and strategic priorities.

“It also reviews quality, student achievement, strategic advantage of the program and current demand and fu-ture marketability,” Bussell said.

Both departments are looking at changes to programs based on the re-view.

Dr. Gladys Childs, chair of the Re-ligion Department, said the reli gion program will be exploring the develop-ment of certificate programs in areas of

conflict resolution or interfaith studies. Having the certificate program will in-crease the number of religion majors and minors, Childs said.

Childs said the department plans to develop scholarships aimed at the trans-fer market.

“Because we have room in our upper level classes,” Childs said, “we could fo-cus on transfer markets that may help our department grow.”

Childs said the department wants to create relationships with religiously-af-filiated high schools and private schools with its Dual Enrollment program. She said the department will also promote future Wesleyan students to become double majors of religious studies.

Dr. Kay Colley, chair of the Mass Communication Department, said the department may develop media courses targeting certain majors.

“We want to start a social media class

targeting students from the School of Business Administration, particularly marketing students,” Colley said. “The other class we hope to develop will be an everyday audio and video course.”

Daniell said these courses will create opportunities for business majors. He said it will help with entrepreneurship, management and marketing.

“I think it’s something that business students would like that was requested from the dean of the School of Business Administration,” Daniell said.

Colley said the department is looking at developing a program to train stu-dents for Spanish-language media. Ac-cording to the review, this niche-market program will help students gain profi-ciency for mass media jobs.

The Academic Affairs Committee and the Board of Trustees will make the final decisions on recommendations.

Photo by Dalise DeVosDr. Mark Hanshaw, associate dean of Arts and Letters, looks over the Program Review document.

Religion and mass communication reviews

Page 5: Wesleynotes Spring 2016 Edition

Sokhan Solis graduated from Texas Wesleyan in 2002. She majored in Span-ish while receiving her secondary certi-fication in education to be able to teach.

She didn’t always want to be a Spanish teacher. At one time she actually want-ed to be a sports therapist or a computer engineer. It was while she attended Wes-leyan that she decided to become an ed-ucator.

“I thought majoring in Spanish would be the easiest thing,” Solis said.

As a student she had done lots of vol-unteering and reading at several schools.

“When I’d observed the different schools, I knew that teaching high school students would be best for me,” she said.

Solis has kept herself very busy since graduating from Wesleyan.

She has been a teacher for 14 years, teaching regular and Pre-Advanced Placement courses at North Crowley High School’s 9th grade campus. She has been the Language Other Than English (LOTE) department head for 10 years,

and she is the Spanish Club sponsor. Solis still remembers turning in assign-ments to some of her professors and how supportive they were of her studies.

“At Wesleyan, students were close to their professors,” she said. “The learn-ing environment is a lot better when students have a good relationship with them.” Being a teacher at a 9th grade campus rather than a large high school with several grades, Solis says her teach-ing style is reminiscent of Wesleyan’s.

“When you have a good relationship with your teacher, you learn more,” she said. “Being at a smaller school, one learns how to network and establish long-lasting relationships. That’s one of the things I learned while being a stu-dent,” she said.

“When you have a good relationship with your

teacher, you learn more.”

Jacob Sanchez was part of the Texas Wesleyan community even before he graduated high school. Sanchez said Wesleyan has provided an environment where he has been able to grow when he was just a high school student visiting five years ago.

Sanchez graduated from Wesleyan in Spring 2015 and was a student assistant in the Theatre Department all four years. He took his current position as the busi-ness manager for the department in Sep-tember 2015.

“I handle business aspects of the de-partment including some budgets, pur-chasing, making sure royalties for shows are paid for, etc. and the graphic design for the department,” he said.

Sanchez is happy with the way things turned out.

“I get to incorporate what I learned as a student with my job, and also, I get to add a few new things that you can’t learn

from just being a student,” he said.Sanchez is also active with his oth-

er passion, performing arts. He had a role in Young Frankenstein and his most recent role was in Nevermore. He plans to continue performing this summer and whenever he has the time.

Sanchez said the four years he spent learning under the Theatre Department meant so much to him.

“If there is one thing I have noticed about our Arts and Letters school, it’s how active the students are,” he said. “They always come to support the oth-er students across the school, like music students supporting theatre students and vice versa.”

“They always come to support the students.”

Arts & Letters 5School of Arts & Letters

Alumni Profiles

Page 6: Wesleynotes Spring 2016 Edition

Cenk Tuncel, a junior mass communication major at Texas Wesleyan, has been living the American dream for a few years now, and he does not plan to leave any-time soon. Tuncel first came to America when he was 17. “I went to the language course in Lynn University, Miami, Florida, and I stayed three weeks,” Tuncel said. “After those three weeks, I knew one day I would study in the United States.” Tuncel left his family and friends in Turkey to come to America to study and learn English. He knew it would be hard but he came anyway because he knew he would get a great education and experience.“I wanted to come here because of education and English,” he said. “I am still not a perfect speaker or writer. How-ever, every day I am improving myself.” Though he misses his country, Tuncel has adapted to the difference in cultural norms, such as food and lifestyle, from Turkey to America. “ I rarely eat fast food in Turkey,” Tuncel said. Now he said he eats a significant amount of fast food in America. He has not officially decided, but if offered a job, Tuncel wants to stay in America for a few years post-gradua-tion to gain work experience. After the work experience, Tuncel has one mission to accomplish.“I really want to go to LA, California.”

Bruce Terry is Texas Wesleyan’s Event Coordinator and a part-time student. His favorite event to set up is the President’s Picnic. This event brings all the students together in one place. He enjoys seeing the freshmen and the older stu-dents getting to know each other for the first time. When Terry is not setting up events, he is taking classes. He started college in 1982 at Jarvis Christian College but did not finish. He has been away from school for a while but decided to go back. At the age of 52, Terry is working to finish his bachelor of arts degree in liberal studies with a minor in business and criminal justice. Although he has been at his degree for three years and will not graduate until 2018, his motivation to continue is the promise that he made to his mother before she died, that he would get his degree. He does not look at his journey as hard work. He takes it as just something that he has to do. Terry’s motto is “Some days will be bad, and some days will be good. If you just concentrate on the good days, then you can swallow the bad days.”

Arts & Letters 6 School of Arts & Letters

Junior music major Avary Vaughn excels in music because of her passion and love for it. Vaughn has been one of the few to be selected to perform at the Presi-dent’s Honors Concert for the past three years. The concert is an opportunity for music majors and minors to compete for a spot in a showcase recital. Auditions are presented in front of a panel of five judges from other universities or organi-zations. This year’s winners are the pinnacle of Department of Music student skill and talent. Vaughn has also received several musical scholarships throughout her career, including the Sigma Alpha Lota American scholarship, the Marjorie Murphey Scholarship and the European Club Scholarship. Vaughn is primarily a singer, so you could say her instrument is her vocals, but she also plays percus-sion with the wind ensemble at Wesleyan. Vaughn plans to continue her music career in the future through performance and teaching music at a school.

Student Profiles

Page 7: Wesleynotes Spring 2016 Edition

Tobin Griffin is not your average theatre major at Texas Wesleyan. He is the guy who makes the play have “flair.” He works all day with power tools and creates the props that the actors use in the play. Since he first started as a freshman, he has shown why he is the lead man when it comes to prop designs: drawing his own sketches and creating the architecture to make everything perfect for the play. While he spends most of the day at school, he heads right into the theatre after classes to begin work. Trevor Baxter, who works with Griffin, understands that Griffin just wants to do his best. “Tobin really likes Texas Wesleyan, and I think it shows in all the hard work he does for not only him, but everyone around him and the school,” Baxter said. “I can’t really say what it is about me, but when I wake up, I think only positive thoughts. I truly believe if you are not trying to improve your life or somebody else’s life, then you are not really living, and I hope that helps people here at Texas Wesleyan,” Griffin said.

Texas Wesleyan University senior Lori King-Nelson has her hands full with being a full-time mother and student. King-Nelson is majoring in comparative religion and is planning to attend Brite Divinity School at TCU for her graduate studies. King-Nelson is president of Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society and a member of Alpha Chi, Phi Alpha Theta, Pi Gamma Mu and Tau Sigma. She also volunteers with the Gay-Straight Alliance on campus, participates with Omega Chi, Religious Life for Common Meal and Chapel. Her goal is to educate the public about reli-gious and cultural differences, with a focus on Islamic-Christian relations, in order to promote respect, understanding and peace. “Texas Wesleyan University has provided me with the strong foundation to accomplish these goals,” she said. “I chose to attend Wesleyan because of its diverse and inclusive nature and strong academic emphasis.”

Junior English major Kimberlee Sims chose Wesleyan not only because it was close to home, but because of the outstanding liberal arts program. Reading has always come naturally for her. Sims said she remembers al-ways having a new book thanks to her loving parents. “Ever since I was a child, my parents paid for every book I read until they finally realized they needed a new source of income because my reading habit was getting a bit pricey,” she said. She soon began writing and found out that she was good at it, which is why she decided to become an English major. Sims said choosing to study English at Wesleyan has helped her reach her full potential. At Wesleyan Sims has reached the Dean’s List every semester, became the president of P.E.N. and has gained four years of teacher child care experience. Sims is also a part of a few extra clubs and activities start-ing with Sigma Tau Delta (English honor society), Phi Epsilon Nu (creative writing organization), Alpha Xi Delta (freshman honor society), Golden Shears, and currently is a resident assistant. One day, Sims hopes to own her own daycare and make a difference in the community in all aspects while attending graduate school to obtain a master’s in rhetoric or business management.

Arts & Letters 7School of Arts & Letters

Student Profiles

Page 8: Wesleynotes Spring 2016 Edition

On April 8, twelve students and one faculty member showcased their musical talents at the annual President’s Honors Concert.

The concert, at Nicholas Martin Hall at 7:30 p.m., was hosted by Wesleyan President Frederick G. Slabach and his wife Melany Neilson, along with Nancy and Tim Carter, who is a current mem-ber of the Wesleyan Board of trustees.

“We have some truly phenomenal tal-ent in our music department,” Slabach said. “This is one of those opportunities that the rest of our student body would have to see.”

The students performing at the concert

included Amber McIntyre, soprano; Jan Lässker, piano; Daniel Hernandez, ten-or; Avary Vaughn, mezzo-soprano; Ty-ler Simpson, percussion; Joshua Hearon, baritone; Chanel Hurd, mezzo-soprano; Julian E. Rodriguez, baritone; Hayley Eaker, flute; Alex Lopez, baritone; Luis Calderón, French horn; and Ian Michael Whetsel, baritone. In addition, adjunct music professor Keith Critcher per-formed a wonderful solo piano recital.

Dr. Jerome M. Bierschenk, chairman of the Music Department, said 44 pro-spective performers auditioned for the concert last fall in front of an indepen-dent jury of judges.

“We had 13 of our best students in the department, a combination of vocal and instrumental,” Bierschenk said.

The audience experienced three moods: embittered, wistful and jazzy, Bierschenk said.

“Our audience for the concert is a mixture of trained musicians and some who aren’t,” he said. “We pick pieces that everyone would enjoy.”

The pieces that were presented includ-ed Michael Head’s “When I Think Upon the Maidens” for baritone and piano, Ricky Ian Gordon’s “In Time of Silver Rain” and Roger Quilter’s “Go Lovely Rose,” among others.

Photos courtesy of The RamblerStudents from last year’s President’s Honors Concert show off their talents. Photos from this year’s concert will be featured online.

Arts & Letters 8 School of Arts & Letters

President’s Honors Concert

Page 9: Wesleynotes Spring 2016 Edition

has been a professor at Wesleyan for eight years. She is also one of the found-ing advisory board members of the Young Women’s Leadership Academy in Fort Worth. Johnson-Gerendas regular-ly serves on Rep. Marc Veasey’s educa-tion task force. In 2013, she was asked to join the board by Tarrant County Com-missioner Roy Brooks’ wife, Dr. Jennifer Giddings Brooks. “The goal of his educa-tion task force is to bring people who are struggling financially to the middle class

through education,” she said. There was a special moment at the first YWLA gala that took place March 4 where YWLA honored its first graduating class. John-son-Gerendas and other founding board members were presented with vision awards for their service to the organiza-tion. “It started as something that I was kind of doing just as my own philanthro-py and involvement in the community,” she said. “It’s really wonderful, to see how support for YWLA has grown through-out the community and the recognition that the school has gotten over the years.”

teaches French at Texas Wesleyan, fencing and Spanish at a couple of pri-vate schools in the area, and is a coach at her fencing club. Sierra took fenc-ing her senior year at the University of Northern Iowa. After she graduated, she moved to Texas and found a job teach-ing. She stopped fencing and worked on establishing herself as an educator. After turning 30, she realized that it was time to get her body into shape. Instead of just

going to the gym, she found a fencing class in a catalog of the North Richland Hills recreation center. Twelve years lat-er, she is the co-owner of CuttingEdge Fencing Center. Sierra is ranked No. 3 in the country on the points list for her age group. “It takes a lot of courage to meet someone head-to-head in battle with a small, one-pound sabre in your hand,” she said “I never dreamed my life would take this path; it will be exciting to see where this takes me.” Sierra is a first-year professor at Wesleyan and is ready for the new challenge.

has taught English at Wesleyan for more than 30 years. He was award-ed the Frances B. Hernandez Teach-er-Scholar Award, the highest award available from the Conference of Col-lege Teachers of English. Over the course of his career he has had several works published nationally, including an essay in The Chattahoochee Review and his books Days of Chameleon: Col-lected Poems and Voices Writ in Sand. “Wesleyan has been absolutely essential to my success,” DeLotto said. “They have always been very appreciative and en-couraging.” He believes in Wesleyan’s vi-sion and its future. “When I think of what could be changed at Wesleyan, nothing comes to mind,” DeLotto said. “I think

we are going in great directions.” What he does see is the movement of classes to virtual world. DeLotto understands moving with the times but believes people still see some of the advantages that come with a traditional classroom. “I really think that the future of per-sonal higher education, and that’s what Wesleyan is all about, remains in the brick and mortar, face-to-face teach-ing,” he said. “Both the students and professors get something out of that that cannot be replaced by online.” No mat-ter the state of the university, when he chooses to retire, DeLotto said he will always remember the people he’s met at Texas Wesleyan. “I’ll always remem-ber the faculty, the administration, and my remarkable students,” DeLotto said. “They encouraged me to do more than I would have on my own.”

Dr. Carol Johnson-Gerendas

Kate Sierra

Dr. Jeffrey DeLotto

Arts & Letters 9School of Arts & Letters

Faculty Profiles

Page 10: Wesleynotes Spring 2016 Edition

Miguel Shanna Miguel John Robert Heather Tamara Rachel Michelle Caleb Cameron Luis Eulalio Christina Ryan Dexter Lucia Dalise Lauren Cassandra David Valeria Andrew Amanda Edward Rachel Erik Emily Tammy Joshua Alejandro Benjamin Calvin Dapril Victoria Travis Brianna Lori Rowan Samuel Rachel Alexander Jessica Jakeb Emily Amber Karan Heather

Isabel Stormie Kimberly Jessica Carolyn Clayton Jasmine Lauren Shannon Eleanor Jaclyn Jorge Cathy Jacqueline Madeline Zahraa Crystal Rebecca Lilia Giselle Jennifer Darya Kimberlee Derek Katherine Kasey Bruce Etha Devon Kimberly Avary Nadine Jasmine Casey Christopher Zhaoyu Graduates Cheri Jeremy Teresa Andrea Rebekah Valerie Abigail Flor Lewis Marcos

Dean’s Honors listArts & Letters 10 School of Arts & Letters

Wesleynotes is the official newsletter for the School of Arts and Letters at Texas Wesleyan University. It was produced by students in MCO 2345, MCO 3320 and MCO 4346 at Texas Wesleyan University.

Arts and Letters Dean:

Dr. Steven Daniell

For more information, contact the Dean of Arts and Letters office at 817-531-4900 or come by Polytechnic United Methodist Church, 256.

Contributors:Michael AcostaVictoria GarciaJessica LopezAntonio SimmonsGracie Weger ColemanDalise DeVosSachiko JayaratneRowan LehrMichelle BrueggemannSamantha RodriguezTravis FarnikJessica LockeHeather BirgeDalton Martin

Class instructors: Dr. Kay Colley and Professor Terri CummingsSpecial thanks to: Dr. Dave Ferman andCaroline Kajihara Brianna Kessler - Design Editor

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Got a story idea? Some-thing you’d like to hear about? Let us know what you think about this edi-tion of Wesleynotes.We would love your feedback.

Contact Dr. Kay Colley via email at [email protected] or phone at 817-531-6525

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