The School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics is pleased to present this year's diversity, service, and academic awardees.
SLCL Diversity & Engagement Award
This award recognizes alumni or members of the community at large who have made significant contributions (both tangible and intangible) to the SLCL community; contributions that strengthen our public service mission, our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusivity, and our international connections.
This year's awardee is Eda Derhemi, a professor in the Department of French & Italian.
As the nomination letter underscores, “The key aspect of her research, teaching, and service is a focus on languages that UNESCO considers severely endangered today, and whose speakers still suffer from discrimination due to linguistic, ethnic, and/or religious differences with dominant cultures in their countries. The work she does is very much a part of the fight for justice and the rights of marginal and subordinate groups, showing more than two decades of extraordinary dedication and commitment to maintaining a world with more voices, perspectives, and cultural diversity.”
Xiaohui Zhang Diversity & Community Engagement Award
This award honors graduate students, faculty, and/or staff members in the school who have contributed to our mission of promoting a diverse, inclusive, and engaged academic community, and/or who have facilitated meaningful connections between the school and the wider community, in a spirit of respect, partnership, and reciprocity.
This year's recipient is Araceli Pantoja, a graduate student in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese.
Her nomination letter underscores that as a teaching assistant in the course SPAN 232: Spanish in the Community—in which students expand their Spanish through hands-on service-learning in the community—she “prepared an engaging, interactive 'gallery walk-through' lesson, using historical images with negative representations of immigrants in the US. This is important and relevant to this award because it helped students understand the historical context of the anti-immigrant sentiment our community members experience. This is the kind of rhetoric that their positive engagement with our local immigrant community can help counteract. Araceli was very adept at using her classroom as a bridge to help students understand their experiences in the local community.”
Marita Romine Distinguished Service Award
This award was established in 2011 through the generosity of Douglas Kibbee, the first director of SLCL, to honor a selected staff member for outstanding contributions to the school. This award is given to someone who demonstrates high standards and excellence in overall work performance; promotes positive morale through a congenial, supportive attitude and by coaching, supporting, and mentoring others; shows commitment to professional development, as well as to developing and recognizing others; promotes teamwork, collaboration, and cohesiveness; exhibits initiative, creativity, and problem-resolution abilities, resulting in improved operating efficiency within the school; and contributes significantly to the overall success of his/her area, serving as a great representative of the school to our campus community.
This year, SLCL was able to give out three awards.
The first awardee is Dana McCool, senior human resources generalist in the Human Resources Office.
Among her many accolades, the nomination letter highlights, “Dana's eagerness to build positive relationships is unmatched. She makes sure that everyone feels welcomed and has been the initial point of contact for years… Dana is an essential member of the human resources team. Promoting teamwork, collaboration, and cohesiveness is part of her personality/character… Dana's contribution to the SLCL/LAS community has been invaluable. As stated above, she is an essential member not only to our school but campus as a whole.”
The second awardee is Anne Olmstead, office manager for the Departments of French & Italian and Germanic Languages & Literatures.
Her nomination letter states, “Anne Olmstead is exceptional in managing departmental business, including organizing aspects of teaching schedules, preparing for speaking events and workshops, multi-stage processing of reimbursements for faculty and visiting speakers, updating [our] website and numerous other tasks. Anne is proactive, always readily available, and highly organized. She is personable, responsive, inclusive and welcoming to all faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, visiting professors and guests. She not only takes care of much of the logistical office work in the department but also anticipates people’s needs. Anne always supports everyone with her friendly, congenial, and positive attitude. She is outstanding and an absolute pleasure to work with.”
The third awardee is Ali Waldner, office manager for the Departments of Comparative & World Literature and Religion.
The nomination letter underscores, “What I see of Ali's contributions to morale are her many moments of helping faculty, post-docs, and grad students sort through issues with travel, reimbursement, classroom assignments, and various other issues, all of which she approaches with a positive attitude and all of which she successfully resolves. The faculty and the grad students in our department love working with Ali, trust her completely, and appreciate her willingness to help them succeed."
Also, “I have come to appreciate how competent, hard-working, and reliable Ali is, all while maintaining a positive attitude that communicates the message that there is a solution to every problem, and that she will find that solution.”
SLCL Summer Fellowships for Specialized Faculty
These fellowships are designed to support summer research by specialized faculty and academic professionals. Proposals must be approved by the department and are then reviewed and judged by the executive committee.
Rurik Tywoniw, research assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics and English Placement Test coordinator, for his project, “Investigation of AI-assisted ESL Writing Assessment in Academic Placement Tests"
Yuefan (Ivy) Wang, lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, for her project, “Her Identities in Pictorial Space: Women’s Writings on Garden Paintings in Qing China (1644-1911)”
SLCL Dissertation Completion Fellowships & Douglas A. Kibbee Prize
The school awarded seven fellowships this year. These fellowships provide advanced doctoral students with an academic year of support to complete their dissertations. The Kibbee Prize is awarded annually to the recipient whose dissertation project is judged by the school’s executive committee to be the most outstanding.
To read our previous announcement of the recipients, please visit the SLCL website.
Frances E. Smith Scheidel Scholarship
The Frances E. Smith Scheidel Scholarship fund was established in 2007, thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Scheidel, whose personal history included returning after a significant interruption to complete her Illinois degree. Scholarships are awarded to undergraduate students majoring in one of SLCL's academic units who have overcome significant hurdles to achieve academic success.
This year's recipient is Yvette Reyes, who is majoring in integrative biology and Spanish.