November 13, 2023

News for and about the Illinois Wesleyan community

Student Film “Suspicions” Earns Five Awards at Prestigious Film Festival

Student films created through courses at Illinois Wesleyan’s School of Theatre Arts were honored with a variety of awards through the world’s premier online film festival in September.

Robinson '24 Receives Lincoln Laureate Award

Nora Robinson '24 was named Illinois Wesleyan's Student Laureate by The Lincoln Academy of Illinois, in recognition of leadership and service in both curricular and extracurricular activities that emulate Abraham Lincoln’s values: “excellence, service and honor.”

The Pantagraph

Illinois Wesleyan Professor and R. Forrest Colwell Endowed Chair of English James Plath discusses his experience as a 2023 Quarry Farm Fellow, while he spends time at the summer home of Mark Twain in Elmira, New York.

Star Tribune (Minnesota)

Kathleen M. Murray '79 was selected as the new president of Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Murray previously served as the first female president of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and before then, she served for seven years at Macalester College, including a three-month stint as acting president in 2013.

The Pantagraph

Award recipients at the 2023 Entrepreneur of the Year Recognition Dinner included Will Jenkins '12 as Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year and the family of the late Gary Egbers '72 receiving the Savant Wealth Management Founding Partner Award.

WGLT Radio

Alex Tosi '10, a former IWU baseball pitcher, is now working as a Major League umpire. IWU Assistant Baseball Coach Tm Siegworth joined Tosi for his Major League debut game in 2019 in Minneapolis.

Yoga will take place this week on Monday and Thursday in the Niegagen South Classroom at the Shirk Center from 12:15-12:50 p.m. with Kim Hayes. There will be no classes the week of Thanksgiving but will return on Monday, Nov. 27. 

"Yoga allows you to find a new kind of freedom that you may not have known even existed." - B. Iyengar

Canvas Learning Management System

Illinois Wesleyan is moving to Canvas! All courses will be on this learning management system in the spring. Give it a try! Students can self-enroll in a Canvas Basics course with this link or by using the QR code on the posters all over campus with the IWU Canvas Panda. Look for our student Canvas Ambassadors (our Panda Pals!) for help. Finish the Canvas Panda Challenge by Nov. 30 and you will be entered into a raffle for a $100 gift card to the IWU Bookstore. 

Associate Professor of Nursing Brenda Lessen Knoll '89 has co-authored a book chapter dedicated to her Premature Infant Oral Motor Intervention (PIOMI) in a new textbook titled "Building Neonatal Speech Therapy in Brazil."

Physics Professor Gabe Spalding was re-elected as vice president of the Jonathan Reichert Foundation, an ambitious non-profit working to establish programs and grants for hands-on instructional laboratories in physics beyond the first year of university.

Landis Wiedner '06 was featured on Chicago's WGN Lunchbreak show to discuss her podcast "What the EF." The podcast, which is now in the top 10% of podcasts, was created as an outlet for individuals with epilepsy to share stories and find support.

Campus Weekly is an electronic newsletter from Illinois Wesleyan's Office of Communications, edited by Julia Perez, assistant director of communications. To submit items of interest, email  webedit@iwu.edu.