CAS News

International Languages & Cultures

UP Fulbright winners top nation . . . Again!

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University of Portland has been named the top producer of Fulbright scholars in the nation among “master’s universities” for the third consecutive year, according to a study released today by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The University had six alumni win the prestigious grants to work and study abroad for 2012-13.

Three of the Fulbrights won by UP alumni for 2012-13 are for English teaching positions in Germany, while the others are for graduate studies in the United Kingdom, research in India, and English teaching in Spain.

The University has been a leader among its peer institutions in producing Fulbright scholars for several years, also ranking first nationally in 2011-12, 2010-11 and 2007-08 and second nationally in 2006-07, 2008-09 and 2009-10. Since 2001, students from University of Portland have earned 40 Fulbright grants. [Read more…] about UP Fulbright winners top nation . . . Again!

CAS Faculty Receive All Four University Awards

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photoCongratulations to the following University of Portland Faculty Award winners, announced during the Annual Faculty Awards Dinner on May 7, 2013:

Dr. John C. Orr,  Department of English 2013
Culligan Award
The James Culligan Award, established in 1953 is presented annually to a member of the faculty in recognition of distinguished service inside the classroom and in the larger University community. Winners of the Culligan Award wear the medal with their academic regalia, as a sign of the University’s highest faculty honor.

Dr. Lars Larson, Department of English 2013
Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching
This award is presented annually by the University’s Committee on Teaching and Scholarship to a faculty member who is a particular exemplar of the University’s commitment to superb teaching. The requirements or the award are “commitment to students and their learning, the creation of instructional settings and their learning, the creation of instructional settings that engage students, a deep understanding of the subject and effective ways to teach it, critical and systematic thinking and practice of teaching, and wide respect for the teacher as expert and resource for other professors.”

Dr. Steven Kolmes, Department of Environmental Studies, 2013 and Dr. Russell Butkus, Department of Theology 2013
Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship
This award is presented annually by the University’s Committee on Teaching and Scholarship to a faculty member who presents unusually significant and meritorious achievement in professional scholarship during the past two academic years, and whose work substantively enhances the effectiveness of his or her classroom teaching.

Dr. Kathleen (Kate) Regan, Department of International Languages and Cultures 2013
Deans’ Award for Faculty Leadership
This award is selected annually by the University’s Deans to a tenured faulty member who exemplifies, in an extraordinary way, the qualities of teaching and scholarship described in the University’s Academic Administration Manual for appointment, advancement in rank, and tenure. Over the course of his or her career at the University, this faculty member has also made significant contributions to the professional development of his or her colleagues and to the advancement of the University.

Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship Award Winners Share Their Work

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From UPBEAT

The winners of two prestigious University of Portland faculty awards are scheduled to present their work on Friday, April 5, from 3 to 4 p.m., in Franz Hall Room 034.

Outstanding Teaching Award winner Laura McLary, International Languages and Cultures, will present “Communities, Cultures, Connections: Making Second-Language Learning Relevant.”

Outstanding Scholarship Award winner Lauretta Frederking, Political Science,  will follow with “Exclusion and Inclusion of Muslim Americans after September 11, 2001: From Religious Identity to Political Interests.”

Light snacks will be served. For more information, contact Aziz Inan, Engineering, at ext. 7429 or ainan@up.edu.

Laura McLary
Lauretta Frederking

CISGO Seed Grant Recipients

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From UPBEAT

The following faculty members are recipients of Collaborative for International Studies and Global Outreach (CISGO) Seed Grants for the academic year of 2013:

  • Laurie McLary and Allie Hill – International Languages and Cultures
    Project: “Workshop and Book Publication on Best Practices for Small Undergraduate German Programs”
    Grant: $500
  • Anne Santiago – Political Science
    Project: “Land Leases in Uganda”
    Grant: $500
  • Joane Moceri, Kaye Wilson-Anderson, and Barbara Braband – Nursing
    Project: “Exploring the Process of Cultural Competency Development During Overseas Study Abroad and International Nursing Immersions”
    Grant: $858.

CISGO Seed Grants support faculty and students who are beginning new projects that will increase international awareness and inter-cultural competency at the University of Portland and beyond. For more information contact Kate Regan at ext. 7364 or regan@up.edu.

Winterreise Event

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Franz Schubert’s masterwork song cycle, Die Winterreise (Winter’s Journey) will be performed on Sunday, April 7th at 3pm in the Buckley Center Auditorium.  World famous accompanist and Professor Emeritus of the University of Illinois, John Wustman, will join new Asst. Professor Nicole Leupp Hanig in performing the set of twenty-four songs with texts by German Romantic poet Wilhelm Müller.  Associate Professor of German, Laura McLary, will begin the afternoon’s concert with insights on Müller’s poetry, which speaks of one who is cast out and forced to wander, unable to find journey’s end.

John Wustman’s professional musical career began in the 50’s with Robert Shaw and went on to include appearances in the leading concert halls of five continents with some of the greatest singers from the second half of this century.  His lengthiest associations were with singers such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Birgit Nilsson, Régine Crespin, Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda, Carlo Bergonzi and a twenty-five year collaboration with Luciano Pavarotti .  On January 31, 1997, Wustman completed a six-year series of recitals celebrating the 200th anniversary of Franz Schubert’s birth. This “labor of love”, as Wustman terms it, featured performances of each of the Viennese master’s 598 songs.  Nicole Leupp Hanig is honored that her mentor will accompany her in performance of Die Winterreise at University of Portland.

Number of students with double majors nearly triples

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By Kate Stringer, Staff Writer

From THE BEACON

With two majors and a 23 credit hour course load, junior Kristin Wishon is lucky if she gets four hours of sleep at night.

“I don’t have time to do things that are just for fun,” said Wishon, who is double majoring in biochemistry and music. “But I enjoy what I’m doing anyways so I don’t really care.”

Wishon is part of a growing trend at college campuses across the country. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the number of college students who double major has increased over the past 10 years by 70 percent. While some students choose two majors because they believe it will make them more employable, many are simply passionate about multiple fields of study.

[Read more…] about Number of students with double majors nearly triples

Rebecca Chavez: Hightower Scholarship Recipient

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Rebecca Chavez, this year’s recipient of Molly Hightower scholarship, has “taken advantage of all that UP has to offer”

Rebecca Chavez, a University of Portland senior, barely recalls a time when service was not part of her life.Recipient of this year’s Molly Hightower Endowed Scholarship, Chavez was under the age of 10 when she regularly volunteered with her family at a home for developmental disabled adults. Her job included transporting the home’s residents via wheelchair to Sunday Mass.

“It was often noisy in those Masses,” she said. “But I realized they were praising God just like anyone else.”

“I have been doing service since I could walk,” she added. “My mother is an immigrant, and my father was born to immigrant parents, so my siblings and I grew up with understandings of social justice.”
Chavez, born and raised in Santa Clara, near San Francisco, is majoring in Spanish and social work and minoring in communication studies. She is the third recipient of the Molly Hightower Scholarship. The scholarship was established by the Class of 2010 in memory of Hightower, who died in the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti while volunteering with special-needs orphans. [Read more…] about Rebecca Chavez: Hightower Scholarship Recipient

McLary named Top Teacher

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Laurie McLary, Modern Languages

University of Portland German professor Laura McLary has been named the top foreign language teacher in Oregon, receiving the 2012 COFLT (Confederation in Oregon for Foreign LanguagesTeaching) Award for Excellence in Foreign Language instruction at the university level. This follows only a few months after she received the 2012 University Award for Outstanding Teaching.

McLary is the second UP professor to win the COFLT award, with Spanish professor Kate Regan receiving it in 2000.

The University introduced the now thriving German Studies major in 2004, with dozens of graduates going on to earn Fulbright scholarships to Germany and Austrian Government Teaching Assistantships. The University annually being ranked at or near the top among peer institutions in producing Fulbright scholars is due in no small part to the German Studies program and McLary’s work with students.

McLary has been published in several academic journals, and her teaching and research interests include Austrian culture and literature, German film and cultural studies. She is also an expert on Austrian poet Georg Trakl.

International Languages and Cultures Welcome

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The Department of International Languages and Cultures at the University of Portland offers a window to other cultures and is a gateway to the wider world. After the first year of instruction, students are well equipped for travel or study abroad. Second-year and upper division courses broaden communicative skills through continuing language instruction, conversation, literature, cinema and theater. Our faculty is committed to excellence while fostering an environment that makes language learning fun. Students can earn a minor or major in French Studies, German Studies or Spanish. We now offer beginning Chinese as a six-credit course. Experience with a second language is a key component of any degree program and makes our UP graduates more competitive in their chosen careers. We’re here to help you go places!

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