Department Awards
2023
Greetings from the Department Chair
Louann Reid
- Professor and Department Chair
Hello, and welcome to this digital celebration of student success! The 32nd Annual English Department Awards Reception took place on April 17, 2023 and I want to thank all who were able to attend and participate in our in-person celebration. The awards ceremony is one of my favorite events of the year because we can publicly recognize our students’ achievements and the generous support of our donors.
Across the board, English undergraduates and graduates hold a total of 179 University and departmental scholarships and 4 literary awards for the 2023-2024 academic year. In addition, the English Department selected 17 winners of the Creative and Performing Arts Awards. This page serves as a virtual stage for applauding their accomplishments.
I'd like to extend special thanks to the Scholarship Committee: Tatiana Nekrasova-Beker, Maurice Irvin, Debra Walker, and Stu Landers. Also, thank you to Sheila Dargon, who provided substantial support to that committee and helped arrange this celebration.
I would also like to thank those who donated to any department scholarship in the past year. We appreciate the difference you make in the educational experiences of our students.
And thank you to the friends and families of our award winners who join us in this digital space and who have supported their studies over the years.
Congratulations to all,
Louann Reid
English Department Chair
Graduate Distinctions
English graduate students can earn recognition for excellence on a final project, portfolio of work, or thesis.
Carmen Sobalvarro Chevez
Recognized for distinction on Portfolio in TEFL/TESL
Lauren Mangus
Recognized for distinction on Thesis in TEFL/TESL
Kelly Konrad
Recognized for distinction on Portfolio in TEFL/TESL
Genevieve Witter
Recognized for distinction on Thesis in Literature
Sara Rad
Recognized for distinction on Research Project in TEFL/TESL
Danielle Parker
Recognized for distinction on Research Project in English Education
Sarah Howard
Recognized for distinction on Thesis in TEFL/TESL
Katayoun Hashemin
Recognized for distinction on Portfolio in TEFL/TESL
Undergraduate: Creative & Performing Arts Scholarship Awards in Creative Writing
Fiction
Georgia Riley-Burke
The Monkey's Inn
Grace Pixton
"Guardian Angel"
Caroline Collignon
"Golden Eyes Get Thrones”
Brier Gunderson
"Perfectly Sick"
Kailey Baldwin
"The Gravedigger"
Creative Nonfiction
Marlene Moran
“I Was a Good Man’s Daughter / Fui Una Hija Hombre Bueno”
Josie Brewer
“Strings Attached"
Tanya Sopkin
"untitled"
Izabelle Hood
"The Sphinx Moth"
Paris Huckaby
"Spring Germination (or Self-portrait 19)”
Kyla Ballard
"Unchanged Eyes”
Poetry
Kobe Overby
“Stage Blue,” “Canned Vegetables,” “If I Overextend My Arms, I Can Almost Reach the Surf,” and “Dear Friend”
Izabelle Hood
“On Bird Songs,” “Hereditary,” “Bird of Prey,” and “St. Sepulcher’s Cemetery”
Lillian Morton
“making an event out of watching the northern star,” “a parasaurolophus: the spiritual cousin,” “finches in the geriatric ward,” the year I celebrated Christmas in a penthouse,” and “Taking the Old Boy for a last drive”
Jesse Schaub
“In Twenty-Four Hour Café,” “Aubade,” “Winter Begins,” and “Envoi”
Poetry
Kathryn Lopez
“Memories of Dementia,” “7 rules of housefire,” and “Ways to say I’ve had Enough”
German Garcia
“As the Sun Comes Up,” “11:57 Habits,” “Apartment Girl,” “Spanish Angels,” and “Damn Spics”
Carolina Colley
“Inheritance,” “Dailey Prayer,” “Ode to Our Bodies in the Rain,” “The Body Doesn’t Understand Distance,” and “Intimacy with Flowers”
Department Scholarships and Fellowships
Recipients of department scholarships and fellowships receive a certificate, inscription on the departmental perpetual plaque, and scholarship or fellowship funding. Current students select a faculty member to say a few words about them and to present the award. The following students received scholarships for 23-24.
The Diane Keating Woodcox and Larry G. Woodcox Scholarship
Endowed by an alumna of the English department, this scholarship is awarded to a full-time junior or senior undergraduate major with an overall minimum 2.5 GPA. The student must have held gainful employment or have participated in a paid or unpaid internship and exhibit exceptional focus and determination as a student. Preference is given to a graduate of a Colorado high school. This year’s recipient is Cairn Carr.
The Community Engagement Scholarship
This scholarship is awarded to full-time undergraduate or graduate students who are majoring in English with a demonstrated interest in community service activities. It was established by Pattie Cowell, former chair of the English department and of the Women’s Studies Interdisciplinary Program, and her partner Sheryl Pomering, whose career included education and counseling for children and women in Fort Collins and Larimer County. This year’s recipient is Cailee Chapman.
The Sarah Sandra Collins Creative Writing Memorial Scholarship
Sarah Sandra Collins attended Colorado State University in 1970 and 1971. She discontinued her studies in Psychology and English to become a CSU police officer, due to lack of funds and a desire to help people. Sarah was a profoundly honest and courageous person with great loyalty and generosity towards those she loved. Undaunted by difficult decisions in her work or personal life, she sometimes found herself enmeshed in controversy…an African American poetry writing police sergeant who converted to Orthodox Judaism in her thirties. She wrote poetry and short stories, serious and whimsical, throughout her life. The purpose of this Scholarship is to provide financial assistance for a CSU full-time undergraduate student and encouragement for the lifelong pursuit of creative writing. This year’s recipient is Izabelle Hood.
The O’Connor-Miller Scholarship
This annual scholarship is given by an alumna of the English department and parent of a former CSU student who studied electrical engineering, computer science, and string bass performance. The recipient of this award must be a full-time graduate or undergraduate student, or a part-time graduate or undergraduate enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts in the Department of English. The recipient is Lauren Furman.
The Donna Weyrick Memorial Scholarship
The Donna Weyrick Memorial Scholarship honors the memory of Donna Weyrick, a 1962 graduate of the Department of English. This endowed scholarship for undergraduates is made possible by contributions from the Weyrick family and friends. This year’s recipients is Justin Frigault.
The Smith-Schamberger-Swinson Literature Fellowship
The Smith-Schamberger Literature Fellowship is given to a new or returning full-or part-time graduate student in the MA literature program. The recipients are Molly Beck and Andrea Bennett.
English Department Legacy Scholarship
This annual scholarship prioritizes support for high-performing undergraduate and graduate students to finish their degree.
Marquita Chenette Woods
Braden Bomgaars
The TEFL/TESL Scholarship
Funded by the INTO CSU English Language Program, the TEFL/TESL Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding student in the TEFL/TESL graduate program. The recipient is Yuanyuan Guo.
The Cross-Cultural Understanding Scholarship
The Cross-Cultural Understanding Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding graduate student who has demonstrated a commitment to international/cross-cultural issues and education. The recipient is Kat Gillespie.
The James J. Garvey Graduate English Language Scholarship
This award is given in memory of Professor James Garvey. It is presented annually to a graduate student in their second semester or beyond in the TEFL/TESL graduate program, or a student in the Rhetoric and Composition or English Education graduate programs. The recipient must have shown a strong interest in advanced language study. Recipients of this award may be first-generation students. The recipient is Cole McNabb.
The James J. Garvey Undergraduate English Language Scholarship
This award is also given in memory of Professor James Garvey, and presented annually to an undergraduate student who has a documented interest and coursework in the study of the English language. Recipients of this award also demonstrate a commitment to diversity in education and may be first-generation students. The recipient is Ricky Dean Waggoner, Jr.
The Judith A. Dean Memorial English Scholarship
This scholarship was created in memory of Judith A. Dean, a graduate in the master’s program in the Department of English, and prominent professional in the English teaching field and the organizations that support it. Judith Dean earned an MAT at Colorado State in 1978 and taught at high schools in Colorado, Idaho, and New Mexico. She served two terms as President of the Colorado Language Arts Society, and several years on the Society’s executive committee—strong measures of her prominence in public education in Colorado. The recipient is Izabelle Hood.
The Ann Osborn Zimdahl Memorial Scholarship
This scholarship is awarded in memory of Ann Osborn Zimdahl, a 1981 graduate of the CSU MA TEFL/TESL program. Ann taught in the Intensive English Program and contributed to the international community of the university and Fort Collins. Her career also extended overseas where she held several different teaching appointments. Ann was strongly committed to cross-cultural understanding and enthusiastically shared her love of new cultures with her students both here and abroad.
There were a total of two recipients this year.
The first award is for an outstanding graduate student in the TEFL/TESL program who is committed to international education and language teaching in support of the second year of study. The first recipient is Sohrab Azhdari.
The next award is given to an outstanding graduate student in any program in English. The recipient is Bianca Melendrez Valenzuela.
The Karyn L. Evans Scholarship
This scholarship is awarded to undergraduate students in memory of Karyn L. Evans, an alumna of the English department, and is created through a gift from her estate. The recipients are Ian Horn, Alexa Rampone, Jenna Pfenning, and Kylynn A. White.
Department Awards
The Outstanding Literary Essays Awards
These awards, selected by the English department's Literature program, recognize outstanding critical writing and interpretive work in literary studies. Applicants must be registered graduate or undergraduate English majors or minors.
Undergraduate
1st Place
Jesse Schaub
Essay Title: “Never Let Me Go and the Banality of Dystopia”
2nd Place
Peter Wilson
Essay Title: “The Elitism of W.E.B. DuBois in Gloria Naylor’s Literature”
3rd Place
Paris Huckaby
Essay Title: “Paths Untrodden: Whitman’s Queer Utopian Poetics”
4th Place
Gracie Neirynck
Essay Title: “Can you Stomach It: An Analysis of Starvation in a Colonized State in Nervous Conditions"
The Outstanding English Award in Writing, Rhetoric, and Literacy
This award is for both undergraduate and graduate levels, and recognizes innovative ideas, critical thinking, and stellar communication in the broad area of writing studies.
1st Place
Madison Rheinheimer
Essay Title: "Public Perceptions of Lawyers and How We Might Positively Affect Them"