The English department and friends recently gathered to celebrate and honor our amazing students. These students hold a total of 169 University and departmental scholarships and 6 literary awards for the 2016-2017 academic year. In addition, the English Department selected 13 winners of the Creative and Performing Arts Awards.

English graduate students who earned distinction on their Final Project, Portfolio or Thesis, presented by Debby Thompson.

• For Distinction in Rhetoric & Composition on the Final Project: Laura Price Hall (Summer 2016) (unable to attend)
• For Distinction on Thesis – Poetry: Kylan Rice
• For Distinction on Thesis- Creative Nonfiction: Susan Harness (unable to attend) and Morgan Riedl 
• For Distinction in TESL/TEFL Final Project: Jennifer Stetson- Strange

Zambia Community Education and Health Scholarship, presented by Cindy O’Donnell-Allen to Veronica Sawyer.

This scholarship helps lessen the financial burden for a CSU English student accepted into the Zambia Education Abroad Program. Students in this service-learning program spend part of their summer in Livingstone, Zambia focus on Community Education and Public Health projects; they teach subjects like English, Math and Science or work supporting public health project in clinics & neighborhoods in the surrounding communities.

This award is given to a full or part-time, sophomore, junior or senior undergraduate in the College of Liberal Arts majoring in English accepted into the Zambia Education Abroad Program with an overall 2.5 GPA and a 3.0 GPA in their major.

Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society certificates, presented by Dan Beachy-Quick. Members must be English majors with an overall GPA of 3.0 as well as a 3.0 in English courses. They must have completed at least 3 semesters of college coursework and at least 2 – 300 level English courses. Membership includes access to numerous scholarships, fellowships, publications, and job opportunities, in addition to university involvement.  Membership was awarded to Alex Keenan, Geneva McCarthy, Scott Miller, Krissa Nixson, Natalie Pace, and Emma Vola.

Undergraduate Awards for the Creative & Performing Arts Scholarship Awards in Creative Writing, presented by Dan Beachy-Quick. 

• FICTION – Alyssa Meier, 1st place for her story “Canary in the Mine,” Philip Wiley 2nd place for his story “The Narrator,” and Lauren Hallstrom – 3^rd Place for her story “Snapshots During a Power Outage.”
• CREATIVE NONFICTION – 1^st Tier Anna LaForge, for her story “Butterfly,” Scott Miller, for his story “The Marmot on the Rocks, or Deep Time”
• CREATIVE NONFICTION – 2^nd Tier Hilary Elizabeth Pearce, for her story “My Bathroom is Full of Dead Spiders,” Geneva McCarthy, for her story “Distance to the Sun”
• POETRY – 1^st Tier: Angela Natrasevschi:  “Luna Agate,” “Transient,” “Suspended Landing,” “Provenance of Natrasevschi,” “Solarium” (unable to attend), and Rachel Telljohn: “Comeback Machine,” “Can’t Get Back,” “Snow in Therapist’s Office,” “Cochise County, Gardens of Rest,” and Geneva McCarthy:  “Poem in Air,” “Under Glass,” “Charting,” “Worms Do Work Inside,” “Elegy”
• POETRY – 2^nd  Tier Hannah Armfield: “Our Emily Dickinson,” “edge,” “The Laundry’s Mistress,” “fragmentation,” “passing dearborn, mi” (unable to attend), Anonymous: “and the prophet dripped…,” “Van Gogh’s Lover,, “New York Girl,” “the sluggish vitreous…,” Seth Bodine: “Divinity is a New Pair of Shoes,” “Galaxies,” “Airports,” “Funeral Speak,” “Mind Closet”

MFA Awards – AWP Intro Journals Project for Fiction, Poetry and Nonfiction, presented by Dan Beachy-Quick.

• Poetry nominees: Cole Konopka, David Mucklow & Kelly Weber
• Fiction nominee:  Ben Greenlee
• Creative Nonfiction nominee: Dana Chellman won for her essay “How to Get to Heaven from Colorado” and will be published in Iron Horse Literary Review.

Academy of American Poets Prize, presented by Dan Beachy-Quick.

• 1^st Place: Cedar Brant
• Honorable Mention: Sam Killmeyer

Next we recognized the 18 students winning department awards in 14 categories for the 2017-2018 academic year. Recipients of department awards received a certificate, inscription on the departmental perpetual plaque, and scholarship or fellowship funding.

The Tremblay-Crow Creative Writing Fellowships alternate between MFA students in fiction and poetry, presented by Dan Beachy-Quick.

• The poetry recipient for Fall 2016 is Kristin Macintyre.
• The fiction recipient for Fall 2017 will receive their award in Spring 2018. 

The Sarah Sandra Collins Creative Writing Memorial Scholarship, presented by Dan Beachy-Quick, given to Rachel Telljohn.

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.

Criteria: 1) Junior or Senior  full-time undergraduate student 2) In financial need 3) Enrolled in any major and previously or currently, in a creative writing course 3) A role model of character, integrity, courage, self and social responsibility, appreciation and respect for diverse people, ideas, talents, abilities, and cultures as evident from the writing samples and personal statement submitted with the scholarship application; and 4) An exceptionally talented writer in the genre of poetry, drama, fiction, or nonfiction essay as demonstrated in the written materials submitted with the scholarship application.

The Community Engagement 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. There are two recipients of this scholarship.

Aparna Gollapudi presented the first award to Lauren Hallstrom.

Airica Parker presented the second award to last year’s recipient Jarion Hamm, Jr.

The Karyn L. Evans Scholarship is awarded to undergraduate students in memory of Karyn L. Evans and created through a gift from her estate. Three of the four recipients were at the ceremony. Tara Tolar-Payne was unable to attend.

Kristina Quynn introduced the first two recipients, Emma Kerr and Aleah Harris.

Cedar Brant introduced the third recipient, Hannah Heath.

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.   

Aparna Gollapudi presented the award to Natalie Choules.

English Faculty/Staff Graduate Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to an outstanding graduate student enrolled in any program in English with a good academic standing and with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 and demonstrated financial need.

Jenny Levin presented the award to Kathryn Haggstrom.

The Donna Weyrick Memorial Scholarship honors the memory of Donna Weyrick, a 1962 graduate of the Department of English.  These endowed scholarships for undergraduates are made possible by contributions from the Weyrick family and friends.

Sharon Grindle presented the award to Hilary Pearce.

The Judith A. Dean Memorial 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.

Aparna Gollapudi presented the award to Sara Graydon.

The Smith-Schamberger Literature Fellowship is given to a new or returning full or part-time graduate student in the MA literature program.

Paul Trembath presented the award to James Rankin.

The TESL/TEFL Scholarship is funded by the INTO CSU English Language Program. It is awarded to an outstanding student in the TESL/TEFL graduate program.  

Nancy presented the award to Alireza Poordastmalchi, who also recieved the Ann Osborn Zimdahl Memorial Scholarship, awarded in memory of Ann Osborn Zimdahl, a 1981 graduate of the CSU M.A. TESL/TEFL 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 two recipients.

Nancy presented the award to first recipient Alireza Poordastmalchi. This particular award is given to an outstanding graduate student in the TESL/TEFL program who is committed to international education and language teaching, in support of the second year of study.

Sasha Steensen introduced the second recipient of the award, this time for an outstanding graduate student in any program in English, Kelly Weber.

Cross-Cultural Understanding Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding graduate student who has demonstrated a commitment to international/cross-cultural issues and education.

Gerry Delahunty presented the award to Tiffany Akers.

Tiffany Akers also received the the James J. Garvey Graduate English Language Scholarship, given in memory of Professor James Garvey, is presented annually to a graduate student who is enrolled in the second semester or beyond of the TESL/TEFL graduate program or is a student in the Rhetoric and Composition or English Education graduate programs, and who has shown a strong interest in advanced language study.  Recipients of this award may be first-generation students.

Again, Gerry Delahunty presented the award to Tiffany Akers.

The James J. Garvey Undergraduate English Language Scholarship, also given in memory of Professor James Garvey, is 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.

Gerry Delahunty presented the award to Anna LaForge.

The last set of awards were for outstanding writing in two categories at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Debby Thompson presented The Outstanding Literary Essays Awards to six students, 3 each at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Graduate

• 1^st Place:  James Rankin, “Beyond the Anthropocentric: An Ethological Approach to the Tusk That Did the Damage”
•  2^nd Place: Cedar Brant “’The landscape crossed out with a pen, reappears here’: A comparative look at the excavation and recreation of histories in the poetry of Derek Walcott and Ocean Vuong”
• 3^rd Place: Cherie Nelson, “Possessing the Scales: Complications of Sin and Justice in Measure for Measure”

Undergraduate

• 1^st Place: Charlotte Conway “Erotic Violence and Female Subjectivity in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale and Fifty Shades of Grey”  
• 2^nd Place: Danny Bishop, Talking in Circles: The Catatonic Hero in Infinite Jest and the Postironic Novel”
• 3rd place: Brianna Johnson, “Hamlet and Modern Ear: The Importance of Understanding Classical References”

Outstanding Writing Award in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy recognizes outstanding writing and research in composition, rhetoric, and/or literacy studies.  This award is intended to recognize innovative ideas, critical thinking, and stellar communication in the broad area of writing studies. Multimodal and print submissions are welcomed. Awards of $100 for first place and $50 for second place are given at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

Doug Cloud presented these awards to the recipients.

• 1^st Place: Undergraduate: Sydnie Louderback, Title: “Rams Bleed Emerald and Gold”
• 2^nd Place: Undergraduate: Nicole Miller, Title: “How to Create A Viral Political Picture Meme”

• 1^st Place: Graduate: Kelly Martin, Title: “Twactivism: An Investigations of Activism on Twitter”
• 2^nd Place: Graduate: Kira Marshall-McKelvey, Title: “Girl Talk: Gender Performance and Online Identity on YouTube

Department Chair Louann Reid closed the ceremony saying, “Thank you to all participants, faculty, scholarship committee, donors, and office staff. I want to recognize especially three people: Sheila Dargon who supported the scholarship committee and arranged this reception, Jill Salahub for taking pictures, and Marnie Leonard for the creative centerpieces!” and inviting attendees to stick around, chat and eat more food.