Dr. O is President’s Scholar
Dr. Francis Osentowski, music faculty, is the 2008-2009 President’s
Scholar, Dr. Herlinda Glasscock, president, announced last month.
“His outstanding proposal, entitled “Songs from Italy, the creative process in music and poetry,” features the creative process Dr. Osentowski used to create a musical setting for four poems written by RLC Poet Laureate Jerry McElveen during a 2007 visit to Italy,” said Glasscock.
Each year faculty are invited to submit proposals for consideration by a committee of peers who identify the President’s Scholar. Joe Bishop, as President of the NLC Faculty Association, chairs the selection committee.
“Their work was cut out for them this year due to the many outstanding proposals received,” said Glasscock. “Our students will have a real treat at graduation because Dr. Ostentowski has agreed to be our commencement speaker.”
Former students win math competition
Two former North Lake College students won honors in the distinguished
Putnam Mathematical Competition.
David Simmons, former North Lake College student and son of Cynthia Simmons, North Lake adjunct professor in chemistry, had the top score in Texas on the Putman Exam. The exam is administered nationwide in the U.S. and Canada to find and reward mathematical excellence.
It is constructed to test originality as well as technical competence. David, currently in graduate school at the University of North Texas, also scored 41st in the nation. His brother, Joseph, now a freshman at University of Dallas and also a former North Lake student, scored in the top 205 of the 3753 students who took the exam nationwide.
Student awarded scholarship
The Network of Hispanic Communicators awarded more than $15,000 in scholarships to seven journalism/communication students at this year’s Scholarship Awards Brunch April 12.
North Lake’s Crystal Quinones-Pacheco, a journalism major, was one of those receiving the award. Last year, the Network awarded $13,000 to six students. Overall, the Hispanic Communicators have awarded more than $300,000 since they began awarding scholarships in 1989.
SPAR board brings out the art in students
Photo by Matt Keyser
If you’ve dared to cross the threshold of the SPAR office in A-213, you were invited to draw whatever sketch came into your mind, then to place your initials next to it.
“Rita Bregola of SPAR came up with the title for this “Pulitzer Prize” winning cartoon board, titled “Everyone’s Art,” said Drena Settles, student program coordinator. “And she drew a few sketches as well.”
Everyone’s Art includes the sketches of NLC Family “Walk-ins,” (faculty, staff and students.) It all started last semester when NLC/RLC student Jaanika Voige-Tali surprised the SPAR office by drawing a cat on their white-board, just for fun. “I liked it so much I wouldn’t erase it, named it “Crazy Cat,” then invited others to add their own expressions,” said Settles. “You see the results, Everyone’s Art!”
Literary winners announced
This year’s NLC Literary Contest was a huge success with many strong entries, said Dr. Nancy Castilla, who heads up North Lake College’s Creative Writing Program. The winning works of the three first-places have advanced to the DCCCD contest.
“We will know the results of that contest in another week,” she said.
First-place winners at DCCCD advance to the national League for Innovation contest. Last year NLC had a first place winner at the national competition. The 2007-2008 Literary Contest winners in poetry are: First place: “The Living End,” Hollis Fischer; second place: “The Kiss,” Hollis Fischer; third place: “Genetics by Osmosis,” Amanda Arista; Honorable Mention: “Henry Will Never Be King,” Jeannie Sanchez.
In the fiction category, the results are: First place: “Freedom,” Mel Sinclair, Jr.; second place: “Buttered Meatloaf,” Libby Block; third place (tie): “Every Day’s a Future,” Amanda Arista; “One Good Story,” J.S. Minatrea. Personal Essay category: First place: “My Mother Made Me,” Brandy Laney; second place, “Mom’s Trip to Hawaii,” Kathryn Karpf; “Mom Genes,” Amanda Arista.
Writers come to campus for panel discussion
Photo by Jason Joyce
Steve McGonigle, Mark Smith and Gayle Reaves talked to aspiring
journalists April 11 in A-234.
The News-Register and the Journalism Club hosted a panel discussion with three area writers, Steve McGonigle, Mark Smith and Gayle Reaves. Mark Smith was an investigative reporter for The Houston Chronicle before he switched to broadcast news with WFAA-TV Channel 8 in Dallas. This decade, he has served as the investigative producer for Channel 8 reports that have won three Peabody Awards. The Peabody is the broadcast- news equivalent of print journalism’s Pulitzer Prize.
McGonigle is a member of the projects team at The Dallas Morning News, where he has worked for more than 27 years. Smith was an investigative reporter for The Houston Chronicle before he switched to broadcast news with WFAA-TV Channel 8 in Dallas where he won three Peabody Awards. Reaves is the editor of Fort Worth Weekly and holder of a Pulitzer Prize from her days as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News.