Office of the Provost

This year, approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals received Fulbright Scholar awards to lecture and conduct research abroad; a similar number of foreign scholars received awards to come to the United States.  These Fulbright Scholars join the nearly 100,000 scholars who have received a Fulbright award since the program’s inception in 1946.

A 2007-2008 Fulbright Scholar grant has been awarded to the following PLU faculty members:

            Ronald Byrnes, Associate Professor, School of Education and Movement Studies                         Lecturing/Research:  Promising Practices in Teaching Globalization –                                     Hedmark College, Rena, Norway; February 2008-May 2008

            E. Wayne Carp, Professor, Department of History
                        Distinguished Lectureship:  Across the Pacific Rim:  History in Hanmi                                      (Korean-American) Perspective, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea;                                         March 2008-July 2008.

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Two MFA students have recently been honored.  The Creative Nonfiction MFA Program-Off contest has selected Amy Andrews as the winner.  Amy’s winning piece will be published in “The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 3,” W. W. Norton.  The official announcement will take place on January 31, 2008 at a reading at the Ding Dong Lounge in New York City, in conjunction with Book Culture (formerly Labyrinth Books).  The other Pacific Lutheran University MFA student to be honored is Elea Carey, who has been selected as one of the authors to appear in 18 Lies and 3 Truths, The 2007 StoryQuarterly Annual.  The other master storytellers selected for this publication include Rick Bass, Richard Bausch, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Janet Burroway, Gail Godwin, and Joyce Carol Oates.

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Robert Marshall Wells, Assistant Professor of Communication at PLU announced that the recent MediaLab documentary, “Building Connections:  Reclaiming Lost Narratives of the Alaska-Canada Highway,” produced and edited by PLU students, Shannon Schrecengost and Jessica Luppino, has won a First Place Award in the prestigious National Broadcasting Society Region 6 Student Audio & Video production competition.  The judges, impressed by the piece, are strongly encouraging Shannon and Jessica to enter the video in the national competition.  The judges added that:  “We hope to see even more entries from PLU in next year’s competition.”  Professor Wells notes that the MediaLab fully intends to accommodate that suggestion!

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Bobbie Hughes, Director of the Women’s Center, announced that the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women, has chosen Pacific Lutheran University as a 2007 grantee.  PLU stands among an elite group—only 17 recipients from more than 100 applications.  This funding will support PLU’s Voices Against Violence project. 

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In January 2008 more than 400 PLU students will be sojourners in locations across the globe. PLU students are exploring 21 countries across the seven continents, and engaging in 18 different majors.  Students in eight of the 27 classes (Antarctica, Brazil, Dubai, Martinique, Neah Bay, New Zealand, Scotland and Tanzania) have been asked to share in real time, their thoughts and impressions as they interact with other people, other cultures and the environment on each continent.  For an update, visit the sojourner.plu.edu.blog.

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Beginning January 2008, nine School of Education and Movement Studies student teachers will initiate their student teaching experience in Windhoek, Namibia.  Students will be placed in a primary school classroom with a cooperating teacher for six weeks of student teaching.  Students will also attend a comparative education class co-taught with faculty from PLU and the University of Namibia.  At the completion of the six weeks students will return to PLU to complete the remaining student teaching requirements in an elementary classroom.