theJournal
Volume 14 Issue 16 | Friday, April 18, 2014
by Allison Opson Clement News Editor
Dr. Katherine Schmidt
PASTEGA page 2
90S KIDS // page 5 Photo by Tori Gannon
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movie review: divergent // page 4 Photo from Loyalkng.com
Dr. David Doellinger
ASWOU ELECTION CANDIDATES // page 3 Photo from Moviepilot.com
Dr. Katherine Schmidt won Western’s 2014 Pastega Award for Excellence in Teaching, and Dr. David Doellinger won for Excellence in Scholarship. “I’m thrilled, completely thrilled,” said Schmidt. “The people who are nominated, they’re all outstanding.” She added, “It’s just a humbling experience.” Schmidt says that this is her third year being nominated for the award, and that she analyzed her past performance in the application file to EXCELLENCE IN better “articulate how a TEACHING writing center director is a teacher first and foremost.” “I hadn’t taken my own advice,” said Department of English, Schmidt, who teaches Writing and high school students how to write essays to gain Linguistics; Humanities Division scholarships for colleges. She said her winning “shows the power of writing.” EXCELLENCE IN “It was a pleasant, but very unexpected surSCHOLARSHIP prise,” said Doellinger of receiving the award. “It means a lot to me. As a history professor, I find Department of research and writing to be a very rewarding process History; Social Science Division and it is exciting when my students have a similar experience with it.” Doellinger started working on the project as a graduate student, and in 2011 received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to conduct research in Berlin. The title is Turning Prayers into Protests: Religious-Based Activism and its Challenge to State Power in Socialist Slovakia and East Germany. “Faculty at WOU are engaged in very interesting research projects and are very innovative teachers, so it is a real honor to be recognized in this way,” said Doellinger. “I think that the award is really important because faculty on this campus work very hard,”
said Dr. Julia Smith, last year’s winner of the Excellence in Teaching award and current member of the Pastega Awards Committee. She said most are deserving of recognition for excellence in both areas, but often their accomplishments remain fairly private, especially in the scholarship arena. “I’m so glad we have the Pastega Award,” she added. Dr. Maria Dantas-Whitney was the 2012 winner of the Pastega Excellence in Teaching Award, and is a two-year member of the committee. She said that for both sections, the committee was looking for someone with a clear, well-established track record in their category. She added that any student participation – letters, nominations, or involvement in research – is looked upon quite favorably, though the absence does not preclude winning. “It really is a great way to demonstrate our achievements and to share [them],” said DantasWhitney. The award for Excellence in Teaching recognizes the diversity of students in a classroom, and the ability of an instructor to creatively help them accomplish class objectives in the best way they can, according to Smith, adapting the material so it fits the individuals in the class. The committee members were “seeing what kind of a [variety of] difference[s] that person has made in students’ lives,” said Dantas-Whitney, for the Teaching award. For the Excellence in Scholarship award, such things as the individual’s publications are taken into consideration. Faculty members nominate colleagues; though students may also nominate professors, this is less frequent for the Excellence in Scholarship competition, according to Dantas-Whitney. “I felt very, very supported,” said Smith of winning the Excellence in Teaching Award last year. She said it was very nice to meet representatives of the Pastega family at the ceremony. “That was really meaningful to have them there.” “[Winning] was a great honor,” said DantasWhitney. She said that, serving on the committee, she also found a privileged position in reading about the accomplishments of some amazing colleagues, and that they were all exceptional candidates, making it challenging to choose a winner. The Pastega Awards Committee is comprised of previous winners, rotating through the most recent four. Dr. Henry Hughes is this year’s Committee Chair, having won the award for Excellence in Scholarship in 2012; Dantas-Whitney won in the Teaching category that year, and also served on the committee for this year and last. The winners for 2013, Dr. Tom Bergeron and Smith, also served, along with student representative Keri Knight. After nominations, the candidates compile a portfolio for the committee, showcasing their ac-
Photo courtesy of ASWOU
Pastega Award honors Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Doellinger
track & field // page 7
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