Providing a voice for Washburn students since 1897 Volume 144, Issue 22
News Pages 1-3 Christian Charay memorial
washburnreview.org
March 14, 2018
Opinion Page 4 Social media activism
Sports Pages 5-6 Tennis dominates
Features Pages 7-12 David Weed profile
Poet Desmond Egan brings Irish history to life Whitney Clum Washburn Review whitney.clum@washburn.edu
With midterms looming, we can only hope that the Irish poet, Desmond Egan, brought some of the Emerald Isle’s famous luck with him during his visit to Washburn. The International House hosted Egan, a recipient of an honorary degree from Washburn, to give a lunchtime presentation about Irish poetry as a precursor to his event March 9. No stranger to the university, Egan’s visit is due to a long-standing relationship with Washburn. At an Irish American Cultural Institute meeting back in the 80s, Egan made the acquaintance of William Langdon, who was head of international studies at the time. Langdon invited him to speak at Washburn after hearing his poetry. The Irish native, who was the first European poet to win the National Poetry Foundation of America Award, has since occasionally visited Washburn to discuss his craft. He is currently on a three week tour in the U.S., which gave him the opportunity to return. “He writes poetry that is, I guess you could not really classify it as Irish poetry. A lot of it is about Ireland, but it’s still, you know, when he writes about the famine, that was an event in Ireland, but the emotions of the poetry are things that anyone can relate to,” said James Kelly, a producer at KTWU who worked on a documentary about Egan. “Feelings of neglect, feelings of fear, you know, anguish, things that are connected to the Great Fam-
ine in Ireland…I think that’s the appeal.” While his poetry has been described to have a wide appeal, Egan himself states that the subjects of his writing are based on whatever comes to him in the moment. “My favorite thing to write about is whatever I can write about, whatever that happens to be,” Egan said. “I have to wait until the words begin to squirm on the page for me. Mostly I’m sitting at home, trying to find a word and failing.” The hour-long event began with a quick introduction of Egan, who sported both a shamrock and an Ichabod pin, one on each
lapel. He then dove into a primer of Irish poets, seamlessly weaving poetry into the lecture as if aged prose came as natural as casual language. Beginning with Yeats, Egan worked his way through more widely read poets, such as Beckett, and ended with more modern poets, such as Patrick Kavanagh, while simultaneously working in bits of Irish history to give the poems weight. While never quite distancing himself from his focus on the history of Irish poetry, Egan sprinkled in quick anecdotes about how a specific work affected him, specifically citing jazz music as the catalyst for jolting him out of writing in a style distinct from Yeats. Besides his connection to Kansas that comes via Washburn and tours promoting his poetry, both Kelly and Egan note that there are plenty of similarities between areas of Ireland and Kansas. “It’s the coasts that seem to get all the press and attention,” said Kelly, speaking about the documentary. “There are parts of County Kildare that look like northeast Kansas. A lot like northeast Kansas.” Egan agreed with the sentiment, saying, “We were looking for a shot in Ireland, and he was ready to edit, so we went out somewhere outside Topeka and we walked, and you would think it was Ireland.” The connection gives the opportunity to transport students and illuminate a connection between Ireland and Topeka while browsing his work or anthologies. Illustration by John Burns
WU offers interview opportunities for student teachers Washburn education stuthis process before those The time beforehand also Washburn Review dents, especially when they interviews, I would have gives the students opporcharles.rankin@washburn.edu came to interview day. done a much better job at tunities to leave a resume “When we would come them.” with a district or talk to For over a decade, to Washburn we’d think Usually when a perdistricts about upcoming Washburn has set up a ‘gosh their students are so spective teacher comes to interviews. career-seeking opportunity much better prepared than interview, they meet with a After the initial opening for education majors during other places,’ and they were panel of people associated time, interviews begin, with their student teaching really good at answering with the district, including 20 minute slots. Each stusemester. the questions,” Carter said. principals, administrators dent can sign up for up to Education Interview Day “Now that I’m here I unand department heads. Ac- 10 separate interviews. was held March 13 and saw derstand that it is really our cording to Aeschilman, the “I encourage [them] 24 school districts from the midwest and around the Average K-12 teaching salaries in Kansas and surrounding states country come to interview Washburn students for teaching positions. Students who attend can sign up $52,338 with these districts and can potentially have interviews throughout the day. “It’s designed specifically $46,506 for education majors and particularly for people who $47,984 $48,293 are student teaching right now who are graduating at the end of the term,” said Craig Carter, field National Average placement director for the $45,245 Information from the National education department. $36,141 Education Association Rankings of Career Services helps the States 2016 and Estimates of facilitate the day and School Statistics 2017 prepares the students in a variety of ways ahead of time for their interviews. Career Services that get our one-on-one interview style to sign up for as many as “Gary Handy comes over students prepared.” that is set up for interview they can,” Carter said. and talks to our students This preparation and op- day is a much less intimi“They may not want to go a couple of times during portunity is not something dating first step to lead to to Dodge City, but set up student teaching seminars,” that the students take for potential panel style interan interview with Dodge Carter said. “The first time granted. views later on in the hiring City and learn about their he comes he covers cover Regan Aeschliman is a process. school district. You also get letters and resumes. The student teacher this se“As positions [open] up, practice interviewing.” second time he comes he mester working toward because of these interviews Carter said scheduling talks about signing up on a secondary education we’re going to [get] phone these additional interviews BodJobs and the process of certification in history after calls from [districts] saying could also reveal opportunisigning up to interview with having already completed ‘Hey this just opened. Get ties that students might not specific school districts.” an undergraduate degree your application in and realize. Carter spent most of previously. Aeschliman felt we’ll let you know,” Aeschli“Some of those western his time before coming that this day was helpful, man said. [Kansas] districts have to Washburn as a school especially given her previAs the day began, stusome very good incentives administrator, and he sees ous experiences in looking dents had the chance to too,” Carter said. a great value in having help for teaching jobs. meet with the districts and Aeschliman agrees that from Career Services with “I’ve had a few interviews introduce themselves. the opportunity to meet the process at Washburn. before this and I went “They can go around with those other districts Carter and his colleagues in the best that I could,” Washburn A and B and just can be helpful. noted a real difference in Aeschliman said. “If I had talk to people,” Carter said. “I’ve...met several school Charles Rankin
districts that I wouldn’t have been able to come into contact with otherwise,” Aeschliman said. “Being able to network with this is a really great opportunity.” Not every student teacher this semester is planning to come to the Education Interview Day, but not necessarily because they think it won’t benefit them. “Out of the...students we have right now, a lot of them either already have jobs [lined up], or they’re going to graduate school,” Carter said. “[Districts] hiring more teachers right out of the gate these days.” One such student who did not attend the interview day is Cale Paquette, a senior music education and music performance major. He was recently accepted to two separate graduate school programs. “I was accepted into graduate school and I just didn’t feel like it was appropriate to interview for positions I didn’t intend to take,” Paquette said. Paquette said that if he wasn’t planning on attending graduate school he would’ve attended. “I feel like [it’s] an excellent opportunity for [future] educators at Washburn to interview with people across the state,” Paquette said. “To those students who go, I wish them the best of luck.” Aeschliman believes that this event is just one of the many great things Washburn’s education department does. “The education program is a really great program,” Aeschliman said. “They do everything they can to help you succeed.”