English

CLS Awards Students and Faculty Recognition of Excellence, 2018

Emma Guthrie: Emma will graduate in Summer 2018 with a double major in Philosophy and English – emphasis in Rhetoric and Writing – and a minor in Legal Studies. She is a writing tutor and a philosophy/logic tutor at the UWL Murphy Learning Center, and was an intern for Justice Annette Ziegler at the Chambers of Wisconsin Supreme Court. She led a resume writing workshop for the Golden Key Honors Society, and was a UWL Writing Center representative for a graduate school application writing workshop. She is a member of the UWL Philosophy Club and Pre-Law Society, and an officer and newsletter editor for the Golden Key Honors Society

Claire Howard: Claire will earn her bachelor’s degree in Psychology with minors in both English Literature and Sociology in May 2018. She is a Gundersen Hospital Behavioral Health Unit Volunteer and works with teenagers admitted into the unit, as well as a Coulee Council on Addictions Volunteer where she works with individuals suffering from addictions to talking about next steps and support systems. At UWL she has been a Vanguard, a teaching assistant in Psychology and Sociology, a Resident Assistant and a Writing Center tutor. She is a member of Eta Phi Alpha, Psi Chi, and Alpha Kappa Delta.

Emily Mootz: Emily will earn her bachelor’s degree in English Education with minors in Professional & Technical Writing and Ethnic & Racial Studies in May 2018. Emily is currently an intern student teacher at James Madison Academic Center in Milwaukee, WI where she is creating lesson plans for six sections of 9th-grade reading intervention classes. At UWL, she was the social media assistant for The Big Read, a tutor and teaching assistant with Upward Bound, and a writing tutor at the Writing Center. Emily was also a student delegate at South-Central University of Nationalities in Wuhan, China, where she met with students, professors, and delegates to discuss education systems in China and the United States.

Ellie Peters: Ellie graduated in Fall 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Organizational and Professional Communication and a minor in Professional and Technical Writing. During her time at UWL, she was a facilitator for the Women Moving Ahead Conference where she assisted over 100 women in confidence building for speaking engagements. She also collaborated with professors to facilitate and lead small group discussions for the Speaking Anxiety Workshop and the Visual Aids Workshop. She was a lead peer consultant with the UWL Public Speaking Center and an intern with Post Consumer Brands in Lakeville, Minnesota.

Payton Yahn: Payton will graduate in May 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in English – emphasis in Rhetoric and Writing – and a minor in International Studies. Payton is a 2+2 Program tutor where she works closely with Chinese exchange students to improve their writing skills across a variety of disciplines. She presented an independent research project at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in 2017 at UWL. Payton has been published in The Catalyst, and has self-financed her college tuition, at times working full-time in addition to undertaking a full academic load.

Dr. Kate Parker, Associate Professor of English, was awarded the Individual Inclusive Excellence Award. As her department colleagues state “Kate’s service consistently furthers projects which allow under-represented voices to be heard, enriching inclusive excellence both on our campus and in our city.” Indeed, Parker’s work has impacted not just the UWL community, but our larger La Crosse community, as well. Parker has written for and received 7 grants to directly support community-driven initiatives such as the 2016 Big Read—an initiative funded by the NEA to increase both literacy and awareness of social issues surrounding a particular text as a common read for an area community. This is an ongoing project in our community today.

Additionally, Parker is a strong advocate for sexual assault awareness on- and off-campus; she led a TED-X talk titled “After: Rape Culture, Feminism and the Limits of Representation”; such social justice work ties into Parker’s teaching, research, and service. Since 2013, she has been an appointed member of the Violence Prevention Committee on UWL’s campus and the Co-Advisor of the Rise Above Rape Coalition, a student organization, since 2016. Truly, a paragraph cannot encompass Parker’s work for social justice and inclusivity — as her colleagues state, “Her altruism is genuine, stemming from a boundless compassion for others and a desire to make life better for all.”