Majors Graduating with CESP Recognition

Three English undergraduates are graduating this spring with Community Engagement Scholars Program recognition: Kari Eloranta, Abdiasis Hirsi, and Anna Kraemer. This honor recognizes that the students have performed 400 hours of community engagement addressing social issues and community needs throughout their undergraduate careers at the University of Minnesota. They also have completed reflections on those volunteer experiences, as well as a seminar and final project. The students receive recognition on their official transcripts and at commencement. The Department of English honored these students at our annual Campus Community Colloquium on April 30. Eloranta in addition received a University of Minnesota Alumni Association Student Leadership Award later that evening at the President's Student Leadership and Service Awards Banquet. Congratulations!

President's Student Leadership & Service Awardees

Two English majors and one MFA candidate have been selected to receive a President's Student Leadership & Service Award this spring. English senior Kari Eloranta is actively involved with civic engagement and is the undergraduate Service-Learning Mentor for the English course, The Literature of Public Life (ENGL 1501W); she also coordinates the University YMCA's tutoring projects this year. English senior Echo Martin is the web editor for two English student publications, Ivory Tower and Parachute, and has been involved with service learning and the English major student group FUSE. Third-year MFA candidate Claire Stanford is involved with sustainable agriculture and youth farm work in the Frogtown neighborhood of Saint Paul. Only about 35 students--both undergraduate and graduate--are selected from across the University, approximately one-half of one percent of the student body, for exceptional leadership and service to the University of Minnesota and the surrounding community.

Senior Wins Leadership Honor

English senior Lance Witzig has been named a President's Student Leadership and Service Award winner. Witzig is an English Undergraduate Studies peer counselor, as well as the President of Fellowship of Undergraduate Students in English (FUSE). He has also served as a TA for undergraduate classes and been involved with outreach for the Honors Program. He is set to graduate this spring with Community Engagement Scholars Program recognition, which represents 400 hours of community engagement work.