Alumni News

• News from Alums
• Literature and the law: English alum brings classroom to the courtroom
• Elizabeth Jackson: 15 minutes of fame
• Alumni Reunion
• English Education Graduates

News from Alums

Matthew Nienow's ('05) second chapbook, The Smallest Working Pieces has just been released from Toadlily Press included in By Way Of. His poetry has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Cincinnati Review, Columbia, New Orleans Review, Nimrod, Prairie Schooner and Best New Poets 2007. Follow him at matthewnienow.com/blog.

Todd Boss' first book of poems, Yellowrocket (Norton, 2008) has been named the Midwest Booksellers' Honor Book for Poetry. To read more about what Todd is up to, click on his website:
http://www.toddbosspoet.com/Home.html

Ben Staniforth is beginning the PhD program in literature at the University of Iowa this fall ('09), and Kelin Loe begins the MFA program at the University of Massachusetts.

Chad Goodroad ('09) has been accepted in Teach for America program and assigned a teaching position in Baltimore, MD.

Steven Dickens, '98
  Presently, I am teaching at the American Cooperative School in Paramaribo, Suriname (located in South America, formerly Dutch Guiana). Our school is an international school; we have students from Suriname, China, Indonesia, India, Africa, Holland, Canada, the USA, Japan, Mexico, and other countries. Most of our students are missionary kids (all the teachers, including me, are considered missionaries and are paid a missionary salary of $450 per month). Some of our students have parents that run local businesses; others have parents who work in Embassies. I teach: 7/8th grade English, 6th grade English, 7th grade math, and 7th grade Bible. Most recently I got back from teaching at an international school in Kunming, China. More information is available on my website. http://sdickens.tripod.com

Nancy Shaw, '80, njoyshaw@yahoo.com
  I'm working at a professional regional theatre in the suburbs of Philadelphia called The People's Light & Theatre Company. My work is Coordinator of Education Programs.

Megan Ryan, '95, meganryan224@hotmail.com
   I work in Pacing Communications at Medtronic in Minneapolis. My group works on product literature for all pacemaker product launches.

Kristine Martens, '97, martensk1@gateway.net
  I teach English as a Second Language in the Chaska-Chanhassen School District. I work with 6th and 7th grade students from 17 different countries and 7 different languages. This winter, I finished my master's degree in education from the University of St. Thomas.

Holly Welch, '91, hollyw@guthrietheater.org
  Somehow my journalism master's degree led me to a job in theater: I am the graphic designer at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. The highlight of my last year was being chosen to paint a Snoopy sculpture as part of the Peanuts on Parade tribute to Charles Schultz in St. Paul.

Karla Hult, '95, tvkarla@keyc.com
  I started as a reporter for newspapers in Washington, DC, Virginia, and Alaska. I then picked up a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York. I'm now reporting for KEYC-TV in Mankato.

Jeanne Landkamer, '79, jeannelandkamer@hotmail.com
  I'm a freelance writer in Minneapolis, working mostly for government agencies doing media relations, annual reports, brochures, etc., though I have also written curricula. I also work part-time for the YMCA, leading groups through an outdoor adventure learning "ropes" course.

Literature and the law: English alum brings classroom to the courtroom

      The May 12 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune featured an article on the recent return of former St. Olaf English major Leslie Moore (class of '77) to the Twin Cities. Moore, a litigator with a "high-buck, hard-charging New York City firm for the past nine years," is "coming home" to work for the venerable law firm of Lindquist and Vennum. A single, adoptive parent of a three-year-old daughter from China, she's choosing to relocate nearer to her extended Minnesota family.

      Before graduating from Yale Law School in l992, Moore earned a Ph.D. in English from Yale University, taught in the Yale English Department, and published a book, The Making of Paradise Lost, a study of Milton, Swift, and 18th-century writing.

      She noted that literature and the law have a great deal in common: "You're working with narrative in courtroom work. And you're being extremely selective about which facts you emphasize. In the process of doing that you write a narrative. Much of what I did when I taught was teaching others how to write a story, a form of narrative."

      Moore's work in English literature has stood her in good stead in her legal career. "The skill set," Moore went on to say, "rhetoric composed of description, exposition, the development of material, narrative and argument . . . those are the same elements that you use as a lawyer in your writing or oral advocacy."

Elizabeth Jackson: 15 Minutes of Fame

      I graduated in 2000, and now live in Chicago. I work as a 7th/8th grade language arts teacher at Nichols Middle School in Evanston, Illinois.

      On a Friday afternoon in late September--a day when I wanted to leave the building and never come back, a day when I was wondering if teaching was really worth the trouble--I received a call from Newsweek asking if I wanted to be one of three first year teachers from around the country to keep a journal of my experiences for publication in the magazine. Of course I said yes, and within ten minutes was talking to my "editor in New York." Although a publication date has not been pinned down, my editor said they are shooting for sometime in June after school is out. So, I, along with an elementary school teacher in San Francisco, and a high school teacher in Boston, have been keeping a journal since I received the call.

      How did I come by such an opportunity? Newsweek called my district (Evanston/Skokie School District 65) because it is one of the most diverse districts in the country and talked to one of our new Assistant Superintendents, who was the principal at Nichols when I student taught there last fall. She immediately told then to call me at Nichols, and thus my 15 minutes of fame at 23.

(The article, "A Year in the Life," has now been published and can be read at: www.newsweek.msnbc.com)

Alumni Reunion

Saturday, March 31, 2001

SESSIONS A

1. Ron Lee:  Shakespeare
looks at the affirmation of life's meaning in Shakespeare's comedies, especially for those who know how complicated life really is

 2. Jan Allister:  Children's Literature
leads discussion & gives recommendations of good children's fiction beloved by adults as well as kids

 3. Carol Holly:  Women & Literature,
discusses how teaching American literature has been transformed by the inclusion of women writers, with attention to Spofford's "Circumstance"

SESSIONS B

 4. Jim Heynen:  Creative Writing Workshop
leads a session in creative writing--no expertise necessary!  come, be creative, have fun

 5. Diana Postlethwaite:  Recreational Reading
suggests useful sources for finding out the best of "what to read" in contemporary literature for recreational reading

 6. Karen Cherewatuk:  Medieval Literature
explores how two 15th-C. women writers, Margery Kempe & Julian of Norwich,
use childbirth to approach God

Lunch & Program

SESSIONS C

7. Creative Writers
readings by Siri Hustvedt, Tim Mason, Joan Schroeder, Karen Herseth Wee, & others

 8. Eric Nelson:  Literature & Film
looks carefully at the first 2 1/2 minutes of Alfred Hitchcock's film "North by Northwest"

SESSIONS D

 9. Mary Steen:  Book Discussion
leads a discussion of Rosina Lippi's Homestead:  insightful linked short stories depicting several generations in the Austrian Alps

10. Joseph Mbele:  Post-Colonial Literature
discusses the necessity of seeing English as a global phenomenon and of teaching Literatures in English from around the world

11. Wacky Careers
alums will tell stories of how their English major led them to unusual careers-- we're looking for volunteers!

Social Hour
Alums, faculty, emeriti socialize over snacks & beverages

Reminiscences
Alums from various decades reminisce about the department

English Education Graduates

Autumn Berggren--teaching English somewhere in the north suburbs
Jennifer Buckley--Southview Middle School, Edina, MN (7th grade language arts, 8th and 9th grade creative writing)
Elizabeth Jackson--Nichols Middle School, Chicago, IL (7th and 8th grade English)
Meagan Jasperson--Kealakehe Intermediate School, Kailua, HI (English and ESL)
Paige Lepley--Lutheran Volunteer Corps, Wilmington, DE (looking for a teaching job next year)
Adria Moersen--Aurora High School, Aurora, CO (9th and 10th grade English, forensics and speech coach)
Amy Sahly--Luverne High School, Luverne, MN (Language Arts, speech, yearbook, and spring play)
Maia Sheie--Albert Lea High School, Albert lea, MN (Language Arts)
Jessica Stock--Cambridge-Isanti Junior High School (8th grade English)

Class of 1999

Sarah Cook--Palm Beach, FL (high school English)
Elisa Hahn--St. Cloud Technical High School, St. Cloud, MN (Language Arts)
Gloria (Blain) Henderson--Burnsville High School, Burnsville, MN (11th grade English)
Anne Holmgren--Olson Middle School, Bloomington, MN (8th grade English)
Ann Johnson--Lakeville High School, Lakeville, MN (English)
Justin Jourdan--Century Junior High School, Forest Lake, MN (9th grade English)
Liv Musel--teaching ESL in Mankato
Sarah Ogden--South Middle School, St. Cloud, MN (7th grade English)
Katie Rooks--working in business
Lee Wignall--substitute teaching in Northfield, mostly in the sciences but some in English
May Yang--Women's Association of Hmong and Laos, Inc., St. Paul, MN

Class of 1998

Kelly Flanigan--Montgomery/Lonsdale, MN (8th and 9th grade English)
Ted Hamilton--City, Inc. Alternative School in Minneapolis (9th and 10th grade English)
Abby Lindesmith--Carver County Alternative Learning Center Green Isle, MN (10th and 12th grade English, music, physical education, and communications)

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Department of English: Rolvaag Memorial Library, St. Olaf College, 1520 St. Olaf Ave., Northfield, MN 55057, (507) 646-3200. Comments and questions can be directed to Department Chair - Mary Steen, msteen@stolaf.edu, or Department Secretary - Cleo Granneman, grannema@stolaf.edu