The Innerlink Newsletter - Spring 2018

Cleveland State University College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Shorrock Endowment Fund pg. 4

AHA! Festival pgs. 5 & 6

Telling The Story of Us pgs. 7 & 8

SPRING 2018

Conrad Memorial Scholarship pg. 10

Letter from the Dean As many of you are aware, the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) was created in 2004, when the old College of Arts and Sciences was split into the College of Sciences and Health Professions and CLASS. Since I arrived at CSU in 2005, my constant goal has been not only to help create a unified image for the college but also to help get the word out regarding all the wonderful things our faculty, staff, and students accomplish every year. This goal, in fact, was incorporated into the second major division of our 2015 Strategic Plan, entitled “College Branding, Visibility, and Success Stories.” The Plan calls for creating a “distinctive identity” for the college and making the college more visible. Indeed, the CLASS Edge Lounge, which opened in the spring of 2016 and was featured in The Innerlink at that time, was a major step in this direction. The Lounge gives the college a visible presence on a major campus thoroughfare and links campus visitors to our Liberal Arts Edge website, which contains resources for understanding the value of a Liberal Arts education. This year, we have taken another big step forward. The ad campaign created and donated by alumnus Mark Lantz and his team at Factory Detroit, Inc. seeks to highlight through short interviews, posters, and social media contacts, some of the fascinating, community-oriented work being done in CLASS, specifically in our Criminology Research Center, our MA in Global Interactions Program, and in our Center for Public History and Digital Humanities.

What unifies CLASS? Mr. Lantz replies, “People. CLASS is all about studying, inspiring and celebrating people,” and he adds, “That’s a powerful story Northeast Ohio needs to know.” Through his ad campaign, Mr. Lantz has risen to that challenge, and for that we are profoundly grateful.

We are also very grateful to supporters like Robert Conrad and Marjorie Shorrock, who are also featured in this issue. Ms. Shorrock, recently pledged $170,000 to create an endowment to fund CLASS students who would like to complete our Study Abroad programs. Since the cost of these Study Abroad programs is a major hurdle for most CSU students, this endowment will make this life-transforming experience possible for many more students than in the past. This gift adds to an already impressive record of giving since she had previously established two other scholarship endowments.

The dean of a college of the size and complexity of CLASS could never hope to carry out his duties alone. As dean, I have been exceptionally fortunate in having such a strong Dean’s Office team, which has allowed me to lead the college in both good and more challenging times. I am reminded of this fact by the retirements of my two long-standing Associate Deans, Dr. Eric Ziolek and Dr. Joyce Mastboom. Dr. Ziolek retired in fall of 2017, and Dr. Mastboom will retire this summer. Both have been good friends and colleagues, providing essential support at critical times. I remain very grateful for all their contributions, and I wish them all the best in retirement!

Moving forward, we are fortunate that Dr. Ziolek has been replaced by Dr. Cheryl Bracken, a professor and prolific researcher in the School of Communication. We are currently seeking a replacement for Dr. Mastboom. As a result, you can be sure that the college will continue moving forward with a truly strong leadership team!

Best wishes,

Gregory Sadlek

Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 1

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Visit us online at class.csuohio.edu

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Dr. Gregory Sadlek, Dean Dr. Cheryl Bracken, Associate Dean Dr. Joyce Mastboom, Associate Dean

Staff Jeff Karem, Guest Editor Lesley Lang, Designer & Assistant Editor Jody Milkie, Editor

Contributors Brenda Driscoll Thomas Humphrey Connie Kopec Caryl Pagel

Table of Contents 1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Letter from the Dean Table of Contents Motherhood and Meaning in Medieval Sculpture

by Marian Bleeke and Keeping Up With CLASS Shorrock Study Abroad Endowment Fund Deans and President Highlights and AHA! Festival AHA! continued and Cleveland Humanities Festival Poetry Center News and Telling the Story of Us Women’s Night and Jilin Partnership CLASS Scholars and Alumni Updates Jean Smith Conrad Memorial Scholarship

Motherhood and Meaning in Medieval Sculpture: Representations from France, C.1100-1500

by Marian Bleeke What can medieval sculptural representations of women tell us about medieval women’s experiences of motherhood?

Presumably the work of male sculptors, working for clerical patrons, these sculptures are unlikely to have been shaped by women’s maternal experiences during their production.

Once produced, however, their beholders would have included women who were mothers and potential mothers, thus opening a space between the sculptures’ intended meanings and other meanings liable to be produced by these women as they brought their own interests and concerns to these works of art.

Building on theories of reception and response, this book focuses on interactions between women as beholders and a range of sculptures made in France in the twelfth through sixteenth centuries, aiming to provide insight into women’s experiences of motherhood; particular sculptures considered include the Annunciation and Visitation from Reims cathedral, the femme-aux-serpents from Moissac, the transi of Jeanne de Bourbon-Vendome, the Eve from Autun, and a number of French Gothic Virgin and Child sculptures.

Keeping up with

CLASS RETIREES Larry W. Foster School of Social Work

Joyce M. Mastboom CLASS Dean’s Office

George B. Ray School of Communication

Eric E. Ziolek CLASS Dean’s Office

AWA R D S 2018 EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARD Mark B. Cole

Associate College Lecturer, History Department

2018 EXCELLENCE IN SCHOLARSHIP AWARD Rachel K. Carnell Professor, English Department

HONORARY DEGREE Maggie Jackson

Professor Emeritus, School of Social Work

CSU DISTINGUISHED FACULTY AWARD FOR SERVICE Jeff Karem Chair and Professor, English Department

Overview provided by Boydell Press, 2017.

About the author: Marian Bleeke is Associate Professor of Art History, former Chair of the Department of Art and Design and is currently the Director of General Education at Cleveland State University.

PA S S I N G Maureen “Reenie” Pruitt

Associate College Lecturer, Spanish

Dr. Samuel A. Richmond

Professor Emeritus, Philosophy 3

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The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences is pleased to announce the establishment of the Marjorie B. Shorrock Study Abroad Endowment Fund. This new fund will support CSU students who wish to enroll and to participate in an education abroad program to enhance their academic experience.

Through the Marjorie B. Shorrock Study Abroad Endowment Fund, students will receive scholarships to participate in course-related trips, including faculty-led programs, experientially-based learning opportunities, and international internships. They may also participate in longerterm academic residencies abroad or in CLASS summer study abroad programs. Scholarship support will make it possible for students to have transformative academic experiences by participating in any approved international program.

This is the third endowment fund that Marjorie (Marge), MBA ’98, has generously established to benefit students in CLASS. In 2007, the Shorrock family established an endowment fund to honor Marge’s late husband, William I. Shorrock, a former history professor and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at CSU. This fund provides scholarships in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences for students majoring in history with demonstrated financial need and academic potential. In 2014, Marge established the Marjorie B. Shorrock Graduate Fellowship in History to benefit graduate students studying history by providing them with meaningful academic and professional preparation.

Marge, an active member of the CSU community, has had a distinguished career spanning both the not-for-profit and corporate worlds. In 1974 Marge joined Resource Careers, a not-for-profit career development and referral service helping college-educated women identify and obtain careers in business. She transformed the business from a not-for-profit to a for-profit corporation and expanded the company’s services to providing assistance for spouses of employees who were relocating, for expatriate “Marge has been associated with families relocating to the United CSU for decades, and she is among States for employment, and our most long-standing and generous for families relocating to other countries outside the United supporters,” said Dean Gregory Sadlek States. Resource Careers provided an expansive array of services from professional development and domestic and international job-search assistance, to cross-cultural preparation, to finding housing, to repatriation support. British Petroleum, Proctor & Gamble and ExxonMobil were among Resource Careers’ numerous clients.

Marge is an avid Vikings basketball fan. Her other interests include traveling (especially to France), listening to music, and addressing challenging societal social issues such as affordable healthcare and women’s issues. She continues to support CSU students out of her deep commitment to creating change in our world and to providing students with opportunities for success: “International experience through a Study Abroad Program integrated within the college curriculum with crosscultural preparation and repatriation support is becoming a component of a well-rounded education. Participants in a Study Abroad Program are exposed to new cultures and viewpoints, honing of language skills, and personal development. Employers increasingly seek this experience.

Scholarship support for the extra costs is vital. I am delighted to support this new Study Abroad Program Endowment Fund.”

“Marge has been associated with CSU for decades, and she is among our most long-standing and generous supporters,” said Dean Gregory Sadlek.

“Multitudes of CLASS students will enjoy a more enhanced CSU education because of her far-sighted and impactful endowments. We could not be more grateful.”

MARJORIE B.

SHORROCK Study Abroad Endowment

fund

CHANGES

CLASS ASSOCIATE DEAN Eric Ziolek, Associate Dean for Faculty, Retired Dr. Eric Ziolek is a composer and pianist who has taught at Grand Valley State University and the University of Iowa, where he was also Musical Director of the Center for New Music. Ziolek joined the faculty at Cleveland State University in 1992. In January 2018, he retired as the Associate Dean for Faculty, but also served as a professor and former Chair of the Department of Music.

AHA! HEADLINERS THURSDAY, JUNE 7 Dr. Janna Levin: Creativity from Limits* 10:00 am || The Idea Center, Westfield Insurance Studio Theatre

Hill Harper: Arts Education Day Luncheon* 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm || Playhouse Square, Keybank State Theatre Stage

His compositional output consists mainly of chamber music, which has been performed in Germany, Malaysia, and Brazil, as well as the United States. He has written numerous commissioned works and was twice named MTNA composer of the year in Michigan and Iowa. His music is published by TAP Music, Lingua Press, and American Composers Edition.

Derek Hough: Learn to Dance Like a Star*

Cheryl Bracken, Associate Dean for Faculty

7:30 pm || Playhouse Square, Keybank State Theatre Stage

Dr. Cheryl Bracken (Ph.D., Temple University) has been at Cleveland State University for 18 years. She is a Professor in the School of Communication. Her program of research focuses on the psychological processing of media. Dr. Bracken has an extensive record of service to CSU on numerous College and University Committees including Faculty Senate, the CLASS PRC, and the Contract Implementation Committee. Dr. Bracken has also served as the Interim Program Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies program. She has extensive knowledge of the CSUAAUP agreement as she served on the past two AAUP contract negotiation teams.

As the Associate Dean for Faculty, Dr. Bracken is the Dean’s designee in reviewing and preparing recommendations for Promotion and Tenure, workload guidelines, and faculty annual activity reports. She also is the CLASS dean’s office liaison to other administrative offices at CSU. Dr. Bracken replaced Dr. Eric Ziolek in January 2018.

NEW PRESIDENT FOR CSU Harlan M. Sands Harlan M. Sands was appointed the seventh president of Cleveland State University through a unanimous vote by the CSU Board of Trustees on January 29, 2018. President-elect Sands, a J.D. with significant military experience, is a highly regarded and widely respected higher education leader, who will bring a considerable amount of experience in academic administration. Sands comes to Cleveland State from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he served as vice dean of finance and administration, chief financial officer and chief administrative officer. He is a man with abundant energy and a commitment to listen to his constituents, qualities that will serve him well as he embarks upon his journey to build upon the impressive foundation created by his predecessors and to move CSU closer to its goal of being among the best urban public universities in the country.

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4:00 pm & 5:00 pm || Playhouse Square, Keybank State Theatre Stage

Becoming Kareem: The Importance of Reading Books*

FRIDAY, JUNE 8 Bob Mankoff—I Only Read It for the Cartoons: An Insider’s Cartoon History of The New Yorker* 10:00 – 11:00 am || CSU Music and Communication Building, Drinko Hall

Senator Sherrod Brown and Connie Schultz Staged Reading: A Benefit Performance of A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters* 5:00 – 6:30 pm || Playhouse Square, Hanna Theatre

An Evening with Maureen Dowd: In Conversation with Carl Hulse, Chief Washington Correspondent, New York Times* 7:30 pm || Playhouse Square, Ohio Theatre

SATURDAY, JUNE 9 Reveal: The Center Cannot Hold, Hosted by Al Letson* 11:00 am || The Idea Center, Westfield Insurance Studio Theatre In partnership with 90.3 WCPN ideastream.

John Frohnmayer—Socrates the Rower: How Rowing Informs Philosophy* 3:00 – 4:00 pm || The Flats, The Foundry *Tickets are now on sale! Tickets can be purchased through Playhouse Square—visit their box office or purchase online.

Cleveland Humanities Festival Lecture

Life and Death in the British Mainland Colonies, 1585-1776 The Cleveland Humanities Festival (CHF) was held this past March and April 2018.

This year’s CHF explored the roles of health, health care, and medicine in culture and society from a variety of perspectives in history, literature, and the arts.

On March 27, Cleveland State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences hosted a lecture as part of the 2018 CHF. This lecture was free and open to the public.

Dr. Thomas Humphrey’s (Department of History) lecture “Life and Death in the British Mainland Colonies, 1585-1776” focused on how Tisquantum—a native American who served as a liaison between his people and the pilgrims—embodies nearly all aspects of life and death in the British North American mainland colonies before 1776. Using Tisquantum as a starting point, this talk brought together those themes to describe how people lived and died in that portion of North America that later became the United States.

Cleveland State University and Playhouse Square will celebrate the worlds of books, theater, music, art, dance and ideas in downtown Cleveland on June 7, 8, and 9 at the second annual Arts and Humanities Alive! (AHA!) Festival. Visitors can have their own AHA! moments during the multidisciplinary Fest which features a free all-day book fair, bestselling authors, two hit stage productions and internationally known artists. Tickets are on sale now! AHA! is made possible thanks to a generous gift from former Clevelanders Myra and Darwin Smith.

For the full schedule of events and ticket information, please visit ahacsu.com.

“The Cleveland Humanities Festival is giving us all the chance to dispel those interpretations of medical history that promote the misconception that Europeans possessed, or possess, some kind of genetic advantage over non-Europeans. To have that chance in Cleveland, a place that is becoming one of the world’s centers for medical research speaks to the importance of the Festival.”

–Thomas Humphrey The 2018 Cleveland Humanities Festival is presented with the generous support of Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. For more information on the CHF, please visit chf.case.edu.

POETRY CENTER News In partnership with the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards—an 80+ year-old Cleveland organization that honors literature exploring issues of equity, social justice, religious identity, immigration, and race—the Cleveland State University Poetry Center has created a two-year post-graduate fellowship that offers an emerging creative writer time to work toward a first or second book and an opportunity to gain experience in editing, publishing, literary programming, and outreach in collaboration with CSU Poetry Center staff.

Through the creation of this fellowship, Anisfield-Wolf and the CSU Poetry Center hope to support writers from backgrounds and with perspectives historically underrepresented in publishing and creative writing programming. By providing editorial experience and opportunities at a literary press, the fellowship also aims to address the longstanding lack of diversity in the U.S. publishing workforce. The inaugural fellowship, made possible by a $74,300 grant from the Cleveland Foundation, will begin in Fall 2018.

Additionally, the CSU Poetry Center is proud to welcome Hilary Plum to Cleveland State University where she will serve as an Assistant College Lecturer in Creative Writing and the Associate Director of the CSU Poetry Center. Hilary Plum is currently running the Lighthouse Reading Series, mentoring student assistants and interns, contributing to the daily operations of the press, reading submissions for a forthcoming translation series, and developing a new undergraduate and graduate course in Literary Editing and Publishing, to be offered at Cleveland State University for the first time next fall.

More information about the Anisfield-Wolf Fellowship in Writing & Publishing, our staff, and the CSU Poetry Center’s spring publications can be found at csupoetrycenter.com.

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The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Cleveland State University has a great story to tell. Mark Lantz (BA ’87, MA ’90) founder of the advertising firm Factory Detroit Inc., will help tell that story. Lantz aims to highlight the reach and breadth of the college’s mission in our region: “CLASS brings together such a diverse array of people and subjects, sometimes it’s hard to understand what ties it all together. But the answer is simple: People.

CLASS is all about studying, inspiring and celebrating people. That’s a powerful story Northeast Ohio needs to know.”

Mark is a member of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) Visiting Committee. In spring of 2017 he initiated a discussion with the Committee about how to raise CLASS’ profile in the world of higher education through advertising and storytelling. The Committee consulted with CLASS Dean Dr. Gregory Sadlek and CSU marketing staff, and they decided to start a pilot program for a marketing campaign for the college. Mark and his team interviewed several CLASS faculty members and produced three videos showcasing some of CLASS’ signature programs.

The videos, designed for distribution through social media outlets, tell the story of CSU’s Criminology Research Center, Master of Art in Global Interactions (MAGI) degree program, and the Kisumu/MaCleKi Mobile Website. These videos will be accessible online soon, and they will be distributed to targeted audiences in Northeast Ohio, including community leaders, media outlets, and prospective students.

This initiative will also include email blasts, social media posts, a dedicated web page and a poster that will be distributed to high schools around the region.

Prior to founding Factory Detroit Inc., Mark was Chief Strategy Officer with McCann Erickson in Detroit and one of the creators of the groundbreaking tourism campaign “Pure Michigan.” Mark also has held positions at FCB San Francisco, Ogilvy & Mather Chicago, Rubin Poster in LA and Wyse Advertising in Cleveland.

In 2015 Mark established the Mark Lantz Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships to CLASS graduate students pursuing a degree in Applied Communication Theory and Methodology. Dean Gregory Sadlek extends his thanks to Mark for his generous and distinguished support of the college: “As an amazingly engaged alumnus, Mark Lantz is a role model for us all. He has not only served on the Visiting Committee and established a critical CLASS scholarship, but he has now designed a truly cutting edge ad campaign to raise the public profile of the college, an in-kind contribution, which will fulfill a critical need. We could not be more grateful.”

Women’s Night Discussion On Saturday, March 3 the Cleveland State Department of Theatre and Dance along with the Women’s and Gender Studies program hosted a Women’s Studies Night in correspondence with the production of Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World. The sold-out show on Women’s Studies night drew students and faculty from Cleveland State University, University of Akron, Kent State University, and Youngstown State University.

After the performance, the actors participated in a lively talk back with audience members.

Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World is the latest play by Eva Ensler who is best known for the Vagina Monologues. In Emotional Creature the characters portray a diverse group of girls from around the world including an American who struggles with peer pressure in a suburban high school; an anorexic blogging as she eats less and less; a Masai girl from Kenya unwilling to endure female genital mutilation; a Congolese forced into sex slavery; an Iranian student who is tricked into a nose job; a pregnant girl trying to decide if she should keep her baby; and a young South African teen defiantly calling for an end to rape.

Jilin University Partnership During the academic year 2012-13, Professor Ronglan Zhu of the English Division of the Department of Foreign Languages at Jilin University in Changchun, China, was a Visiting Professor at Cleveland State University. This visit was the beginning of a very fruitful partnership between the CSU College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and the Department of Foreign Languages at Jilin. Since Professor Zhu’s visit, Dean Gregory Sadlek has visited Jilin University twice, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, establishing a formal partnership, and hosted numerous visitors from Jilin on our campus. In AY 2014-15, for example, Professor Ying Tang spent a year on our campus. Moreover, in the summer of 2016, an entire delegation of Jilin English professors happily spent several weeks visiting Cleveland and CSU.

Mark Lantz is telling

“The Story of Us”

In addition, starting in the fall semester of 2014, top students from the Jilin English Division have been coming to CSU to spend a semester. We have had at least one Jilin English student on our campus every semester. The students take a full load of courses, but, even though they are English majors, they often choose to take courses in other areas, such as French, psychology, or communication, which are sometimes difficult for them to access at their home university. They have performed exceptionally well, and the partnership continues. In the spring of 2018, we are delighted to be hosting Ms. Yange Li and Mr. Yizhe Zhang. Next year our college looks forward to hosting six more Jilin students!

CLASS VALEDICTORIAN LEAH BECK Leah E. Beck was selected from a group of 19 CLASS scholars to be the fall 2017 CLASS Valedictorian. Ms. Beck, a doublemajor in Philosophy and Sociology with a 3.92 GPA, is a member of Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society as well as the Golden Key International Honor Society. She has been actively involved in the Philosophy Club and several community social service organizations. In addition, she was an undergraduate student assistant in the Department of Criminology, Anthropology, and Sociology as well as a student volunteer in the Department of Philosophy and Comparative Religion. Her main focus has been on the study of bioethics, and she plans to continue her studies, hoping to obtain both a Ph.D. in medical ethics and a J.D. We honored Ms. Beck as well as the other, truly admirable CLASS scholars at our CLASS Recognition Awards Banquet on December 5th.

Photo: Gregory Sadlek, Dean and Leah Beck

CLASS OUTSTANDING SCHOLARS Cassandra Acree Amber Adkins Nathaniel Box Amanda Brian Cammie Collins Alena Efremova Joshua Fye Rhianna Gordon Steven Kubit 9

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Grace Markulin Hannah Gonzalez Johnita McGee Sofia Moreno Nathan Purdom Marilyn Robidoux Megan Sparks Sierra Swigert Rachel Verba Spring 2018

College of Liberal A r ts and S ocial S ciences

ALUMNI UPDATES Donna Marie Kisley Przybojewski (’74 BA English) is a junior high teacher in the Cleveland area. Her fourth book about author Henry David Thoreau was published in July 2017. She launched Henry David Thoreau Loved the Seasons of the Year at the Thoreau farm in Concord, Mass., participated in a Thoreau workshop sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and planned a yearlong celebration of the author at her school.

Sandra Banks Robinson (’76 BA Communication) retired after 36 years as a reporter, editor, and columnist at the Los Angeles Times and was honored as one of CSU’s 2018 Fascinating Alumni. She is now a Senior Fellow with the Annenberg Center for Communication Leadership and Policy at the University of Southern California.

David Odum (’85 BA Social Work) is a disabled Vietnam veteran who lives in Cleveland. He enjoys spending time with his grandson and following Viking athletics.

Kurt Steigerwald (’86 BA Communication) was one of this year’s recipients of CSU’s Alumni Association’s David Balint Outstanding Volunteer Service Award. Kurt and his wife, Karen, organized a large group of 1980s era alumni to march in CSU’s 50th-anniversary homecoming parade. Kurt is also a member of the Alumni Board of Directors, while Karen is helping CSU form a nursing alumni chapter.

Gloria Watkins Brown (’87 MMus Music) published Through It All: A Compilation of Short Stories Based on Lived Experiences.

Peter Billington (’94 BA Art) owns Whitney Stained Glass in Cleveland. The studio does restoration and new works for churches, businesses, and homes.

Catherine Foster Rowell (’91 BA Social Work and Sociology) was elected as the first Mayor Pro Tempore and City Councilwoman for District 1 of the newly incorporated city of South Fulton, GA. Incorporated in November 2016, South Fulton is the fifth largest city in Georgia with a population of nearly 100,000 residents. Dr. Rowell was featured in Who’s Who in Black Atlanta 2017.

Mike Carpenter (’91 BA and ’92 MA History) is the new head wrestling coach of the Westlake High School Demons. The former Viking wrestler is a history teacher with the Berea schools.

Jon Silver (’92 BA Communication) was promoted from midwest regional sales manager to national sales manager at Jain Americas.

Jackie Warren (’92 MMus Music) is a pianist who performs as a soloist and with her jazz trio at such local venues as The Velvet Tango Room, Nighttown and Belinda’s Nightclub. She is on the jazz studies faculty at Cuyahoga Community College, Metro Campus, where she coaches jazz ensembles and teaches piano. She also is on the faculty at the Cleveland Music School Settlement.

Kelly Falcone-Hall (’92 BA Political Science and ’95 MA History) received a 2017 Women of Note Award from Crain’s Cleveland Business.

The president and chief executive officer of the Western Reserve Historical Society was included in CSU’s first group of Fascinating Alumni in 2015 and is a current member of the CLASS Visiting Committee.

Michelle Curry (’92 BA Communication) is the executive director of Merrick House.

Elwyn McRoy (’97 BA Social Work) joined Washington State University as recruiting coordinator for the Cougars’ basketball team.

The former Viking point guard spent the past three seasons—including the last two as an associate head coach—at Coppin State in Baltimore. He also has been an assistant coach at five other Division I schools: Iowa State, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, Southern University and Texas-Pan American.

Robert Divis (’99 BA History) was an ROTC cadet at CSU and was commissioned as an infantry officer. His army service now complete, he recently finished a JD degree at Mercer University School of Law and is set to embark on a second career. While a student at Mercer, he wrote an article on veterans’ benefits that was selected for publication in Volume 9, Veteran Law Review.

Kevin Keating (’99 MA English) received a 2017 Cleveland Arts Prize, Emerging Artist Award.

The former CSU faculty member is the author of two novels, The Natural Order of Things and The Captive Condition, as well as a writer of essays and short stories. He is currently teaching at Baldwin Wallace University and pursuing a degree from Southern New Hampshire University.

Jennifer Bernard (’04 MA Sociology) works for the Department of Veterans Affairs as director of the Lorain Community-Based Outpatient Clinic in Sheffield Village.

Emily Leyava (’05 BA Philosophy and Religious Studies) is pursuing a Ph.D. in sociocultural and international development education at Florida State University. The CSU alumna holds a master’s degree in religious studies from John Carroll and a master’s degree in global development/social justice from St. John’s University.

Dena M. Warmuth (’05 BA Dramatic Arts) is a home health aide, and volunteers as a stage manager and board member at her local community theater.

Jesse Morgan (’09 BA Journalism and Promotional Communication) collaborated on The Back 80, a documentary about Bigfoot.

Laura Rodriguez-Carbone (’11 BA Political Science) was one of this year’s recipients of CSU’s Alumni Association’s Resilience Award.

Laura has overcome adversity and today is a community outreach coordinator for Lifebanc.

Katie Lamar (’16 BA Journalism and Promotional Communication) is a special assistant in the Office of Communications for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. As a student, she gained experience working in City Hall through CSU’s Deckard Civic Fellow Scholarship.

Olivia Garl (’17 BA History) is the curator at the Legacy of the Plains Museum in Nebraska.

The Jean Smith Conrad Memorial Scholarship in Theatre was established by Robert Conrad to honor the memory of his wife.

Elizabeth Stewart is the first recipient of the award, which she received in both her junior and senior year at CSU. FROM ROBERT CONRAD How and why did you get engaged with Cleveland State University? I was invited to join the Visiting Committee some years ago, and because WCLV wants to be involved in many arts and culture related organizations, I reciprocated. In turn, I was able to interest Dean Gregory Sadlek in joining the Cleveland Play House board, which I serve on as well.

What was your motivation for establishing a CSU scholarship? I was approached by CSU to fund a scholarship in Communication, but I decided it would be appropriate to fund a theatrical scholarship in memory of my wife Jean, who had always been involved in community theatre.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of your gift to the University? To follow Elizabeth through her college career and to experience her performances. It’s almost like having a daughter going through this involvement. I also fund an internship scholarship for the School of Communications at Northwestern University (NU), and I enjoy hearing from the recipients about their internships and how they have helped them in their careers after graduation.

I was fortunate to have had four years of internship at my hometown radio station while in high school, and, as a result, I have been continually employed in the business since graduating from high school, including at Chicago radio stations while at NU. I also had a complete tuition scholarship at Northwestern, so I know what scholarships mean to students.

If asked, what would you say to others who are considering creating a scholarship? If you give a scholarship to a student, you benefit in knowing that you are helping a young person realize his or her dreams, as the scholarships help to alleviate financial concerns.

Any final thoughts you’d like to share with your scholarship recipient? I wish her all the best. I did point her to a possible job with The Musical Theatre Project and its Kids Love Musical program.

FROM ELIZABETH STEWART Why CSU? I chose CSU because of its fantastic theatre department which is training me to be a true professional.

What is your major and why did you choose it? My majors are Theatre and English Literature. I chose to double major because theatre is my passion and combining it with English literature, I hope to have stable employment.

What is your career goal? I hope to teach Theatre.

LET US KNOW WHAT YOU’VE BEEN UP TO! Email CLASS.Alumni@csuohio.edu with your own career or personal update!

What does receiving this scholarship mean to you and do you have any final thoughts for your scholarship sponsor? The scholarship I received from Mr. Conrad means so much to me! I wouldn’t have been able to continue my education without it. Sadly, if I did not receive Mr. Conrad’s scholarship, I would have been forced to put my education on hold. Or even worse, I would not have been able to continue at all. Due to the Jean Smith Conrad Memorial Scholarship, I will be able to finish my double major with a 3.7 GPA. I am forever grateful to Mr. Conrad, and I cannot thank him enough.

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage

PAID

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 2121 Euclid Avenue, RT 1822 Cleveland, OH 44115-2214

Cleveland, OH Permit No. 500

CLASS

$8,045 54 donors

Giving Day 2018 was a success for Cleveland State University and for the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences! A total of $270,157 was raised from 2,537 donors, well surpassing the University’s goal of $150,000.

For CLASS, a total of 54 donors contributed $8,045 to various College programs. This was our highest giving day total to date, more than double last year’s amount raised.

CLASS would like to extend a hearty thank you to all of those who contributed on Giving Day and who spread the message to their friends and colleagues encouraging donations. We continue to provide an excellent education to our students and help them achieve their future goals with such incredible demonstrations of support.

University

$270,157 2,537 donors