Ann Gunderson Thornburg

Alumna commits $500,000 for Blugold Promise Scholarship
Ann Gunderson Thornburg, a 1971 UW-Eau Claire accounting graduate and one of the nation's leaders in the accounting profession, has committed $500,000 to establish an endowed Blugold Promise Scholarship in honor of her parents. She will use her annual gifts to the UW-Eau Claire Foundation and a bequest from her estate to fund the Thomas and Mavis Gunderson Scholarship. She decided to support the Blugold Promise Scholarship Program because it provides need-based scholarships to high-achieving UW-Eau Claire freshmen who, provided they do well, receive a second larger award their sophomore year. "I am particularly interested in providing scholarships to students who are the first in their families to attend college and have limited finances," Thornburg said. "That was my own experience and I know how difficult it can be for these students to consider attending college if financial resources are not available." Full story.

Two more receive UW-Eau Claire Foundation Blugold Promise Scholarships Two additional students who will enter UW-Eau Claire this fall were announced July 5 as Blugold Promise Scholarship recipients. Ten other Blugold Promise Scholarship recipients were announced June 16.

Third alum receives Fulbright for research abroad

Trever Hagen

Trever Hagen, a 2003 UW-Eau Claire sociology graduate, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to research dissident Czechoslovak musical communities during the years of 1971-89. Hagen is the third UW-Eau Claire alumnus announced as a Fulbright recipient in recent weeks, bringing to six the number of UW-Eau Claire graduates to receive the prestigous award since 2000. (See news releases about Fulbright recipients Amanda Hill and Jenna Cushing-Leubner.)

Hagen, who has been teaching English in Prague since 2004, decided to apply for the scholarship after visiting a concentration camp (Terezin) in northern Czech Republic. "The camp was full of paintings, music, theater, costumes, etc., all created by individuals who were sent there," Hagen said. "This highlighted the rather dark relationship that art and oppression have. I began to research how communism played a factor in producing some very interesting music from these dissident musicians." Full story.

Yanick St. Jean to lecture, conduct research
in West Africa through Fulbright Scholar Program

Yanick St. Jean

Yanick St. Jean, a visiting assistant professor of sociology at UW-Eau Claire, has received a Fulbright Scholar Program award to lecture and conduct research in the West African country of Benin beginning this fall. L'Universite Catholique de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, located in Cotonou, Benin's largest city, will host the Fulbright Scholar during her visit. She will stay until July 2007.

St. Jean, who began teaching at UW-Eau Claire in 2005, will continue her research on the impact of religion on antiracism, with a special focus on the sacramental imagination. St. Jean describes the sacramental imagination as "a religious viewpoint which envisions the world and everything in it as permeated by the presence of the divine."

St. Jean is one of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to some 150 countries for the 2006-07 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Full story.

Summer Session Programs continue with Irie Sol, Summer Sounds, short film screening
UW-Eau Claire's Summer Session Programs will present several free events this week:

• Irie Sol

  Reggae rock band Irie Sol will perform a "Music on the Mall" concert today from 7-9 p.m. on the Central Campus Mall. Refreshments will be sold.
• The "Summer Cinema Revolution: A Declaration of Independents" film series will continue Wednesday, July 12, with a program titled "The Best 24 or 48 Hours Ever." Short films shot in a very short period of time by members of the Chippewa Valley community will screen at 7 p.m. in Davies Theatre.
• Beginning Thursday, July 13, the UW-Eau Claire department of music and theatre arts and Summer Session Programs will cooperatively present "Summer Sounds," a series of "listen at lunch" events and chamber music recitals. The series will feature music for winds, voice and piano. The first program on July 13 and 16 will feature a recital by oboist Christa Garvey and pianist Beverly Soll. A concert preview at noon Thursday in The Cabin of Davies Center will feature an informal talk and mini-recital by Garvey and Soll. At 2 p.m. Sunday, the entire recital introduced on Thursday will be performed in Phillips Recital Hall of Haas Fine Arts Center.

Full story.

Chancellor Levin-Stankevich takes housing tour

UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich, who arrived on campus June 1, continues familiarizing himself with campus and meeting university faculty, staff and students. Above, he visited with students working at the front desk in Towers Hall July 6 during a tour of upper campus housing facilities. Below, tour leader Chuck Major, director of housing and residence life, escorted the chancellor and Debi Levin-Stankevich into Chancellors Hall, UW-Eau Claire's newest residence hall. See the online chancellor photo album for more images from Chancellor Levin-Stankevich's first days at UW-Eau Claire. (Photos by Rick Mickelson, LTS)

Summer Bulletin
Published weekly during the summer session by the UW-Eau Claire News Bureau. News items and notices should be sent to the News Bureau, Schofield 201, by 10 a.m. Thursday for publication in the following week’s issue. E-mail submissions to Julie Poquette at poquetjm@uwec.edu are encouraged. Faculty/staff news items are published on a space-available basis.