Leadership lived: Student mentor hopes to inspire the next generation

Janell Mathus is thankful for the mentors she had growing up. Now, the Clinical Laboratory Science major is giving back at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Mathus volunteers several hours each week as a 4H program mentor. She helps lead educational and fun activities for middle school students and encourages them to follow their dreams.

“I think it’s important to have people who are older than you that you can look up to, interact with and just explore different things in life,” she said.

Mathus also mentors fellow college students as part of the Necessary Steps Program and is a member of the Kinky & Curly Natural Hair Empowerment Club and Legacy Dance Team.

Being a mentor has been an educational experience for Mathus.

“I’ve learned to be a better person because dealing with different types of people you learn about a wide range of different life styles and thought processes,” she said. “I’ve learned to adapt and interact with people.”

Following graduation, she hopes to attend medical school and one day become a researcher in the field.

“UIS has taught me that being a leader is one of the most important things you can do in your life,” she said. “Gaining more knowledge about different things is important.”

UIS Human Resources students win awards in statewide competition

On February 21, the University of Illinois Springfield Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Student Chapter competed at the Illinois State HR Games held at Illinois State University.

This was the fourth year participating, and the second year as an official student SHRM chapter. This year UIS took five students to compete: Hunter Westbrook, Trent Adams, William Osborne, Riley Quinlan, and Jordan Wood.

The students competed in a Jeopardy style game in which one of the two UIS teams made it to the semi-final round, competing against teams from Illinois State University, Northern Illinois University, and Western Illinois University. The two teams united into one group to compete in a case competition, in which the group achieved second place.

UIS student newspaper staff wins awards from the Illinois College Press Association

The Journal, the student newspaper at the University of Illinois Springfield, won six awards in an annual Illinois College Press Association (ICPA) competition judged by professional journalists throughout the state.

Awards were presented at the annual ICPA convention, held Feb. 20 and 21 in Chicago. Entries from Spring Semester 2014 and Fall Semester 2014 were recognized.

Receiving honorable mention in a “Shoot Chicago” was Destiney Boyd, Journal multi-media editor and photographer. Boyd competed against photojournalists from daily and non-daily student newspapers in capturing images representing “weather.” Boyd’s photo featured a close-up of bundled-up shoppers talking and walking along the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago.

Journal cartoonist and illustrator Alex Johnson won second-place for editorial cartoon in an open competition that included student newspapers from throughout Illinois.

Joe Miller, a fall 2014 UIS graduate, and Brittany Henderson, a spring 2014 UIS graduate, each won third-place in a competition of non-daily student newspapers from schools with enrollments of more than 4,000. Miller won for sports game coverage, and Henderson for feature photography.

Also in that competition, Daniell Bennett, a former Journal assistant editor, won honorable mention for headline writing, and former Journal layout and design editor Hillary Rikli won second-place for front-page layout.

Among the schools competing in the division of non-dailies with enrollments of more than 4,000 were DePaul, the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Chicago, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Bradley, Columbia College, and Loyola.

UIS professor publishes new book of poetry

Rosina Neginsky, associate professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Illinois Springfield, has published a new book of poetry, In the Garden of Luxembourg, which is available in French, English and Russian.

In this collection of poems, published by Harmattan of Paris, Neginsky reveals concepts and images that shimmer and captivate us. In her poetic universe, love and death coexist; fairy tales play an important role: grey wolves, mermaids and tsarinas who rule over islands appear in her poems. The book includes ekphrastic poems inspired by pictorial works and literary poems inspired by literary images, which are enriched by the presence of free associations, legends, and the intense emotions of the interior life of the poems' lyrical hero. Several make a reference to doubles, often there is no border between silence and the uttered speech, between self and non-self.

The editorial presentation of poems allows the reader to see the correspondence between various linguistic versions. In Neginsky's poetry, parallelism, whenever it is respected, does not come only from a faithful translation process but it is often born from her multilingualism, which predates the birth of her poems.

Neginsky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and studied in Paris and the United States. She is the author of several books of poetry, including Juggler (New Orleans, University Press of the South, 2009), and books on art and literature, the most recent of which is Salome: The Image of a Woman Who Never Was (Newcastle upon Tyne, 2013).

In the Garden of Luxembourg is available for purchase on the publisher’s website. For more information, contact Rosina Neginsky at 217/206-7431 or rnegi1@uis.edu.

Leadership lived: First-generation college student becomes a leader at UIS

As the first person in his family to attend college, Daniel Aguilar is thrilled about the leadership opportunities available to him at the University of Illinois Springfield.

“What UIS has taught me is to be creative as a leader; to try something new that’s never been done, to try something just out of the box,” he said.

The graduate political science major works on campus in the Diversity Center, is a Necessary Steps mentor, and is a co-advisor for the Organization of Latin American students.

As a graduate assistant at the Diversity Center, he leads the Collegiate Leadership Development Program (CLDP), part of the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute.

“The goal of the overall program is to get Hispanic and Latino students engaged with UIS officials, having conversations which they normally might not have on a day-to-day basis,” said Aguilar.

The CLDP group has met with UIS Chancellor Susan Koch and others leaders on campus. They listen, ask questions, and learn what it’s like to be in a professional meeting.

“In the long run what we hope is the students are able to develop professional skills, knowing how to be in a meeting,” he said.

Aguilar earned his bachelor’s degree in political science at UIS and decided to pursue his master’s degree because of the many graduate assistantship positions available.

“Because of my graduation assistant position, I’ve noticed that I enjoy working with other students,” he said.

After he graduates, Aguilar would like to pursue a career in Student Affairs.

“UIS has taught me that in order to be a leader you need to take the first step, whether that be the right one or the wrong one,” he said. “As a leader, you’re not supposed to be afraid to fail. You’re supposed to have the courage to try things that don’t work.”