• Mary I. Dereshiwsky and Gary E. Martin, associate professors of educational leadership, and Bill Wright, department chair, educational leadership, presented their paper titled "Strategies for Successful Retention of First-time Online Students" at the New Mexico Higher Education Assessment and Retention Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 24 -25.

  • English Department faculty William Grabe and Fredricka L. Stoller were recently awarded the David E. Eskey Memorial Award for Curricular Innovation for their book Teaching and Researching Reading (Longman, 2002). The award was made by CATESOL (California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) to honor Eskey's memory by acknowledging professional accomplishments in an area related to Eskey's professional endeavors. The award was based on the strength and clarity of the Grabe and Stoller volume as well as the relevance and depth of Eskey's influence on the book.

    Eskey was known for his pioneering advocacy of word recognition, reading fluency, extensive reading and the integration of content and language-skills objectives in English as a second and foreign language instructional settings-themes addressed in the Grabe and Stoller volume.

  • Devon Mihesuah, professor of applied indigenous studies, was the keynote speaker at two conferences: the Annual American Indian Studies Consortium at Arizona State University in February and the Mujeres de Fuerza/Women of Strength Conference at the University of Texas-San Antonio in March.

  • Teena Olszewski, director of GEAR UP, spoke at the College Board'sTM 2005 Regional Forum in San Diego, California, on Feb. 26. Her presentation highlighted the best practices and lessons learned from NAU's five years of administering Arizona's GEAR UP Projects. GEAR UP, an acronym for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, is a discretionary grant program of the U.S. Department of Education; NAU is working to increase the academic performance and preparation for postsecondary education of nearly 4,000 economically disadvantaged middle and high school students across Arizona.

  • Two theater majors, Kendra MacDevitt and Scott Riding, were honored in The Kennedy Center/American College Theatre festival in Phoenix last month.

    Kendra MacDevitt

    MacDevitt participated in the Ten-Minute Short Play Festival as part of the Kennedy Center festival in Phoenix. The play, Dixie Cups, was one of 10 selected from a field of 80 plays, many of which were written by graduated students. MacDevitt is a sophomore.


    Scott Riding
    Riding won a full scholarship to attend a professional actors' workshop this summer at Chicago's renowned Steppenwolf Theatre. Riding was among 18 finalists from a group of 400 actors in the Irene Ryan acting competition. The workshop will be led by actor Jeff Perry (co-star of Nash Bridges) and the artistic directors of two of America's best known regional theaters, The Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut, and Second City LA.