Awards And Archives
Thyra Ferre Bjorn Creative Writing Award - Awarded to the graduating senior judged to have the greatest potential writing ability. Thyra Ferre Bjorn, the daughter of a Swedish pastor, was an author (Papa's Wife, Papa's Daughter, Dear Papa, Mama's Way, This is My Life, The Golden Acre, The Home Has a Heart, Once Upon a Christmas Time). Her sister, Margaret V. Ferre, taught French and German at Eastern in the 1950s and early 1960s. She established this award in her sister's honor to acknowledge and encourage excellence in writing among Eastern students.
Recipients are:
- 2009 Rachel Lambert and Rebecca Plourde
- 2008 Emily Davis
- 2007 Jessica Tudor and Timothy Olshefski
- 2006 Rebecca Harwick
- 2005 Katrina Rutt and Jessica Thorn
- 2004 Rebekah Horn
- 2003 Nicole Priest
- 2002 Candice Rose Block
- 2001 Natalie Chenault
- 2000 Debbie Landis
- 1999 Carilyn Flynn
Dorothy McCollum Siebert Award - Given to the graduating senior with a major in English who has exhibited the most consistent performance in creative writing.
- 2009 Tara Jo Quinn
- 2008 Josh MacIvor-Andersen
- 2007 Ruth Robinson
- 2006 Michelle Smith
- 2005 Kate Carter
- 2004 Cheron Nicole Allen
- 2003 Abbie Nixon and Rachel Kriss
- 2002 Paul Pat
- 2001 Jaime Kester and Michelle Snyder
- 2000 Siri Buurma
J Bruce Walker Award - Given to the graduating senior who has most effectively expressed, in any art form, the relationship between faith and life experiences. This award may be given to any student working in any art form.
- 2005 Rachel Stephan (English)
- 2004 Adam E. Woods (English)
- 2009 Rachel Lambert (English)
Eastern English Majors are Achievers
Eastern English majors write for publication, make presentations at conferences, and work on the campus newspaper, The Waltonian. This is a sampling of some recent achievements:
In March 2009, English majors Matt Hohn, Jen Kane, and Chelsea Post presented a workshop on censorship issues in the writing center at the 20th annual Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Writing Centers Association at York College in York, PA.
In April 2008, Matthew Hohn, Tara Quinn, and Rebekah Shaw gave a well-received presentation on "Liberating Peer Tutors through Observation" at the Mid-Atlantic Writing Centers Association Conference at Temple University, PA.
Josh MacIvor-Andersen received first place for reporting in the Evangelical Press Association 2007 Publications Awards for his Prism cover story "The Faith to Save Mountains"
In February 2006, these students were among the winners of the 2006 Scholastic and Collegiate Keystone Press Awards contest sponsored by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association:
| Josh Andersen |
Review | First Place |
| Ben Carr & Ruth Robinson | Editorial | Second Place |
| Josh Andersen | Column | Honorable Mention |
| Rebecca Harwick | Cartoon/Graphic Illustration | Honorable Mention |
In April 2004, English majors Amy Gorman and Andrea Priest (along with Nneka Best and Amanda Matthias) delivered a panel presentation on "Enhancing Writing Assistant Training Through Transcript Analysis" at the Mid-Atlantic Writing Centers Association meeting in Baltimore, MD.
In October 2004, Katrina Rutt and Jessica Thorn gave a panel presentation at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing at Centenary College in Hackettstown, NJ: "Writing Assistance 24/7." The presentation focused on their work in the summer EQUIP program which helps prepare students for college.
Senior Theses
May 2009
Writing Majors
Grace Ciak - Short-Term Missions: My Not So Ultimate Epiphany (non-fiction)
Alex Harne - Cracked (fiction)
Ben Hennesy - Still Life (short fiction)
Matt Hohn - A Strange Buildup (memoir)
Rachel Lambert - Ciaran and Crooked Man (fiction)
Rebecca Plourde - Discovering Madison (fiction)
Tara Quinn - Hibernation (fiction)
Lisa Wilson - Dancing up from the Ashes (poetry)
Literature Majors
Erin Graham - Thread and Mirrors: William Holman Hunt's Interpretation of Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott
Dave Hanko - Fides Quaerens Intellectum
Scott King - “The Hateful Siege of Contraries”: The Influence of the Philosophy of Paradise Lost on the Blakean Doctrine of Contraries
Kimberly Lantzy - The Confinement of Social Constructs: Expectations and Limitations of Gender Roles in Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White
Jeff Mercier - Trickster Shift to Crow
Zach Rivest - Richard Kearney’s Theories of Persona and Transfiguration Applied to Flannery O’Connor’s Fiction
Jenn Timmel - Lewis: No Colon Necessary
Rebekah Worley - Crossing the Boundaries
May 2008
Writing Majors
Katerina Charalambidis - “Road Trip” (fiction)
Kristina Daniels - “At What Cost?” (fiction)
Emily Davis - “Kenya Will Speak for Itself” (memoir)
Cliff Gehret - “Investigations” (poetry)
Nicholas Kakolowski - "Dreams of Kingship" (poetic drama)
Shannen Shadel - “Nanny” (biography)
Rebekah Shaw - “Jeelabelle” (fairy tale)
Marco Ulloa - “Under the Covers” (fiction)
Richard Winters - “Prince of the Stormy Sky” (fairy story)
Literature Majors
Lyssa Fegley - Language, Culture, and Knowledge of the Self: Ngugui wa Thiong’o
Stephanie Hartman - Tragedy v. Tragicomedy: The Treatment of Death in Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Nicholas Kakolowski - Concrete and the Cross: The Relationship between the Ruthwell Cross, The Dream of the Rood, and Concrete Poetry
Nicholas O'Ryon - Our Aboriginal Strength: Emerson's Reclaiming of Primitivism in the American Religious Landscape
Katherine Leber - Blunders and Mistakes: The Comedy of Social Misperception in Emma
Kara Shelly - The Divine Image: A Case for God in Blakean Contraries
Jeremy Walter - Literary Architecture: Typography in Finnegans Wake and Danielewski’s House of Leaves
Jennifer Zych - Transformations in the Poetry of the First World War
December 2007
Writing Majors:
Josh MacIvor-Andersen - "Sasha's Story" (memoir)
Stephen Benner - "Philip and the Enchanted Bicycle" (prose fiction)
Rebekah Henson - "Meteor Showers" (memoir)
Elizabeth King - "The Absentminded Misadventures of One Sister Claire" (prose fiction)
Kate Moser - "Dear Dad" (prose fiction)
Melanie Overgard - "Rune" (prose fiction)
Sara Rowe - "Is Virgin a Four-letter Word?" (prose fiction)
Literature Majors:
Megan Hammond - Literary Therapy and Poetic Confession in the Work of Sylvia Plath
May 2007
Writing Majors:
Nora Boydston - “Piece of Tape” (prose fiction)
Petra Eldridge - “Penumbra” (prose fiction)
Rachel Malikow - “Suspended” (reflections)
Deb Fresca - “Gloryville” (children's play)
Nicole Kovalesky - “Ralph and Rosalina” (prose fiction)
Laura Steenburg - “Growing Up With Dad” (memoir)
Jessica Tudor - “Standing in Mud” (memoirs)
Ruth Robinson - “Outstretched Hands” (memoirs)
Tim Olshefski - "Teen Spirit” (drama)
Angela Wooten - "Blue Beating Heart" (memoirs)
Literature majors:
Mary Cromwell - From Innocence to Experience: Chastity in John Milton’s A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle”
Elizabeth King - Sylvia Plath’s Poetry and the Sublime
Alycia Scarito - Maya Angelou: Breaking the Barriers”
Winter 2006
Writing Majors
Ian Bramble - "Writing for the Masses" Film reviews
Allison Duncan - "Sacramental Mentorship"
Christa Grant - "For my Sister, Shiloh"
Literature Majors
Sarah Fisher - Clarissa Dalloway as the Lovechild of Virginia Woolf and Henri Bergson
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