Laura Anderson, assistant professor of art, and Laurenn York, instructor of Engish, share information on the collaborative opportunity students can enjoy by taking EGL 101 and ART 116 in the spring 2021 semester! Registration is now open. www.llcc.edu/forward
Category Archives: English and Humanities
The Lamp wins best website award
LLCC’s student newspaper, The Lamp, won first place in the John H. Ryan Best of Show for the best student website at the Illinois Community College Journalism Association’s fall conference on Thursday, Nov. 6.
“I’ve had a lot of students working hard to do hard news stories,” said Tim McKenzie, advisor of The Lamp and professor of journalism and humanities. “Our editor, Richard Bailey, has taken a lot of initiative and really done a lot to make The Lamp what it is.”
Typically, the award for Best of Show is given for the best single issue of the student newspaper, but because of limited printing of papers this year, the contest looked at websites. The judge noted that TheLampOnline.com had a lot new content, and it had a lot of hard news, not just opinion and features.
This is the second year in a row that The Lamp has won first place at the fall convention.
The fall conference was held virtually with a keynote speech from the founding editor of Deadspin, Will Leitch. Deadspin, part of Gawker Media, was the world’s largest sports entertainment blog shortly after Leitch’s founding of it.
McKenzie is a vice president of ICCJA. He introduced Leitch and facilitated two 20-minute breakout sessions. Bailey and LLCC students Emily Pasley and Nichole Sheley also attended the conference.
Info session tonight on arts, communication, English and humanities
Prospective students are invited to an info session this evening at 5 p.m. to learn about programs in LLCC’s Arts and Communication Department and English and Humanities Department. Please encourage any prospective students you know to sign up at www.llcc.edu/forward.
These info sessions are a part of October’s Moving Forward to LLCC events, which include virtual info sessions, a campus cruise and more!
LateStart classes
Watch the video below, featuring Tiffany-Anne Elliott and Samuel Barbour. for a look at two of the 12-week LateStart classes students can take beginning Monday, Sept. 21! Eight-week courses begin Oct. 19.
Online English courses at LLCC
Why take English courses online at LLCC? Let me count the ways! Hear why from two of LLCC’s professors, Ryan Roberts and David Leitner, Ph.D.
Lincoln Land Review
The 2020 Lincoln Land Review is now available. It includes student-produced essays, poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction and artworks from the past year.
Writing Center summer hours
The LLCC Writing Center summer hours of operation are Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Writing Center specialists will be meeting with students remotely via Zoom. Students can call 217-786-2341 to schedule appointments.
LLCC welcomes new dean of English and humanities
Joel Dykstra, Ed.D., from Roswell, New Mexico, has joined Lincoln Land Community College as dean of English and humanities. He began his new duties May 18.
Dr. Dykstra comes to LLCC from the New Mexico Military Institute where he served as associate dean of the humanities division for eight years. He also taught Arabic and Spanish at NMMI for 15 years and was involved in the leadership of the school’s participation in HLC’s Student Persistence and Completion Academy and the development of an early warning system. In 1999, Dykstra enlisted in the U.S. Army as an Arabic linguist. He served with the First Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, and was deployed twice after 9/11. Prior to that, he worked as an assistant professor of Spanish at Northwestern College in Iowa and Colorado Mesa University.
“Dr. Dykstra’s extensive experience both in the classroom and as an administrator will serve him and our college well,” said Vern Lindquist, Ph.D., vice president of academic services at LLCC. “LLCC is happy to welcome him and his family back home to the Midwest.”
Dykstra is originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He earned a doctor of education degree in community college leadership from Texas Tech University. He attended Michigan State University and the University of New Mexico for graduate studies and attended Calvin University and Grand Valley State University for undergraduate studies.
Meditation and writing practice, starting Jan. 25
Faculty, staff and students are invited to join us for meditation and writing practice every other Saturday morning, starting tomorrow, Jan. 25, from approximately 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the library conference room located in the northwest corner of the main floor of our LLCC Library. Whether you want to journal or begin essays, short stories or poetry — the practice of meditation combined with free writing is a great way to begin, continue or invigorate your current writing practice. If interested, please bring a notebook and pen or tablet/laptop and any writing prompts you might want to use with the group.
Three of us met the first morning. We liked the following format, but we are also open to adapting and changing:
- Short, unguided meditation time
- Free write without a prompt
- Sharing what we wrote
As we build our writing practices, we may want to share writing via email, between meetings. Keep in mind this is optional. Some may just want to write when we get together and leave it at that.
We have also talked about mixing up the style and types of meditation. If you aren’t familiar with writing/meditating practice together, you might want to check out “Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg. (A copy is available in the LLCC Library).
We are hoping to share this practice with more of the campus community. Please forward to folks you know — students, staff and faculty included — who you think may be interested, and let either of us know if you have questions, concerns or suggestions. Hope to see you on Jan. 25 at 11 a.m.
– John Paul Jaramillo and Dr. Deborah Brothers, professors of English
Meditation and writing practice, starting Jan. 25
Faculty, staff and students are invited to join us for meditation and writing practice every other Saturday morning, starting Jan. 25, from approximately 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the library conference room located in the northwest corner of the main floor of our LLCC Library. Whether you want to journal or begin essays, short stories or poetry — the practice of meditation combined with free writing is a great way to begin, continue or invigorate your current writing practice. If interested, please bring a notebook and pen or tablet/laptop and any writing prompts you might want to use with the group.
Three of us met the first morning. We liked the following format, but we are also open to adapting and changing:
- Short, unguided meditation time
- Free write without a prompt
- Sharing what we wrote
As we build our writing practices, we may want to share writing via email, between meetings. Keep in mind this is optional. Some may just want to write when we get together and leave it at that.
We have also talked about mixing up the style and types of meditation. If you aren’t familiar with writing/meditating practice together, you might want to check out “Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg. (A copy is available in the LLCC Library).
We are hoping to share this practice with more of the campus community. Please forward to folks you know — students, staff and faculty included — who you think may be interested, and let either of us know if you have questions, concerns or suggestions. Hope to see you on Jan. 25 at 11 a.m.
– John Paul Jaramillo and Dr. Deborah Brothers, professors of English