Opportunities for Members

Spring 2010 Newsletter‎ > ‎

Seize Your Opportunities

Gloria J. Hochstein, High Plains Regent

Hello. Some of you may know me as the Chair of the 2009 Convention in Minneapolis. Or you may know that I have served as the Midwestern Regent for the past four years. Because your most recent Regent, Dr. Susan Maher, has accepted a position as a Dean at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, the Board of Directors has asked me to serve as the High Plains Regent for at least the next year to provide some experience and continuity to the position. The High Plains Region is very close to my heart. Raised in Southwest Minnesota (where my mother still lives) on a farm just a few miles from the South Dakota border, I earned my B.A. in English from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I travel to the states of the High Plains every year, and I proudly claim my connections and great affinity with the High Plains.

For a few years after Augustana College, I ran a group home for troubled teens in Mankato, Minnesota (preparation for teaching college students?). Then I attended the University of Arizona in Tucson for two years, basking in the desert sun and earning my master's before returning to the cold north (Madison, Wisconsin) to work on my Ph.D. I have taught English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for many years with a few extended stays in Europe and much travel around the U.S. and Canada. My favorite classes to teach are science fiction, women’s literature, and English grammar and usage, and my favorite out-of-classroom activity is working with the Sigma Tau Delta students. Besides reading (of course), my hobbies include traveling (especially in my motor home), riding my Harley Softail, snowmobiling, gardening, and doing Sudoku and crossword puzzles.

As a Regent, one of my major goals is to create more opportunities for students and to encourage participation in the opportunities that exist. Here are four such opportunities:

1. Convention presentations and awards: Consider submitting a paper for the convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in March 2011. Sigma Tau Delta awards over $6,000 for critical papers and creative works at the convention. Note that these awards are for works PRESENTED at the convention, but judging is based on the original submitted material. The October/early November deadline for the convention submissions arrives quickly in the fall semester. Why not get started on your papers and creative works over the summer? This fall it will be especially important that you revise and revise before sending convention submissions because we must limit the number of papers and creative works accepted for presentation at the convention.

2. Scholarships: Did you know that Sigma Tau Delta gives out more than $65,000 annually in scholarships, awards, and grants, including a couple of scholarships worth $2,500 to $4,000 to the students who win them? Did you know that sometimes there are only a few applicants for some of the scholarships? Consider applying for one of the numerous awards, grants, scholarships, and internships. The deadline for applications for most of the awards and scholarships is October 30, 2010, so begin work on your applications this summer. See the website at www.english.org for application information.

3. Individual Common Reader Awards: Sigma Tau Delta gives out convention awards for the best papers on the common reader (up to $500 each). Here is your opportunity to get a head start on reading and writing about the 2011 Common Reader, Black Ice by Lorene Cary. Make it one of your summer reads so you are ready to discuss and write about it come fall submission time. (Please see my separate pieces on the common reader in this newsletter.)

4. Regents' Common Reader Awards: Each Regent offers up to four awards of $50 each to chapters that organize and host a local event or activity around the common reader. This award is completely separate from convention submissions and does not require you to attend the convention to receive the award. The Regents’ Common Reader Award is a chance for your chapter members to decide for themselves what to think of Lorene Cary’s Black Ice. As High Plains Regent, I invite individual chapters to organize and host a local event or activity around this text before February 15, 2011, and to apply for award money AFTER your event. Up to four chapters from the High Plains Region may receive awards of $50. In order to apply, a chapter must submit to me the following three documents, postmarked or emailed on or before March 1, 2011:

A cover letter, signed by the Chapter Sponsor (or sent from the sponsor’s email address), confirming that the activity or event took place
A narrative, not to exceed 500 words, describing the activity or event
A list of all participating persons or groups.

The Regents’ Common Reader Award is open to all active High Plains Region chapters of Sigma Tau Delta. It is completely separate from convention submissions. Results will be announced at the convention and by email. The Regents anticipate that this award will be a way for chapters in each region to share a convention-related experience even if they are not able to travel to Pittsburgh. We hope it will encourage creative, text-based activities and events. And, lastly, we hope it will give space to reflect on the power of language both in our own lives and in the lives of others.

Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments about any of these opportunities or any other questions or comments: HOCHSTGJ@uwec.edu.

Gloria J. Hochstein, High Plains Regent, HOCHSTGJ@uwec.edu
Mailing Address: English Department, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 105 Garfield Ave. Eau Claire, WI 54702-4004

The High Plains

Spring 2010

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Seize Your Opportunities

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