Editor's Note By receiving this edition of OnCampus, you're part of a collective sigh of relief led by the Marketing and Communications staff members. A major software failure put a nasty monkey wrench in our electronic newsletter publications. We're back up and running, but we did lose some database information. If you hear of anyone who did not get OnCampus that wants to, please have them e-mail us at oncampus@drake.edu and we'll add them to our database so they'll get the next issue. Thanks for your patience and we apologize for the inconvenience. - OnCampus staff Renowned composer Alice Yost Jordan and Academy Award-winning actress Cloris Leachman received honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees at the 125th Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony in the Drake Knapp Center. Jordan, a 1938 Drake alumna whose music has sold more than 250,000 copies worldwide, said, "I am deeply grateful for this honor. On a Saturday morning when I was 8 years old, my parents brought me to this campus, took me to Howard Hall to help me enroll me in piano lessons in the preparatory program. Since that day, Drake has been an significant part of my life." "In America we are so fortunate that the founders of our country were visionary men of great wisdom who used our language with such brilliance and grace," Jordan said. "In 1776, when they gathered in Philadelphia to write the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, they included the pursuit of happiness right there with life and liberty, elevating the pursuit of happiness as the right of all people." "I want to leave you this morning with a sentence from Henry Moore, a distinguished British artist and sculptor who is well represented in our city of Des Moines. I have read that he offered the following sentence to a young audience on an occasion very similar to today's event. He said, 'Find something you really love to do, something you can devote your life to every day for as long as you live.' And I would add, 'Then you will have found your pursuit of happiness. Every good wish for your journey.' Thank you." Leachman also told of her ties to Drake that date back to childhood. "When I was 11 years old, living out in the country on Route 6 on Hubbell Avenue, Mama said, 'Why don't you see if you can get a ride down at the Lone Tree filling station, about a quarter of a mile down the highway, and go get into to town and see if you can get to Drake University. They have a little children's theater there and maybe you could get a part in this little radio show they're doing from the University," Leachman said. "So off I go and pretty soon I come by the house. Mama's hanging out the front door and I'm waving on the running board of a coal truck and yelling 'I got a ride, Mama!' I somehow got to Drake University on a coal truck … and I got the part of a princess." Leachman also shared words of wisdom from various sources. "I will tell you what the Boy Scouts and Grandma Moses always said: 'Be prepared.' That's the easiest and quickest thing that you can always remember. "My mother's advice was the best. She said, 'There's plenty of room at the top.' Then there's my mother-in-law Mabel Albertson, who played Darrin's mother on 'Bewitched' all those years and was my dearest friend. Her wisdom was 'Make a good bluff and make the bluff good.' That's what I'm doing today." A passionate teacher who drives students to succeed, Freeman-Miller earned the respect and dedication of her students in her rigorous voice lessons and classes. Students describe her teaching effectiveness as "Amazing! She loves teaching, and that is evident in everything she does from coaching voice lessons, to attending conferences, to researching different pedagogies of voice techniques. She makes you believe in yourself because she does." One student also commented, "Professor Freeman-Miller has the blessed gift of hearing potential in voices. She believes when her students cannot." Freeman-Miller, a soprano herself, received her bachelor of music education degree from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, S.D., and her master of music degree from Drake, earning Pi Kappa Lambda honors. An accomplished vocalist with hundreds of concerts and performances to her credit locally, regionally and nationally, Freeman-Miller puts teaching first in her career. She is the very definition of the scholar-teacher that Drake values - learning alongside her students in a partnership with bears fruit for both. "A teacher from a neighboring institution recently asked me if I had ever considered seriously pursuing a professional singing career in opera," Freeman-Miller said. "I replied that I had not. I told him I did not sing well enough when I was younger, and feel that my success as a singer today is due in large part to my career as a teacher of singing. Quite simply, teaching singing has enabled me to master my technique and artistry." Freeman-Miller defines her success as a teacher by her students' accomplishments. Her students are frequent winners of national competitions and have gone on to pursue post-graduate degrees at the nation's top graduate schools. Two of her former students are members of the Grammy award-winning male ensemble, Chanticleer, and most recently, a student was one of 28 semi-finalists for the "Singer of the Year" competition in Shreveport, La. Student nominators praised Zeff's tireless dedication to their success both in and out of the classroom at Drake for more than a decade. She is best known for her engaging courses, long office hours and contacts with a variety of international organizations. One student noted Zeff makes extra effort to ensure her courses are student-centered. In a recent class, Zeff required "students to hand in questions they had for that day's readings so that she could tailor her lectures to answer those questions," said one of Zeff's students. "She always keeps the interest of the student in mind." Zeff serves as a faculty adviser to applicants for student Fulbright Scholarships, which provide grant money to students for the pursuit of post-graduate research and teaching assistantships. Under Zeff's guidance, three students who recently completed their senior year at Drake have been offered Fulbright grants - a record for the University. Through the Fulbright grants and other international contacts, the professor has helped students secure work internationally in such far-away places as the Middle East, western Sub-Saharan Africa, the United Kingdom, Mexico, the Philippines and South Korea. "Dr. Zeff has gained a reputation among students at Drake for being the 'go-to-professor' for anyone who's thinking of doing anything internationally," one student nominator said. The soon-to-be Peace Corp volunteer credited Zeff for the opportunity. "Time and time again I came into her office asking about the Peace Corps and the application process, and each time she had a solid answer to my questions," she said. Zeff often stays late to work with students. "It is not uncommon to go to a meeting at 9 p.m. and see her still in her office speaking with a student," a pupil said. Zeff came to Drake in 1988 as visiting associate professor of political science after working at Iowa State University from 1982 to 1991. She taught English as a Second Language in Des Moines from 1979 to 1981, and had a visiting position at Central College in 1981. Zeff became an assistant professor at Drake in 2001 and recently was promoted to associate professor. Zeff earned her bachelor's degree in political science and French from Tufts University in Medford, Mass. She earned her doctorate in political science from The Graduate Faculty of the New School in New York City in 1983. Drake prizes close working and learning relationships among students, faculty and staff and Zeff's mentoring philosophy is a top-flight example of this important student-teacher dynamic. Said Zeff, "Mentoring is one of the most rewarding parts of teaching because it allows students and professors to discuss intellectual, professional and personal issues and to learn from each other, and it remains an exciting challenge for me." Three recent Drake graduates have been offered Fulbright grants to be used for research and teaching assistantships in other nations during the 2006-2007 academic year. The graduates' selection marks the first time three Drake alumni received offers for Fulbright grants in a single year. The federal government sponsors the Fulbright grants - the nation's largest international exchange program. Applicants are required to design and propose their own projects for the fellowships. "Earning three Fulbright grants in one year is a significant accomplishment for Drake as well as for the successful applicants," said Eleanor Zeff, associate professor of politics and Drake's Fulbright Program Advisor for the application process. "It shows that Drake students can compete with top applicants around the country," Zeff said. "It is also an excellent opportunity for these graduates to gain lasting international experience and demonstrate the value of Drake's mission to prepare its students for responsible global citizenship in an increasingly internationalized world." Fulbright scholars endure a rigorous selection process coordinated by the Institute of International Education and funded by an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the Department of State and by participating governments and host institutions. The application process includes several stages involving the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board in the United States and bi-national commissions and foundations in the individual countries. Drake's successful Fulbright applicants are: The process took her a minute or two at the most - but eight years ago, when she was a high school freshman at Marquette Catholic High School in Alton, Ill., Hoven's heart was failing her and taking that walk across the stage alone was nearly impossible. At age 9, Hoven, an Alton native, was diagnosed with restricted cardiomyopathy, a degenerative heart condition that means the muscles in the heart are not strong enough to adequately pump blood throughout the body. As she grew up, the condition worsened and she looked and felt exhausted all of the time. By her freshman year of high school, she could only walk a few feet before becoming exhausted. She was late to every class. Friends carried her books for her. She told only a select few of her condition. "When you're a freshman in high school, you don't want to do anything that makes you seem different," Hoven says. "I didn't want pity. I just wanted to go with it." There was much she could not do. She attended high school dances, social functions and parties, but she spent most of those evenings sitting down while she watched classmates have a good time. Hoven looked so beat and tired, people often thought she was intoxicated, she says. At one point, classmates elected her to the freshman court of an annual high school holiday dance. To climb a set of stairs to collect her award, her date had to prop her up and push her up the stairs. "He basically had to drag me across the stage," Hoven says. "I wouldn't have made it otherwise." Hoven, 22, possesses a sunny, outgoing personality with a quirky charm that draws people close to her. But even the most positive outlook couldn't change the facts: her heart was dying and the rest of her would soon follow. Doctors at St. Louis' world-renowned Children's Hospital placed Hoven on a transplant list when she was 14. On Father's Day, 1999, the phone at the Hoven's home rang at about 11:30 p.m. A sleepy Valerie yelled upstairs for her parents, Randy and Brenda Hoven, to pick up. Valerie listened in on her line. She heard someone say "Children's Hospital" and "get ready." She knew. A heart was there. "You're supposed to have a bag ready because when you get the call, you're supposed to go right then," Hoven says. "Of course, I didn't have my bag ready. So I grabbed like a few changes of clothes, a chessboard and my academic letter of all things." Surgeons transplanted the donor heart - from a teenager who was just a year younger than Hoven. She woke up after the 6-hour surgery and immediately felt the difference. The crushing feeling on her chest "like a bowling ball sitting on top of you" was gone. Hoven looked into a mirror. Even after major surgery, her cheeks bloomed rosy red. She felt alive and lively. After a week hospital stay and a brief summer convalescence, Hoven was ready to take on the world. Late in the summer before her sophomore year, she went to a back-to-school party with friends. After a few hours, she called her dad and asked him to come pick her up. "Everybody was uncomfortable around me," Hoven says. "It's like they didn't know what to do around me now that I wasn't 'sick Val' anymore." When she landed back at Marquette Catholic in the fall, Hoven enrolled in a series of honors classes. She picked up every activity she could think of. And, well, it got the better of her. She ended up dropping a class and her grades slipped a little. Ironically, all through her illness, her grades remained solid, but with a new heart pumping at top speed, she struggled. "I think I just didn't know how to be healthy," Hoven says. "I tried to be superwoman. I realized I could only be human." Hoven enrolled in Drake after high school and finally started to put her illness behind her. While she had no major health hiccups, arriving at Drake, she did not carry with her the baggage of "sick Val" that dogged her during high school days. She was just Valerie and that was plenty good enough. That bubbly, happy personality matched with her spirit and activity. Hoven became a Student Senator, entertainment chair for the Student Activities Board, president of the Drake Habitat for Humanity chapter, an English-as-a-second-language tutor, a member of Drake's homecoming court and a popular RA. Classmates chose Hoven the "RA of the Year" in 2005-2006 and University leaders named her "Residence Life Leader of the Year." Hoven will earn a degree in public relations from the Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She plans to join the PR department of Nestle Purina based in St. Louis, near her native Alton. In her spare time at Drake, when there was some, she took up long walks and running - things she could never do before the transplant. "Every time I start to run and my heart starts beating hard, I thank God for that heart," Hoven says. "I could never do this before. I mean, without this heart, I wouldn't be here today." Most importantly, on Sunday, when she crossed the stage at the Drake Knapp Center, nobody had to hold her up. She did it the way she's done everything else in her life to this point: with a big smile, great courage and a whole lot of heart. Drake held its 125th commencement Sunday, May 14. Longman crossed the stage wearing a family graduation gown that made its debut a century ago when his great grandmother, Leonta Starzinger Morrison graduated from Drake in 1906. In the ensuing decades, the gown has made appearances at 17 college graduation ceremonies at Drake, the University of Iowa, Bradley University, the University of Michigan, Culver-Stockton College and the former Phillips University. "I'm happy to take part in the Drake tradition of this robe," Longman said. "Members of my family have been wearing it for graduation ever since my great-grandma graduated here in 1906. I'm wearing a new cap because it came with a tiny little hat that wasn't big enough for my enormous head." The garment has been on a member of the Morrison clan in every decade since the 1930s - its last appearance was on University of Iowa alumnus Jay Nelson in 1994. The original wearer, Leonta Morrison, was just large enough that her gown fits everyone from the slight build of Paul Morrison, a 1939 Drake alumnus and long-time Bulldog athletics historian, to the strapping form of Phillip Longman, this year's graduate. If all goes well and the garb holds up, the gown will cross the stage again in another four years. Abby Dierks, granddaughter of Paul Morrison and daughter of Holly Morrison Dierks, who wore the gown in 1976, enters Drake as a first-year student this fall and would graduate in 2010. DMARC's Annual Service Awards Luncheon also will honor Calvary Baptist Church, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, Bidwell Riverside Center and Michelle and Barry Griswell, chairman and chief executive officer of the Principal Financial Group. Tickets for the luncheon are $25 with $10 of that amount designated as a tax-deductible gift to the council. Call the DMARC office at (515) 277-6969 to purchase tickets. The deadline for reservations is Wednesday, May 17. OnCampus will publish every-other-week during the summer after this issue. A complete list of publication dates can be found here. A reminder, the deadline to get information into an issue of OnCampus is 3 p.m. the Friday before the issue publication date. As always, e-mail your ideas, stories and accomplishments to |
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