Upcoming Event: Spring into Reading Book Sale

Don’t miss the Lambda Delta chapter’s Spring into Reading Book Sale! The book sale will be held Monday, March 8 – Friday, March 12 from 10 am until 1 pm each day in our book sale room (Stevenson Hall room 410). Masks are required in Stevenson Hall and inside the book sale room. The room capacity is limited to 4 people at a time. A Sigma Tau Delta member will be present at all times during the sale to make sure the room capacity and mask requirements are being followed.

See the flyer above for special sale pricing. We are only able to accept cash at this time.

Happy shopping!

Member Spotlight: Marley Arenstein

Welcome back to our Member Spotlight series! We’ll be featuring members of our chapter for the rest of the 2020-2021 school year to help us all stay connected while socially distancing.

This week’s Member Spotlight is Marley Arenstein!

Marley is a senior majoring in English Publishing Studies and minoring in Communication Mass Media and European Studies. She is from Ohio and says one of the main reasons she decided to study at Illinois State was because of the amazing publishing program. Some of her favorite activities include reading, watching Netflix, thrifting/antiquing, and traveling (when not in a global pandemic). She was inducted in Fall 2019 and is looking forward to bonding and working together with everyone in Sigma Tau Delta at Illinois State University!

Marley says one of her biggest achievements this year was studying abroad at the University of Leicester in Leicester, England. Even though she was only there two short months due to the pandemic, she says she was able to learn more about a different culture and broaden her educational and mental understandings of life outside of the United States. She also was able to make a few YouTube videos for ISU’s Study Abroad Office about her time abroad and what she learned while she was there. You can check out Marley’s videos with the following links:
Preparing for Leicester! – Marley in England #1
Initial Thoughts on Leicester – Marley in England #2
Final Thoughts on Studying Abroad in Leicester – Marley in England #3

This year Marley also secured an internship at Illinois State University’s student newspaper—The Vidette—where she works as a copy editor. She was also reelected to ISU’s creative arts journal—Euphemism—as the submissions coordinator received an editors’ choice award for one of my art/media submissions to Euphemism this semester.

Congratulations, Marley!

Want to be our next Member Spotlight? Apply here: https://forms.gle/Nc1SjTUiEyqpPR1CA

Member Spotlight: Heather O’Leary

Welcome back to our Member Spotlight series! We’ll be featuring members of our chapter for the rest of the 2020-2021 school year to help us all stay connected while socially distancing.

This week’s Member Spotlight is Heather O’Leary!

Heather is a a third-year PhD student focused on climate fiction. She originally joined Sigma Tau Delta as an undergrad at ISU in the Spring of 2010. Heather also served as the Editor of Polyglossia, our undergraduate research journal, during the 2019-2020 school year and is serving on the Editorial Board of Polyglossia during the 2020-2021 school year. You can check out last year’s issue of Polyglossia here: https://sigmataudeltaisu.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/polyglossia-2019-fall-1.pdf

Heather says one of her best achievements this year is having her panel proposal, “Persistence of the Novel in the Anthropocene,” accepted for MLA 2021 and included as part of the presidential theme.

Heather was also recently featured by ISU News for her use of technology in her teaching. You can read the full article here: https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2020/10/graduate-student-succeeds-in-virtual-classroom-with-new-technology/?fbclid=IwAR3PMN7AJg5phV8y1SBp-JKgSTkiGEWGkbp02AGmzf1BJIAU6TmlXQr98EY

Congratulations, Heather!

Want to be our next Member Spotlight? Apply here: https://forms.gle/Nc1SjTUiEyqpPR1CA

Member Spotlight: Maryna Teplova

Welcome to the second installment of our Member Spotlight series! We’ll be featuring members of our chapter for the rest of the 2020-2021 school year to help us all stay connected while socially distancing.

This week’s Member Spotlight is Maryna Teplova!

Maryna is a PhD student from Ukraine, who came here after 20+ teaching English at a university level. She is a graduate student member and was inducted into the Lambda Delta chapter in the Spring of 2019. Maryna also served as a chapter Librarian during the 2019-2020 school year.

Maryna says that her biggest achievements this year are being awarded a Lela Winegarner scholarship for international students and becoming a Lela Winegarner Fellow. She has also been accepted for 2 national conventions for teachers of writing: NCTE 2020 and CCCC 2021.

Congratulations, Maryna!

Want to be our next Member Spotlight? Apply here: https://forms.gle/Nc1SjTUiEyqpPR1CA

Member Spotlight: Lucy Belomoina

Welcome to our Member Spotlight series! We’ll be featuring members of our chapter for the rest of the 2020-2021 school year to help us all stay connected while socially distancing.

Our first Member Spotlight is Lucy Belomoina!

Lucy is a PhD Candidate in TESOL and Applied Linguistics. She is a graduate student member and was inducted into the Lambda Delta chapter in the Spring of 2015.

Lucy says one of her best achievements this year is having her proposal on writing workshops for ESL students accepted. Congratulations, Lucy!

Want to be our next Member Spotlight? Apply here: https://forms.gle/Nc1SjTUiEyqpPR1CA

Upcoming Event: Home for the Holidays Book Sale

Need some new-to-you books to brighten up these shortened days?

Looking for something fun to read over Thanksgiving break?

Want an affordable way to start your holiday shopping early?

Then check out the Lambda Delta chapter’s Home for the Holiday Book Sale! The book sale will be held Monday, November 9 – Friday, November 13 from 9 am until Noon each day in our book sale room (Stevenson Hall room 410). Masks are required in Stevenson Hall and inside the book sale room. The room capacity is limited to 4 people at a time. A Sigma Tau Delta member will be present at all times during the sale to disinfect between guests as well as make sure the room capacity and mask requirements are being followed.

See the flyer above for special sale pricing. We are only able to accept cash at this time.

Happy shopping!

Dead Poet’s Night is Back!

Mark your calendars for our virtual Dead Poet’s Night on Sunday, November 8 at 6 p.m. We’ll be hosting the event on Discord. Members can check their email for the link sent out by chapter co-president Marley Arenstein. Can’t find the link? Email our Social Media Director, Britni Williams, at bmwill2@ilstu.edu.

What is Dead Poet’s Night? It’s an annual tradition of the Lambda Delta chapter to celebrate the changing seasons with the reading of poetry by poets who have passed. (Don’t worry, Live Poets get their say in the Spring!) So, come to the event ready to share your favorite poem by your favorite dead poet! Guests of members are welcome, but they must also have a poem to share.

Submit your work to Polyglossia!

Want to see your name in print and beef up your résumé? The English Department is seeking undergraduate work in English Studies to publish in the 24th annual edition of Polyglossia.

Polyglossia celebrates the excellent work being done by our students—you. If you’ve written an essay for one of your classes that you’re especially proud of or that seemed to make an impression on one of your instructors, send it in to us to get it published.

Polyglossia is looking for papers, in hard copy, on any topic in the various areas of English Studies, be it a paper on literature, poetry, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, or technical communication (but not creative writing—send those papers to our excellent forum for creative writing, Euphemism). 

You can find a digital version past editions of Polyglossia by following this link: https://sigmataudeltaisu.wordpress.com/polyglossia/past-issues/. 

Submit your work electronically (preferably as a Microsoft Word doc.) to Dr. Cory Hudson at cmhuds1@ilstu.edu by 2 November 2020. If you have any questions, please contact either Dr. Hudson or Dr. Robert McLaughlin, rmclaugh@ilstu.edu.

Welcome Fall 2020 Initiates!

While we may not have been able to celebrate in person this semester, the Lambda Delta chapter of Sigma Tau Delta welcomed seven new members to our ranks last night.

Please give a warm welcome to our new members:

Abigail Byrnside
Katherine Christensen
Katie Fisher
Edcel Cintron Gonzalez
Connor Olejnik
Simran Rathod
Izabelle Schoepke

Congrats to Our 2019-2020 New Members!

While the end of the 2019-2020 school year has been chaotic to say the least, we want to end this year with some positivity by digitally celebrating our 2019-2020 new members! This year we welcomed eight initiates and two members by transfer to our chapter. Because we are not able to hold our usual Initiation Ceremony for the Spring semester due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the spring initiates and member by transfer will be recognized in the Fall 2020 ceremony.

Please give a warm welcome to our newest members!

Fall 2019 initiates:
Marley Arenstein
Katy Granbom
Hannah Henley
Sayanti Mondal

Fall 2019 member by transfer:
Kelly Graeber

Spring 2020 initiates:
Alisa Christensen
Cory Hudson
Ben Kordek
Serenah Minasian

Spring 2020 member by transfer:
Leslie Hancock