PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 24, No. 22, June 2, 2005

brief notes

UI Extension Master Gardeners
Garden Walk will be June 25
The UI Extension Master Gardeners will host the Town and Country Garden Walk in Champaign County from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 25, regardless of weather conditions.

The event, which will take place on Saturday for the first time, will feature residential gardens in rural and urban settings in Tolono and Champaign.

Tickets are available at the UI Extension Office at 801 N. Country Fair Drive, Champaign, and at local garden centers. For more information, contact the UI Extension Office at 217-333-7672 or Laurie Goldwasser at 217-359-4526 or goldwass@illinois.edu.

Intensive English Institute
Hosts needed for Japanese students
About 40 Japanese college students are coming to Champaign-Urbana in late July to spend up to a month brushing up on their conversational English.
All of them are hoping to find friendly local hosts to share their American experiences with.

The students will need hosts who can spend time with them getting to know the local community and also provide home stays, including room and board, for two, three or four weeks.

The students are participating in the Intensive English Institute, the UI’s residential language program.

The IEI’s short-term programs have had a long and successful run at Illinois, said Anna Kasten, special programs coordinator of the Intensive English Institute.

Individuals, families and couples, including “empty-nesters,” are welcome to apply as host families. Home-stay hosts put the students up in their homes and provide meals for them, as well as spend time with them in typical household activities or outings – for example, ball games, movies, picnics, concerts and county fairs. Home-stay hosts receive a stipend to help defray the costs of room and board. Reference and background checks are required of selected home-stay families.

The Homestay Program Application is available at www.azhomestay.com/hostfamapp.htm.

For more information, contact Tammy Conner, at 217-721-2022 or tammytaxlady@yahoo.com.

Campus Recreation
Summer memberships for sale
Summer Memberships for Campus Recreation are now available at Member Services at CRCE or 140 IMPE.

Summer memberships are valid through Aug. 23 and provide access to all Campus Rec facilities including CRCE, IMPE, the UI Ice Arena, Outdoor Center, and the Complex and Multiplex Play Fields. Memberships are available to UI faculty and staff members and their spouses/partners, recent UI graduates, UI retirees, allied organization employees, adult dependents and children of UI students and faculty/staff members, and UI Alumni Association members.

For more information, contact Member Services at 333-3806, campusrec@illinois.edu or visit www.campusrec.uiuc.edu.

Register by June 12
Swim lessons available for all ages
Registration will be accepted through June 12 for summer swim lessons offered by Campus Recreation. Swim lessons are open to UI students, Campus Rec members and the community. Classes are offered for all ages and levels including infant, preschool, youth and adult. Check the Web for prices and class descriptions: www.campusrec.uiuc.edu. Register for swim lessons at Member Services, CRCE. For more information, call 333-3806.

WILL Radio
Local school desegregation examined
After Dereke Clements was chosen to leave his all-black school and take a school bus with other black children to the formerly all-white Lottie Switzer School in Champaign, he soon learned that desegregation was going to be harder than he expected. Whereas teachers at Booker T. Washington School had nurtured black children and looked out for them, many white teachers at the better-equipped Switzer talked harshly to black students and had low expectations for them.

Clements is one of 14 former and current Champaign residents interviewed for a new radio documentary, “More Than a Bus Ride: Desegregating Champaign Schools,” produced by African-American girls at Franklin Middle School as part of the Youth Media Workshop, a collaboration between WILL radio and Innovative Ed Consulting Inc. The one-hour program will be broadcast on WILL-AM (580) at 5 p.m. June 25, with a repeat at 6 p.m. June 27 and 2 p.m. July 4.

A gala fundraising dinner at 6 p.m. June 18 at the Urbana Civic Center will honor participants in the workshop and support the project for a third year. The Youth Media Workshop teaches African-American youth how to make radio and TV documentaries that are then broadcast on WILL.

The students interviewed members of the committee formed to lead desegregation of the schools, as well as teachers, principals, parents and students from the 1960s.

Tickets for the fundraising dinner are $30 and may be purchased in advance by contacting Valerie at WILL at 217-244-8128.

Two WILL-TV specials
Dan Perrino presents young singers
When he wasn’t busy with his own career as a UI music professor, or a saxophonist with his Dixieland jazz band Medicare 7, 8 or 9, Dan Perrino was promoting young talent from the university.

WILL-TV’s two newest specials, “Dan Perrino Presents,” will be broadcast back-to-back beginning at 8:05 p.m. June 6 and highlight two young vocalists that Perrino met through his association with the UI Alumni Association.

“Dan Perrino Presents Abby Burgett” and “Dan Perrino Presents Courtney Huffman,” both taped in the WILL-TV studios, highlight the talent of two young singers. Burgett performs “I Love a Piano,” “All that Jazz,” and other favorites. Rick Murphy, director of music at Urbana’s University Laboratory High School, is her accompanist. Huffman, who performs in operas, such as Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” sings “Edelweiss” and “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” Casey Robards, doctoral student at the School of Music, is Huffman’s accompanist.

College of Business
Scholarships established for military
The UI College of Business is establishing a $250,000 education scholarship fund for military veterans and active members of the military from Illinois.
The fund will provide financial assistance to qualified applicants admitted either to the part-time MBA program on the Urbana campus or to the 20-month Executive Masters in Business Administration program that consists primarily of weekend classes at the UI Illini Center in downtown Chicago.
Scholarships will be based on need, merit or both, said Robert G. van der Hooning, director of executive education for the college, who is based in Chicago.

The scholarship is not to exceed 15 percent of program cost and may be combined with grants from other military assistance programs, such as the Illinois Veteran Grant program. The scholarship program will be available through 2007, he said.

For more information, visit www.mba.illinois.edu, or call van der Hooning at 312-575-7905.

June 13-Aug. 5
UI hosts summer research lab
As they have each summer since 1973, scholars soon will converge on the UI at Urbana-Champaign from all compass points to participate in the annual Summer Research Laboratory on Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia.

Perhaps best described as an intellectual summer camp for scholars, the Summer Research Lab is hosted by the UI Russian, East European and Eurasian Center. The lab runs from June 13 through Aug. 5.

The primary draw for many of the faculty members, graduate students and independent scholars who participate each year is the opportunity to conduct advanced research and interact formally and informally with colleagues in a resource-rich setting.

“The Summer Lab provides a unique opportunity for specialists to conduct research with the greatest ease and access to materials and information, and to share their expertise with other scholars and the public,” said REEEC assistant director Lynda Park.

A major attraction for participants, she said, is full access to the UI Library, which houses the largest Slavic collection west of Washington, D.C., and the attentive assistance of Slavic reference librarians.

“Many scholars have told us that the UI Library is the best place to conduct research in our field,” Park said.

A complete list of events and activities, including locations is available on the Web at www.reec.uiuc.edu/srl/srl.html.

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