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Congratulations to the 2015 Maier Award Recipents

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2015

MAIER AWARDS PROGRAM

WELCOME & REMARKS ABOUT THE MAIER AWARDS

 

 

 

PRESENTATION OF THE MAIER LATIN AWARDS

 

 

 

PRESENTATION OF THE MAIER WRITING AWARDS

 

 

REFRESHMENTS

THE MAIER LATIN SIGHT-TRANSLATION CONTEST

The Maier Latin Sight-Translation Contest was created in 1992. Students from each of the four levels of Latin secondary instruction compete by translating at sight passages of Latin appropriate to their levels of instruction.

Each junior high and high school represented at this convention may select one student to compete at each level. A first prize of $200 and a second prize of $100 are awarded in the Latin I and Latin II levels. A first prize of $200 is awarded in the Latin III and IV levels.  Third prize in Latin I and II, and Second and Third prize in Latin III and IV are recognized here for their merit but have no cash prize.

MAIER LATIN SIGHT-TRANSLATION CONTEST WINNERS

                                        LATIN I                                                LATIN II

                                    FIRST PLACE                                    FIRST PLACE

       Somasundari Hannon                                  Paige Walbert

           The Linsly School                                    The Linsly School

Teacher: Nicoletta Villa-Sella                    Teacher: Nicoletta Villa-Sella

                         SECOND PLACE                             SECOND PLACE

                           Kaitlin Smith                                        Abigail Harman 

                Cabell Midland High School                            Harman Academy

            Teacher: Gail Lewis                                   Teacher: Lois Merritt

                        THIRD PLACE                                     THIRD PLACE

                            Emma Huffman                                    Christian Hall   

                      St. Albans High School                     Cabell Midland High School

                       Teacher: Melissa Agee                              Teacher: Gail Lewis

                        LATIN III                                                      LATIN IV

                      FIRST PLACE                                            FIRST PLACE

                   Sunna Kureishy                                                 Alex Keyser

                   The Linsly School                                    Cabell Midland High school

           Teacher: Nicoletta Villa-Sella                            Teacher: Gail Lewis

                                SECOND PLACE                                         SECOND PLACE

                                  Thomas Hart                                                    Dana Sharma

                     Charleston Catholic High School                          Huntington High School

                              Teacher: Virginia Cook                                   Teacher: Amy McElroy

                                 THIRD PLACE                                              THIRD PLACE

                           Ananda-Siskiskit Olinski                                     Nathan Runyon

                        Cabell Midland High School                              Charleston Catholic High School

                             Teacher: Gail Lewis                                              Teacher: Virginia Cook

                       

  • Italics = no cash prize, certificate of merit sent

 

MAIER LATIN SCHOLARSHIP

The Department of Classics at Marshall University sponsors the Maier Latin Scholarship, generously underwritten by the Maier Foundation. This two thousand dollar scholarship is intended to support the work of a student presently pursuing a Latin major and enrolled in advanced Latin classes.

2015 MAIER LATIN SCHOLARSIP RECIPIENT

Jordan Mason

Jordan is the Latin Major with the most outstanding academic record for the 2014-2015 academic year.

THE MAIER LATIN CUP AWARDS COMPETITION

            For the past 31 years, the Maier Foundation has graciously funded the Maier Latin Cup Awards Competition, which is administered by the Department of Classics at Marshall University. These awards have three purposes: 1) celebrating publicly the best high-school Latin students in the state of West Virginia, 2) recognizing the effective teaching being carried out by high-school Latin teachers in the state in a difficult academic subject, and 3) emphasizing the importance of Latin and Roman Studies in the current curriculum in secondary education. As far as can be ascertained, this contest is unique among Classics departments across the country.

            The Maier Latin Cup Awards were established by William J. Maier, Jr., in 1979 to repay in some way the special attention his Latin teacher at Huntington High School showed him, for it was this extra devotion to Latin and Latin students on the part of his teacher that helped him secure a scholarship to Harvard University. Each high school that offers Latin in the state, public as well as private, is encouraged to select two students currently enrolled in Second-Year Latin to take the College Board Latin Achievement Examination in December each year. Upon the basis of scores earned on this test, a prize of $500 is presented to the first-place winner and $250 to the runner-up. The first-place winner receives the additional honor of having his/her name engraved on the Marshall University Latin Cup, displayed the following academic year at the winner’s high school.

THE MAIER LATIN CUP AWARDS COMPETITION

WINNER

Kathryn Wantlin

Charleston Catholic

Teacher: Virginia Cook

 

RUNNER-UP

Maureen Budka

Hedgesville High School

Teacher: Margaret Horioka

 

SECOND RUNNER-UP

Christian Crawford

Spring Mills High School

Teacher: Margaret Horioka

 

THE WILLIAM J. MAIER WRITING AWARDS

            These awards are a tribute to good writing as the winning essays, stories, and poems represent the best student work for the 2014-2015 academic year. These prizes are a unique honor that affirms the students’ dedication to what is the single most important skill that they can develop in college: the ability to write well.

            Mr. William J. Maier, Jr., created the competition in 1972 after reading Dr. John Teel’s National Review article describing the freshman composition classes taught at Marshall University. In that essay, Dr. Teel argued that students are best served when they read and then write about the great works of the humanities that are the foundation of the liberal arts. Great writing is evidence that one has the ability to learn from reading, to analyze and form conclusions by comparing and contrasting ideas, and to share these insights with others through clear writing. The award is named in honor of Mr. Maier’s father.

            The goals Mr. Maier established for this competition were simple. First, he wanted to reward good writing and provide an incentive for students to develop their skills. Second, he wanted to provide financial support for Marshall University students. Indeed, the awards have always fostered competition and camaraderie that make the skills of writing, a necessary and a basic educational task, more attractive to students, faculty, administrators, and the general public. We are proud to maintain the legacy that Mr. Maier created and to celebrate the work of our students and the dedication of our faculty.

            During the typical year, more than 1,500 students complete the second portion of the first-year composition sequence. The upper-level and graduate courses also enjoy robust enrollments. The number of students eligible to participate in this competition makes the accomplishment of the students honored today impressive. The College of Liberal Arts and the Department of English are proud to offer these unique and prestigious awards to students of Marshall University.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FIRST YEAR NON-RESEARCH

Judge: Shirley Lumpkin

FIRST PLACE

 “Vivere est Vincere: To Live is to Conquer”

By: John Midkiff

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Stephanie Walker

SECOND PLACE

 “Lying With the Lamb: ‘Animalistic’ Humans and Animal Innocence”

By: Rebecca Turnbull

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Daniel O’Malley

THIRD PLACE

 “The Symbolism of the Vietnamese Soldier and Tim O’Brien”

By: Tony Hayes

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Anna Rollins

FIRST YEAR RESEARCH

Judge: Shirley Lumpkin

FIRST PLACE

 “The Dead Baby Dilemma: Midwifery in Response to Unethical Medical Practices”

By: Rebecca Casto

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Mitchell Lilly

SECOND PLACE

 “Too High a Toll: The Privatization of Toll Roads and Highways”

By: Sean Sutherland

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anthony J. Viola

THIRD PLACE

“A Critical Photo Analysis of Hiroshi Ishiguro’s Geminoid – Exploring the Android-Human Relationship: Inhuman Humanity”

By: Joel Alexander Kitchen

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Nicole Lawrence

THIRD PLACE

 “Risky Business in the Name of Graffiti”

By: Emily Wallace

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kelli Prejean

UPPER DIVISION NONFICTION PROSE

Judge: Mary Moore

FIRST PLACE

 “Linking Through Lyricism: An Exploration of the Use of Motif in Lyric Essays”

By: Hannah Smith

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Carrie Oeding

SECOND PLACE

 “Mickey, Mallory and Monsters, Oh My!: The Obsession With Violence in Natural Born Killers

By: Brooke Ingram

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Walter Squire

THIRD PLACE

 “Motivating Students With Learning Disabilities to Write”

By: Cody Greathouse

Faculty Mentors: Dr. Allison Carey & Dr. Kelli Prejean

 

GRADUATE NONFICTION PROSE

Judge: Robert Hill

FIRST PLACE

 “‘These Guys are Animals, Jack’: Race and Place in Big Trouble in Little China

By: Ian Nolte

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Walter Squire

SECOND PLACE

 “Rural Lives in Transition: Minimalism in Bobbie Ann Mason’s Shiloh & Other Stories

By: Jennifer Sullivan Spoor

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anthony J. Viola

THIRD PLACE

 “Ekphrastic Parallels Between Art and the Everyday in the Face of Nature in Crane’s ‘Sunday Morning Apples’ and Dove’s ‘Why I Turned Vegetarian’

By: Aaron Morris

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Carrie Oeding

 

 

 

 

 

GRADUATE & UNDERGRADUATE POETRY

Judge: Art Stringer

FIRST PLACE

 “High Tea”

By: Cynthia McComas

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Eric Smith

SECOND PLACE

 “The Way You Leave Is a Kind of Staying”

By: Rob Engle

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rachael Peckham

THIRD PLACE

 “Museum of Tiptoes”

By: Nichole Scott

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Carrie Oeding

THIRD PLACE

 “Off Topic”

By: Aaron Morris

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Carrie Oeding

GRADUATE & UNDERGRADUATE CREATIVE NONFICTION

Judge: Patrick Madden

FIRST PLACE

 “Hollow Grief”

By: Alex George

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rachael Peckham

SECOND PLACE

 “Talking Spic”

By: Elizabeth Danishanko

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Rajia Hassib

THIRD PLACE

 “The Fear of the Recoil”

By: Hannah Kittle

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rachael Peckham

GRADUATE & UNDERGRADUATE FICTION

Judge: Tom Noyes

FIRST PLACE

 “Lambs”

By: Alex George

Faculty Mentor: Prof. John Van Kirk

 

SECOND PLACE

 “My River Branches”

By: Thomas Holland

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anthony J. Viola

THIRD PLACE

 “Wild Heart”

By: Meranda Jennings

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anthony J. Viola

MULTIMEDIA

Judge: Art Stringer

FIRST PLACE

 “Personal Becomes Political”

By: Hannah Leport

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Walter Squire

SECOND PLACE

 “One Day at a Time”

By: Stephanie Shelhammer

Faculty Mentors: Dr. Allison Carey & Dr. Kelli Prejean

THIRD PLACE

 “Breaking Barriers”

By: Meghann Martin

Faculty Mentors: Dr. Allison Carey & Dr. Kelli Prejean

THIRD PLACE

 “In Loving Memory: The Story of Basketball, Love and Unity”

By: Cody Greathouse

Faculty Mentors: Dr. Allison Carey & Dr. Kelli Prejean

MENTORS, JUDGING, AND JUDGES

Tom Noyes’ newest book, Come by Here: A Novella and Stories, won the 2013 Autumn House Prize in Fiction. He is the author of two other story collections, Spooky Action at a Distance and Other Stories and Behold Faith and Other Stories, which was shortlisted for Stanford Libraries’ William Saroyan Award. His stories have appeared in such journals as American Literary Review, Colorado Review, Mid-American Review, New Ohio Review, Pleiades, Sycamore Review, and Third Coast. Currently, he teaches in the BFA program at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, where he also serves as a consulting editor for the literary magazine Lake Effect.

  1. E. Stringer is the author of three poetry collections, Channel Markers, Human Costume, and most recently, Late Breaking. His work has appeared in such journals as The Nation, The Ohio Review, Shenandoah, The Cincinnati Review, and also in the anthology Backcountry: Contemporary Writing in West Virginia. He has also edited and introduced a new edition of Louise McNeill’s Paradox Hill from West Virginia University Press. And for twenty-four years, he taught writing and literature at Marshall University.

Mary Moore received her Ph.D. at UC Davis and taught English at Marshall University for 19 years. Specializing in Renaissance literature, she published a scholarly book, Desiring Voices: Women Sonneteers and Petrarchism, and a collection of poetry, The Book of Snow, as well as articles on women poets and Shakespeare. She won Marshall’s Distinguished Artists and Scholars Award and the Hedrick Award. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals including Ciders Press Review, American Poetry Journal, Prairie Schooner, and Capability.

Shirley Lumpkin taught English for over 30 years at Marshall University. A lover of collaborating with colleagues to use writing in teaching, she was the third Writing Across the Curriculum Director and at various times the Marshall University Writing Project Director. She has published articles on African American writers Etheridge Knight and Fenton Johnson, Sarah Grimke, and the works of Cherokee Appalachian writer Awiakta and Appalachia writers Louise McNeill, Barbara Kingsolver, and Marcia Bonta.

Robert W. Hill, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, taught at Clemson University and co-edited the South Carolina Review. At Kennesaw State University, he chaired the English Department and co-founded Kennesaw Review. In 2010 he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Writers Association. His numerous reviews and articles appeared in journals such as Southern Quarterly and South Atlantic Review, and his poems have appeared in Shenandoah and Minnesota Review, among other prestigious journals.

Patrick Madden is the author of two essay collections from the University of Nebraska Press, 2010’s Quotidiana and Sublime Physick, due early next year. His essays have appeared widely in journals and in The Best Creative Nonfiction and The Best American Spiritual Writing anthologies. He is co-editor (with David Lazar) of After Montaigne: Contemporary Essayists Cover the Essays, due this September from the University of Georgia Press. He teaches at Brigham Young University and Vermont College of Fine Arts, and he curates the online essay anthology at www.quotidiana.org.

 

WILLIAM J. MAIER, JR. AND THE LEGACY OF PHILANTHROPY

“Live frugally and accumulate fortune honestly as rapidly as you can. When you have enough to provide a modest standard of living… turn to the world around you and seek diligently to find where you can invest the surplus of time and fortune to do the most good.” These are the words of advice of William J. Maier, Jr., a lesson of philanthropy he learned from his parents and has instilled in his family. Mr. Maier was extremely generous to the College of Liberal Arts through his support of the Writing and Latin awards. His son, Ed, and his family have maintained the tradition of patronage through the work of the Maier Foundation. Indeed, many people in the great state of West Virginia have benefited from the selfless support of this tireless family.

Born in 1903 in Harrison County, West Virginia, Mr. Maier enjoyed the guidance of a family who valued education. Indeed, he proved himself to be an able student, having graduated from Huntington High School in 1919 at the age of 16. Before continuing his education at college, he spent time with a tutor perfecting his command of Latin. When satisfied with his accomplishment, he applied to and received admittance with a full scholarship to Harvard where he continued to excel as a student. His work at Harvard led to a Rhodes scholarship that allowed him to study at Oxford University. Mr. Maier then taught undergraduate courses at Harvard while completing a law degree at the school.

            Returning to his native West Virginia, Mr. Maier used his quick wit, knowledge of law, and business sense to develop a notable business portfolio.

 

 

Congratulations to 2015 Maier Award recipients
Congratulations to 2015 Maier Award recipients