KU News Release

Two KU students win $1,000 Chancellor’s Writing Prizes

LAWRENCE — Two University of Kansas students have each won a $1,000 Chancellor’s Writing Prize offered through the KU Writing Center.

Chancellor Robert E. Hemenway will present the prizes to Yuki Onogi, a senior in Slavic languages and literatures from Tokyo, Japan, and Christina Elizabeth Munson, a doctoral student in chemistry from Lawrence. The presentation will be at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, at the Big 12 Room in the Kansas Union.

Established by Hemenway in 2007, the annual prize honors an undergraduate and a graduate student who collaborated with a faculty member and a KU Writing Center consultant to improve his or her writing abilities and produce outstanding original compositions. The Chancellor’s Writing Prize encourages excellence in writing, acknowledges the importance of consultation from faculty and the KU Writing Center and promotes writing across KU’s curriculum. Prizes are awarded on or near Oct. 10 to commemorate the date the KU Writing Center opened.

The awards presentation is the final fall convocation event for Student Success and recognizes the writing center’s 10th anniversary.

This year’s contest was for writing created to meet specific course requirements in a KU department or program during summer or fall 2007 or spring 2008.

Onogi won for his paper, “A Turkish Identity as European in a Prehistoric Perspective.” His faculty mentor was Marc L. Greenberg, chair and professor of Slavic languages and literatures.

Munson’s prize-winning paper was titled “Building Peer-Led Team Learning Communities through Asynchronous Learning Networks to Improve Student Performance, Success and Persistence in Organic Chemistry.” Her faculty mentor was Meagan Patterson, assistant professor of psychology and research in education.

This year’s winners were selected by a board that included Jennifer Church-Duran, assistant dean of KU Libraries; Frank DeSalvo, associate vice provost for Student Success; James Hartman, professor of English; Leonie Pallikkathayil, associate professor of nursing; Noel Rasor, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences academic adviser; and Terese Thonus, writing center director.

The deadline for submissions for the 2009 contest will be June 1. Applicants must be enrolled as undergraduate or graduate students at KU during the fall or spring semesters. Theses and dissertations do not qualify.

Entries should be submitted as a two-part portfolio that demonstrates the process and results of collaboration of writer, faculty mentor and the KU Writing Center. Watch for contest details online at www.writing.ku.edu.

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