Dr. Evelyn Flores Division Chair

From the Chair’s Desk Hafa Adai and Welcome to Our Division--   Whether you’re a student looking for your professor, a prospective English major, a graduate student or just a curious visitor wandering through our site, whatever your reason for coming, we’re glad you’re here. Each of the pictures below contains a link to a featured aspect of our program. Use the links as doors to various types of information. We trust that our “virtual tour” will help to satisfy your curiosity and answer most of your questions.

OUR RECEPTION AREA   When you walk through the double glass doors of our main office, the first person you’ll meet will be our administrative assistant, Deb Respicio. She can answer most of your questions or direct you to someone who will.

Our student teaching assistants (TA’s) comprise an invaluable part of our reception team.  Meet Tricia, Lindsey, Jackie, and Victoria sitting behind the information desk in our office.  They assist Deb in her support of the faculty and program and are very helpful for those lost or stranded.

ADVISEMENT   Our Peer Advisement Support assistant is Melia Cruz. If you’re seeking advisement and are not sure where to turn, she will point you in the right direction.

Our Major and Graduate Programs

Our Division houses three majors and two minors:    ·         The English Major consists of one of two emphases and 36 credit hours:  o  The Literature Emphasis o  The Language Emphasis ·         The English and Secondary Education Major (39 credits) ·         The English and ESL Major (48 credits) ·         2 minors: the English Minor and the Writing Minor (18 credits)   Three Curriculum Committees oversee the work of the majors.  Dr. Jason Vest chairs the Literature Committee; Dr. Clarisa Quan the Linguistics Committee, and Dr. Santos-Bamba the Composition Committee and the English for Education Taskforce.

Our Graduate Program offers diverse literature and theory courses and seminars culminating in either a traditional research or a creative thesis. Dr. Andrea Hartig and Dr. Clarisa Quan chair our Masters Program Committee.  Currently we are reviewing our curriculum for closer alignment with community needs.

Graduate Faculty – Front Row: Drs. Evelyn Flores, Clarisa Quan, and Chris Schreiner. 2nd Row: Drs. Jason Vest, Yaoxin Chang, Andrea Hartig and David Gugin.

The Developmental and Freshman Composition Programs

Our Developmental and Composition Programs serve 1200 students every semester in over 64 courses.  We have a core of eight dedicated full-time faculty complemented by a vital group of part-time faculty. Dr. Sharleen Santos-Bamba, Director of Composition, leads the voyage towards excellence each new term.   All new students must take the English Placement Tests, which determines their beginning course. Students placing in the pre-college-level EN085 or EN100 classes take intensive writing and reading courses to prepare them for the required Freshman Composition courses, EN110, which teaches the basics of academic expository writing, and EN111 which prepares students for basic research in their upper-division courses.

2011-2012 Composition Core Faculty: Back Row: Pauline Baird, Chris Garcia, and PK Harmon; Front Row: Victoria Leon Guerrero, Tali Ariav, Michelle Bednarzyk, Diane Thurber,  and Dr. Sharleen Santos-Bamba (Composition Director)

Meet Professor Carol Simpson-Warner who directs the three Learning Success Centers that make up our support pod for our students across the university. 

 

·         the Writing Gym which provides free tutorial support for students needing help with their papers in any of our classes;

·         the Reading Lab, which aids EN085 students achieve their reading goals;

·         and our Computer Classroom, where professors bring their students for online research and other class-related experiences. 

The Centers are located on the second floor of the English and Communications Building. To make appointments for the Writing Gym and the Computer Classroom, students go online to the UOG website and from there connect with the Center’s sites to make appointments. 

 

 

 

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Meet Our Trainers aka Tutors

 

The Division boasts that we have nine of UOG’s best and brightest as trainers in our Centers.  Most are English majors but one or two come to us from other disciplines.

 

Here’s our 9-Star Team who stand at attention to help students do well in their classes: Roy, Pia, Neil, Jhanice, Jayne, John, Alyssa, Verna, and Eleanor.

 

 

Our Majors

 

 

And of course, we have our Majors and Minors.  We are very proud of over 100 Majors and Minors who in one way or other call our Division home.  The majority of them will be going out to teach in our schools; others will be learning the ropes at our local newspaper office, PDN, or working with radio to further develop their media skills.

 

 

But you might bump into our majors most anywhere that someone needs an excellent writer, close reader, hard worker, and smart thinker.  The National Park Service is lucky to have one of our top scholars. A public library on the mainland is the fortunate employer of another of our Majors who was also the valedictorian of her class.  A third is apprenticing with an advertisement firm while still others are helping to write the laws of our island.

 

Some of our majors use our program as a stepping-stone into other professions.  We have several Majors who have gone on to finish their doctorates or who are completing them now and a couple who have gone to law school.  One of our most recent graduates, inspired by her Environmental Literature class, is preparing to enter a doctoral program in Environmental Biology.

Most of all, our alumni are starting to return now that they know that we offer a graduate program. In the brief time that our program has been in existence, we  have graduated seven and currently have a cohort of eight on their way to their thesis.

 

RESEARCH AND CREATIVE PUBLICATIONS

 

Our most recent publications include: PK Harmon’s What Island? (2011), Dr. Yaoxin Chang’s History of English Literature (2011), and Dr. Jason Vest’s book, "The Wire," "Deadwood," "Homicide," and "NYPD Blue": Violence is Power (2010).

 

Meanwhile, several other projects are in progress with publication dates nearing, Dr. Evelyn Flores’ anthology of literature by indigenous Micronesian writers (2012); Dr. Jason Vest’s second book, Inside Man: Spike Lee’s Cinematic Provocations (2014).

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Storyboard 12 under the leadership of several of the division’s creative writers, P.K. Harmon, Carol Simpson-Warner, James Viernes, and Leiana Naholowaa, is increasingly becoming an anticipated event on the island, making its mark on the Pacific literary scene. Publication date for this next issue entitled Crossings is scheduled for May 2012.

 

Enriching the Major Experience

 

The Division engages in a number of activities to further enrich the English Major experience from guest lecturers to film series to field trips.   Majors and Minors look forward to the annual Meet ‘N Greet event, a get-together of Faculty and Majors and Minors and those interested in joining us.  Each year, we feature a different event, one year a shindig, another a book costume party, last year DEAL's Got Talent! and this last semester, Meet Me at the Movies!

 

  

 

 

The Language Arts Conference   Now in its third decade, the Language Arts Conference brings together the faculty of the Division of English and Applied Linguistics and the School of Education faculty. Together, they plan a program packed with dynamic speakers, creative workshops, insightful presentations, and vigorous discussions to enrich the teaching of literacy and reading across the spectrum of academia.     Spearheaded by Dr. Clarisa Quan (center of photo), every year since 1993 during the first week in November, the Conference has brought together teachers and administrators from all over Micronesia to discuss frontline theory and issues surrounding the language arts.  The conference puts literacy and reading in the spotlight and provides opportunities for information exchange among teachers.

The attendees exchange information about methods that work in our multilingual and multicultural classrooms and are inspired by language arts scholars, such as Dr. Nancy Updegraff, consultant for Houghton/Mifflin, who enchanted the attendees with among other things, her pink boa act.    The Conferences’ sponsors include the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, the International Reading Association, the Guam Council, and the Guam Marriott and Spa.

 

Too soon, we’ve come to the end of our visit together. I hope your time with us has been fruitful.  Should you have further questions, the links on our page will lead you to more in-depth discussions of various parts of our program.    For our students, remember even during high-stress, paper-production days, we’re here most of all to help make your college experience as successful and satisfying as it can possibly be.    For our visitors, we’re glad you dropped by and hope you have a better idea of who we are. We hope to meet you in person someday as our newest graduate or undergraduate student or our most recently hired colleague.   From all of us in the Division of English and Applied Linguistics, Saina Ma’ase’, Asta Ki, and Come Again,   Dr. Evelyn Flores, Chair Division of English and Applied Linguistics