TABLE OF CONTENTS SJSU Technical Writing Students Win the Dr. Kenneth M. Gordon Memorial Scholarship 1 Grammy Award-Winning Band, Mumford & Sons, Wins the Steinbeck Award 2 Dr. Meghan Gorman-DaRif Joins San José State Campus This Fall 4 Sherri Harvey Gives English 2 a Facelift 5 Professor Selena Anderson Wins Rona Jaffe Foundation Award for Work in Fiction 6 Bay Area Native Dr. Daniel Rivers Joins SJSU 7 Alexis Cutchin, Evan Brown, and Lydia Row Photograph by Sara Garcia New Steinbeck Service Fellowship Brings Together the Students of SJSU and Stanford 8 SJSU Technical Writing Students Win the Dr. Kenneth M. Gordon The Homeless Spartans: C.J. Prusi’s Article about Memorial Scholarship Homelessness Among Students 10 By Devina Martinez and Anthony Ngo A Labor of Love: Dr. Allison Johnson’s New Book, The Scars We Carve 11 he Department of English and Comparative Professor of Comparative Literature, José Literature congratulates Professional and Villagrana, Joins Faculty 12 Technical Writing students Alexis Cutchin, T Evan Brown and Lydia Row for receiving the 2019– First Technical Writing Club Becomes Official 2020 Dr. Kenneth M. Gordon Memorial Scholarship. at SJSU 13 The scholarship is open to students who are currently Audrey and Alec Bring Years of Experience to the enrolled in a technical communication program in English Department Office 14 Northern California. Participants must turn in an application containing a personal statement, official M.F.A. Alumna Shares Journey to Publication 15 transcripts, one or more letters of recommendation, and three samples of their technical communication Spring 2020 Course Descriptions 17 work. Scholarship winners receive awards ranging from $500 to $1000 each; they are also eligible for a Letter from the Chair 24 free student membership in the Society for Technical Communication, an organization that sets out to help its members develop their technical communication skills by teaching them best practices. One of the major contributing factors for these students winning this award was their initiative. By utilizing the resources offered to them, all three of these students were able to submit the best version of their work. Associate Professor and PTW Program FALL 2019 NEWSLETTER Director Mark Thompson highlights one quality that 1 separates these students from the other applicants: This scholarship is much more than just a monetary A key component is “how much time [students] are award for these students. They have started to build willing to spend on an assignment. [They] can do up the confidence and experience that they will defi- something well and get a decent grade, but compared nitely need for the future. to something that is actually great, [they’re] really The best advice our three winners can give other going to have to sit down and really think through it technical writing students is to ask their professors and do multiple versions. To me, that’s what I look for help. “Without them, I wouldn’t have been able for, it’s not about the first draft, it’s about the final to get it,” Alexis says. “Ask your professors about version and the drive to get there.” This year is the scholarships, and ask them for help. They’ll give you first time that the scholarship has been offered to all the tools you need to get the right information, SJSU students. After Professor Thompson learned and if your work is good, you’re sure to win.” As about it at a conference, he jumped on the opportuni- Professor Thompson highlighted, this was the first ty to spread the word. year that our students were offered the scholarship, One of the main requirements of the scholarship and already, we have three award recipients. The is to submit writing samples. Luckily, one of the pri- program will continue to enrich each student’s writ- mary goals of the Professional and Technical Writing ing abilities, and hopefully, in the upcoming years, Program at SJSU is to prepare students for work more technical writing students will apply for schol- after graduation. This includes plenty of work that arships such as this one. can be used in portfolios. The classes that students Interested students can find more information take in the program include Professional Technical about the Society for Technical Communication and Writing, Editing for Writers, Introduction to Career Dr. Kenneth M. Gordon Memorial Scholarship at Writing, and Visual Rhetoric and Digital Document http://www.stc.org. In addition, prospective majors Design for Writers. These classes help students build can contact the Director of Professional and Techni- a strong foundation in technical communication. cal Writing, Dr. Mark Thompson, at Assistant Professor Sara West highlights this strength [email protected] for more information of the program. She says, “I think we have a really about the program. special emphasis on trying to get students producing a lot of portfolio pieces. Not just one thing at the end of the class, but many throughout the semester.” Grammy Award-Winning Band, The program is constantly evolving to match the Mumford & Sons, Wins the demands of the field, and Professor Thompson is al- Steinbeck Award ways keeping his ear to the ground for these changes. He says, “I am making sure that we are constantly By Andrea Mitchell and Stephanie monitoring what’s going on in the industry and Salgado then updating the curriculum to keep track of that.” With the amount of effort these instructors put into n the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University, this program, it isn’t surprising to see their students San José State University professor and director winning. Yet, this award would never have been won of the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck without the individual efforts from these students. I Studies, Nick Taylor, presented British folk-rock This scholarship has given the winners a lot to band Mumford & Sons with the John Steinbeck consider. For Lydia, winning this scholarship has Award on Wednesday, September 18. The proceeds given her a confidence boost, especially as she looks for the award ceremony went to the Steinbeck to the future. She says, “It makes me more confident, Gentlemen of the Road Service Fellowship created especially in finding work. Before this, I felt like a by Professor Taylor and Stanford Professor Gavin beginner, but now I feel a bit more seasoned.” Jones. The new Steinbeck Fellowship will allow For Evan, this win has helped clear some of the students from SJSU and Stanford to participate in doubts that he had about his work. As someone who service projects embodying the ideals of Steinbeck. is very detail-oriented, he says, “I reviewed my work Mumford & Sons represents Steinbeck’s ideals over and over to make sure it was free of errors. I through their organization, Gentlemen of the Road, wanted this to be the best representation of what I which “fights for social justice and common good can do, and I’m glad that they recognized my effort.” around the world.” 2 The British band Mumford & Sons is known for —this is something Mumford & Sons has internal- their folk-rock music and Grammy-winning album ized.” Mumford & Sons is dedicated to humanitarian Babel. Their lead single, “I Will Wait,” is their most services throughout their tours, helping raise money successful hit, named the 13th best song of 2012 by for local charities and projects. Rolling Stone magazine. In 2009, Mumford & Sons The band was nominated when one of the Stein- founded the Gentlemen of the Road, an organization beck board members received a letter from a previ- dedicated to supporting global and local issues while ous pupil saying how she was working on tour with bringing other artists with them to perform shows in Mumford & Sons. She felt that they would be a great underprivileged communities where concerts might candidate for the Steinbeck Award. The board mem- not usually be held. In addition to the millions of bers agreed. This made the members of Mumford dollars in charitable donations, the band wants to & Sons the youngest recipients and the first British reach out in communities to bring people together. recipients of the Steinbeck Award, but that didn’t Professor Taylor says, “People helping strangers matter to the board. “The award is about American- who just happen to be in their community—that’s ness being a state of mind,” says Professor Taylor. just something that [Marcus Mumford] and the band The Steinbeck Gentlemen of the Road Service members feel that they could credit Steinbeck for.” Fellowship is about the mindset of Americanness by helping strangers in our communities. The new program’s pilot group will include three students from SJSU and three students from Stanford who will earn a fellowship stipend, so they don’t have to work and can focus on community service for part of the summer. The Steinbeck Studies director describes that the ideal applicant would be famil- iar with Steinbeck’s work and understands through Steinbeck the context of what it would mean to have endured tough times, referencing migrant workers from The Grapes of Wrath as an example. “The band was really into this idea and decided they wanted the proceeds from the ceremony to go towards it,” says Professor Taylor. This single event has generated enough money to support the fellowship for multiple years. Professor Taylor and the band are hoping to grow the program in the future. He goes on to say how Mumford & Sons is excited to come back to see how the fellow- ship develops. Applications for the fellowship should Mumford & Sons receiving Steinbeck Award be available before Spring 2020 for SJSU students. Photograph by Joel Simon/Stanford University For more information on this fellowship, see “New The John Steinbeck Award ceremony began with Steinbeck Fellowship Brings Together Students of radio host Rita Houston interviewing Mumford & SJSU and Stanford” later in this newsletter.