A weekly news report for Slippery Rock University
A weekly news report for Slippery Rock University
SRU breaks ground for $38-million Student Center; opens in 2010
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Alcoa's O'Rourke kicks off SRU's continuing 'Success Lecture Series' read more
SRU readies for 'Haunted Homecoming' read more
Healthfest continues free screenings read more
SRU kicks off annual SECA drive read more
LUNAFEST women's film festival returns read more
SRU's AmeriCorps distributes water aerators to save energy read more
SRU Women's Studies honors four read more
SRU hosts Special Olympics sectional read more
PHOTO: What Makes You Tic?
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PHOTO: Safety Panel read more
PHOTO: Chbosky read more
PHOTO: Hispanic/Latino Cultures Month read more
PHOTO: Swantner Dedication read more
PHOTO: Boy Scouts read more
SRU Women's Studies honors four
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - Four Slippery Rock University women will be presented Women of Distinction Awards Tuesday as part of the annual Women's Studies Mentoring Dinner where Toi Derricotte, a nationally-acclaimed poet and co-founder of Cave Canem Foundation, a summer workshop for African-American poets, will deliver the keynote address.
The dinner is at 6 p.m. in the Russell Wright Alumni House and Conference Center.
The women - a student, a faculty member, an administrator and a staff member - were selected from nominations solicited from across campus. The nominations asked for letters of support demonstrating how the individual had set themselves apart in their mentoring and support of women on campus. Each will receive a necklace made by a local woman artist.
Being honored, by category, are:
Administration: Tawnya Curatola, assistant manger and director of event services at the Regional Learning Alliance, who is being honored for her work as a significant advocate and supporter of the SRU women's community.
She has been a member of the President's Commission on the Status of Women for two years and has worked on projects, including a program that encourages women employees to take advantage of SRU's Tuition Waiver Program to further their education. She has actively worked to ensure that female colleagues are given fair and responsible opportunities. She encourages women to get involved in campus activities and to support their colleagues when help is needed.
Off-campus, she has been a mentor to female students at Freedom High School.
Faculty: Susan Herman, assistant professor of exercise and rehabilitative sciences, was nominated for her continuing work on behalf of the women's community at SRU. She has been a mentor not only for her students, but also new exercise science faculty. She created Major Fitness, a student club, and provided leadership opportunities for a dozen student directors, 11 of them women, as well as countless students who have served as group fitness instructors.
Staff: Nancy "Sis" Warcup, clerk typist II in physical education, was cited for not only being an asset to her department, but for becoming a mentor to many students who visit the physical education office. She has mentored young women as student workers, graduate assistants and officers of the three student organizations within her department in areas of academic and personal concern.
She has been an active, two-term member of the President's Commission on the Status of Women and has undertaken critical leadership roles in numerous "Young Women at the Rock Day" events on campus.
She organizes the ongoing Student of the Month luncheons, serves as co-adviser to the Exercise Science Society and is a member of the Exercise Science Advisory Board.
Student: Kara Cooke Robeson, a July social work graduate from Slippery Rock, was nominated for her involvement in several areas of the women's community on campus. She was employed at the SRU Women's Center and was an active president of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance in 2009-2010. She was responsible for organizing successful Take Back the Night events and the I Heart Female Orgasm events on campus last year.
She was responsible for promoting the ongoing Thursdays in Black campaign across campus that advocates for a world without rape and violence.
Derricotte, a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, has long advocated for peace and equity. She is the author of "Tender, Captivity, Natural Birth" and "The Empress of the Death House." She grapples with the taboo, and her poetry often gives voice to those who have been silenced.
Winner of the 1998 Paterson Poetry Prize, Derricotte is also recipient of the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America and of two Pushcart prizes.
She has received the Distinguished Pioneer of the Arts Award from the United Black Artists.
