This past Sunday CoLA hosted 350 people for our annual Donor Appreciation Reception at the Schuster Center downtown. Over 70 scholarship recipients along with their families had the chance to thank the many generous donors who made their scholarships possible.   It was magical to see our donors realize the tremendous impact their gifts have on our students. A special thank you to our student speaker, Gwendolyn Reynolds, Social Work, who shared her very touching story of triumph over adversity. Gwen is a single mother who works full-time all while carrying a busy course load and participating in an internship. Facing financial hardship, Gwen was on the brink of dropping out when she received word of a scholarship that has enabled her to stay in school and keep on track to graduate next spring. Gwen made us proud and showed clearly how life-changing a scholarship can be for our students. 

The reception was followed by an amazing Holidays in the Heartland concert performed by faculty and students from our School of Music. This year's concert focused on the rich musical heritage of World War I and also featured songs from the American Revolution, Civil War and the end of the 19th century, as well as patriotic tunes honoring military veterans. It was great to see the Schuster Center filled with people who count on this concert each year to kick off the holiday season. Congratulations to the many Music faculty, staff, and students who worked tirelessly to put together this incredible concert, and a special Kudos to Director Hank Dahlman and CELIA Fellow Paul Lockhart.

WSU's recent Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration featured a lecture on "Medicine, the Holocaust, and Religious Ethics" by Ashley Fernandes, Association Director for the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.  This event remembered the tragedies suffered by the Jewish people on November 9 and 10, 1938, and a nationwide program  called Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass").  Thank you to Mark Verman, Zusman Chair in Judaic Studies, for helping sponsor and organize this important discussion.   

I am looking forward to this Sunday's Dayton Literary Peace Prize (DLPP) awards ceremony. Started in 2006, the DLPP is one of the world's most prestigious literary honors and the only literary peace prize awarded in the United States. Thank you to the many CoLA faculty who are involved in the DLPP. Carol Loranger, English, served on the DLPP steering committee and on the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award selection committee and also created online bibliographies of this year's awardees. Sarah Twill,  Social Work, Chris Chaffee, Music, and Sharon Lynette Jones, English, acted as first readers for the hundreds of books that were nominated for the prize.  

This week's Dean's Student Advisory Board featured member is Johnathon Klugh. Johnathon is a senior, completing his final year as a Philosophy and Religion major. His interest in the subjects began in high school and followed him in to college. After graduating, Johnathan hopes to get his Master's degree and eventually earn a Ph.D. so he can one day become a college professor. Outside of the Dean's Student Advisory Board, Johnathan is also the President of Cross Walk and a co-founder of Ahimsa's Army, an active nonviolence group. Johnathan's time at WSU has been positive and he says the professors here are "very qualified and inspirational."

There is always a lot going on in the college! I encourage you to take advantage of a couple of interesting lectures coming up next week:

• Last year's Dayton Literary Peace Prize winner for fiction, Adam Johnson, will come to campus on Monday, November 10 at 12:15 p.m. for a public reading on November 10, 12:15 in the Pathfinder Lounge. Scott Geisel, English, is hosting the reading in conjunction with his creative writing course.
• Melissa Doran, Spanish, will be presenting a lecture entitled "(De)Humanizing Narratives of Terrorism in Spanish and Peruvian Film" on Wednesday, November 12 at 5:00 p.m. in Brehm Lab 165.
• Mark Van Wienen, Professor of English from Northern Illinois University, will present a lecture on American poetry entitled "Neither Sweet Nor Decorous: American Poetry in the First Year of the First World War" on Friday, November 14 at 2:30 p.m. in the Millett Hall Atrium.