Art into Iowa Communities

In November 1998, Taylor 2 - a company of young dancers that performs work choreographed by the legendary Paul Taylor - inaugurated Hancher's Network Project with a week-long residency, supported by a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. With Luther College in Decorah, the Pella Opera House, and the Burlington Civic Music Association, Hancher will bring the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra Sextet and the Ahn Trio to all four communities during the 1999-2000 season.

 

The Best of the Best

Talk with the students he tutors, and you'll hear a dozen variations on a theme: Keita makes even the hardest classes seem easy. Keita inspires you to do your best. Keita is a friend. In short: Keita Kashiwagi is one great tutor.

That fact has long been known by his students and his boss, Melissa Bonstead-Bruns, tutor coordinator at Support Service Programs, who says that Kashiwagi is "at the top of a pool of phenomenal tutors." Kashiwagi's abilities were officially recognized when he was recently named the University's Student Employee of the Year, and he went on to be chosen Student Employee of the Year for the entire state.

The honors are no surprise to Leilani Williams, a junior biology major whom Kashiwagi tutored in physics. "He deserves any award they can give him," Williams says. "He makes everything so simple that you wonder why you ever had trouble understanding it in the first place."

So what's the secret to Kashiwagi's success (besides knowing, inside out, the material he teaches)? "It's really very simple," he says. "I care about my students and they know it. The subject matter isn't what's important. What counts is that they know you like them and believe in them."

And that philosophy appears to work. "I did so poorly that I cried after my first exam," Williams recalls. "But after tutoring with Keita, I couldn't wait to take my next big test."

And how did she do? "Oh, I aced it," she says, matter-of-factly. "Keita knew I would."

 

America Reads

The University is one of 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities participating in the America Reads Challenge, an initiative to ensure that all children are able to read independently by the end of third grade. The program is coordinated on campus by Student Services, Student Financial Aid, and the College of Education. In 1998-99, 65 UI students received training and then worked one-on-one with 250 children at six Iowa City elementary schools.

 

Enhancing Student Life

During 1998-99, Student Services invited students, faculty, and staff to participate in focus groups and to respond to questionnaires as part of a purposeful planning process for enhancing student-life facilities. Feedback will help shape a master plan for redesigning the Iowa Memorial Union, clustering related services in convenient locations, developing an east-campus recreation facility, and creating living/learning programs in the residence halls.