Four Dixie State College of Utah English majors have been chosen through a nationwide search competition to present at two prestigious national conferences this spring. Three of the four students, Dustin Jackson, a senior from Santa Clara, Utah, Kenneth Marrott, a senior from St. George, and Diana Stanley, a senior from St. George, were selected to present at the National Sigma Tau Delta conference in Minneapolis, Minn. In addition, Kassie Kirkland, a senior from St. George, will present at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research to be held at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The four students were chosen based on the quality of their work and the originality of their ideas.
To help defray some of the travel costs for the students and their respective sponsors, DSC’s English Department and the DSC Sigma Tau Delta student organization will be sponsoring a number of fundraising events over the next several weeks, beginning with a “Battle of the Books” competition, which is currently underway in the McDonald Building on campus. The “Battle of the Books” competition features DSC students, faculty and staff voting for their favorite books by dropping coins into jars representing each classic story, including “Pride and Prejudice,” “Romeo and Juliet,” and “A Farewell to Arms.”
In addition, Sigma Tau Delta will celebrate a longstanding literary tradition in southern Utah by conducting an all-day “Penny-A-Page” read-a-thon from issues of the Southern Quill, dating back from 1950 to today’s latest edition. The event will be held Thursday, March 12, in the DSC Val A. Browning Library from 10 a.m. – to – 6 p.m., and is free and open to the public. Any past contributors to the Southern Quill are invited to come and read their own work.
The fundraising effort will continue into April, as Sigma Tau Delta and other English students will be acting out scenes from their favorite literature and accepting donations for their performances in front of the McDonald Building.
For more information or to donate, please contact Dr. Ami Comeford (acomeford@dixie.edu) at 435-652-7826, or Dr. Sue Bennett (bennett@dixie.edu) at 435-652-7925.
