First, and most important, after five years of study, Mohamed is now officially a graduate of Washburn with a B.A. in economics. Although he already had an A.A. degree in business from a Dubai university and although, after his transcript's having been evaluated by an independent agency, Washburn accepted 86 hours of credit, the business school here would accept none of them, so essentially he started from scratch--all the university requirements, the general education requirements, and the degree requirements. The last course caused a bit of stress. The professor said she would post the grades by Friday, but they didn't appear until 2 p.m. Monday. With Washburn's new online system (this wasn't an online course, but there were lots of online components), class members can see the class roster and who's online at any given time. There were four or five obviously scared students who were online waiting for the grades continuously from Friday. We were checking roughly every 30 minutes during waking hours--and sometimes in the middle of the night. Finally and suddenly the good news appeared. So big congratulations to my husband.
Excerpts from this blog were published last fall as an article in the Oklahoma Humanities Journal. Carla Walker, the editor, and I were nominated for best feature writing in a magazine by the Great Plains Journalism Association. I'll just copy and paste Carla's e-mail to me about the results:
The Great Plains Journalism Awards, sponsored by the Tulsa Press Club, were held on Friday at the Mayo Hotel in Tulsa. The competition honors the work of journalists, writers, photographers, and designers among eight Great Plains states: Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.
Tulsa Press Club president Nicole Burgin says, “This event was designed to celebrate the professionals who hold people in power accountable, who expose injustice, and who use words and images to tell stories that move us to action or change how we think about important issues.”
And the 2014 Great Plains magazine feature writing winner is …
HOWARD FAULKNER, author, and Carla Walker, editor, for “Rabbit Punched: An Atheist’s Guide to Living with Cancer”!!!
Howard, I can’t tell you how proud I am of this award. It’s all well and good to win for “best cover” or “best page design,” but this award honors the content of our magazine—the heart of programming we use to connect citizens with the humanities. It says that among all the entries of slick magazines with hundreds of pages, multiple staff, and the advantages of ad income and high-dollar budgets, your writing was judged as not only award-winning, but THE BEST. It is, in my judgment, the most prestigious honor our publication has received. Congratulations on this recognition of your talent and the work you’re doing to share your experience. This award is tangible evidence of the value your efforts.
Coming your way [watch your mailbox] is a handsome oak plaque, carved with the Great Plains Journalism Awards insignia and your name as “Winner, Magazine Feature Writing.”
Carla, a Washburn graduate, has done a marvelous job as an editor of the journal, and she did great work editing my blog entries. I turned the job totally over to her; she did all the selection and the editing of individual entries, and she created a full and representative sampling. She also wrote a charming introduction. Washburn (and the English department) should be very proud of her and her work.
I would say you are having a pretty great week - congratulations to you both!!!
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