Six Westminster College students received travel/presentation grants from Westminster's Drinko Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning to present papers at Susquehanna University's Department of English and Creative Writing Undergraduate Conference Feb. 15-16.

Lynn Elliott, a senior English and Spanish major, is a daughter of Myron and Deborah Elliott of Hookstown and a graduate of South Side Area High School. Her research, "Prose Illustrations, Health, and the Unity of Disparate Themes: Wendell Berry's Fiction and Essays," focuses on identifying and discussing the parallels between Berry's collected nonfiction essays of The Unsettling of America and The Wild Birds, a volume of his short stories.

Casey Kennedy, a freshman English major, is a son of Thomas and Lynn Kennedy of Indiana and a graduate of Indiana Area High School. His paper, "How Sleeping Became like Homework," is a creative work in which the character writes about his dreams in a journal and attempts to interpret them in the hope of better understanding himself.

Kelly Lake, a sophomore English major, is a daughter of Walter and Catherine Lake of Boardman, Ohio, and a graduate of Boardman High School. Her work, "Bard vs. Bride: The Contention between Writing and Domesticity in Two Provisions," is a critical study of Catharine Sedgwick's "Cacoethes Scribendi" and excerpts from Caroline Kirkland's A New Home...Who'll Follow? Or, Glimpses of Western Life as abridged in feminist scholar Judith Fetterley's Provisions: A Reader from 19th-Century American Women.

Levi Sanchez, a senior English major, is a son of Annette Sanchez of Grove City and a graduate of Grove City Area High School. His creative piece, "A Terrific Fever on the Fourth of July," is an excerpt from a longer work in which the protagonist explores his past as a means of recovering from a near-death experience.

Marianne Selby, a senior English major, is a daughter of Robert and Patricia Selby of Darlington and a graduate of Beaver Falls High School. Her essay, "Rural Slavery and the Natural Rural Setting: A Relationship of Identity, Love, and Racial Violence in Toni Morrison's Beloved," focuses on the relationship between slavery in rural areas and nature in Morrison's novel.

Sarah Simon, a junior English major, is a daughter of Linda Arbogast of Struthers, Ohio, and Andrew Simon of Dublin, Ohio. She is a graduate of Struthers High School. Her paper, "The True 'Father' Figure: A New Historicist and Feminist View of Ma in The Grapes of Wrath," analyzes how one of the book's main characters, Ma Joad, challenges patriarchal attitudes and conventionally gendered responsibilities, ultimately becoming a kind of 'father' figure.

The Drinko Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning was created to enrich undergraduate education at Westminster through advancing world-class teaching as well as by participating in collaborations that address community and regional needs including strengthening K-12 education. The Undergraduate Research Initiative provides funding for students to conduct research and to present their research at regional and national conferences.

Contact Dr. Deborah Mitchell, Westminster associate professor of English, at (724) 946-7030 or e-mail dmitchel@westminster.edu for more information.

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