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Two FPU students took home prizes for best scholarly presentations in their fields at the Alpha Chi National Honor Society convention held April 4-6 in Cleveland, OH.

Rachel Anderson, junior biology major, won The Clark Youngblood Prize in Philosophy and World Religion for her paper, “Descartes’ Dreaming Dilemma.” Loren Friesen, senior communication major, won The Brown’s Graduation Prize in Communication for his paper, “A Space of Deviance that Refuses to Other: How Reading Physical Space Helps Us Understand Our Culture of Othering.”

Two other FPU students also presented at the conference. Catherine Jalomo, junior chemistry major, presented “Sustainable Production of Bioplastics and Biofuel,” and Maranata Zemede, senior communication major, presented “New Blacks on the Block: How Children of African Immigrants Negotiate Black Identity in the U.S.”

Fresno Pacific is home to amazing students! Go ‘Birds!

Communication program director, Billie Jean Wiebe, PhD recently shared some insight into the Communication program at FPU. Read on to learn more about Comm at FPU!

Q: What drew you to the communication field?
A: “Interpersonal relationships are fascinating to me and communication is an essential element in relationship with others. We make and share meaning through communication in its many facets and expressions. And, I have been drawn to performance and speaking since early days of school, so following those contexts was natural and logical.”

Q: What is the most distinct feature of the communication program?
A: “Our program explores the process of communication through story. We use the lens of critical theory, interpretation, and representation to examine whose stories get told and heard and the ways in which story generates meaning.  We care about the story: its origin, its evolution, its representation, and its interpretation. ”

Q: What is the one piece of advice you’d give to students?
A: “Understand your voice and use it.”

Fresno Pacific University student Maranata Zemede won a $500 regional scholarship from the Alpha Chi College Honor Society.

Zemede is a senior communication major, film & media studies emphasis, with an English minor. The scholarship will assist Zemede, who is Ethiopian-American, in her senior project: an examination of how first-generation U.S. citizens who are part of the recent waves of African immigrants navigate black identities in the United States. “This project perfectly combines Maranata’s remarkable scholarly abilities with a meaningful interrogation of complex identity politics,” said Adam Schrag, Ph.D., assistant professor communication.

The 24 winners across seven regions split $15,000 to continue their academic work.

Alpha Chi is committed to the scholarly life of its members and chapters. FPU’s California Zeta chapter began in the late 1980s and has about 50 members. For the last 15 years the university has been a Star Chapter, an honor achieved by 20 percent of the society’s nearly 300 chapters. Sponsors are W. Marshall Johnston, Ph.D., associate professor of history; Pamela Johnston, Ph.D., associate professor of history; and Brian Schultz, Ph.D., associate professor of biblical and theological studies.

Alpha Chi National College Honor Society is open to juniors, seniors and graduate students from all disciplines in the top 10 percent of their classes and induct approximately 11,000 students annually nationwide. Since the society’s founding in 1922, Alpha Chi members have dedicated themselves to “making scholarship effective for good.” Alpha Chi is a member of the Association of College Honor Societies, the only national accrediting body for collegiate honor societies.

Our students don’t just do great work in the classroom! Students like communication major Clint Harris represent FPU at academic conferences all over the country. He recently presented a paper on Social Exchange Theory at the 2018 Western States Communication Association convention! Way to go, Clint! #featuremeFPU