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GRADUATION GUIDE / THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
Wide range of options available for new graduates
BY CLAIRE MCINERY editor@kansan.com
As some seniors are preparing for jobs and planning their lives after school,some students are experiencing a different scenario the end of college
er. One opportunity that enables students to make that happen is through Teach for America. Teach For America is a program that allows recent college graduates to teach in public schools in low-income communities. The assignment lasts for two years.
Four vea degree kno
a way to prolong having to find a job, but rather look at it as a way to find new opportunities and new ways for students to use their passions. She said a lot of politicians who now work in Congress were in the program and are now fighting for education rights.
Wiechman spent his two years in Saint Lucia doing community development. He helped a farmers' cooperative develop a grant proposal to get funding for a composting project from the United Nations and also taught reading and music at a school.
ment lasts for two years.
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The Peace Corps was an attract-
ion for Wijchman because
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2011
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 20
Sturgeon had deep connections to KU
BY HANNAH DAVIS
hdavis@kansan.com
Although there were twists and turns, Gunn's discovery eventually led him to a friendship with famous Science Fiction author Theodore Sturgeon and the foundation of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas. Gunn and Sturgeon remained friends and colleagues until Sturgeon's death in 1985.
Sturgeon authored several novels and hundreds of short stories. The University award for the year's best
Jim Gunn was always a voracious reader. As a child growing up during the Depression, Gunn would haul his father's old hero pulp magazines to Andy's Used Magazine Shop in downtown Kansas City. In the back of the store on a dusty bookshelf, Gunn made a discovery that would change his life — he discovered science fiction.
short science fiction story is called the Theodore Sturgeon Award. Sturgeon's was best known for his Star Trek work. He coined the Vulcan salutation "Live long and prosper."
sanitation life long
Noel Sturgeon, Theodore's daughter, said her father's respect for Gunn and work with KU were reasons why she donated a comprehensive collection worth $600,000 of her father's work to the Spencer Research Library.
"There is a saying that the golden age of science fiction is 12," Gunn, professor emeritus of English and director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, said "It's a time when the world is changing markedly for a young person."
Sturgeon taught at several sessions of Gunn's summer institute for the writing and teaching of science fiction. Sturgeon's formal education
tion. Sturgeons to was limited. He didn't attend college and might not have graduated high school.
A lack of education was an area of insecurity for Sturgeon. In a letter included in the collection, Isaac
it out of a university or got it out of your own reading. But I had never stopped to think which it was," Asimov wrote.
"Many of his stories had strong working-class and female characters."
Asimov reassured his friend his lack of formal education was not apparent from the outside.
Ultimately, the decision to send Sturgeon's work to Lawrence belonged to Noel, who is the trustee of the Theodore Sturgeon Literary Estate. Noel said the University's work and reputation in the science fiction community and the Spencer Research Library's "top-notch, professional staff" allowed her to sleep well at night knowing her father's work was in the right hands.
"Certainly I have never thought of you as possessing anything but a complete education, whether you got
NOEL STRUEON daughter of Theodore Sturgeon'
Elspeth Healey is a member of the
Spencer's said still. As special collections librarian, Healey oversees the arduous task of processing the Sturgeon collection. The collection arrived in Lawrence in more than 50 boxes filled with
Sturgeon's manuscripts, books, personal papers and correspondence. Healey said the variety of materials paints a picture of the man behind the work.
"Depending on the day, you see him go through ups and downs. His moods changed but he was always witty and comical," Healey said. "Some of his correspondence with Ray Bradbury was particularly light-hearted."
Sturgeon's correspondence reads like a who's who list of science fiction authors. He corresponded with L.Ron Hubbard, the founder of scientology, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut based his famous anti-hero, Kilgore Trout, on Sturgeon.
Gunn said the subject matter in Sturgeon's work paints the most accurate portrait of the man. Outcasts, the misunderstood and the disenfranchised inhabited Sturgeon's works. Gunn said Sturgeon identified with his misfit characters.
While grilling burgers at Sturgeon's Hudson Bay home in the 1970s, Sturgeon shared a childhood story with Gunn, which Gunn suspects fueled Sturgeon's affection for the misunderstood and disenfranchised.
"Ted's stepfather was not understanding of Ted's aspirations to say the least," Gunn said.
Sturgeon told Gunn he returned home from school one day to find his science fictiton magazines had been