Meet the Staff: Professor Ilse Bussing Talks About her Academic Life

Meet the Staff: Professor Ilse Bussing Talks About her Academic Life

By G. Porras.

Having a great love for teaching and research, Professor Ilse Bussing has delighted hundreds of English majors with her humbleness and professionalism since 2012 when she first began teaching at  Letras School. In an interview with The Cult News, she shares the various academic challenges she has gone through in her life.

After discarding the idea of studying psychology and realizing that she had a particular skill for literature courses when she was in high school, Ilse decides to major a B.A. in Compared Literature at William and Mary University in Virginia. This, she considers, was her first major challenge which she overcame thanks to her dedication. “I had to write and write and write and read and read and read like a maniac. I was basically writing an essay a week for my courses and reading like a hundred pages a day,” Ilse remembers. For her, this experience was both challenging and unique as she was immersed in a completely different culture, in an "all-brick campus." The many hours spent reading, writing and looking for books at the library were not over as Ilse decided to pursue a Masters in Latin-American Literature, at the University of Costa Rica, a place that has been her home since she was a child.

Certainly, the fact that she grew up in front of Medicina’s school and that her father was aprofessor in Biology and a researcher at the U.C.R influenced Professor Bussing enormously, who shares her father´s passion for research. This discipline, together with her unquestionable love for Gothic Literature drew her to undergo a 3-year research project at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She instantly fell in love with the campus and the wonderful libraries. Her thesis under the name of The Haunted House in Mid-to-Late Victorian Gothic Fiction was part of her research work to earn a Ph.D. in Gothic Literature.

Naturally, her academic achievements did not happen by chance. “There are no free lunches as my father would say,” she says. Nowadays, due to her hard work, discipline, and persistence, Ilse inspires her students with her outstanding classes and publishes academic articles in different journals in the United Kingdom.

 Ilse has had a long and rewarding academic journey; therefore, her advice for English majors is “to be very hardworking and very persistent,” as these are the attitudes that lead to success.

Fair and Righteous Scholarships: A Victory in History

Fair and Righteous Scholarships: A Victory in History
By Jordan Vargas – President of the Federación de Estudiantes de 
la Universidad de Costa Rica
Translated by J.Porras.

University of Costa Rica’s student population celebrated a remarkable victory that adds to its history, on March 9, when the first academic term of 2015 began. This historical event deals with the enforcement of the new Reglamento de Becas, which improves the academic performance, students engagement and rates of successful completion of study programs upon graduation for those students who face socio-economic disadvantages.

This achievement, which includes- among other aspects, the elimination of the mandatory working hours for those students granted with a scholarship, result from the hard work carried out by diverse student organizations during a long process that can be traced back to 2009. During a student’s assembly, many students brought up what has been a concerning topic from previous generations. As with every accomplished goal led by students within our alma mater and at a global level, the process has not been easy at all.

To the date, after a year and seven months that these new regulations had been approved, we find ourselves in the process of enforcing an amendment to correct several mistakes found in the current regulation. These corrections become apparent mainly in one of the new statements,  which indicates that scholarships will apply to every major the student is enrolled in, instead of only one major as it was previously established. This is the main modification that we nowadays celebrate, the positive change that carries the new reading of the text.

The Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Costa Rica’s board (FEUCR) firmly supports the reform, which not only represents a formal advance which increases the amount of money assigned to socio-economic aid and the institutionalization of scholarships due extreme poverty, but it also means a step forward in the struggle to make scholarships be considered a right for all students and not a benefit. Nevertheless, a series of challenges in the university’s scholarships’ system prevail despite of the great advances of the reform that will soon become current.

It is necessary to undergo a revision of the economic indicators in which the scholarship classification works with, as well as to improve complementary benefits such as alimentation, transportation, and students’ material expenses. Other aspects that requires improvement are the rethinking of the academic rewards’ rating system such as academic performance, mechanisms to follow-up students granted with scholarships, the distribution of rooms in the students’ residences, among others.All of these challenges are the base grounds of FEUCR’s work, especially in terms of scholarships, during this year, we will keep as main goals the enhancement of college and student life.

The lesson learned from this victory that we celebrate today is that in order to drive the necessary structural changes, both inside and outside our school, we require an informed, united student community that is willing to fight.

ASK PROFESSOR

Dear professor, I always have troubles with my compositions in class. How can I overcome writer's block?

You might find consolation in the knowledge that you are not alone. This is a common problem, even for very famous authors. Usually the difficulty stems from anxiety about not being able to produce truly outstanding text. Remember that creative output does not have to be absolutely perfect in order to qualify as very, very good.  Discovering what you are capable of doing only takes practice.

It is usually helpful to establish a set of strategies prior to actually writing, especially when a deadline or time limit is a worrisome factor.  An effective preliminary tactic to overcome the fear of writing is to take a few old sheets of paper, preferably recycled or used ones, and randomly scribble words related to the topic you have been assigned. Do not put them down in any particular order; just freely associate, without rejecting any ideas, until your anxiety diminishes.

Visualize a friendly audience for your writing. Imagine explaining one of your concepts to a curious 9-year-old child. Which examples would you use? Select one of the ideas that you wrote down, and then quickly draft a few points that would help this kind receptive reader understand the basic substance of what you want to express. Anticipate questions from this fantasy reader, too; consider possible confusion you think the imaginary reader may have about your statements; add clarifying details to your notes.

Read what you have written. Decide which elements you could include in the assigned composition, and then generalize from them to produce a “working” (provisional) thesis statement. Start a fresh list of related sub-topics, including ideas from the old scratch paper. You will feel much more prepared to actually begin drafting an essay.  If you feel “blocked” again, go back to the rough list of ideas for more inspiration. Encourage yourself by recalling that writing is a process of exploration, not a final destination.     

By Professor Penmanship.

How to Learn English from Sentence Structure

How to Learn English from Sentence Structure

By C. Angulo.

Practicing sentence structure is a study strategy that may solve the language performance issues, mostly found on students who want to learn English and whose native language is Spanish.The strategy consists of two steps. The first one is to choose from a news article or other written works one sentence that one would not usually produce. Then, one continues by identifying its parts of speech. For example, in the sentence taken from a textbook: “The main goal is to show what the purpose of the sentence is.” The grammatical formula is:

(Subject + Verb to be + Infinitive verb + Wh question particle + Noun of a subordinate clause + Preposition “of” + Object of the preposition + Verb to be).

This analysis helps the student to understand the elements that form a sentence. The second step is to internalize sentence structures by making new “meaningful sentences” (John Lyons, 1995).

It is important to use other words from other fields of study in different contexts. For instance, if the infinitive verb is changed, the intention varies and the sentence would be: “The main goal is to explain what the process of Osmosis is.” Similarly, if the student changes the “Wh” question particle and the last verb in the sentence, the situation varies. The sentence would be: “The main goal is to demonstrate how the speed of a car engine increases.” As demonstrated above, varying the object of the preposition changes the topic of these sentences.

Applying this study strategy for learning English will improve the student’s speaking and writing abilities, especially because the more familiar one is with the structure patterns in English, the more confident one will feel using them.

Of Midgets, Cigarettes and Lost Professions

Of Midgets, Cigarettes and Lost Professions

On a sidewalk somewhere in the Lower East Side, where brown abandoned buildings scratch empty grey skies and lettuce is sold at half price, a small crowd has gathered around a midget juggling knives. Or dwarf, or gnome, or little man, I don’t know what the politically correct term is anymore. The crowd is entertained as much by the danger of his feat as by the fact that he’s not quite as tall as they are. I stand behind them all, smoking a cigarette I rolled a few moments back.

The people come and go and I find myself coming closer and closer to the front as new red, puffy faces rubbing hands together to ward off the cold take their place behind me.I soon come to the realization that even this spectacle isn’t that new or special in this day and age, when every form of media imaginable is a few taps on a little screen away. What I realize is that they’re expecting him to mess up and cut himself. It’s no good though: the little man is a professional. Coins are dropped in the little black felt hat at his feet and the layers of the crowd are broken and reformed. I watch over all of this like a tiny God. I don’t have anything better to do.

It’s until the midget says thank you, grabs his hat and lies back against the cold red bricks of the apartment building behind his back that I realize I was waiting to talk to him.

“That was great,” I say, setting myself to his left. I take out another rolling paper and the bag of tobacco from my pocket.

“Thanks,” he says. His voice is gruff. It’s more or less the voice you’d expect from his beard, but it’s also a bigger voice than you’d expect, seeing as his body’s so small and all. I sprinkle what looks like pencil shavings on the transparent paper in my palm. This is what’s going into my lungs.

“I don’t have any money to give you,” I say as I struggle with keeping the wind from flinging the tobacco out of my skinny little fists.

“Good to know” he says.

“Do you smoke?”

“I used to.”

“There’s no nicotine in this, so it’s not addictive or anything. I’ll share my home-made cigarette with you as a token of my gratitude for the show, seeing as I have no cash.”

“I don’t smoke anymore.”

“Suit yourself then.”

I lick the paper and seal it with years of experience. I light it and breathe out fire.

I have a feeling that the little man wants me to leave. I have no real intention of moving, though. He just stands there with his hands in the pockets of his jacket, and I just stand here, smoking.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

“What does it matter to you?”

“You’re not very polite. One hundred percent New Yorker, aren’t you?”

“What do you want from me, anyways?”

“I’m not sure, really. I guess maybe I assumed you would be an interesting person to talk to or something. How exactly does someone of your stature get into the juggling business, anyhow?”

“You’re really getting on my nerves, buddy.”

“It’s not my intention” I say, “or at least originally it wasn’t. Fuck man, all I wanted to do was talk.”

Bored faces ignore us on their way to nowhere. Yellow taxis carrying strangers honk at empty, polluted air.

“What are you doing right now, anyways?” I ask.

“Waiting for new people.”

“Hey, I noticed that too. The people get bored really quick, don’t they?”

“Yes, they do.”

“So you wait for a whole new batch of customers to surprise with your magic. You make a living out of this?”

“I get by.”

“That’s fantastic.”

“I don’t make a fortune. If rent keeps going up, I’ll have to start juggling chainsaws.”

I laugh at that. I rub my naked hands together and stuff them inside the pockets of my jeans.

“I’m Jorgen, by the way” I say awkwardly with the cigarette between my lips.

“Greg.”

“You look and sound like a Greg, you know?”

“You mean Greg sounds like a dwarf name?”

“Dwarf’s the politically correct way to say it?”

“Yeah.”

“No, you just look like a Greg. It’s the beard and blunt facial features, I don’t know.”

The wind gusts and the cigarette slips out from between my lips. The little orange light of its flame is extinguished by a careless sneaker.

“Fuck” I mutter.

“Why don’t you just buy them ready in a box like everybody else?” asks Greg.

“I like the act of rolling and smoking. I can’t roll a joint on the street, so this is a safe alternative.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“I know it doesn’t.”

We’re both silent for a moment.  I’m considering rolling another one, when he breaks the silence and says, “I think I’m getting to get back to it.” He bends down and grabs the knives. I don’t really want to, but I unglue my back from the wall.

“I guess I’m going to go see if there’s a three breasted woman with a beard down a few blocks then. Nice meeting you Greg.”

“Sure” he mutters.

I carry on with the wind, my hands still in my pockets. Who knows where it’ll take me? Who cares? I don’t see, but feel him to start to throw the knives into the air. I’m not really sure if I want him to cut himself or not, to tell the honest truth. It’s a job I wouldn’t mind too much though, if I were him.