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<h1>Ho June (Sean) Rhee ’21 Wins Ward Prize for First-Year Writing</h1>
<p class="gmail-news-date">October 15, 2018</p>
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<div class="gmail-field gmail-field-name-body gmail-field-type-text-with-summary gmail-field-label-hidden"><div class="gmail-field-items"><div class="gmail-field-item even"><p>MIDDLEBURY,
Vt. – A collection of four poems titled "rice burger and banana milk"
took the top spot at the 2018 Paul W. Ward ’25 Prize for excellence in
first-year writing. Writing Center Director and Senior Lecturer Mary
Ellen Bertolini presented the $500 prize to Ho June (Sean) Rhee ’21 at
an October 5 celebration in Twilight Auditorium during Family Weekend.</p><p>Rhee
wrote and illustrated the poems as a final project for his course, "The
English Language in a Global Context," which covered themes such as
linguistic variation, language and globalization, language policy, and
education. Students were asked to write for an audience beyond the
classroom—to make some of the abstract concepts accessible to a broader
audience.</p><p>“I didn’t want a 5–6 page, Times New Roman, 12-point
font, double-spaced research paper as my final project,” said Rhee.
“Rather than looking outward into the global issues of languages, I
wanted to look inward into my relationship with languages.”</p><p>Although
Rhee is originally from South Korea—English is his second language—he
says that he was “always floating among cultures growing up. I was an
in-betweener, and I saw myself as a fusion dish, a crossbreed of
cultures.”</p><p>Rhee says that winning the Ward Prize prompted him to
reflect on his years of English-learning experience and confront his own
lack of self-confidence and feelings that he was missing an authentic
voice in his writing.</p><p>“<a href="http://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/archive/2018-news/node/Ho%20June%20(Sean)%20Rhee" target="_blank">‘rice burger and banana milk’</a>
showed me the exit to step outside of the ivory tower and roam around
my inner thoughts and emotions,” said Rhee. “I didn’t feel the pressure
to use specific jargons and complex sentence structures to make my work
sound more ‘sophisticated.’ I simply transcribed what I felt into words
and lines. I was finally able to find my voice and share my thoughts.”</p><table style="width:256px" border="0" align="right"><tbody><tr><td><a class="gmail-thickbox gmail-noborder" href="http://www.middlebury.edu/system/files/media/sean_rhee_ward_prize.jpg?itok=AHLDXm3m"><img title="Paul W. Ward ’25 Memorial Prize winner Ho June (Sean) Rhee with advisor Shawna Shapiro, associate professor of writing and rhetoric. Photo by Rafael Cruz Hernandez ’19" class="gmail-thickbox" src="http://www.middlebury.edu/system/files/styles/small/private/media/sean_rhee_ward_prize.jpg?itok=AHLDXm3m" alt="" width="231" height="256"></a></td></tr><tr><td><div><div><div><p><em>Paul
W. Ward ’25 Memorial Prize winner Ho June (Sean) Rhee with advisor
Shawna Shapiro, associate professor of writing and rhetoric. Photo:
Rafael Cruz Hernandez ’19</em></p></div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p>“The
best pieces for this assignment, no matter what the genre, are those
that engage both the head and the heart,” said Shawna Shapiro, associate
professor of writing and rhetoric and linguistics. “What impresses me
most about Sean’s work is that he employs a rich linguistic
palette—including Korean, Tagalog, Spanish, and English, as well as
hand-drawn illustrations—to create an emotional landscape that is both
complex and relatable.”</p><p>This year’s Ward Prize winners and
honorees, all members of the Class of 2021, were nominated by their
instructors across a range of academic disciplines. A committee of three
faculty members, including Pat Zupan (Italian), Vicki Backus (biology),
and Kristina Sargent (economics) judged the submissions.</p><p>“We are
impressed this year that among the students honored today are those for
whom English is just one of many languages they speak,” said Bertolini.
“Moreover, we are impressed at the range of interests and styles that
all your writing represents: the judges read personal narratives,
critical arguments, creative work, and research papers from many
departments and across many divisions.”</p><p>Two students received
runner-up awards. Emma Norton was nominated by writing professor
Catharine Wright for her first-year seminar essay, “Ink: A Meditation on
My Mother and Toni Morrison’s <em>Sula</em>.” And Madeleine Stutt’s essay, “By the Water,” was nominated by senior lecturer David Bain.</p><p>Honorable
mention awards were given to three students. Kamli Faour’s essay,
“Assimilation Nation,” was nominated by Professor Hector Vila. Audrey
Kelly was nominated by Catharine Wright for her essay, “Nothing Is Ever
as Simple as Black and White.” And Lachlan Pinney’s “Definers, Defined,
and Escapees” was nominated by Professor Brett Millier.</p><p><em>This
Ward prize is named in honor of Paul W. Ward, a graduate of the Class of
1925, whose lifelong career as a journalist and diplomatic reporter
bought him both the Pulitzer Prize and the French Legion of Honor.
Throughout his career, he emphasized the use of basic English as a
writer's most necessary tool.</em></p><p><em>By Stephen Diehl; Photos by Raf Hernandez ’19</em></p></div></div></div>
<br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div></div>