Seniors Billi Mactighe, Jessica Thelen, and Brad Avery prepare for their roundtable discussion “The Poetics of the Tweet”
WESTFIELD – Seventeen students and two professors from Westfield State University traveled to Savannah, GA, to participate in the annual International Sigma Tau Delta Convention, held from February 26 through March 1. Of the 17 students that traveled to the convention, 14 students presented their best critical and creative work along with other top students from around the world. Three of the 17 students that traveled to Savannah led and participated in a roundtable discussion titled “The Poetics of the Tweet.”
Westfield State’s chapter embodies and showcases the excellence and mission of Westfield State’s English department as well as Sigma Tau Delta.
Westfield State’s English department aims to encourage critical thinking about scholarly and creative works, encourages students to share their work with fellow students and faculty, and to strengthen the bonds between students interested in the study of language, writing, and literature. Westfield State’s English department encourages students to apply the skills they have learned both in and outside the classroom in their future endeavors.
Westfield State University’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta at the Red & Black Gala,
The mission of Westfield State’s English department directly reflects that of Sigma Tau Delta.
Sigma Tau Delta aims to foster all aspects of the discipline of English, include language, literature, and critical as well as creative writing, promote exemplary character and good fellowship among its members, exhibit high standards of academic excellence, and to serve society by fostering literacy.
Professor Elizabeth Starr, faculty advisor for Sigma Tau Delta, stated, “Our students embody Sigma Tau Delta’s mission when they volunteer to read books to students in local schools, serve as active members of English department organizations like Westfield State’s literary journal Persona, and show their love of English studies at the annual convention by heartily (and successfully) competing in contests to come up with the wittiest literary t-shirt or to write the ‘best’ bad poem. Our students’ love of and advocacy for the study of the English language and its literature is clear and it is part of what I admire about them.”
Starr stated that the active and supportive faculty in Westfield State’s English department directly leads to the academic excellence of its students.
“Part of the reason we are able to create great classroom environments comes from the fact that Westfield State’s English majors support the work of faculty by asking intelligent questions, and bringing their good ideas, as well as their enthusiasm, to the classroom,” Starr continued.
Billi Mactighe, public relations officer for Westfield State’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta reiterated Starr’s praise of Westfield State’s English department. Mactighe said that she owes much of her success to Westfield State’s English department’s supportive and encouraging faculty, as well as the support of her peers.
“Sigma Tau Delta harbors a nurturing community that feels like a home away from home. Sigma is filled with peers who understand my love of English, and I feel that we all share the same nerdy sense of humor,” Mactighe stated.
Mactighe continued, “Moving forward, I will always remember the sense of community that Sigma and Westfield State’s English department cultivated. My goal is to become a creative writing professor, and I hope that I can create the same sense of comfort—a sense of group identity—among my future students.
For more information about Westfield State’s English department, visit www.westfield.ma.edu/prospective-students/academics/english/ , and for more information about Sigma Tau Delta at Westfield State, visit www.westfield.ma.edu/prospective-students/academics/english/honors-societies-for-majors . For more information on Sigma Tau Delta itself, visit www.english.org/sigmatd .
