About Us

Welcome to our Web site:  We are Ohio University's Spring Quarter 2001 English 152 class, and Patrick Madden was our instructor.  The theme of the course was "reading and writing about others."  The idea was to gain a better understanding of the Third World and a greater appreciation of the privileges we enjoy as Americans.  We discussed An Uncertain Grace, a book of photographs taken by Sabastião Salgado.  The photos depicted the devastating poverty in Latin America, East Asia, and Africa: places we all knew little of, besides what we had learned in history class and on television.  Through Salgado's lens, we glimpsed the dignity amongst the despair; some of the pictures were beautiful, others were brutal, but all were breathtaking and thought-provoking.  The topics of our class discussions ranged from tourism to atheism, from the global economy to fast food restaurants.  We took those images and made them our own, a difficult but essential process.  Our work was not confined to one or two themes, however; we wrote analyses of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, letters to our Congressmen, and causal arguments about our class discussion topics.  In biweekly journals, we reacted to the things we read, heard, and saw in class, and how they reached into our everyday lives.  With the help of our other text, Everything's an Argument, we learned to recognize the many forms of argument and to formulate organized ones ourselves.  We also created this site, in order that our work would have an audience beyond ourselves.  After all, there is little use of writing if our words never reach their intended reader.  Therefore, we hope you enjoy the project we spent ten weeks crafting.                   

Who We Are:

Take a closer look at the individuals who contributed to the "sight of grace."

Jaime Beggrow (jb140800@ohiou.edu / Brazil 1983) is from New Albany, Ohio, but she attended high school in Gahanna.  Her sister, Stacey, is also a Pi Beta Phi at Ohio University.  Her Chinese pug named Otis may be the cutest thing in the world.  Jaime wants to work somewhere in the health field, but is currently undecided.

Ashley Freeman (mf161700@ohiou.edu / Brazil 1983) is from Dublin, Ohio.  She plays soccer and is a member of Delta Gamma sorority.

Amy Gallagher (daisyg1536@aol.com / Mali 1985) is from North Royalton, Ohio, but was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  She is an early education major and wants to teach kindergarten or third grade.  Her favorite sport is tennis; she hopes to coach a high school tennis team.  She loves her two dogs, the band Lifehouse, and the movie A Bug's Life.  Every summer she goes to Minnesota.

Sara Guarnieri (SaraLizziG@yahoo.com / Mali 1985) is a theater major, and she wants to move to Hollywood to become an actress.  She loves to sing and dance and has been doing it "forever"; she also loves her dog Missy.  She lives in Mentor, Ohio, but is originally from New York.

Rachel Hitti (rh202800@ohiou.edu / Mali 1985) hails from Cleveland, Ohio, but lived in London, England, for three years when she was very young.  The time she spent in Europe sparked her desire to travel.  She is a visual communications major interested in photography, and she also likes to read; her favorite book is George Orwell's 1984.  In high school, she played volleyball and swam; these days she wants to learn to play the piano. 

Anne Hockman (Annecheers@aol.com / Ethiopia 1984)is from West Chester, Ohio. She is undecided in her major but hopes to get into the College of Business. She loves music and her three cats back home. She is a sister in the Omega Upsilon chapter of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority at OU. She loves to travel and hang out with her friends. 

Emily Lovsey (el138500@ohio.edu / Ethiopia 1984) is from Columbus, Ohio.  She is a theatre performance major at Ohio University, which means that she is an aspiring waitress.  She is a Taurus, and besides acting, her other loves are tap dancing, singing, and ancient Rome. Her favorite painter is Claude Monet (her favorite painting of his being Water Lilies and Bridge from his years at Giverny).  She hopes to one day travel to Italy and France to visit the ancient ruins and eat Pain au Chocolat.

Katie Luff (Katie641@yahoo.com / Korem 1984) is from a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has lived there with her older sister and her parents since she was born.  She is currently following in her father's footsteps and attending Ohio University, and she is majoring in telecommunications.  Her favorite movies include Robin Hood: Men in Tights, the Princess Bride, and Armageddon.

Patrick Madden (pcmadden3@hotmail.com / instructor) grew up in Whippany, New Jersey, the oldest son in a family of four kids, and he is now married with two children of his own. He dislikes mosquitoes, humidity, Jane Austin books, AC\DC, Survivor-rip-off shows like Temptation Island, and when his kids throw up on him.

 

Lindsey McKay (Libertysun04@yahoo.com / Brazil 1980) is from Westerville, Ohio.  Despite a lack of talent, she loves to sing and dance; she also loves to read or write anything she can.  In the future, she plans to be a journalist, and she doesn't seem to mind that writers are usually poor.  Her motto is: "I'd rather regret something I did than something I didn't do." She adores the bands Guster and Via Sahara.      

Leslie McKenzie (lm127600@ohio.edu / Brazil 1983) is from Morrow, a little town north of Cincinnati.  Anyone who knows her knows that she loves dolphins, Twizzlers, swimming, and running.  She has a tattoo of a dolphin on her back; it has a shamrock in its mouth, a tribute to her Irish background.  In fact, she was born on St. Patrick's Day.  She is also a member of Delta Zeta sorority.

Allison Montgomery (monty6645@yahoo.com / Brazil 1983) is from Gahanna, Ohio.  A secondary integrated language arts major, she likes to watch movies and spend time with friends.  She is a member of Delta Zeta and does many activities with her sisters.

Rob Peper (rp185800@ohiou.edu / Korem 1984) is a poet, bungee jumper, marksman, scuba diver, concert goer, saber fencer, swimmer, musician, and traveler.  He also describes himself as a gamer, audiophile, artist, and debater. 

Dave Post (davepost@usa.net / Korem 1984) was born in Lancaster, Ohio, but grew up in Athens.  He is interested in communications systems management and has no free time whatsoever.  He likes motorcycles and owns one.

Danielle Russell (dsr327@hotmail.com / Korem 1984) was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio.  She enjoys babysitting children and playing with animals; in her free time, she likes to read and hang out with friends.

Heather Williams (hw206600@ohio.edu / Ethiopia 1984) is from Lakeview, Ohio, and she is a biology major considering a career in medicine. She enjoys skiing, swimming, hiking, reading, and playing guitar. The Beatles, Radiohead, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and Pink Floyd are her favorite bands; she describes herself as "really into music."