Blank Summer Institute (BSI) - June 29-July 11

Instructors

Outstanding faculty and staff from The University of Iowa and Iowa schools have been selected to teach at the Institute. Residence hall staff include graduate students and professionals with training in working with gifted students.

Sonya Naumann is currently attending graduate school at the University of Iowa to pursue her M.F.A. in Photography with a minor in Intermedia. She is the 2007-08 Jane and Wilhelm Bodine Fellow at the School of Art and Art History. She teaches Digital Imaging and supervises student teachers at the University of Iowa. She taught for three years at West High School and covered classes including photography, video, drawing, and multi-media. Her work has been published in the pages of Bust Magazine and The American Scholar Journal.

In the mid-90s, Mike Marcketti began teaching mathematics in a summer program offered by the Belin-Blank Center. Mike says that, "combined with experiences as a classroom teacher and math team coach, teaching in the summer program unleashed a fascination with interesting problems that cause us (both teachers and students) to really think about how we arrive at solutions…if we even can." Ever since, Mike has been determined to help as many students as possible uncover the wonders of problem solving from unraveling the mystery of "how to get there, to the rush of accomplishment when finishing, to the curiosity of but, what if…." Mike has taught at West High School in Iowa City, The Episcopal School of Baton Rouge, and he now teaches at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines. Since 2002, he has also been a Challenge Saturdays Challenge Math teacher for the Belin-Blank Center. Also, he has been a coach of Iowa and Louisiana state teams in national math competitions.

Mike Gunn received his Master of Arts in Teaching Degree in Science Education from The University of Iowa. He is a teacher of Environmental Science, Physics, and AP Biology at West Liberty High School in the West Liberty Community School District. He also teaches the science class for the Belin-Blank Center’s Blank Summer Institute summer program. Mike is the field representative at West Liberty High School for Upward Bound, a college readiness program affiliated with the University of Iowa. Formerly, Mike was the Vice President and General Manager for Riverside Plastics in Bonaparte, Iowa.

Hailing from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Colleen Davis moved to Iowa City to attend the University of Iowa, where she received her Bachelor’s Degree and Master of Arts in Teaching in English Education. In her ten 11 years of teaching, she has taught in various places, including Lone Tree, Northwest Junior High and Iowa City High School, where she currently teaches English 9 and Literature of the United States Honors. She also shares her teaching talent with the University of Iowa. She has worked with student teachers in a supervisory and educational role, and she is currently a guest lecturer for the College of Education teaching Reading and Teaching Adolescent Literature. Her tenure at the Belin-Blank Center has included teaching Creative Writing in BSI and two courses in NSA, Psychological Criticism and the Catcher in the Rye, and Reel Reading: An Introduction to Film Analysis. In addition to teaching, she loves spending time with her husband and daughter playing, running, bike-riding, and enjoying the wonders of nature. Of course, she loves to read, and she says she’ll rarely forego a movie.

Tyson Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s degree in social studies education, both from the University of Iowa. He has taught courses in Public Speaking, Debate, US Government, Current Issues, World History, and AP European History, and AP Economics at Valley High School in West Des Moines and/or at West High School in Iowa City over the past 10 years. He has coached and coordinated many speech, debate, and mock trial contests in Iowa over the past decade. He and his family live in North Liberty with their two black labs. In his spare time, Tyson plays ultimate Frisbee, bikes, reads, and works on their older home. This is his fourth summer with the Blank Summer Institute.

Kate Aspengren has an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Her work has been published by Samuel French, Inc. and is regularly produced throughout the US and Canada. Kate has taught playwriting at The University of Iowa, Grinnell College, Coe College, Cornell College, and for several Belin Blank Center programs, including BSI, JSA, NSA, IGI, and WINGS. She has an annual playwriting residency at Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware and teaches playwriting each summer in the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. She is part of the creative team for "Rockytown," a weekly feature in the Iowa City Press-Citizen and is co-director of UI theatre department's annual ten-minute play festival.

Don Brauhn received his bachelor’s degree in physics, chemistry, and mathematics from the University of Dubuque and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from The University of Wisconsin-Platteville. He has taught mathematics and science for 30 years and currently teaches physical science at George Washington Middle School in Dubuque, Iowa. This will be his 10th summer teaching "Invention and Innovation" for the Blank Summer Institute. He has also taught "Fun Physics" for three summers in the Belin-Blank JSA program along with "Supermarket Chemistry," "Kitchen Physics," and "Invention Made Easy" for the Saturday WINGS program. He enjoys golfing, camping, video games, lateral thinking puzzles and spending time with his family and dog.

Alfrieta Monagan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, IA, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Iowa. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in anthropology from Princeton University. Her A.B. is from George Washington University where she majored in sociology. She has lived in India with the Experiment in International Living, lived in the West Indies and Canada for extended periods of time, and taught for a year in Germany on a Fulbright Lectureship. She has also traveled to the Middle East, Mexico, and Scandinavia, and around Eastern and Western Europe. She regularly takes students to the West Indies for off-campus study. Her areas of interests include family, rituals, symbolism, religion, women’s roles, research methods, West Indian and African-American cultures, and applied anthropology. She has taught NSA and JSA courses at the Belin-Blank Center for eight years.