Bourelle
Bourelle originally graduated from Ohio University in 1997. After working as a journalist for six years, Bourelle decided to go back to school. After completing a master's in writing composition and rhetoric at UNR, Bourelle enjoyed it so much, he decided to embark on a Phd program. Bourelle teaches composition classes at UNR and his dissertation focuses on using creative non-fiction in first year composition classes.
What did you do to win the scholarship?
Each year they put up a flier asking people to apply. I've gotten my Master's. I'm now a PhD candidate. I've done applications every year and I've never gotten it. I was runner-up before. People can submit three entries of fiction, poetry or non-fiction. I submitted three fiction stories. In the past, I had entered one or two, but I thought, "Well, I'm just going to give them three and hope for the best."
Tell me about the stories you submitted.
I'd written them in the past while I was at UNR. The scholarship comes up every year and every year I look at my creative work and think "What can I submit this year?" I don't really know what the winning formula was. The first story is "Black Rock Desert." It's about some 20-somethings going out to the desert to go camping and have a good time. One is "Max" about this guy who develops super powers and doesn't use them for good, but for his own self interest. And the other one was called "Night Walker and Kicking Bird" and it was about two Native American young men growing up in Nevada. I wrote all of them here either for classes I've taken or independent studies.
How did you react when you found out you won?
I was really excited because I tried so hard and never succeeded, so I know it's really competitive. I was actually backpacking for two weeks and didn't have cell phone service, so when I got my voicemail from Lorena (Stookey), it was a nice surprise. I want to emphasize that I was really pleased to win it. I'd gotten scholarships at UNR before, but I do see it as a big honor. I'm really proud to have won it. I know that might seem a little cheesy, but it was that big one that I'd always tried and never gotten.
How has this changed things for you?
It will make my life easier. The one thing it does is make it so I don't have to take on additional work, I can focus on my studies, focus on my dissertation.
Obviously, you think writing is important since it is your dissertation, but why?
Writing is an integral to learning. A part of what I've studied here is writing across the curriculum, what that is is studying how people learn writing in disciplines outside English. Writing is closely linked to thinking. In business, you have to learn to write like a business major, business memos, things like that. In biology, you have to learn lab write-ups. It shows your true understanding of a subject if you can write about it, rather than guess at four possible answers.