At its 2001 fall conference in Lee's Summit, Missouri, MIDTESOL honored Rosa Brefeld Schuette, who the Acting Director of the English as a Second Language Program at Washington University, and Phyllis Jacobson Mithen, director of the English as a Second Language Program at St. Louis University, with its Pat-on-the-Back Award. This award honors those individuals who have given exceptional service to MIDTESOL and our profession. Both honorees have been MIDTESOL Presidents and served on the conference planning team for the 2001 TESOL Convention in St. Louis this past February. Brefeld was one of the convention's local co-chairs, and Mithen led the Hospitality Team.

The writer of the letter nominating Brefeld described her as someone who "is able to take the initiative" not only in seeking and developing materials and curricula for her students but also in her own professional development and in leading others within our profession.

In the letter nominating her, Mithen was described as someone who "has given tirelessly to [our] profession" and who is "a font of knowledge and a rock of dependability."

Olga Silina, a graduate student at the University of Northern Iowa, was selected by the MIDTESOL Awards Committee to receive a Travel Award to the Fall MIDTESOL Conference. At the conference, Silina and Phil Plourde presented a demonstration entitled "Strategies for Teaching Content-Based Courses for English Language Learners." Silina's summary of this presentation appears in this newsletter.