Back row, from left: Martin A. Chavez; Kenneth W. McMullen; Jochen Burgtorf; Wendy Elliott-Scheinberg; Gordon M. Bakken. Front row, from left: Thomas Stein, Rachael Amaro, RuthAnn McGarry and Destiny Snyder.

Taking Top Honors Again

Welebaethan Wins National History Honor Society’s Prize for Best Student Journal 20 Years in a Row

January 24, 2007

By Mimi Ko Cruz

The Great Influenza of 1918 killed 675,000 Americans in 10 months. It was experienced worldwide, yet it has been dubbed America’s forgotten pandemic. Why?

Before he became king of England in the 13th century, Lord Edward crusaded to the Middle East. Why did he go?

What is American nationalism?

These questions are tackled in three of 15 essays compiled in the 2006 Welebaethan Journal of History, which recently won top honors for the 20th year in a row from the national history honor society, Phi Alpha Theta.

The Welebaethan was awarded the Gerald D. Nash Prize for being the best student history journal in the country.

Welebaethan “is a truly outstanding student history journal,” said James A. Ramage, chair of the Nash Award Selection Committee and Phi Alpha Theta’s national vice president. “I commend Cal State Fullerton’s Theta Pi Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta for winning the award so consistently, including the latest competition. The faculty advisers and the student editors and writers publish a journal that is extremely well illustrated and has research and writing with a very high level of scholarly merit and remarkable variety.  Welebaethan is a model student journal.”

The journal is “expertly edited and professionally presented by the students and the result of this high quality work is that we have consistently kicked UCLA and UC Berkeley butt,” said Gordon M. Bakken, professor of history and Welebaethan’s legal adviser.

Added Wendy Elliott-Scheinberg, lecturer in history and the journal’s adviser: “Dedicated students work long and hard to complete the necessary tasks that provide the real substance of the Welebaethan. Both grads and undergrads tackle assignments such as line and copy editing, finding graphics, writing captions and checking documentation.”

She said the prize money — $400 — that accompanies the award is being used to offset costs of this year’s edition of the journal.

The winning student editors of the 2006 Welebaethan: Kenneth W. McMullen, Thomas Stein, Susan Shoho Uyemura, Rachael Amaro, Scott M. Behen, Martin A. Chavez, Elliott Rhoades, Traci Swank, Jennifer Thornton, Eric Trimm, Catherine Bilanchone, Priscilla Lopez-Eschbach, RuthAnn McGarry, Mayra Orozco, Destiny Snyder, Derek Stephens, Luke Taylor and Christina Villagomez.

To see a copy of the publication, contact Elliott-Scheinberg at 278-3660 or welliott@fullerton.edu.