Stephanie's+Page

Hi Folks! I am so excited about this Wiki Mike has started for us. Everything for Great Bear 2011 will be up here all the time for everyone to check on and load stuff onto. It'll be like the giant brain of the Summer Institute with everyone else's brains piled in.

I'm also excited to work with everyone this summer. What an awesome group! It's gonna be great.

I will add some pictures at some point but I don't know how yet and ‍I'm hoping Mike will show us the first week. ‍

See ya soon!

Name Story

 Stephanie was a name my mother always liked. She also liked Gabrielle. I’m glad she chose Stephanie. I like it fine; it’s pretty. I never disliked my first name, though I did dislike my maiden name, Muller, which seemed ugly to me and which people could never pronounce correctly. I always said I would keep my name UNLESS the name I married into was better. Well, I like Stephanie Vanderslice better, much better, even though it’s incredibly long to sign and mail order machines leave off the last e. Heck, even I leave off the last e if I’m tired. Sometimes people call me Steph, which is really fine because Stephanie is a mouthful. My grandmother called me “Stephie,” and she was the only person in the world who called me that. She died last fall and I miss her calling me that but honestly, I wouldn’t want anyone else to. The was she said it sounded very lovely, lilting and sweet, so she was allowed. There are no stories or family history with how I got my name and that actually makes me kind of sad. So I made sure that there are stories to both my kids names. If you ask my husband, Jackson is named after Jackson Pollack and Jackson Brown but I will tell you he’s named after my grandfather, who everyone knew as Jack and who died two years before Jackson was born. I told him that too, before he died, that if we had a son we would name him Jack. I fully expected Jackson to take Jack as a moniker in due time but unfortunately, at the age of around two, when we tried it, he informed us he was Jackson, not Jack and that was how it would always be. Wilson, or Will, is named after The Wilsons, a very beloved couple, both professors, we had in graduate school in Louisiana, Jim and Mary Ann Wilson. They were fantastic teachers and scholars and they were extremely kind to us and mentored us. They were also a great example of married professor life. Unfortunatelyly, Jim died young of a very aggressive cancer in our last year of graduate school but Mary Ann is still alive and well and teaching. When we got pregnant the second time we knew if we had a boy, we wanted to name him Wilson in their honor. And Will is very proud that his name has this special meaning. So all you future parents out there, let me tell you, naming your child after someone is very powerful and I highly encourage it.

Hey Steph, great first day writing prompt!