Rhonda Wrzenski, assistant professor of political science, is new to IU Southeast. She became an IUS faculty member in the fall. Wrzenski is formerly from Wolbach, Neb.

“Wolbach has a population of about 300 people,” Wrzenski said. “It is a close-knit community that really supports the educational process, as well as the extra-curricular activities.”

Wrzenski has one sister, Arlene, who is 5 years older. Arlene chose to stay home in Nebraska to manage the family farm.

Before coming to IU Southeast, Wrzenski received her doctorate at Louisiana State University. Wrzenski’s undergraduate work was completed at Hastings College in Hastings, Neb.

“It’s a private, four-year, liberal arts institution,” Wrzenski said.

On an academic level, Wrzenski currently has four different scholarly articles in the process of being revised for acceptance at “Legislative Studies Quarterly,” “Political Research Quarterly” and “American Politics Research.”

Wrzenski said she ended up at IU Southeast because she wanted to be part of an institution where she could work with great people who cared about students and about scholarly productivity.

“The office with windows was a nice bonus,” Wrzenski said. “This is my first tenure-track position job, but I was an adjunct instructor for several semesters at Baker University while I was finishing up my dissertation.”

In her free time, Wrzenski said she loves to watch movies and listen to music.

“I enjoy reading and I like to bake, especially around the holidays,” Wrzenski said.

She also said she loves to travel to new places and take pictures of everything that she sees along the way.

She said she also likes to catch up on TV shows on her digital video recorder and stay updated on major news stories in order to bring it into the classroom for lecture and topics of discussion.

What many people may not know about Wrzenski is that her mother passed away when she was only 13 years old.

“I think that fundamentally impacted my life in a variety of ways,” Wrzenski said. “I had to grow up a lot, and I went through my teen years with a real sense of my own mortality and how precious life is.”

Wrzenski said her father died this past summer, which really caused her to focus on the value of life.

“My parents were hard-working people who wanted me to do great things with my life, and they are always in my mind,” Wrzenski said.

Wrzenski is currently married and will celebrate her third anniversary.

“My husband is an associate professor of political science at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Fla.,” Wrzenski said.

By HANNAH COMBS

Staff

hacombs@umail.iu.edu