Marketing and Communications

Pellissippi State Community College faculty member Denise Penzkofer will be honored by her alma mater for sports achievement on Oct. 16.

Penzkofer, an associate professor who has taught at Pellissippi State since 1999, earned her undergraduate in physical education from Maryville College. She played multiple sports during her studies there, including volleyball, basketball and softball. Her induction onto the school’s Wall of Fame recognizes her contribution to “the tradition of MC Athletics.”

Penzkofer coordinates the College Success 1500 course and teaches physical education at Pellissippi State. She has a master’s degree in exercise physiology from the University of Tennessee.

While at Maryville, she was the recipient of numerous sports-related honors: the J.D. Davis Award for outstanding student-athlete, selection twice to All-WIAC (Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) in volleyball, two-year designation as All-Conference in basketball and all-league recognition for two of her three seasons in softball.

Although Penzkofer has been acknowledged for accomplishments in more than one sport, it’s volleyball that has brought her respect on the national level. She is one of only two referees in Tennessee certified by the Professional Association of Volleyball Officials as a national volleyball official. That means she is approved to travel anywhere in the U.S. to Division I, II and III women’s volleyball games to serve as a referee.

Penzkofer officiates primarily at Division I matches, at schools in the Southeastern, Southern and Atlantic Sun conferences. In December 2008, she worked her first national championship match. Penzkofer was the second referee in the final game of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship. The event took place in Sioux City, Iowa—not a short trip for a full-time college professor who referees primarily on the weekends.

Penzkofer is excited at the prospect of being recognized once again for her accomplishments: “[Being inducted] is an honor, one of the largest I’ve been a part of. Any athlete at MC is aware of the significance of the individuals on the wall—I always looked to see who was there.”

The ceremony honoring Penzkofer and other inductees is at 10 a.m. in Maryville College’s Alumni Gymnasium. To arrange an interview with Penzkofer, contact Pellissippi State’s Marketing and Communications director, Julia Wood, at (865) 694-6530.

When you think of English professors, what comes to mind: tweed jackets and wire-rimmed glasses?

As Pellissippi State Community College’s writer-in-residence, Ed Francisco is the epitome of the mild-mannered, bookish professor. But he has another persona that’s quite contradictory—or so it appears at first glance.

On the one hand, Francisco writes poetry. On the other, he talks of gouging, ripping, tearing, striking and kneeing the opponent in bando-style karate.

He’s presented his research on language at the Oxford Round Table in England, yet he wields a double-headed axe in kung fu demonstrations.

Francisco is a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of several novels and books of poetry. He is also a martial arts expert, an instructor in the isshinryu and bando styles of karate, as well as in the tiger, eagle and snow leopard styles of kung fu.

How does he integrate the duality, the yin and yang, of a life so physical, yet so philosophical? The answer begins to unfold within Britain’s online martial arts magazine Jissen. The English professor graces the cover of this quarter’s issue, and a lengthy interview follows.

“I see teaching, writing and the martial arts as a form of ‘active meditation,’” when the mind and body are working in concert, Francisco said. In fact, he says, he takes a martial arts approach in teaching creative writing and composition.

“If you stop and think about it, kung fu acts like a grammar of movement. Just as I’m interested in the written language and its grammar, I’m interested in martial arts as a medium of movement.

“I tell my students that their pens are like bokken [wooden swords used in training]: they slash away verbiage and half-truths.”

Although kung fu makes use of weapons—the logging chain, samurai sword, kukri (a curved knife) and double-headed axe—he says such weapons are used only for demonstrations.

“Most practitioners try to get to a place where they harness the internal power of the art,” he said. “You’re harnessing a power called chi that yokes mind and body together.”

In the Jissen interview, he explains: “I’ve worked hard to cultivate the warrior spirit in everything I do. Warriors, I believe, fight to preserve authentic human possibilities…. Each day I try to deepen my devotion to enduring ideas: faith, hope, charity, fortitude, patience, and magnanimity, or generosity of spirit. It’s a lifetime’s work for which martial arts have helped prepare me.”

To read more about Francisco’s views on the martial arts and self-defense and his life as a poet-warrior, go to www.jissenmag.com and read the June 2009 interview.