First Fridays

On Friday night, Dr. Chris Wills (center), her boyfriend, Mike, Dr. Tina Baceski (not pictured) and I went to First Fridays in the Crossroads Arts District of downtown KC. This is a celebration of local art during which the Crossroads galleries and studios stay open late on the first Friday of each month. We took our AJCU Honors Conference guests there on the First Friday of April to share this uniquely-KC event with them and they were quite impressed with and enamored of Kansas City culture. This past Friday also marked the first Food Truck Friday, and this picture was taken by a Kansas City Star Community Faces photographer next to the "3 Girls Cupcakes" food truck. It was a fun night and I would encourage anyone in town on June 3rd to head out to the Crossroads!

Upcoming week

Well, I just finished giving my first final of the semester (Evolution), and on Monday my Anatomy & Physiology students will take their last A&P I exam. Tomorrow, many of our faculty and staff (myself included) will be at the Kansas City Pre-Registration event, where we meet with our incoming freshmen students from the area and get them set up with everything they'll need for the fall semester. Last week we had a similar event in St. Louis, and I really appreciate having the opportunity to meet and talk with our freshmen before they even begin their tenure as college students.
After all the grading is finished next week, it will be time for graduation, followed almost immediately by our Biology Field Trip. This year, Dr. Chad Scholes and I and 12 students are off to Australia and Fiji! So we are all gearing up for our trip and trying to prepare ourselves for some biology abroad. We cannot wait, and I'm sure you'll be hearing much more about it upon our return!