The newest favorite picture of my niece

That's exactly what it is... I'm sure there will be more!

Update

Since my last post, I have given the first installment of our Honors Professor-Scholar Lecture Series (so much fun! - the schedule for the remaining talks is below - just click on it for an easier-to-read version), served as a Judge for the Miller Speech contest, sold invasive Red Cedar Christmas trees for KCWildlands, and spent a week with my family and new niece! Isn't she adorable in her little bunny onesie?!
What a fast couple of weeks it's been. And now it's already finals week, so good luck to all of our students and happy holidays!
P.S. An interview that my AWESOME research student, Ryan, and I conducted is linked on the Rockhurst homepage, or you can just click here if you'd like to see it and the other faculty videos conducted by our students.

Tessa!

My first niece, Tessa, was born last Wednesday, November 3rd! She is absolutely beautiful and weighed 8lbs, 13oz and was 20" long. It is so weird to think of my brother as a dad, but everyone says he's doing a fantastic job. Tessa looks just like him, so all I see is him when I look at pictures of her. I haven't gotten to meet her yet but I can't wait to do so over the Thanksgiving break! I am just counting down the days...

NCHC

The National Collegiate Honors Council annual conference is in Kansas City this week, so I will be there most of today and tomorrow attending some informative sessions about Honors Programs at other universities. Several of our outstanding honors students are volunteering, and two of our Honors Student Executive Board officers are running the raffle and auction tomorrow evening. This is a very exciting conference and I'm thrilled that it is in KC this year so that more of our students have the opportunity to attend!

Tibet talk

On September 22nd I was granted the opportunity to share my experiences in Tibet with my colleagues as a part of our Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning's (CETL's) International Series. This is a fantastic program initiated and directed by Dr. Kathleen Madigan, and it allows RU faculty to experience other cultures through the eyes of our colleagues. The prior installment this semester was by Dr. Myles Gartland (Helzberg School of Management), who had spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Poland with his wife and children. His talk permitted us a glimpse into European academia and his wife, Lysa, even spoke about the day-to-day challenges of being an American family in Poland. These presentations allow us a level of multicultural exposure that is gleaned vicariously through other faculty and I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of this effort. [The picture shows a Tibetan lama at Mingdrolling Monastery placing a kahta (prayer shawl) over my head as a welcoming gesture.]

More Tibet Pictures

I recently established a Flickr account and was able to find some photos taken by my colleagues on our trip to Tibet in June. Because the photos are far better than the ones I took, I decided to post a few of them. The top picture shows a Buddhist lama outside of the Drak Yerpa meditation caves, and the lower photo shows two Tibetan women in traditional clothing, drinking yak-butter tea. Photo credit can be given to Marguerite Bennett.