Fast Food Nation

Last night, Dr. Evans, Caitlin M. (a senior Biology major) and I attended the Diversity Access & Equity Social Justice Book and Lecture series at UMKC.  The speaker was Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation - you should absolutely read it or see the movie if you have a chance - and co-producer of Food, Inc. (I strongly recommend this one, too).  In his talk last night he discussed the fast food industry and drew numerous parallels between its motives and operations and those of the tobacco industry.  This was an interesting and provocative analogy and led audience members to ask some rather deep questions.  It was an enjoyable and informative evening and we hope to attend another of these talks in the future.

Phoenix

This weekend, two of our best and brightest honors students accompanied me to the National Collegiate Honors Council annual conference in Phoenix. They are pictured here in front of a giant praying mantis sculpture after a 40-minute night hike to the Botanical Gardens, and seated in the conference room prior to their presentation. They presented a great talk about our Living-Learning Community (Honors Student Housing), and we were able to glean lots of good ideas from other presentations. We are meeting tomorrow to debrief and generate a plan to implement some of these new ideas into our own program. We will then present what we've learned with our Honors Student Association Executive Board and the Honors Advisory Committee. We felt invigorated and inspired upon our return, so now we want to share that with our peers and colleagues.

Conference

I have been at the National Collegiate Honors Council conference in Phoenix but I promise to post again soon!

Fall Break

This Wednesday marks the beginning of our Fall Break, during which time our students have a chance to relax and/or catch up on work after mid-terms. I will head down to Texas for a few days to visit my niece (pictured) who is about to turn one-year-old already! I can't wait to see her and my family and do a little relaxing/catching up myself.

Diversity Events at Rockhurst

As a member of the Rockhurst University Diversity Committee, I wanted to take this opportunity to direct you to the Rockhurst Diversity website and the following list of student-sponsored diversity events happening on campus this semester.

Please join us at any and all of the events you are able to attend!

This past Saturday was National Public Lands Day, so several of us volunteers (including some Rockhurst students) met at Hidden Valley Natural Area for a day of "sweat, beauty and a really great workout in this stunning forest!" (quote from the KCWildlands website). We had lots of volunteers so we thought it best to divide and conquer. One group built log stairs along part of the public trail, another built stream debris dams and moved a boardwalk so that visitors can now access the forest without injuring it, and our group worked to get rid of invasive shrub honeysuckle plants. These exotic plants were originally brought in as ornamentals but have since taken over the wild areas in much of the midwest. Kansas City Wildlands works to rid wild areas of this invasive and destructive species in order to let our natural biodiversity flourish. It was a fun and productive day.

Teach for America event

On Tuesday night, two guest speakers from Teach for America addressed a group of (67!)

Rockhurst Honors students in the basement of Corcoran Hall. They described their experiences with the program, which truly hit home since the main speaker (pictured) grew up in Lee's Summit, MO, and did his Teach for America teaching at East High School in the KCMO Public School District. This organization works to eliminate the educational inequities (the "achievement gap") in the US by finding strong and passionate leaders to serve for two years in a school with underprivileged and disadvantaged students. The relationship between Rockhurst (with its mission of learning, leadership and service) and Teach for America seems like a natural one, though this is the first year the organization has recruited at Rockhurst. I already know of two students who have interviews with the program; and after Tuesday night, I hope to see more.