Sam and Macklemore - an amazing story

On Thursday, the Student Association presented the College's Spring Concert - so many people worked hard to bring this concert here - the E-Board and especially Eric Jaukkuri and Caitlin-Shea Vantine who were co-secretaries of programming looked at several options and they chose Macklemore to perform.  I saw him on Saturday Night Live and the Conin O'Brien show and while I can't understand most of ANY rappers' lyrics, I did read up on him and found him to be a great choice for SMC - he had performed at Higher Ground in So. Burlington and it was an immediate sellout so I knew he would be popular here.  He has such a strong tolerance, acceptance of others and anti-drug message that his sometimes "rich" language doesn't really bother me.  We sold 2,000 tickets on campus and an additional 1,000 off campus so our goal of a sellout was reached. 
What I didn't know, is what an amazing human being he is.  One of my students, Justin Salls, who is in my Sports Psychology course asked if he could speak with me outside of the classroom on Thursday afternoon right before class.  This is unusual because most students just speak with me IN class - Justin is a great student and has added a lot to my class so I, of course agreed.  When we stepped outside he told me that his roommate and best friend had just been diagnosed with leukemia THIS WEEK and since he is now in the hospital BUT had really, really wanted to go to the concert Thursday night some of his friends had tried to arrange for Macklemore to go to the hospital to see Sam.  Justin told me that IF that was possible he was supposed to be there when this happened - he asked if it was alright with me IF he got the text message during class and had to leave - NOW, YOU have to realize that this IS the type of student we have here at SMC.  I so appreciated the respect he showed to me and the class by asking permission - AND, of course I "gave him permission."  He didn't get the text message during class BUT later on he sent me the picture from above of his friend Sam and Macklemore at the hospital.  The concert was amazing and while again, I couldn't understand many of his lyrics, he did ask for a moment of silence for folks to send good vibes to SAM.  http://www.hiphopdx.com/m/index.php?s=news&id=23719 the backstory of why Macklemore visited Sam is in the attached article.

These types of stories continue to give me hope for our world AND for our young people.  Thank you Eric and Caitlin, Grace Kelly(Director of Student Activities)  and Mark Litchfield Director of Special Events) , and all of our community for the great work you do. 

Today is our annual Spring Fling named P-Day - Sam's friends have asked folks to write SAM STRONG on their T-shirts to send a great message to Sam as he battles with this difficult diagnosis.  I have asked Justin to make sure that Sam knows how much support he has and that I send him MY thoughts and prayers too.  SAM STRONG.................

We finish the academic year on Wednesday so please hope for snow and cold winds through finals - just joking, although I often comment at this time of year that as the temperatures rise, the grade point averages fall :(  

Take care, be well and in addition to keeping Sam in YOUR thoughts and prayers, as I always do, I ask for your thoughts and prayers for all of the members of our military and our veterans.

Dave

Honors Research Presentations

Yesterday afternoon the Psychology Department hosted our annual Honors Research Presentations.  Three of our senior psychology majors presented the research they have been working on for the past year.  Professor Ari Kirshenbaum is shown next to Michael Fay whose study is entitled "Acetylcholine, Nicotine and Depression:  What Rats Can Teach Us About Resolving Tobacco Withdrawal" - Megan Olsen and Natalie Zimmer both worked with Professor Melissa VanderKaay Tomasulo on their research - Megan's is entitled "Cigarette Use and Stress- Induced Cardiovascular Reactivity:" The Influence of Environmental Enrichment in Early Childhood" and Natalie's title is "Coping Styles and Stress- Induced Cardiovascular Reactivity Among Habitual, Intermittent, and Non-Smokers" - it is always so rewarding to watch these honors presentations and everyone there was impressed with the research our students had done.  We also inducted 17 new members into Psi Chi which is the International Honor Society of Psychology - congratulations to all of the new  - Inductees.  Today is the College-wide Symposium and many of our senior psychology majors presented their posters which depict either their senior research, or their Practicum Site Presentations.  With over 250 accepted students AND their parents on campus today PLUS so many people who wanted to see the results of student work this place is packed with energy and enthusiasm.  I am heading over to the lacrosse game in a few minutes to watch our men's lax team as they hopefully continue their amazing streak of wins - GO PURPLE KNIGHTS.

 

Classes are almost over with for this academic year and hopefully everyone will successfully complete their final projects/reports/assignments - Please take good care everyone and, as always, please keep all of the members of our military, our veterans and their families in your thoughts and prayers AND today, please also keep those hurt or wounded in the Boston Marathon tragedy AND those killed in your thoughts and prayers AND our gratitude to all of the police, firefighters, first responders and those who worked so hard to keep everyone safe during the past several days in Boston cannot be expressed enough - it has been a frightening several days BUT as anyone who knows anything about Boston well knows - BOSTON STRONG is NOT just a catch-phrase......

Dave

Two weeks are already over with

It always amazes me how quickly second semester goes.  We have just finished our second week of classes and mine are excellent.  Here are a couple of shots from my Men & Masculinities class which meets Mondays from 5 - 8 - all seniors, I have 13 men and 13 women.  This class and essays that my students have written over the years in response to my challenge to them to write "How My Father Influenced My View Of What A Man Is" are the subject of a new book which is at my publishers right now.  It will hopefully be out by Father's Day and is titled:  "I Wish He's Taught Me How To Shave."

I was in Grapevine, Texas most of our first week of classes, attending the NCAA National Convention.  As the College's Faculty Athletics Representative, I serve as the liaison between the academic side of SMC and the athletic side.  This is a very rewarding job and it is fun to see how well OUR students do both academically and athletically.  I always, along with Geri Knortz, our Athletic Director, get to represent SMC at this Convention and I always learn so much.

On Friday I was part of a panel of SMC faculty who spoke with a17 high school guidance counselors.  Each year this group travels to Vermont and visits Champlain College, The University of Vermont and Saint Michael's College.  After the panel I was on where four of us spoke of our interactions with our students and how our research/teaching works so well BECAUSE of our students, I joined others at a dinner with this group and it was very rewarding to hear folks from New York, Michigan, So. Carolina and even as far away as Colorado express how impressed they are with SMC.

Take care, be well, and as always, PLEASE keep all of the members of our military and their families and all of our veterans in your thoughts and prayers.  My M&M class is looking at how WAR influences our views of masculinity and we are reading both WAR by Sebastian Junger and The Lonely Soldier by Helen Benedict - we cannot forget that there is still a war going on in Afghanistan.

Thoughts on CT

I am in the office this morning because I wanted to send a message to some of my students.  My Practicum class has 15 seniors who are out in the community working 8 - 10 hours a week at a variety of sites.  They are an amazing group of young people and as you will see from my email to them this morning, I just wanted to share some thoughts with them about the tragic events in Newtown, CT yesterday:

Good morning everyone - no, I am not in the office this Saturday morning checking on your Journal entries -

I have however been thinking a lot about all of you since the tragic news from Newtown, CT has filled our lives. I seldom wish that the semester goes beyond our ending time but found myself wishing that we were still in session yesterday so that we could all gather and talk about the events that unfolded yesterday and to LISTEN to each other as we all struggle to make sense of the senseless. I posted something on Facebook last night that I have, unfortunately posted too many times over the past couple of years and that was that it IS ALRIGHT to NOT follow every minute detail of such a horrendous human tragedy - it is so easy to become so caught up in the emotions of the event that we are literally unable to function. Those of us who have chosen this profession dedicate our lives to helping others so find it incomprehensible that anyone would choose to hurt and/or destroy others - WE try to make sense out of something that makes NO SENSE now and will, most likely, never make any sense. We all want an answer to the question WHY yet know at some level that that too has an inadequate response.

Watching the President of the United States tearing up during his statement to the nation yesterday is unprecedented - I have never seen something like that in all of my years yet he spoke for all of us when he said that we have broken hearts. He spoke, not only as our President, but as a father - WE don't have to be fathers (nor Presidents) to have similar emotions. Those of you who work in schools or who work with young people, especially will be impacted beyond what your peers are - WE all ask "what would we do?" if we were ever confronted by similar situations in a classroom or our school. Ever since Virginia Tech, I have had a "plan" for protecting YOU should anything like that happen here on our campus in our classroom. Reports are that the principal, a teacher and the school psychologist were among those killed. At a time when "some" have chosen to denigrate teaching and "some" have chosen to speak negatively of the impact that teachers today have and at a time when "some" want to cut down the number of teachers in our schools, to cut back on mental health services for young people and who want to cut funding for education across the country, these people in Newtown, CT only wanted to protect their students.

Please take good care of yourselves, talk with your family and friends about what YOU are feeling about all of this and, while I KNOW that you tire of my telling you what a difference each of YOU make in your setting, be it with senior citizens, on a telephone hotline, working with those addicted to drugs, helping others deal with pain, listening to someone who is mentally ill OR working with incarcerated/protected youth OR working with kids in schools - YOU DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE........ please don't forget that.

Peace
Dave

AN amazing speaker and Classes are over for the semester BUT......

Yes, classes are over for the semester BUT it IS Saturday morning and I AM in the office grading papers and reviewing journal entries for all of my classes.  I took this picture (see below) the other late afternoon as I was leaving here and heading over to the Ross Sports Center to watch our women's basketball game - Cara Deroy and Kayla Carnell are on the team and in my classes so it is always fun to see them in action on the basketball court.  This afternoon, after more grading and journal readings, I will head to McCarthy Art Center to listen to Mallory Hyland who is also in one of my classes and who is a member of a vocal group that is presenting their concert.  Tonight I MAY head back to Ross to listen to the very funny comedian from the Daily Show - John Hodgman (remember him from the PC v Apple commercials - he was the PC man). Busy times with finals beginning on Monday morning.  I continue to be amazed at just how fast semesters are flying by these days. 

 

There is always so much for US to do and for our students to do.  This past Wednesday we had an amazing speaker.  "Dr. Chloe Schwenke is the Senior Advisor for LGBT Policy (global) and the Senior Advisor on Democracy, Human Rights and Governance(Africa) at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is a senior political appointment by the Obama Administration." She is also an amazing speaker and a warm and genuine human being who gave a riveting talk to a good sized crowd before joining some of us for a nice dinner with a small group from campus.  She spoke in classes, spent time with our students in the Center for Women and Gender and as my students said, "blew them away." As one of three transgendered people in the Obama Administration, her presentation, sponsored by our Common Ground helped all of us who met her open our minds - even, if for some, it was just a little bit, our minds WERE opened as she is just such an honest and genuine and spiritual person who cares so deeply about others and puts her "talk" into a "walk" through her efforts for the Obama Administration.  Thank you Chloe for sharing your insights with us.

 

Back to the grading - please take good care, be well and, as always, PLEASE keep all of the members of our military and all of our veterans in your thoughts and prayers as WE all enter the Christmas season and THEY are still dealing with the sometimes daily reality of war.

 

Dave

 

 

BUSY BUSY but good times -

 

Things have been amazingly busy this past week with registration for the spring semester completed, students working HARD on projects and papers and an amazing speaker on campus.  Hudson Taylor was an NCAA champion wrestler who founded Athlete Ally, a nonprofit organization set up to help make playing fields and locker rooms SAFE SPACES for LGBT student-athletes.  As a non-gay champion wrestler, he has a very strong and powerful voice for our student-athletes and thanks to the collaboration (again) of Common Ground, our gay-straight alliance on campus and our Athletic Department, Hudson spoke to all of our student-athletes in two workshops on this past Wednesday.  I had dinner with him and with Mark Litchfield, advisor for Common Ground and a couple of our Common Ground students AND then had the privilege of introducing him to our campus.  Brian Healey '12 was very instrumental in OUR It Gets Better (SaintMichael's CollegeItGetsBetter on YouTube) video last year and he is now an intern with Athlete Ally and he was able to return to campus to join us.  My students' reaction papers reveal that Hudson WAS clearly able to speak with authroity and authenciticy - well done Hudson and thanks for all you do.

Campus is alive with lots and lots of prospective students and their families visiting for this Admission Office Preview Day - I met up with Liz and Jim Howland and their son Ben who has applied to SMC and with their daughter Marguerite who is in the 9th grade.  Liz and Jim met at SMC, were married 21 years ago today and returned to bring their son back for the Preview Day - I was in their wedding 21 years ago and we have remained great friends - life's cycles certainly are interesting.

I was able to head out this morning for some kayaking - this is my 69th birthday and 9 years ago I promised myself that I would kayak on my Birthday IN Vermont as long as I could and so got up this morning and headed out to Indian Brook Reservoir for a chilly but wonderful time kayaking - just one of the many reasons why I love Vermont so much.

In the office grading papers and now heading out to watch the SMC men's ice hockey game - they won last night and I hope they do as well this afternoon...

take care, be well, and please continue to keep all of the victims of Hurricane Sandy as well as all of the members of our military in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave

"Scooter" was in the HOUSE - and the Career Seminar

One of the many, many things I LOVE about working at Saint Mike's is staying in touch with so many of my former students.  After more than 30 years here, I have known my share of wonderful people who are now still in touch.  Craig SCOOTER Callahan and his wife Sarah were up because Scooter was a panelist on the Career Seminar presentations yesterday afternoon and last night.  According to him, it was a HUGE success and he was very impressed that over 100 students showed up on a Friday night to listen to our alums speak about the "real world" out there.  Scooter graduated in 1991 and was excited to have his wife return here to see MORE of what his life had been like here.  We met in my office this morning and then went to Juniors for lunch - we talked about Lags and Harvie (RIP) and Zaf and Pappi and old friends - Scooter and Lags had decided that they really wanted their own radio show on WWPV so entered the lottery for a show but the only time they could get was Saturday morning from 8:00 until noon.  They took it and I occasionally listened in - since they were both, how can I say "active" seniors, Saturday mornings were quite a challenge.  One morning I happened to hear Lags drop the F-bomb on the radio and when the phone in the WWPV booth rang, Scooter said "you answer it Lags, I know it is Landers" - yup it was.......  It was wonderful to see him again, to meet Sarah and to know that his time here is still so important to him.  Scooter is in sales for Viking Appliances and loves his work - he spoke with our students about his journey from SMC to sales and I hope that they listened to the good advice.  He expressed again and again, how impressed he was with OUR current students - not a surprise to me.

Take care, be well, and please keep all those impacted by Hurricane Sandy AND all of the members of our military in your thoughts and prayers - I am still amazed at how many people seem to forget on a daily basis that we have thousands of men and women serving in the Armed Forces in Afghanistan....  I also am still struggling to comprehend the damage from Hurricane Sandy - take good care.

Dave