A final tribute to a fallen soldier.

Every time I blog, at the end, I ask for your thoughts and prayers for the members of our military and their families. Just this week alone we have lost 14 American soldiers in the War in Afghanistan. This past Sunday, as we were concluding four days of Orientation with our new students, we were all gathered in the Ross Sports Center for what has become known as CONNECTIONS perhaps the most important part of new student orientation. As it happened, we were set to begin at 9:30 Sunday morning - at 9:00 that morning a plane carrying the remains of Vermont National Guardsman Tristan Southworth, 21 years of age, from Walden, VT - one of two Vermont National Guardsmen killed in Afghanistan last week was being flown into the Burlington Airport. Local citizens had been asked to line the route that his procession would take from the airport out to I-89 and the 60 mile trip to Walden, VT. As we gathered, we had spread the word to our wonderful Orientation Leaders that IF they wanted to, they could quietly leave the gym and go out to stand along the road as his procession wound its way from the airport. Megan Powers, Director of New Student Programs opened the CONNECTIONS program by telling our new students that we had lost two VT soldiers this past week and asking for a moment of silence. It was amazing to watch over 500 people just get silent - each one, I am certain thinking about their own connection to the war. After the moment of silence the program began and soon all of our Orientation Leaders silently left the gym and headed out to Route 15 to pay tribute to a fallen soldier. We found out that his procession had already passed by but that does NOT take away from what our students did - they remembered, they stood in silence and they paid tribute to this young man they never even knew - it was an amazing moment.

So, please keep all of our military and their families in your thoughts and prayers - they truly need all of the support and prayers that they can get.

Dave

Good advice for parents of new students.

I am on campus continuing to prepare for the new semester to begin in less than a week. I was just over in Alliot and ran into our Residence Assistants (RA's) who are just returning from an overnight training workshop off campus. Then I headed upstairs to Eddie's where the 72 Orientation Leaders are finalizing their plans for Orientation with Grace Kelly, our wonderful Director of Student Activities. These Orientation Leaders have been preparing for our new students since their selection in February - with a great group on the O-Board, they have worked hard to make this transition as smooth a process as possible. I will be working with them this afternoon on just one part of what they will present on Sunday morning as we wrap up this Orientation. We go out on Lake Champlain this evening for the Sunset Cruise which they always enjoy - the weather is predicted to be excellent and so the sunset should be clear and colorful. I was in MA over the weekend and noticed that some of the trees at the higher elevations on 89 are beginning to turn and the tree just outside my office window, which is always the first to turn has already started........ I was reading the New York Times article this morning entitled "Students, Welcome to College; Parents , Go Home" - by Trip Gabriel. As I read it I had to laugh as I remember Fr. Mike holding up a sign at the end of the Opening Mass which was a replica of the I-89 South sign and his telling students and parents that this would be a great time, right after mass ends, for parents to say goodbye and then head home. Good advice as the article points out. The article is in the New York Times for 8/22/10 and you can find it under the author's name = Trip Gabriel or you may be able to just click on the URL I have posted at the bottom. Parents sometimes fail to realize that their son/daughter cannot begin to establish their own identity here until/unless they actually separate from their parents and that "moving in day" is important and a great time for parents to simply say "I love you and I know you will do well" and then to literally, hit the road.

You have done a great job so far in getting a son or daughter to college and now is the time to trust that you HAVE done a good job and let us do what we do best - provide a supportive learning environment where they will be challenged, where they will learn more about themselves than they ever suspected and where they will grow and learn in a college which values each and every one of our students as unique individuals. You made a good decision in having them attend Saint Michael's College - this is my 28th starting class and I continue to be amazed at the lifelong impact that this place has on people.

take care, be well and please keep our military and their families in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/education/23college.html?scp=1&sq=Students%20Welcome%20to%20College%20parents%20go%20home&st=cse

Sometimes our students actually DO listen to what we say....

I just returned from kayaking on Mallett's Bay in Colchester, about 5 miles from campus. Kayaking for me, is always a great time for either relaxation and contemplation OR vigorous exercise, depending on the wind and the waves. Today was a combination of both. As I was kayaking and realizing that classes begin in just a couple of weeks I was thinking about how excited I get at the start of every new semester. We have all worked over the summer on our courses, our syllabi and as I talk with my faculty colleagues, I find that they are as excited as I am for new beginnings. Over the past couple of weeks I have had the chance to talk with several of my former students and while one can always HOPE that they actually do listen and learn in class, these conversations have been very reinforcing for what we do. Alex Higgins ('11) and Ryan Nest ('10) are both working at a camp for adolescents with behavioral and/or developmental difficulties. This has been an intense 8 week camp and I spoke with Ryan over the weekend - as he described some of the activities that both he and Alex have been involved with I asked him how his SMC psychology major has helped him - I was somewhat surprised because he said that there were times when he wanted to literally "jump off a three story building" but then he said that he remembered one of my classes when I had told them "there isn't anything that you can't learn to deal with" and he kept that in mind and was able not only to have an amazingly educational experience but he has received great feedback from his supervisors. Last Friday I had lunch with Corinne O'Connor who graduated in 2004 - she was up for Zack Cook and Molly Lydon's wedding and wanted to get together with Fr. Mike and Jennie and me - she is working for AT&T out of Buffalo and loves her job - Mark Cernosia ('04) joined us too and we all caught up on what was going on in her life and what was happening on campus. Colleen was a student leader here, actively involved with the Student Association and now she is putting those leadership skills to work in her position in management with a major corporation. On Sunday night I received a call from Craig Farnum ('99) - Craig is the lead counselor at Damonte Ranch High School in Reno, Nevada and is taking his comprehensive examinations yesterday, today and tomorrow for his doctorate at the University of Nevada, Reno. As he discussed some of the possible questions he was going to be asked over the three day examination, he commented that whenever he gets a question asking him to "compare and contrast" things he thinks back to my class in Abnormal Psychology because I was always asking my students to do the same thing - he said that this has helped him study and prepare for these exams. Once again, the rewards of teaching............

I head to Otis, MA for some time with my family before the Orientation Leaders, Resident Assistants and finally new students arrive the week of the 22nd - I will be doing some workshops with the Orientation Leaders and then after the "formal" orientation of our new students ends on Sunday the 29th I will be working with members of the Athletic Department and several of our upper-class student-athletes on the New Student-Athlete Orientation. There are approx. 170 new student athletes in our entering class and the Athletic Department has been working hard to create a balanced orientation that will provide great role models for our new athletes - there will be student led panels on Academic Expectations (this will be where I will speak), Social Expectations and Athletic Expectations. I congratulate the members of our Athletic Department for their foresight in designing this series of workshop and appreciate our upper-level student-athletes willingness to work along with us to make the whole experience of our new students a healthy and collaborative one.

Take care, be well and please keep all of the members of our military and their families in your thoughts and prayers. We have lost way too many men and women in the War In Iraq and now as our combat forces leave there and we begin more tough work in Afghanistan, they need our thoughts and prayers more than ever.

Thanks

Dave

New York City - family and the value of an SMC education.

Last week I traveled to visit with my family and my sister and I took a train from CT into New York City where we met up with my niece Maggie (far left) and her friend (and my former student) Anne Maher (third from the left) - I blogged about Anne and her Dad's death in my last posting. Anne had never been to New York City so this was her first attempt at "life outside of the Boston area." While Sue and I were waiting for Maggie and Anne to come downstairs to meet us for dinner this nice looking, well-dressed young man came over to where we were sitting and sat down opposite me. It took me a couple of seconds (he said the look on my face was priceless and he wished that he had a camera) to realize that it was Dan Ehrhardt from Anne's class of 2009. Dan has just recently moved to New York from Boston and he, my sister, Maggie and Anne decided to surprise "Uncle Dave" with Dan's joining us for dinner. Dan has done well since his graduation in that he received a promotion at work in Boston and then they asked him to move to New York City - he works for a financial service company and had three internships during his time at SMC. While Maggie and Anne took one cab, Sue, Dan and I took another one and we had a chance to catch up. He spoke of how much he loves his job and how much he credits SMC for having prepared him for this type of work. He said that his three internships AND Prof. Roger Putzel's business class of XP (a unconventional class where students set up a "dummy" corporation and the students actually RUN the company) provided him with the experiential learning which put the textbooks' concepts/policies/skill-building into practice. Dan has one of those "infectious" personalities and he has certainly put both that personality and his education at SMC to good work. He also admitted that he LOVED the Men & Masculinities class he took with me and that he tells his co-workers that he learned so much from A class and they ask if it was an economics class or perhaps a business ethics class or an accounting class and then he tells them that NO, it was a psychology/gender studies class and he said that their reactions are really funny. After dinner we walked around a bit and it was just nice to catch up with Dan and his family - I had his older brother Rich as a student here several years ago - it was certainly a pleasant surprise and I appreciated his feedback as to how much HE values the education he received here at SMC. Anne and Maggie met at SMC and their friendship continues even though they haven't been living near each other for years.

It was also quite interesting because Sue, Maggie, Anne and I went to a Broadway play on Wednesday afternoon - we saw South Pacific which has always been one of my favorite plays. It was first produced in 1949 and deals, as many of you may remember, with the military during World War II in the Polynesian Islands. It was quite eye-opening for Sue and me to be watching the play with two 22 year olds who have no "frame of reference" for this play. The themes of discrimination, class and culture are so strong and fortunately both Maggie and Anne have a solid understanding of issues of peace and justice from their education here that our discussion afterwards was quite amazing. I have often used the music from South Pacific in workshops, especially YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFULLY TAUGHT which makes the point that no one is "born" with prejudices but that you "have to be carefully taught" to hate those who are different.

All in all, a wonderful time in the CITY. I do have to admit that it was equally nice to travel back home to Vermont where life is so different from a large city. I am in the office this morning doing more preparation for my classes which will begin on the 30th. My Practicum students are interviewing for their placements off campus for the year and site supervisors are getting in touch with me with last minute questions about these placements. I also continue to get emails from students asking about their textbooks for the classes and a student just "discovered" that there was ONE opening in my Theories of Counseling class and so as she put it "I jumped at the opening and signed up - yeah...." - these are exciting times as I LOVE the opening of each new school year. A couple of students from last semester are in town this week and have emailed about getting together so I expect a knock at my office door at any minute. It is gratifying to know that so many of our students RETURN just to say hello - just one more reason why I love this place so much.

Take care, be well and please keep all of the members of our military and their families in your thoughts and prayers as we leave Iraq and the war in Afghanistan continues to take its toll on our men and women in the military and their loved ones.

Dave

Classes begin a month from tomorrow - time flies when you are having fun.

I am in the office this morning sending some emails off to my seniors about their Practicum course which they will be taking with me this coming academic year. I have 16 students who will be out in the Burlington community for 8 - 10 hours a week working in some type of human services or educational setting. They are in class with me for 2.5 hours a week and since this is a full year course we get to know each other pretty well. Several of my students have already secured their placements and others are making contact now - I have been able to find a few additional sites for our students and the feedback from last year's sites lets me know that they LOVE having our students. Molly Millwood also teaches this course and she has 15 students who are going through the same process. Practicum provides our students with an exceptional opportunity to take what they have learned in their classes and apply these ideas/concepts/skills in an actual setting within a community. I received an email last night from Alex who is currently working as a "counselor" at a camp for kids with special needs and he was telling me what an amazing experience this has been for him this summer and that he is very much looking forward to Practicum and having an entire year of "real world" experiences. Last year was my first year supervising Practicum and I not only get to supervise our students, but I get to do site visits so get to hear directly from THEIR supervisors about this program. We are fortunate to have such a supportive community which recognizes the benefits of having our students at their sites.

Sadly, two weeks ago I attended the wake and funeral of Joe Maher - Joe graduated from Saint Michael's College in 1969 and was a member of our Alumni Board of Directors. Joe's wife Rosemary Minehan is the Presiding Judge at Bridgewater State Hospital in MA and a couple of years ago she came to speak to our Psychology Club on the legal issues of the mental health programs in MA. She then arranged for me to take six of my students from here to Bridgewater State Hospital for a site visit. Their son Joe graduated from SMC in 2008 and their daughter Anne graduated in 2009. The wake was amazing as the line outside the funeral home was continuous for 4 hours with no let up. I traveled to Plymouth, MA with Pat Gallivan, our Vice President for Institutional Advancement. Patrick had just come from one of our POW's trips (pre-orientation experience) and we met at Stowe and drove down together. While we were standing in line at the wake, a man came up to us and called out my name and I turned around and there was Ned Joyce who is an attorney in the Plymouth area and an alum of SMC. We had a chance to catch up and shared many stories about SMC. Joe Maher was an attorney in that area so the wake and funeral were full of attorneys and judges. A little later when my sister and my niece got there at the wake (Anne is my niece Maggie's best friend and so we all know the family well) and we waited again to go into the funeral home yet another man called out my name and he had graduated from SMC in 1989 and knew me from then - he had just spoken to Joe about two weeks prior to his death as Joe was passionate about helping out anyone who was connected to SMC. Joe had helped arrange a summer intern for this man's accounting firm. The funeral was very moving and was held in Duxbury, MA which is where the Maher family has lived for many years. Joe was a good man and someone I admired. His wife and his two "kids" spoke at his funeral and Anne said that two of the proudest moments in Joe's life were when his two kids graduated from SMC. There were around a dozen of Joe's classmates at the funeral and as we talked in the parking lot of the church, we all commented on the impact that Saint Michael's College had on this man's life - a true testimony to the amazing effect that this place I call home has on so many people. Rest in Peace Joe......

Back to work so please take care and be well and as always, please keep the members of our military and their families in your thoughts and prayers. As things heat up in Afghanistan, our thoughts and prayers are needed more and more each day......

Dave

Class of 2014 (born in 1992) and a new garden on campus.

I was just over in Alliot Hall talking with Grace Kelly, our Director of Student Activities - as I walked into her office space I noted that it was FULL of sleeping bag and backpacks and so knew that another POW adventure was about to start. POW is our pre-orientation weekend and while there are two actual weekends, there is also a mid-week POW. This is an opportunity for incoming first year students to meet upper-classmen/women in a setting away from campus. Along with the 30 first year students and approx. 20 upper-class students there are five members of the faculty/staff who head out to Stowe for a three day experience. Each year student leaders are selected based on their level of maturity, their willingness to share their experiences and their leadership skills. This year we have four such students who are leading all three of the POW's. Katherine Hackett (just back from study abroad - we missed her around here), Molly Moore, Liz Siekman and Justin Kane are this year's leaders and they report that the first POW, last weekend was amazing - they were so impressed with the Class of 2014 and while we try not to have the leaders make comparisons, the leaders told me that the next two groups will have to be exceptional to top the first group. Within hours of their return from POW, they had already set up a Facebook page specifically for POW participants. The level of excitement and anticipation of the leaders is so high and it is great to have so many students back on campus. There are three pre-registration days which coincide with POW so most of our entering first year class of 2014 will be here sometime this week - they meet with a temporary academic adviser, take language and writing tests and select their courses for their first semester. There will be a reception for all of them this afternoon over in Alliot and I will head over there for a meet/greet with the new students and their families.

If you are interested in the latest addition to campus - the Word Garden, then by all means check out www.youtube.com/SaintMichael'swhere Mallory wood uploaded a video on the construction of our new Word Garden - Professors Valerie Bang-Jensen and Mark Lubkowitz and Grounds keeper Alan Dickinson worked hard with a local artist to create words carved in stones which will be be arranged any way that anyone wants - the video is very informative so check it out.

As I mentioned a while back in a blog, we are all working on the new curriculum and one aspect of that is that each professor has to examine each class we teach and while that may seem like a difficult task, it has actually been a great educational opportunity for us to critically look at what we teach and how we assess what we teach and what our students learn. I have completed two of my four courses and look forward to working on the other two.

The Athletic Department has been really busy over the summer working on an exciting new project. Under the leadership of Athletic Director Geri Knortz, Senior Associate Athletic Director Zaf Bludevich and Associate Athletic Director Chris Kenny the Athletic Department has been meeting and constructing a new workshop which will focus on first year student-athletes. This innovative program will take place beginning immediately after the College's New Student Orientation ends on Sunday morning, August 29th - there will be a series of panels comprised of current student-athletes and mentors who will help our new student-athletes better understand the importance WE place on academics, behavior, teamwork, leadership and good sports-person behaviors. This is just the first of a number of new programs being initiated by the Athletic Department - future workshops for our student-athletes will include programs on leadership for our sophomore, junior and senior athletes. I am very proud of the work being done by the Athletic Department and look forward to working with them on these new initiatives. I have been selected to attend the FAR (faculty athletic representative) Leadership Institute this October, representing SMC and the NE-10 and will definitely be "bragging" about these new initiatives.

Take good care, enjoy the summer and while I realize that our entering first year students were born around 1992 and I was born in 1943, I really am looking forward to another GREAT year at SMC. As always, please keep all of the members of our military and our veterans and their families in your thoughts and prayers. We are going to have a meeting soon on campus which will involve a variety of offices on campus to see how we can best meet the needs of our returning soldiers who may be interested in attending SMC - we have a number of vets currently enrolled on campus and their input has been very helpful as we try to work with the vets and the VA to ensure that these veterans receive the appropriate and BEST treatment they can as they transition from the military.

Dave

After graduation and a Summer Reunion at SMC

It has been a couple of weeks since Commencement and as the campus settles into a "summer schedule" and we have said "later" to our most recent graduates, the always interesting life of a faculty member continues. We are working at the College in re-structuring our curriculum and that means that each of us has to take a critical eye to each of our courses as we determine exactly how they will fit into the new structure. While this can be a labor-intensive activity, it is not a bad thing - I often tell my students how important it is to re-evaluate things on a regular basis. So one of my tasks this week is to take each of my courses and complete the assessment we have been given by the Curriculum Committee - I enjoy this type of challenge because it forces me to critically look at exactly what I DO teach.

This past weekend was Reunion Weekend and we welcome back classes which have graduated 5,10,15, etc. years ago. There is a reception on Friday night where benefactors of the College are welcomed back and where two or three students get to share their current experiences at SMC with some folks who have graduated MANY years ago and others who continue to be benefactors of the College even though they may not have ever attended SMC. We also welcomed back current and past members of the Board of Trustees. On Saturday morning there was an Awards Ceremony over in Ross and several of our alumni were honored. Jack Russell '70, Denis Collet '85 and Deb Liberatore Leblanc '90 were honored as Alumni of the Year - it is always good to hear former students address a public forum and share how their experience HERE has impacted almost everything that they have accomplished in their lives. We often wonder what the impact is of what we do and these folks didn't hesitate to let everyone know just how much their time here and their continued connection with SMC has impacted their lives. Deb thanked Fr. Mike Cronogue and Jennie Cernosia in particular and all three commented on the value of a Catholic education and the presence of the members of the Society of Saint Edmund in their education. Dennis Murphy '60 and his wife Julie were honored with the Rev. John Verret SSE '35 Award and the Col. Donald Cook' '56 USMC Good Citizenship Award was given to Walter Fitzmaurice '49. After the awards, each of the returning class reunions chairpersons presented their class gift to the President. I was sitting with several of the folks from Institutional Advancement along with Bill Wilson and Jerry Flanagan and Buff Lindau. Tanya Makhlina '10 and Christine Amoresano '11 were sitting in front of us. Tanya, who had just graduated a month ago and who just returned from two weeks of volunteering in Haiti and Christine who is working on campus this summer turned to us when the Class of '85 stood and announced their gift and said "they graduated 25 years ago and we aren't even 25 YET" - a sobering thought but one we all laughed over. I was also struck that the Class of '60 who are back celebrating their 50th Reunion actually have a "Social Committee" - they graduated from SMC 50 years ago and their connection is still such a strong bond that they have a group of their classmates who plan social activities for this group - what a testament to them AND to the impact that SMC had on these men 50 years ago that continues today.

At the barbecue held after the Awards Ceremony many of our alumni gathered to re-connect. One couple even got engaged at the barbecue - I guess they saw the amazing reaction to Jamie asking Rachael at Commencement. I had a chance to see Vinnie D'Angelo and his wife Mary and their three kids - the last time I saw their oldest son he was 3 and now he is taller than Vinnie. Katie Moran and her husband and their two kids were back and Tom Robinson and his partner Brian Moore were also back for the Reunion. Between name tags and my memory, I was able to not mess up very many names. After almost 30 years here it is sometimes difficult to put a name with a face and while I seldom forget a face, I often forget the name that goes with that face. :)

I had dinner last night with a group of us who have been connected to SMC and to each other for 25+ years. We attempt to get together every other month for a dinner at one of our homes and we spend around 3 hours just catching up, sharing our lives and talking about our time here at SMC, politics, music, global issues, family, alums and any other "hot" topic of the day. This is always such a wonderful time with good friends who were brought together by Saint Michael's College - Fr. Mike Cronogue, Jennie and Art Cernosia, Sue Kuntz and Ann Giombetti and her partner Karen Mickelson - a good group of good friends. Fr. Mike is the Superior General of the Society of Saint Edmund, Jennie has now retired but returns each fall to teach First Year Seminar, Sue continues to teach Psychology full-time and Ann who used to head up the MOVE program and who left to return to nursing school is now a nurse with the Vermont Department of Health and me. I usually post on Facebook when we are getting together and am always pleased when so many of our former students send responses to the posting - the most common reply is "I am sooooo jealous." :)

We have a celebration in a few minutes where we will be honoring members of the staff and the faculty who have worked at SMC for 10, 15, 20, etc. years. This is another time for the College to thank those of us who give so much to the College and to our students. The barbecue that was scheduled for after this celebration has been canceled due to a pending rain storm but Campus Ministry promised us that they will re-schedule it for another time soon.

Be well, take good care and PLEASE, especially as things in Afghanistan heat up and more and more of our soldiers are wounded or killed , please keep the members of our military and their families (and all of our veterans and their families) in your thoughts and prayers. War by Sebastian Junger is a book I just finished and it is one which helped me better understand the amazing bond that so many members of our military talk about - he is a journalist who was embedded with our troops in Afghanistan for several months - he has a documentary coming out this summer which is entitled Restrepo which will be an incredibly powerful look at the reality of war.....

Dave