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

Kiss of Death for Graduate School

Last night the Psychology Club and Psi Chi (International Honor Society for Psychology) co-sponsored a workshop on Graduate School - Chris Clary, Director of Career Services laid out the process students must go through in their application process for graduate school and provided everyone with very helpful resources for this oftentimes grueling process.  Then Dr. Boynton presented his now infamous KISS OF DEATH powerpoint on what to do and what NOT to do in your graduate application process - this is a powerpoint a colleague of his lets him share each year and while some of the slides seem ridiculous, they ARE actual application errors - things that hopeful psychology students HAVE submitted to schools.  [a hint - don't have your Mother submit a reference for you to ANY graduate school] The third presentor was Jason Fuchs - Jason is a recent SMC graduate and is now a doctoral candidate in Experimental Psychology at the University of Vermont.  Jason provided insights about the current "reality" of graduate school.  He explained the differences between grants, departmental stipends, teaching assistantships, etc. and provided a great deal of current information that students clearly (from their questions) found helpful.  It was a very worthwhile workshop and we appreciate all three of the presentors for taking their time to help our students better understand the whole process of GRADUATE SCHOOL applications. 

Special Olympics' Presentation today

This afternoon, my Sports Psychology class did a presentation on the Special Olympics.  Bernadette Beary, Leanna Hammond, Caitlin Dugan and Eric Jaukkuri invited Chris Bernier '04 to be part of the presentation.  Chris is the Director of Development and Marketing for the Vermont Special Olympics and has been a "guest speaker" on a number of occasions.  It is always great to have one of my former students return as a GUEST to any of my classes.  The students had done a great job of preparing their presentation in advance and had sent Chris a copy of their PowerPoint on Sunday - he was quite impressed and approved.  Their presentation was an education for all of the students in class.  Bernadette is a member of the SMC Best Buddies program and spoke of her involvement with this program.  As usual, proud of my students, their preparation and how well they did.  Thanks again to Chris for returning to give back to SMC -

Slack Line and Sports Psychology

Students doing their Sports Psychology classroom presentation on EXTREME SPORTS decided to involve their classmates in a little exercise outside of St. Ed's yesterday afternoon at the beginning of class.  We have been discussing the psychological reasons why some people are so willing to put themselves (and in some cases their lives) at risk by participating in activities that others would NEVER attempt.  The five students who set this all up obtained a SLACK LINE from a friend and strung this line up between two trees outside in hopes that they could get some of their classmates to "attempt" to walk this slack line.  Some did but most didn't which then led to a GREAT conversation in class.  Some who didn't are athletes who knew that if they injured themselves, their coaches would "kill them" as they put it.  Others just simply said they were scared.  It was a great discussion because some of the students are clearly fascinated by extreme sports.  They then led a discussion about why WE seem so fascinated with watching extreme sports - is it adrenaline, a death wish, a life wish that pushes people?  They showed a video of a young female surfer who lost her arm to a shark at age 16 but returned to surfing three weeks later and another video of Aron Ralston, the young man who had to literally saw his own arm off to escape from a climbing accident.  I was very proud of the students as they challenged themselves and each other to present a great class.  We will continue that discussion tomorrow when we look at why Red Bull sponsors so many of these extreme sports and ask the question:  how far is too far??????

Resources on campus + some foliage

Yesterday afternoon for my Sports Psychology class, I had students show up at the Hall of Fame Room in the Tarrant Recreational Center as I had asked three folks from the Athletic Department to speak with my students about their positions at the College.  Ann Dwyer is shown here talking about her responsibilities as Facilities Director and the Supervisor of almost 60 workstudy students.  She has to work with each individual student and prides herself in getting to know each of them personally.  She expressed how proud of them she is as they have not let her down once and either show up for work assignments, contact her directly, or make sure someone else can take their shift.  She made the connections with Psychology as she has to understand student needs, the MANY different personalities and has to take into account that each student is a unique person.  She later gave us a tour of the new Varsity Team Weight Room that just opened in September.  She also has to work closely with all of the coaches of our 21 varsity teams in order to make things run smoothly in a complex that is used constantly.  Josh Kessler is our Director of Athletic Communications and Harrison Antonioni is an intern in his office.  Both of these folks were in my Sports Psychology class in the past so could relate what they do (produce press releases for ALL student-athletes' hometown newspapers, publicize results of our athletic contests and put that information up on all of the social media students use, deal with local media to announce our schedules and successes) to the field of Psychology.  I asked my students to share THEIR reactions to seeing or hearing about their athletic achievements in their hometown newspapers.  A couple of the students shared that it was really nice to hear from folks at home who had read about them and what they were doing up here in Vermont at SMC.  It was also nice to give both Josh and Harrison some good feedback. 

 You can see my shadow as I took this picture this past week as I got ready to head onto the Indian Brook Reservoir and another quiet and peaceful kayaking adventure.  The leaves are just beginning to turn and it looks like foliage will be excellent.  Kayaking is such a great way to not only exercise, but also relax.  I am fortunate to live in a place where I actually get to do this a LOT.  Last year I kayaked into the second week of December and, yes, there was snow on the ground but the Reservoir had not frozen yet and I just added another layer and stayed warm.

Meetings today - the Athletic Advisory Council meets this afternoon and I always look forward to working with that group.  As Chair, I get to talk with everyone as we plan the meetings and we really value the input we get from the two other faculty members, the three students and a good variety of administrators on the Council.  I will be announcing this afternoon that Saint Michael's College now has a chapter of the National Honor Society for Student-Athletes - Chi Alpha Sigma.  We are only the second college/university in the State of Vermont so will be known as the Beta Chapter.  Student-athletes must have attained a 3.7 overall grade point average, have completed two years of varsity competition and be nominated by their coaches.  This is another way to recognize the ACADEMIC achievement of our student-athletes who make us proud of their achievements both in the classroom and on the playing field.  But don't tell anyone yet as I won't announce this until this afternoon :)

As always, take care, be well and please keep all of the members of our military and our veterans in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave

SMC's Student Association is the BEST.

Last night before our SA weekly meeting began, I spoke with Lauren Barone, Secretary of Communications and Michael Fay, President of the SA and asked if they would share a video with the SA during the meeting.  October is Anti-Bullying Month and I had seen an amazing video from Facebook that I thought everyone should see.  Eric Jaukkuri is the Co-Secretary of Programming and he and I have spoken about presenting workshops and/or informational sessions for the campus around the topic of bullying during October.   Eric was bullied as a kid and he knows that this is an issue that I feel passionate about.  The three Officers of the SA immediately agreed and so during the beginning of last night's meeting, Eric showed the video of a television anchor woman who had received an email which made rude and disparaging comments about her weight - HER response is amazing and as our students watched this last night I was so proud of what OUR students do to address a wide variety of issues which confront young people today.  The SA challenges, encourages, educates and provides a space for great discussion and dialogue on so many topics and, in my opinion (not that I am biased after 30 years of working with this Student Association) they are THE BEST....  I suspect that none of you reading this will take the time to actually input the URL listed below but I don't know how to input it so all you have to do is to click on the URL - but I do hope that if you see it on YouTube or on Facebook or on Twitter, that you will copy it and spread the words that this amazing woman used in her response to a thoughtless and cruel viewer.


http://xfinity.comcast.net/video/anchor-turns-fat-insult-into-empowering-message/2286176210/Comcast/2285995670/

Classes are excellent, students are working hard and seemingly enjoying the challenges I throw their way on what seems to them, like a daily basis - THAT makes me very happy....

Take care, be well, and please, as always, keep all of the members of our military and our veterans in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave