Reflections on Challenge Week 2011
The Honors College hosted its annual Challenge Week Oct. 31- Nov. 4, serving over 300 students, as well as faculty and staff at UCA. Under the banner of this year鈥檚 theme, 鈥淐onnect/Disconnect: Knowing Your Place,鈥� the Honors College featured public presentations and public readings from UCA writing faculty Mark Spitzer; performance artist/eco-philosopher David Abram, who served as the keynote speaker for this year鈥檚 Challenge Week; and poet Ann Fisher-Wirth. Each guest presented to capacity crowds. In addition to their public presentations, Challenge Week participants interacted with students through class visits, small group discussions, and shared meals.
In addition, the Honors College combined forces with Hendrix College and with the Central 淫性视频 Library System to provide additional opportunities for students and the general public to discuss with David Abram the topic of re-connecting with our 鈥渁nimalness鈥� as a means of cultivating respect for the natural environment. Ann Fisher-Wirth closed out Challenge Week with a Friday afternoon poetry writing workshop that was also well-attended. Honors College faculty Cindy Lea, Phil Frana, Allison Wallace, and Adam Frank and student representatives Destiny Schlinker and Austin Hall comprised the co-curricular committee that organized Challenge Week. The event was funded by the Honors College and through the Student Activity Fee.
Student Soapbox
Senior Patrick Russell, in a soapbox kicking off Challenge Week on Oct. 31, introduced UCA students and faculty to eco-philosopher David Abram鈥檚 work The Spell of the Sensuous. Abram鈥檚 central idea, Russell said, is that we are 鈥渉uman only in contact and conviviality, with what is not human.鈥� Conviviality is related to, or occupied with, our fondness for feasting, drinking, and good company. Russell reminded the gathering that our senses are intimately attuned to natural phenomena. We really have bodily become what we are by our relationship with that which is not human.
Even our language is shaped by our relationship with the natural world. Yet we no longer know our place in nature. We are instead more intimate with our technologies and the built environment. And technology may actually disconnect us from important tactile, visual relationships with the environment. Nature is exciting, and it can sometimes be dangerous, but in forces and processes that produce and control all the phenomena of the material world humans can experience eye-to-eye reciprocity. We cannot care for that which we do not know. We need to wake up to the sensuality, the vividness, the ecstasy of the natural world. Russell is the president of the Environmental Alliance, a student activity/service organization that promotes interest in environmental ethics and offers opportunities for all students to further their knowledge and understanding of environmental issues.
Students present soapboxes each Friday at 3 p.m. in the Farris Hall Presentation Room. All of the soapboxes in the fall and spring semesters are open to the UCA community. The Fall 2011 soapbox presenters are:
Aug. 26 – Amber Haydar, 鈥淏rit Lit鈥� & Kathy Hill, 鈥淎n Ambassador to Korea2鈥�
Sept. 2 – Garrett Wright, Ben Wold, & David Friesen, 鈥淔osters & Vegemite, or We Ain鈥檛 No Bloody Melbourners鈥�
Sept.16 – Ashton Wills, 鈥淭heology of the Body鈥� & Sara Bayles, 鈥淔air Trade/Liberation Theology: An Intersection of Faith and Justice鈥�
Sept. 23 – Matthew Hankins & Taylor Sutton, 鈥淭he Art & Science of Star Trek鈥�
Sept. 30 – Melissa Beltran, 鈥淒IY Culture鈥� & Michael J. Hinds, 鈥淲hat Did You Say? An Introduction to Group Theory and Encryption鈥�
Oct.7 – Ron Walter, 鈥淭ime Travel, Love, and Nihilism: A Look at the Film La Jete茅鈥� & Kim Risi, 鈥淐onceptualizing a Film (The Man on the Moon)鈥�
Oct. 14 – Lennon Bates, 鈥淩ock Art Field Studies鈥� & Leeanne Maxey on 鈥淲orking with Artist Matt Lively鈥�
Oct. 28 – Brittany Edwardes and Danny Keil, 鈥淎n Ancient Monarchy and Shopping Malls: The Fabrication of the Status Quo in Thailand鈥�
Nov. 4 – Hannah Marks, 鈥淒isabled in the Dominican Republic鈥� & a Special Performance on the Flute by Leanne Hampton
Nov. 11 – Cathrine Schwader, 鈥淩wanda: A Society of Transformations鈥� & Brett Bailey, 鈥淏uilding a Competitive, Knowledge-Based Economy for 淫性视频鈥�
Dec. 2 – Patrick Russell and Michael J. Hinds, 鈥淥ur National Parks: America鈥檚 Greatest Idea鈥�
National Workshop on Honors Curriculum Development
Donna Bowman and Philip Frana served as lead facilitators in a national workshop on 鈥淗onors Curriculum Development鈥� for four-year colleges and universities at the annual conference of the National Collegiate Honors Council in Phoenix, Arizona on Oct. 23. The workshop was prefaced by remarks from Rick Scott, dean of the UCA Honors College, and Gary Bell, dean of the Honors College at Texas Tech, who gave a brief overview to frame questions and tasks. During the workshop the following topics were discussed:
- promoting and sustaining innovative curriculam
- 聽assessment, creating and measuring student learning outcomes
- advancing a university鈥檚 core educational mission with Honors
- interdisciplinarity as a way to explore the grounds, methodologies, and assumptions of knowledge generation
- 聽active learning, project-based courses, collaborative learning models, service learning.
Faculty Spotlight
Honors Associate Professor Donna Bowman is presenting her theological research into the Prayer Shawl Ministry movement at a national and an international conference this fall. At the Eighth International Whitehead Conference at Sophia University in Tokyo in September, she presented 鈥淣eedle, Hook, Relational Wisdom: The Prayer Shawl Ministry as Creative Engagement with Fate.鈥� On Nov. 20, she will present 鈥淢agic Blankets and Angel Hugs: Grassroots Theologies of Healing in Prayer Shawl Ministries1鈥� to the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Francisco.
驴Soy Doctora? An alumni communication from Miranda Broadney (Class of 鈥�06)
The paper trail indicates that I am indeed a doctor, but just half way through my first year of residency it鈥檚 still hard to believe! I鈥檝e completed a Bachelor鈥檚 of Science (Biology Major, Honors Minor) at the University of Central 淫性视频, and a Master鈥檚 Degree in Public Health in combination with a Medical Degree at Ohio State University. I am now a first year Pediatric Resident at the University of Arizona Medical Center (Diamond Children鈥檚 Hospital) in Tucson, Arizona.
Life in the day of a Pediatric Resident is pretty simple: Go to work, take care of patients, learn something from your patients, finish some administrative work, retreat home for some rest, wake up and do it all over again! The majority of the first year of residency is in the hospital, but there are a few months that are spent working in the clinic and seeing patients in office visits for physicals, etc. My clinical duties are essentially to manage patient care with help from my senior residents and do everything I can to learn as much as possible. There are simple things from admission paperwork and reviewing medications to developing a differential diagnosis list for someone who has become acutely ill and we have yet determined what is going on. As part of my Master鈥檚 in Public Health background I am particularly interested in public outreach and health advocacy. Our program participates in many programs within this realm. One I am very attached to is a teen mother and baby support group which meets monthly with residents to provide advice and guidance for the young mothers.
When I鈥檓 not working I enjoy traveling, learning about other cultures and of course taking advantage of all the sun Tucson has to offer. I most recently traveled to Quito, Ecuador for a medical elective and Spanish training. I plan to do many more of these excursions within residency and beyond. The world is my oyster, even through a medical filter!