Back in the Saddle

Well, I’m back in the saddle again teaching. I enjoy the excitement of the students. It’s good to be back in the classroom after being on sabbatical last semester. I still have a lot to wrap up from my project, but I look forward to meeting new people and reconnecting with former students who signed up for me again in more advanced classes.

I’ve also gotten the chance to speak with students I knew who are now planning for graduate studies and anxiously waiting to hear about acceptance into grad school.

I suppose there’s a sense of anticipation in the air, looking forward to Spring, to new opportunities, to the new presidency etc. If you’re remotely thinking about checking out Rockhurst University, why don’t ya sign up for Rockview which is March 1-2. It’ll be a fun weekend. Check us out. http://www.rockhurst.edu/admission/events/rockview/index.asp

Undergrad Publishes in Prestigious Journal

One of the great benefits of attending a private school like Rockhurst University is the one-on-one contact you’ll receive with your professors. Case in point, one of the students who had been in some of my classes received a Deans’ Summer Research Fellowship. Andrea Essner chose to research feminine imagery of God as employed in late Medieval English texts. I served as her mentor, directing her research of both primary and secondary literature. We met several times over the course of this past summer to discuss her findings and to propose a thesis statement for the paper she would write. My goal was to have her submit this as an article for publication in a scholarly journal. Andrea felt daunted by the task, but I knew she could do it.

It’s not often that undergraduates get to publish in journals that people with Ph.D.s compete with one another to get into. Andrea plans to go onto grad school and so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to prep her for that in a more focused way and hone her research and writing skills. (We do give students planning to go onto grad school a lot of mentoring here at Rockhurst.) Well, Andrea’s article was so good that upon her first submission it was accepted! Many times you might need to submit an article to one place, get rejected, and then submit it elsewhere until it’s finally accepted. Anyhow, Andrea’s article, “God as Mother in Post-Black Death English Mystical Texts,” will very shortly appear in Magistra (Winter 2008): 14.2. I’m quite proud of her!

If you attend a state college, you’re very unlikely to get such one-on-one mentoring with a faculty member; you can be lost in a sea of thousands of students.

To find out more about our personal Jesuit educational approach click here: http://www.rockhurst.edu/about/distinction/index.asp
For info on Rockhurst University’s Faculty scholarship and mentoring click here: http://www.rockhurst.edu/about/distinction/faculty.asp

Winter Break

It’s that time of year when everything winds down and winds up all at the same time. It’s a time to visit family and friends and relax and a time to make plans about the up-coming year. This Winter Break I’ll be spending a week of down time with my wife and daughter and then head to visit my folks in FL, taking their grand-daughter with me. But I’ll also be thinking about starting classes again in January and getting ready for that.

While you’re on break this holiday season it might be the ideal time to check out Rockhurst. They have an open Transfer Day on Jan 6th and the Admissions Office will be open to take you on a tour if want to schedule one in. So enjoy your Winter Break and maybe think about explore some new possibilities.
Have a good one!

http://www.rockhurst.edu/admission/events/transfer_openhouse/index.asp

Bookin' it! Text it!

Part of going to college is going to the library. But our library doesn’t just have books, it has access to an awful lot of electronic resources and databases. Our library is more accurately an Information Literacy Center housing information in all sorts of media. And if we don’t own something or have electronic access, we’re a member of the powerful MOBIUS Inter-library Loan system which covers the whole state of Missouri. And if by some strange chance, no one in the MOBIUS network has what you’re looking for, our Inter-library Loan Librarian can most likely get it for you from somewhere else.

The bottom-line is education is about access to information and THEN processing that information in an academic fashion. The internet is awash in lots of mis-information. Reader beware. Rockhurst University provides a solid academic Catholic and Jesuit atmosphere in which to discern and process the information that inundates us every day. Knowledge without reflective analysis is mere trivia. And trivia is at the root of trivial. Rockhurst is not an on-line academic institute prone to the trivialization of a sound academic formation. Our education process is fundamentally communal: Learning, Leadership, and Service in the Jesuit Tradition. Our “academic product” if you will, is embedded in lived experience that has endured for centuries and will enrich the world for centuries to come.

For info on our library, check out this link. http://www.rockhurst.edu/services/library/index.asp
For info on Rockhurst Jesuit education click here. http://www.rockhurst.edu/admission/ugrad/jesuit.asp

And book on over to Rockhurst!

Kickin' It!

The sixth-ranked Men’s Rockhurst Hawks will host the 2008 NCAA Division II Midwest Regional on Friday Nov 14th and Sunday Nov 16th at RU's Bourke Field. Rockhurst, 16-1-3, is the No. 1 seed and will face fourth-seeded Lewis, 14-1-2, in a first-round game at 7 p.m. Friday. The other first-round game on Friday matches second-seeded Northern Kentucky, 15-2-2, against third-seeded Ashland (Ohio), 15-3-2, at 4 p.m. The two winning teams will then meet at 1 p.m. Sunday, also at Bourke Field.

The Rockhurst women's soccer team is NCAA Tournament bound for the first time in school history. The Hawks found out Monday afternoon that they will be traveling north this week to play in the NCAA Midwest Regional in Kenosha, Wis. Rockhurst, 10-5-3, is the No. 6 seed in the Midwest Region and will face third-seeded Northern Kentucky, 15-3, in a first-round game at 11 a.m. Friday. The winner will advance to play second-seeded Wisconsin-Parkside on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in Kenosha.

Regarding last Sunday’s match, senior goalkeeper Chad Becker, the GLVC Defensive Player of the Year, stopped five shots in posting his 14th shutout of the season. Junior forward Tom Heinemann scored his team-high 10th goal of the season on a header from six yards off a cross from Mark Anthony Foster to give Rockhurst a 1-0 lead late in the first half. The Hawks added an insurance goal in the 89th minute on a four-yard shot from senior midfielder Pat Kearns with assists to Kyle Samuelson and Heinemann.

Last Friday, the Hawks got past Drury in a seven-round shootout in the semifinals of the GLVC Tournament at Bourke Field. Becker stopped three consecutive penalty kicks to give the Hawks a 5-4 victory in the shootout after both teams battled to a 0-0 tie for 110 minutes. Heinemann, who led the Hawks with nine shots against Drury, also scored the game-winning goal in RU's 2-1 overtime victory over Wisconsin-Parkside in the first round of the GLVC Tournament on Nov. 2 at Bourke Field.

Congratulations to Coach Tocco and Coach Herdlick and our fine student athletes!

For more stats see http://www.rockhurst.edu/ru_athletics/news/RUmensoccerGLVC08.asp

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Who do you want to be for Halloween? Who do you want to be when you grow up?

Last Saturday, Lee’s Summit (where I live) had its Halloween Parade in which kids get to march in their costumes and have a fun time. Our daughter chose to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. So I helped her get dressed and my wife did the pony tails and put in ribbons, and we had an old fake dog that we threw in a cheap wicker basket. We threw “Dorothy” into the car and my wife whisked her away. As everyone was lining up someone approached and said, “Your daughter has been picked as a one of the finalists. Have her go up to the stage when called.” My wife was stunned and delighted. After a process, turns out our daughter won 3rd place for best girl’s costume, and there were over 200 kids there. My wife was blown away and so was I when they got home and told me.

We had totally forgotten that there was a competition and judging. So what does this have to do with college? Who do you want to be? Our daughter picked a favorite character and we just went with the flow. Being Dorothy came “naturally” to her. When choosing a college major and eventual career you simply need to go with the flow. Probably if we had consciously tried to win the competition we wouldn’t have. It would have been overkill or something.

“You’ll recognize it when you see it.” You’ll eventually see yourself in some role or career when it’s the right time and place. Don’t worry about it. Just fall into step in the parade, have fun, and everything will fall into place. Every place has its own rhythm, its own step. Rockhurst is a small university with lots of one on one attention from faculty where you get to make lots of close friends. Some like a bigger, more bustling atmosphere. You’ll know which college is right for you. Don’t sweat it. Just go and visit several. Just follow the yellow brick road.

Check out Rockview: http://www.rockhurst.edu/rockview/

Economy & Education

In this time of economic crisis it’s good to know that Rockhurst University is the cheapest Jesuit institution in the nation. Out of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities, it costs less to go to Rockhurst than the other 27. Of course, state run colleges cost less than Rockhurst, but most don’t offer a Liberal Arts education that gives you a well-rounded and broad-based foundation upon which to build in the highly competitive market. Furthermore, state run colleges and universities don’t bring in a Christian perspective and values. Sustained by a 2,000 year old Catholic tradition and a 450 year old Jesuit perspective, Jesuit institutions have weathered a lot of storms and crises and have endured.

While Wall Street is rocked and Main Street experiences potholes, some large enough to engulf a local bank, and while the world economy is shaken to its knees, you have to keep your wits about yourself and realize that life went on after the Great Depression—if not, you wouldn’t be here today. Life will go on. We’ll get through this economic crisis, but the thing is to have a strategy. As a prospective student and/or parent of high school kids, you need to invest in the future. A college grad with a well-balanced multifaceted education will be better placed in the emerging world market than a grad with a narrow focus from a state college. You can go cheaper with a state college or university education, but you almost always get what you pay for. Sometimes things are too cheap and the product doesn’t last, or devalues. A Jesuit education is sound and well-rounded. It doesn’t invest in fly-by-night educational schemes and flash-in-the-pan ideas. A Jesuit education is well-worth the money spent.

So why Rockhurst, and not another Jesuit institution that costs more? Won’t I get more since I pay more? Not necessarily. Rockhurst strives in giving you more bang for your buck. We don’t have as large an overhead as some Jesuit universities do, and so we don’t have to charge as much to pay for lots of stops and whistles. At the same time, we’re not bare bones either. Think of us as a well-trained athlete: lean and mean. We’ve already cut away a lot of the fat that Wall Street and Congress need to cut out. There are no pork barrel projects at Rockhurst that need to be funded by student tuitions. So check us out. We’re not afraid to be compared with other institutions. You have to choose wisely and invest in your values, especially your (child’s) education. Rockhurst University makes no bones about its Catholic Jesuit values which embrace people from all backgrounds and religious or non-religious affiliations. We respect diversity of opinion and freedom of conscience.

Click here for info.
http://www.rockhurst.edu/admission/ugrad/jesuit.asp