January 3 – 19, 2012, could be epic for Kentucky Wesleyan College students.

For three short weeks, you get to take the college classes you’ll remember for a lifetime, the classes that aren’t requirements for your major, the classes that you’ll write home about (literally), the classes that are the reason you came to college. And you get to do it all at half the normal tuition rate.

We created Winter Term to let professors and students get out of their traditional class routines and have an adventure or two. Classes change every year — in 2012, try Leadership Through Sailing (in the Virgin Islands, on a working sailboat) or The Tudors (including 10 days of touring in England) or jump into another culture with a international studies trip to Costa Rica.

If international travel isn’t your thing, we’ve got other options right here in Owensboro. Physics and the Arts (the math is easy), Ye Gods and Goddesss (classical mythology) or Musical Theatre (if you’ve always wanted to sing and dance) all promise to be great.

The point? You can have fun and earn credit all at the same time with a winter term class at KWC. Plus, the price is half off. Seriously.

So if you need an extra class to graduate on time or if you want credits at a reduced rate or if you just want to broaden your horizons and have some fun, check out KWC Winter Term 2012 for a world of possibilities.

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Travel classes:

The Tudors (England)
Leadership Through Sailing (Virgin Islands)
Costa Rica

For a full list of other classes available, visit www.kwc.edu/winterterm.

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Details: 

For more info about how to register, when classes meet, tuition costs, etc., visit www.kwc.edu/winterterm. Registration for new students opens November 7 — sign up today!

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Zev Buffman is a legendary Broadway producer who has produced more than 40 shows and 100 national tours. He brought Elizabeth Taylor and Dustin Hoffman to Broadway and was a founding member of the NBA’s Miami Heat. He has spent the last eight years as the director of Owensboro’s RiverPark Center.

Laura Early, assistant professor of theatre arts at KWC, arranged for Buffman to spend last evening at KWC reminiscing about his life and career. The story that follows was in the Messenger-Inquirer today.

Buffman shares tales of his past and announces his departure at KWC
By Dariush Shafa, Messenger-Inquirer
Published: Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Nearly every seat was taken in Roger’s Hall at Kentucky Wesleyan College on Tuesday night as students, faculty and residents turned out to hear Zev Buffman talk about his experiences in show business. The crowd got an extra treat as Buffman also shared his favorite stories and some of the lessons he learned along the way.

Buffman’s stories ranged from his first big break as a director and producer to working with celebrities such as Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Taylor and Muhammad Ali.

Laughter and applause turned to disappointment though, as the president and CEO of the RiverPark Center also shared the news of his pending departure. Buffman’s eight-year contract at the RiverPark Center was not renewed in a Tuesday meeting of the RiverPark Center’s board, and Buffman announced he has accepted a job in Clearwater, Fla.

Still, Buffman said Tuesday’s event at KWC was something that he was glad to do, even with the day’s events weighing on his heart.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for the two or three months it’s been in the works. I’m only sorry we didn’t do it more often,” Buffman said.

Those in attendance said they not only enjoyed Buffman’s stories and advice, but are sad that his time in Owensboro is drawing to a close.

“I am a Broadway child. My mother was a Broadway dancer, and I’m from New York City,” said Ginny Weant, a vocal performance sophomore at KWC. “Every story (he told) was meaningful and can be applied not only to theater but to life in general.

“I’m very heartbroken I don’t get to spend more time with him, but I’m very grateful for the opportunity (tonight),” Weant said.

Buffman’s departure will be difficult to overcome, said Matt Ruark, Assistant Director for Development at KWC, who came to see Buffman’s event.

“He’s done a lot for Owensboro, and I just wanted to hear about it straight from his mouth,” Ruark said. “That’s a great loss for Owensboro. I don’t think we’ll be able to replace him.”

Laura Early, assistant professor of theater arts at KWC, said she’s glad Buffman was able to come for the event.

“It’s huge. How many times do you have the opportunity to have someone who’s produced 40 Broadway shows speak to students?” Early said. “You can tell the students love it. They’re just ecstatic to meet him.”

Phoenix Jenkins, a senior studying sociology at KWC, also said she was happy to be there and talk to Buffman.

“I felt honored,” Jenkins said. “He’s humble and he shows you that you can be all you can be.”

Buffman said he is especially enthusiastic about the future show business and educational possibilities that exist in Owensboro thanks to the partnership between the RiverPark Center and local educational institutions.

“The marriage between the performing arts center and theater students is not always possible,” Buffman said. “You don’t get that in Miami or New York because you can’t get them (students) across the line because there are strict (labor and union) rules.

“This is not only going to be a more important college town when the new downtown arrives, but also a major destination for theater students,” Buffman said.”There is a great future for this town just around the corner.”

During the event, Buffman said that the opportunity to talk to and share experiences with students is a joy because it’s a chance to pass on the little things that helped make him successful.

“You should never stop dreaming just because you wake up in the morning,” Buffman said, noting how that is one of his favorite sayings.

Buffman later said he felt Tuesday night’s event helped take away some of the sorrow from the end of his time in Owensboro.

“On a day like today, which was a day of departure and moving on, this to me was a phenomenal catharsis of just feeling free and happy about my eight years here and knowing I can still make contact with young people,” Buffman said.

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Another successful commencement has now come and gone — 164 students graduated from KWC last Saturday, and while we had to move the ceremony inside because of the rain, it was still a great day.

CNN’s Ali Velshi delivered the commencement address and did a wonderful job. His executive producer is Kelly Frank, a 1996 graduate of KWC. She briefly addressed the graduates at their Senior Farewell/Honor Breakfast Saturday morning.

We have photos and a couple videos from the weekend now posted online. You can see links to the various Flickr photo sets from the Photos page in the Commencement section of our website.

 Sets posted on Flickr include:
- Graduation
- Senior Breakfast
- Senior Dinner
- Miscellaneous (rehearsal, class photo, etc.)
- Class of 1961 50-Year Reunion

We’ve also got some new videos on YouTube, including:

- Highlights from Ali Velshi’s Commencement Address
- A clip of the Faculty/Staff Chorale’s enthusiastic rendition of “Wesleyan” (complete with instruments)
- A clip of remarks from Kelly Frank ‘96 at Senior Breakfast

We should have more graduation photos soon, as well as the complete text of Ali Velshi’s speech and a video of the entire ceremony. Until then, enjoy – if you see a photo you’d like a copy of, just send an email to bhoak[AT]kwc[DOT]edu.

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The Kentucky Wesleyan College History Department will host a Kentucky Humanities Council Chautauqua about U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan on Monday, November 29, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. in Hager Hall at the Ralph Center. Edward B. Smith of Cynthiana, Ky., will portray Harlan (1833-1911), a Kentucky lawyer and politician. The public is invited.

During Harlan’s 33-year tenure on the Supreme Court, he dissented in some of the court’s most important civil rights cases, earning him the title, “The Great Dissenter.” In one of the most famous dissents in U.S. Supreme Court history, Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the constitutionality of segregation, Harlan wrote, “Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows or tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.”

His words were an inspiration to Thurgood Marshall during the Civil Rights Movement. Marshall was the NAACP chief counsel who would later be appointed to the Supreme Court. He cited Harlan’s dissent as he argued to end segregation in the 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education.

Kentucky Chautauqua brings fascinating characters from Kentucky’s past to life. The Kentucky Humanities Council tells Kentucky’s story and celebrates the contributions of Kentuckians to the quality of life in the Commonwealth.

For more, visit the website for the Kentucky Humanities Council. Here’s a video describing the Kentucky Chautauqua series:

* You know you were wondering — from merriam-webster.com: Chautauqua — any of various traveling shows and local assemblies that flourished in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that provided popular education combined with entertainment in the form of lectures, concerts, and plays, and that were modeled after activities at the Chautauqua Institution of western New York.

For three short weeks, you get to take the college classes you’ll remember for a lifetime, the classes that aren’t requirements for your major, the classes that you’ll write home about (literally), the classes that are the reason you came to college. And you get to do it all at half the normal tuition rate.

We created Winter Term to let professors and students get out of their traditional class routines and have an adventure or two. Classes change every year — in 2011, try Leadership Through Sailing (in the Virgin Islands! On a real sailboat!) or The Tudors (including 10 days of touring in England) or jump into another culture with a international studies trip to Calnali, Mexico.

If international travel isn’t your thing, we’ve got other options right here in Owensboro. Physics and the Arts (the math is easy), the Bible and Literature or Film History (hey, we all like to watch movies) all promise to be great.

The point? You can have fun and earn credit all at the same time with a winter term class at KWC. Plus, the price is half off. Seriously.

So if you need an extra class to graduate on time or if you want credits at a reduced rate or if you just want to broaden your horizons or have some fun, check out KWC Winter Term 2011 for a world of possibilities.

Class List (click links for more details)

Travel Classes
- BIO 2307 – Tropical Marine Biology (Class in January, travel to Belize on Spring Break)
- ENGL 3342 – Tour of England: The Tudors
- INS 2309 – International Studies: Trip to Calnali, Mexico
- LS 3390 – Leadership Through Sailing (Virgin Islands)

On-Campus Classes
- ACCT 4318 – Principles of Auditing – Senior Project
- BA 3353 – Operations Management
- BA 4355 – Organizational Leadership
- CART 1341 – Basic Public Speaking
- CART 4310 – Topics: Film History
- ED 2302 – Educational Technology
- ED 3202 – Teaching Reading in the Content Area
- ENGL 2330 – World Lit: Classical Mythology
- ENGL 3377 (or REL 3377) – The Bible and Literature
- HIST 3336 – History of Europe 1815-1914
- HIST 3390 – Korea and Vietnam
- MATH 1301 – Verticality of the Math Pre K-12 Curriculum
- MUS 3300 – Rock and Roll: Its Influence on Society
- MUS 3350 – Topics: History of Musical Theatre
- PHIL 3300 – The Ethics of War
- PEH 3311 – Physical Activity for Special Populations
- PHYS 1302 – Physics and the Arts
- PHYS 4303 – Topics: Analog and Digital Electronics Through Hands-On Interaction
- SOC 3330 – Practicum

WINTER TERM DESCRIPTION
Winter term courses at KWC meet five days a week during the month of January. Students may enroll in one course for a total of three or four credit hours per term. Tuition is $260/hour — half the normal rate. Travel classes have additional costs.

WINTER TERM SCHEDULE
- Residence halls open for residential students participating in WT Jan. 2
- Instruction begins 8:00 a.m. Jan. 3
- Drop/Add begins 8:00 a.m. Jan. 3
- Final date to drop without course appearing on transcript Jan. 4
- Final date to drop with “W” Jan 14
- MLK Day (no classes) Jan. 17
- Last day of class Jan. 20
- Examination or project due date Jan. 22

REGISTRATION
Registration for Winter Term 2011 classes begins November 8, according to the following schedule:

- Seniors (90+ hours): Nov. 8-9
- Juniors (60-89 hours): Nov. 11-12
- Sophomores (30-59 hours): Nov. 15-16
- Freshmen (0-29 hours): Nov. 18-19

Status is based on hours earned and does not include hours still in progress. First-semester freshmen must register through their academic advisor. Everyone else may register through PantherNet. You may register after your registration dates, but not before.

If you’re not a student at KWC and want to take a Winter Term class, contact our Admissions office at 270-852-3120 or admitme@kwc.edu. If you have questions about the classes, check with the Academic Dean’s office (peggiegr@kwc.edu or 270-852-3117).

Don’t wait to register — some class sizes are limited or must meet a quota to be held. Register today and in a few weeks, you’ll be having the time of your life.

Today, September 17, 2010, is Constitution Day in the United States.  The occasion, also known as Citizenship Day, commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution by thirty-nine men on September 17, 1787.

You can find out more about the day and the Constitution itself at www.constitutionday.com.  You can read the Constitution, check out the Bill of Rights and the other 17 amendments and learn about the 39 Founding Fathers who signed the Constitution.

You can also buy lots of Constitution-related items, including books and DVDs.

If you’d like a free copy of the Constitution, fill this form out and you’ll get a free pocket-sized edition of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

Take a minute and read at least the preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Majestic words that helped to found our country. Read them, know them, think about them — that’s what Constitution Day 2010 is all about.

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When someone makes a late night run to Steak N’ Shake, go. The food might not be the best in the world, or remotely good for you, but those late night conversations will stay with you longer than the calories on the plate. When the World Series occurs, and people start converging in the common areas to root and watch, hang around. You may not like baseball, or either team playing, but in the end you will be richer for a communal moment that is harder to come by in a technology based world. For the record, in 1996 the Yankees played the Braves.  I am a diehard Yankees fan, and I took more grief than I care to remember for yelling for the pinstripes. Memories of watching those games, amongst my roommates, football players, random people from class, and those I still call friends still bring excitement and joy to me.

Use these same acquaintances along the way to battle the hard classes and laugh at the great ones. Embrace study groups, but don’t pester professors for review days. More often than not, those don’t happen. Instead, rely on yourself and your cadre of friends to amass the understanding needed for the task at hand. I firmly believe ninety percent of the college experience teaches you to make decisions on your own, stand your own ground and learn how to maneuver this thing we call life.

Notice, I did not say ace the exam. Why? Much like life, academic scores come from understanding. If you understand the material, you will show that in your answers. If you try to dryly memorize the data your answers will show a lack of understanding with jumbled and convoluted phrases sloppily laid on your page. This sense of understanding should carry you through your days. Do not worry if you don’t have a major in your first year. Do not worry if you still don’t have one in your second year. If you reach your junior year and still have no direction, then you should certainly seek some guidance. Why shouldn’t you worry? Those pesky classes called the deck requirements aren’t put there to drum you into submission. They give you a sampling of skills, subjects, and tasks. They should help you find what your true passion is. I have to say, if your true passion is history, don’t worry about how much money you won’t make. Instead, relish in the fact of how you will do something you love and love what you do.  

I see that this year the freshman class logo is “Your future is so bright you gotta wear shades.” What was mine? I transferred to KWC in 1996, and I think we were “Foundations.” Honestly, I cannot remember. What I do recall is that within a matter of weeks – like many college coeds – my wardrobe became a poster board for KWC. My friends were a hop and skip away.  Watching the football team lose wasn’t so bad because we knew them and knew they had heart. The basketball team brought up bragging rights for that blue and white school on the other side of the state. And . . . dubbing my favorite professor Captain History, later to be named “The Grinch who Stole My GPA,” and when he turned thirty, we painted Minerva in his honor.

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Annessa Ann Babic ’98 majored in English and History at KWC. She earned a Ph.D. in U.S. History from Stony Brook University in 2008 and currently teaches at New York Institute of Technology and SUNY College at Old Westbury. She is the co-editor of The Globetrotting Shopaholic (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008), has written scores of academic pieces and uses a pen name to write fiction. She lives in Astoria (Queens), NY.

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It’s that time of year again, when young and old all across the land head back to school.  Back in the day, I stood in line as a new kid to get my polyester gym shorts and white tee. You could smell the fear in the room. Ugh, gym class and middle school. Neither were good combinations, particularly those polyester shorts. Ugh, gym shorts.

The power of literary technique allows me to jump forward seven or so years to my days at Kentucky Wesleyan. Those first days for new freshmen are always filled with wonder and awe, and in many cases a lot of angst arises. Unfortunately, this angst does not necessarily dissipate with the swing of the new semester. More often than not, though, this angst can pass rather seamlessly like the turns of the seasons. These are the things I often try to convey to my own timid freshman, or drifting and worried upperclassmen.

I graduated college in 1998, and yes we had the internet. My college days were shortly before the birth of Google, long before the advent of internet blackmail known as YouTube, at the beginning of cell phones becoming commonplace, right before the installation of key cards versus keys, when the computer lab was the only place to do your work, and at the end of the era when cable was not in dorm rooms. We gathered in common rooms to watch South Park and yell at ESPN games. In the midst of this, course work fell and campus legends loomed.

First, professors do not sharpen their pencils with their teeth or grade your papers with their blood. Trust me. We do not idle away at our desks and computers looking for ways to make your life miserable, and when we say come speak to us you should. Course syllabi are like maps for the semester, and like any good road trip, things may change. So when a professor adds a reading, or changes a due date, he or she is doing it because the nature of the group calls for it. Believe it or not, we have lives. We like ball games, we like dinner with friends, and we like to do things non-academic. Hence, when something is due turn it in. When you have trouble, don’t wait until the last minute to get help. Emailing a professor at 1:00 a.m. the night before the final will not help your grade.

On that same note, but slightly different, college is about more than the books. My fondest memories of KWC involve strolling through the quad and sharing a soda with those I met along the way. There used to be an infant tree outside what is now the Old Grill. In 2000 a tornado came and took it down, and to this day I am still saddened. Why? I read Jack Kerouac under that tree, studied for my favorite class, and Melanie Basham, Sonya Martin and I planned how we would change the world.

My point: remember in the hustle and bustle to stop and talk to those around you. Those first few days you won’t know many or even anyone. Within a week you will certainly know at least twenty-five, and the beauty and joy of KWC is that it is a small campus. There is always a friend around a corner. Though too, the pain of KWC is that it is small. If you do something outlandishly stupid you will be reminded four years later after you walk across the stage. More so, remember to have fun.

Stay tuned for Part 2, coming soon …

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If you plan to go abroad for either term, contact Pam Parr with the KWC Study Abroad Program as soon as you can. She’s in FOB 16 or at 270-852-3226 or you can e-mail her here.

She will get you a grant application packet, which you must return to her by September 1, 2010. The packet includes the following items:

• Two faculty recommendations (using the form included in the packet)
• Essay (instructions included in the packet)
• Advisor approval of abroad courses (using the International Studies Approval Form)
• Application to Study Abroad Program (Need ideas/suggestions? E-mail Pam Parr for information)
• Submission of official Statement of Cost
• Nonrefundable $25 application fee

If you’re interested, get in touch with Pam Parr and she will start you on your way around the world.

If you’re on the fence about whether or not studying abroad is worth the effort, check out these links (you’ll be off the fence in no time):

• KWC Senior David Bertschinger’s blog from his semester in Rome (Spring 2010)
• Photos from KWC Junior Aaron Taylor’s class this summer in England.
• Info on a study abroad trip to England during KWC’s Winter 2011 Term next January.
• More general info on KWC’s study abroad program.

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