Our last week in Italy and Slovenia found us making two trips to Venice and preparing for the end of the course. The students finished and presented their presentations, and Dr. Connor and I gave the last of our lectures.

Venice was beautiful, and I have to agree with everyone who told me that, while many of the sites and cities in Europe may be overrated, Venice is not one of them. We made the two hour train ride and half-hour bus ride the Saturday before we left and spent most of the day in the city until relatively late in the evening. Most of that time was spent wandering and faithfully following the “per S. Marco” and ‘per Rialto” signs to get to the main attractions of the city. I think we must have covered 10 miles that day!

I gave the course final at 10:00 a.m. on Monday the 15^th, and our students enjoyed a home-cooked meal prepared by some of the other students in the class that evening. We departed for Venice again (this time with several hundred pounds of luggage in tow) on Tuesday morning. I spent most of the train ride grading the 10-page essay exams and had most of mine done by the time we got to Venezia Mestre (train station). After we got the luggage stowed away in the hotel room, we made it back to Venice and were able to go into St. Marc’s cathedral, our main goal for the afternoon.

We left the hotel at 4:30 a.m. the next morning and were back in Evansville by around 3:30 p.m. (that 7-hour time difference makes the trip a lot “faster” than when we went over!).

As for me, I hope to make it back to the University of Nova Gorica at some point in the future. Dr. Franco (the head of the Environmental Science department) discussed possible future plans over a beer, and I think that continued cooperation between KWC and UNG is a distinct possibility.

All of us were amazed at how quickly the month went by, and we were all a little sad to see the course come to an end. That said, I think it was a good experience for everyone involved (myself included), and we were all excited to get back on the plane for that long flight home. We found ourselves missing the little things to which we had become accustomed in the U.S. but never really thought about. Ice in cold drinks (and refills for those drinks), the occasional fast food indulgence (meals out were never less than an hour despite our attempts to get the bill and pay), and being able to read (lol) were all sorely missed!

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Kentucky Wesleyan’s Haleigh Ashworth has been chosen as the Great Lakes Valley Conference Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year for her athletic and academic achievements in 2009, as voted by the league’s NCAA Faculty Athletic Representatives.

This marks the first Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award for KWC softball.

Ashworth, a pitcher/shortstop from Owensboro (Owensboro Catholic HS), completed a record setting four-year career for KWC on the mound and at the plate.

On the mound, she led the Panthers in ERA (2.12), wins (15), strikeouts (162), shutouts (7), innings pitched (197.2), appearances (30), games started (26) and complete games (25). Her strikeouts ranked fifth in the league.

At the plate, she finished first in RBIs (32), doubles (11) and extra base hits (13), and second in batting average (.353) and hits (54). Ashworth also led the Great Lakes Valley Conference in doubles.

She was named to the All-GLVC first team and was an All-Midwest Region second team selection.

Ashworth in four seasons set the career pitching record for strikeouts (458) and the career offensive records for hits (213), doubles (42) and at bats (638). She also was second in extra base hits (54) and fielding assists (455).

The four-time GLVC All-Academic honoree maintained a 3.88 cumulative grade point average and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics.

Nominees must have a cumulative grade point average which meets Academic All-America standards (3.30), and freshmen and first-year transfers are not eligible for the award.

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More than 80 incoming freshmen and their parents visited campus yesterday for a “First Year Information Session” designed to prepare them for life at KWC this fall.

Students got to meet with their advisors, have ID cards made, pick up mailbox keys, laundry cards, parking passes, attend tours of the dorms and the YMCA (all students get a free membership) and learn about campus ministries, athletics, Greek life and student life in general.

Parents heard from student services including career, health and dining services. They also met with Paula Dehn, our academic dean, and heard from parents of current students to find out exactly how to survive their student’s first year at KWC.

After lunch and free ice cream from Culvers (it was supposed to be outside, but got rained out), everyone got on the same page with the financial aid office before heading home to ponder life as a college student this fall.

It was a great day – parents were calmed about their kid’s transition to college, and students were excited about what awaits them in a couple of months.

The student life staff assists students in signing up for lots of stuff.

Parents and students at lunch.

The Culver’s trailer sits lonely in the rain. But that’s okay — the ice cream was inside where the people were. Yeah.

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This Saturday, we took a train from Nova Gorica to Lake Bled (no, it’s not red…we made every possible version of that joke on the two hour train ride there). There is however, a really amazing church located on an island in the middle of the church and and the most amazing castle located above the lake. We did’t have time to make it out to the church by the time we had lunch (Sigh- more pizza: An extremely spicy chile and garlic concoction for me) and made the seemingly vertical climb from the forest to the castle overlooking the lake. The lake itself is at approximately 2,000 ft. and the castle is at 3,000 feet (give or take). More than enough elevation for a group of flatlanders!

 We have also visited a castle that less than a mile from my apartment, and I will attach a picture of that one at some point. Three weeks here, and I have visited four different castles. They do a really nice job of making them into museums, and they seem to leave more of the authentic (original) artwork, furniture, etc. there for you to look at. It seems like this is different from the “sterilized” experience you get in the States, but somehow I suspect that the penalties for damaging or vandalizing their museums might be a little…severe.

 The school is having a picnic, and we are all looking forward to a little home cooking. We have been alternating out nights of eating out with cooking dinner (always pasta) in my apartment. At the moment, our plan is to visit Venice this Saturday as our last tourist stop of the trip. Deandra and Jessica had to return home a week early to start back to work (They are finishing the course through the Elluminate system- more on that later), and they visited Venice yesterday before their flight at 6:30 this morning. They said it was amazing and that we need to check it out if at all possible.

 The class continues to go well, and we are now in our final week of class. The students are beginning their presentations, and Dr. Connor and I are beginning to think about the final exam. We have gotten very good at using the Elluminate system, which allows students to view lectures from home in realtime. We can also record the lectures so that they can study or catch up if they happen to miss a class. It has taken some getting used to, but it seems to work very well. I think it would be an excellent tool for teaching online classes, and I plan to talk this over with Dr. Ragsdale!

It is hard to believe that we are down to a little over a week before we actually return home. The time has flown by, but we all miss some of our American comforts, especially being able to read and even talk to someone on the street. Somehow, I know that pizza will never be the same. The sacrifices I make…

That’s all for now. With any luck, I’ll have some pictures of Piazzia San Marco cathedral next week!

Justin

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There are many, however, who do not like it. This guy lists 25 reasons why. He’s pretty funny, so enjoy.

If you think of anything he missed, leave it in the comments …  

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Kentucky Wesleyan catcher Michael Graves has signed a minor league contract to play for the Kalamazoo Kings of the independent Frontier League.

Graves, a 6-foot-2, 220 pound senior from Spring, Texas, started all 52 games for the Panthers in 2009. He led the team in home runs (5) and fielding percentage (.996), finished second in slugging percentage (.416) and at bats (166), third in hits (46), RBIs (19), doubles (8) and runs scored (24), and fourth in batting (.277).

To view his profile on www.kalamazookings.com, go to “kings” on the left hand side, click on “roster” and then click on his name.

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Just wanted to send you a quick update from Slovenia and Italy. Last night we visited a student wine festival held by the Viticulture and Enology program. This is a really impressive practical experience where the students not only have to make the wine but also have to design labels and marketing strategies, as well as talk about their products to the people visiting the festival. I had never done a wine tasting before, but it was fun, and we got to interact with a lot of the students from the program.

Today (May 30) we ventured by bus to two small towns in Slovenia and saw two of the more famous tourist attractions in the country. There is a massive network of caves near the town of Postojna (pronounced Poss-toy-na), and while I cannot remember the actual area that this cave encompasses, it is the largest cave network in the country and is very impressive.

To get down into the cave was a 10-minute tram ride. We then broke up into groups – they had signs for people to group together based on language (Italian, Slovene, German, English, etc.) – and followed our guides through three or four more km of caves before getting back on the train and returning to the surface.

Our next stop (thanks to a handy bit of chauffeuring by Dr. Connor’s daughter and her family) was to the small town of Predjama (pronounced Pred-yah-muh), where there is an amazing castle literally built into the side of a cliff face. Obviously, this castle is several hundred years old, but we were able to take the tour through the five levels of the castle and view different rooms, from a torture chamber to the prince’s bedroom.

One of the really cool things about this cave is that it is associated with another cave system, which the occupants could use to escape on the off-chance that their attackers were able to scale the cliff face and gain entrance to the castle. The girls tell me that this castle was featured on the show Ghost Hunters, but we didn’t come across anything of the supernatural sort. After our adventures and another two-hour bus ride, we were back to Nova Gorica for pizza (sigh) one more time.

The course continues to go well, and we now have the ability to broadcast the lectures over the internet in real time, as well as to record them for future use. This is especially helpful, as Dr. Connor has now given two lectures from Owensboro (at 7:00 a.m. Owensboro time, much to his credit), and students are also able to listen if they are at home or have to miss class.

It’s difficult to believe that two weeks have passed and the course is now halfway completed. There is talk of doing some sightseeing in Venice next weekend, so I will keep you posted. Also, I hope to have a picture of the entire class this Thursday, as we have our second exam, and most of the students should be in attendance.

Hope all is well,
Justin

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Kentucky Wesleyan College student-athletes continue to achieve higher academic success for the fourth consecutive year. Eleven of the 13 sports produced cumulative grade point averages of 2.9 or above with nine teams above a 3.0 for the 2008-09 academic year.

“I am very proud of our student-athletes’ success in the classroom this year,” said Gary Gallup, KWC Director of Athletics. “Our student-athletes have a true understanding of the importance of education. The coaches and staff have done a great job of reinforcing that message to them daily.”

The women’s golf team attained a team cumulative gpa of 3.47, which is the highest earned for all Panther athletic teams. The men’s golf team was second with a gpa of 3.42.

The men’s basketball team recorded the highest gpa increase from the fall semester to the spring semester, raising a 2.64 average to a 2.92. The team was followed by volleyball, women’s golf and football.

Out of 280 student-athletes, 127 (45.4 percent) attained a gpa of 3.0 or higher, including 20 with a perfect 4.0. Sixty-two student-athletes were named to the Spring Dean’s List (3.5+) and 20 to the President’s List (4.0).

KWC student-athletes collectively posted a cumulative gpa of 2.88. The College’s overall student average was 2.95.

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Online classes — including a certificate program in entrepreneurship — are offered at a reduced summer rate at KWC. For more infomation, click here.

Summer Online Session

·         Last day to drop/add: Thursday, May 28

·         Last day to withdraw: Friday, June 26

Summer Session I

·         Last day to drop/add: Thursday, May 28

·         Last day to withdraw: Friday, June 12

Summer Session II

·         Last day to drop/add: Wednesday, July 1

·         Last day to withdraw: Friday, July 17

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KWC students overlooking Trieste, Italy.

From the time we left the Evansville airport, travelled through Detroit, Amsterdam, Venice, and finally arrived in Gorizia, Italy, took almost exactly 24 hours and included air, bus and train travel. Needless to say, we were exhausted when we arrived, and it took a few days to get used to the seven-hour time difference relative to Owensboro.

As for the course, I am teaching Fundamentals of Environmental Science at the University of Nova Gorica (UNG). It’s kind of a strange situation, as the main part of the University is actually on the Slovene side of the border, but the Environmental Science building is located a short distance away in Gorizia, Italy.

The course consists of 33 students attending UNG, and there is a wide array of students, from those just completing their undergraduate degrees to those who are almost ready to obtain their PhD (technically, this is an introductory, graduate-level course). We have students from Slovenia, Turkey, Italy, Bosnia, Iran, Portugal, and a few other places, as well as our students from KWC (Heather Allgood, Deandra Buskill, Jessica Goodin, Callie Hayden, and Lauren Seber). The class was very shy at first, but has loosened up a lot in the first week of class. We have had some good discussions so far.

The students are living in student apartments on the Slovene side of the border, and my apartment is near the lecture building in Gorizia. It is interesting having two very different languages being spoken in such close proximity, especially when I don’t speak either one. My Spanish has allowed me to get by on the Italian side of the border, but Slovene is very different. The students and I have commented on several occasions that it is quite a shock to go from being a relatively well-educated person to completely illiterate literally overnight.

The food here has been quite good, although I must admit that we have not been too adventurous so far. We have adhered to a strict diet of pizza and pasta with the occasional salad thrown in for good measure. That said, we have agreed that both the pasta and pizza are the best any of us have ever had, and I’m afraid we are going to be spoiled when we return to the U.S.!

Yesterday (Saturday), we took a train to Trieste, which is on the coast of Italy. This is a much larger city than we have experienced so far, and we spent quite a lot of time walking around and taking in the sights. We visited an aquarium, a castle, and a cathedral and ended our day with some time at the beach.

Doors into UNG’s environmental science department.

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