What a day!

I just got back from broomball (pictures soon!) and earlier today our orientation meeting with our new students. Dr. Spanier opened the evening and I added a few words after that. Pizza with faculty followed and it was great! Well, I hope everyone else thought it was great. I enjoyed meeting so many of you and I was pleased to see so many faculty come to meet with the students. Their support is fantastic and I encourage students (as they heard from me today) to get to know their Honors advisors and other faculty. They are a great source of information and interesting people too.

The orientation events continue tomorrow and I look forward to seeing you at the tailgate on Saturday!

Roundtables

One of our new programs this year are Roundtables. These are weekly meetings, alternating Wed and Thur afternoons (with a few exceptions) that will be held in the Grandfather Clock Lounge in Atherton from 4-5pm. Food will be provided! Below is the schedule for the start of the semester. I hope to see you there!

Thursday, September 14:
Dr. Christian M.M. Brady, Schreyer Honors College
"That Vision Thing - The Future of Schreyer Honors College"

Thursday, September 21:
Dr. Kristine Clark, Department of Nutrition,
“Fueling Your Performance in the Classroom and in Your Active Lifestyle”

Wednesday, September 27:
Dr. J. Phillip Jenkins, Departments of Religious Studies and History,
“Must There be a Clash between Civilizations and Religions”

Thursday, October 5: TBA

Wednesday, October 11:
Dr. James Pawelczyk, Department of Kinesiology,
“The Future of Space Exploration”

Thursday, October 19:
Dr. Clay Calvert, Department of Communications and Law,
“The First Amendment and Free Speech: A look at Current Issues”

Wednesday, October 25:
Dr. John Harwood, Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology,
"Some Modest Reflections on Originality, Creativity, and Academic Integrity: Penn State's Experience with Cyber-plagiarism and Turnitin"

A New Year Begins!

Our student mentors arrived today and are ready for our newest class to arrive tomorrow! I look forward to meeting you all tomorrow evening.

Blake and Linda Gall of State College, longtime supporters of the Schreyer Honors College and Penn State, have been named Penn State's 2006 Renaissance Fund Honorees, and will be honored at a Nov. 14 dinner that will raise funds for academically talented Penn State

students with the greatest financial need. The Gall's philanthropy to Penn State includes the creation of an endowed faculty fellowship, support of various capital projects, and four endowed scholarships, including most recently a Trustee Matching Scholarship for the College of Arts and Architecture. Said Linda, "The more you learn about the need, the more compelling the case for support."

Their daughter Lauren and son-in-law Sam are graduates of the Schreyer Honors College, and their daughter Andrea is now in her second year at Penn State.

Full story on Penn State Live

PSU Football & Podcasts

My brother, a PSU PhD and a new faculty member at PSU-Harrisburg, and his son, no doubt a future PennStater, have started their own podcast. The latest episode is mostly about football. It is amazing what a 14 year old (currently living in central OH!) knows about PSU football.

SHC will be starting our own podcast this semester and this won't be lil' ol' mean and my computer's mic. It will be a bi-weekly show featuring news, interviews, maybe even some trivia, and will be produced by our own students. So stay tuned and let us know who you would like to have interviewed! (Maybe even the Coach?)

How Summer 2006 grads have "lived well"

Agree or disagree? "The purpose of life is not to be happy." What if you add the rest of the Emerson quote, "It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well"? During his speech at the Summer 2006 medals ceremony, President Graham Spanier indicates some of the ways in which our Summer 2006 graduates have "lived well."

Academic Excellence:

• 88 percent have a 3.5 GPA or higher and 32 percent are pursuing a double major.

• Scholars in this class have studied everything from street children in Latin America and plant closings in rural Pennsylvania, to images of slavery at the Smithsonian, tourism in Fiji, and the role of electric and magnetic fields in powder metal compacts.

• Within this class is also the winner of the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship, an international scholarship for outstanding graduate students to study at the University of Cambridge, as well as the recipient of a national Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for excellence in science, engineering, and mathematics.

Internationalization:

• Nearly half of the class has traveled and studied abroad in countries such as New Zealand, Costa Rica, Thailand, and Bangladesh. One scholar plans to go on to spend two years teaching secondary science education for the Peace Corps in sub-Saharan Africa.

Leadership and Civic Engagement:

• The class contains leaders from a multitude of areas, such as the president of the Graphic Design Association, president of Penn State Amnesty International, vice president of Engineering Leadership Development, and the president of the Penn State Investment Association.

• Some of these Scholars also are volunteers for the American Red Cross, Dance Marathon, and Second Mile, an organization that helps at-risk youth.

To find out more about the jugglers, moms, and ironwoman (oh my!) see Dr. Spanier's speech.

Here's to you, Summer 2006 graduates!

SHC Spikes Game Outing

From Donna Meyer, our coordinator of student and alumni programs, has arranged this great event! I love sports and baseball, college and minor league particularly, is great. The new stadium is fantastic as well. So please consider signing up for the game!

You and your families are invited to represent the
Schreyer Honors College & enjoy an exciting night of Spikes Baseball
(the last game of the season)
with Dean Brady and his family!

Thursday, September 7
7:05 p.m.
Arrive at 5:30 p.m. and tour Medlar Park (optional)

Stay after the game for a Fireworks Extravaganza!

TO RESERVE YOUR TICKETS, SIGN-UP IN C-5 ATHERTON HALL or contact
Rosanna Mersinger at rlm29@psu.edu

Tickets: $6.00 payable when you sign-up
Checks payable to "State College Spikes"
Pick-up tickets at SHC table near the entrance gate night of the game.

Deadline for reservations is Friday, September 1.
Minimum party of 25 needed to make this happen!

Open to Scholars, staff, families and friends.

[Note Junior Orientation is from 6:00-7:00 p.m...Scholars can certainly join us after Orientation!]

Get ready to "Fear the Deer"

Around the world in two months

August is an exciting time at the honors college, when the seemingly sleepy summertime pace turns into great anticipation of students returning and hearing back from Scholars who spent their summer working in internships.

Pictured at the left are Scholars participating in the 2006 Center for Strategic and International Studies Summer Internship Program in Washington, D.C., as they spent some time with Mr. Schreyer and Scholar alumni.

Third from the right is Scholar Rodney Hughes, who reports that during the 2-month internship, he worked on projects and participated in activities and presentations spanning Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, and Lebanon. He sums up his experience by saying, "My CSIS experience was instrumental in helping me to understand the world, and it will be instrumental as I discover my place in it through graduate school or a career." Read about Rodney's experience in his own words.

SHC Medals Ceremony

Friday evening was the medal ceremony for this summer's graduating scholars. It was a wonderful event with the Provost and President Spanier attending along with Mr. Schreyer himself. We were also honored to

have these board members with us: Anne Riley, J. Lloyd Huck (emeritus), and Quentin E. Wood (emeritus).

Needless to say, it was my first medal ceremony and my first glimpse of this class. President Spanier's speech revealed the amazing accomplishments of this tremendous group of students. The ones that stick out in my mind are the student who will have an article published in a peer review journal, the student who played an won "fabulous prizes" on the Price is Right (a grand piano!), the student in the trombone choir (and about 10 other groups), and the two students who are parents as well as highly accomplished academics.




It was a great pleasure and privilege to be there to celebrate with you and your families.

Congratulations to you all!

A First!

Today I was very pleased when David Young became the first SHC scholar to send me an IM! Don't forget that you can reach me on AIM at drcbrady.

An alternative to U.S. News Report?

U.S. News and World Report is often one of the first stops along the journey to deciding upon a school. Washington Monthly takes a different approach to rating schools.

The magazine ranks institutions "as engines of social mobility; as producers of academic minds and scientific research that advance knowledge and drive economic growth; and as forces to inculcate and encourage an ethic of service."

Penn State ranked third, behind only Massachusetts Institute of Technology (first) and University of California, Berkeley (second).

For the full story, see http://live.psu.edu/story/18892.

Live from New York!

Tonight I am in NYC after meeting with a wonderful group of alumni and students. The evening was a celebration of the accomplishments of women involved with the SHC and included two of our current students who are completing their summer internships. Our speaker for the evening was Leslie R. Caldwell ’79 (Econ), currently a partner in the Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, but formerly a 17 year veteran of the US Department of Justice. Perhaps most prominently Ms. Caldwell was director of the special task force that investigated the Enron corporate scandal. Her presentation outlined the collapse of Enron and the subsequent investigation but the Q&A afterward was just as worthwhile as Ms. Caldwell shared about her experience interviewing various people (such as Dick Cheney) for the Enron case and being a woman in criminal law and the department of justice.

I am very grateful to Ms. Caldwell for speaking and for all who came to the program! This is one of the first of various programs we will hold in cities around the country in order to remain connected with our alumni and supporters, but most of all to bring our current students in contact with alumni. I hope to see you at a gathering soon!

The excitement of starting the new year

Hi there, I came across this link today and thought it would be of great interest to students who are just starting their college careers come move-in day this August, their parents, and anyone who remembers what it was like to start college:

http://live.psu.edu/story/18823

Gives tips beyond "Grandpa's instruction to 'study hard,' mom's suggestion to 'call if you get homesick,' big sister's reminder that 'bad things happen when you eat pizza seven days a week,' explaining how new students can:

Forge a connection with students and faculty

Keep time on their side

Read, read and then read a little more

Get out of their comfort zone

Orient themselves to college life

The article also links to the Welcome Week Web site: "includes reminders to get vaccinated, purchase a long-distance phone card, and review campus parking and unloading information, among many other tips. The site also includes tips to prepare for checking in at a residence hall."

:) Sara