Thursday, June 30, 2011
June 30, 2011 by Sarah
Sunset on the prairie! It was haunting, unearthly, lovely.
- Marian Sloan Russell, “Land of Enchantment”
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
June 29, 2011 by Sarah
God is even kinder than you think.
- St. Theresa
“The Challenge of Living and Dying with Spirit & Zeal”
June 28, 2011 by Sarah
Sister Jeanette Wasinger, June 4, 2011, in Concordia.
In December 2009, Sister Jeanette Wasinger — then working as a spiritual director for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, Calif. — was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer that had spread to the liver. She decided against aggressive treatment that might prolong her life, and her doctor thought she might survive until Easter — so she came home to Concordia to die. A year and a half later, she is still very much alive, and very much changed by that “gift” she received in the doctor’s office.
On June 28, 2011, Sister Jeanette spoke to the Sisters of St. Joseph gathered at the Nazareth Motherhouse about her journey. Although, as she says, she talks about death every day, this was the first time she spoke to a group about what her diagnosis has meant in her life.
Below are three mp3 files, numbered 1, 2 and 3, and each about 8 minutes long. To listen to Sister Jeanette’s entire presentation, just listen to them in order.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
June 28, 2011 by Sarah
The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.
- Wayne Dyer
Monday, June 27, 2011
June 27, 2011 by Sarah
It is the month of June,
The month of leaves and roses,
When pleasant sights salute the eyes
And pleasant scents the noses.
— Nathaniel Parker Willis
Saturday & Sunday, June 25 & 26, 2011
June 25, 2011 by Sarah
I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper’s wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?
— Mother Teresa
Friday, June 24, 2011
June 24, 2011 by Sarah
What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.
— Gertrude Jekyll
Thursday, June 23, 2011
June 23, 2011 by Sarah
In June as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. No one can heed all of these anniversaries; no one can ignore all of them.
~Aldo Leopold
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
June 21, 2011 by Sarah
FIRST DAY OF SUMMER
Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.
— Rachel Carson
President urges community to see college’s economic value
June 20, 2011 by Sarah
Dr. Danette Toone responds to a question following her presentation Monday evening as part of the 2011 Concordia Speakers Series at the Nazareth Motherhouse.
As Dr. Danette Toone nears her first anniversary as president of Cloud County Community College, she is clearly proud of both the college and the community she’s become a part of. She’s also convinced that she has the background, the energy and the enthusiasm to tackle any challenges that lie ahead.
She brought that conviction to her presentation Monday evening as part of the 2011 Concordia Speakers Series at the Nazareth Motherhouse.
Sister Marcia Allen, president of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, welcomes audience members to Monday evening's presentation.
Toone was raised in Brookville, Kan., just southwest of Salina. After her father was killed in a car wreck when she was 8, her mother — then in her 30s — went back to school at Marymount College and graduated with a degree in social work. “I saw a strong woman raising three children without state aid,” she told her audience. And she would return to her mother’s story throughout her talk as she emphasized the importance of access to education for even the most “non-traditional” students.
Her own path to a college presidency has been similarly non-traditional, she said.
Instead of following what she called “the normal pathway to a presidency” — through instruction, as a faculty member and then dean and then vice president — Toone “came up through economic development.”
Before taking over at Cloud on July 1, 2010, she was vice president of academic and community initiatives at Temple (Texas) College, where she has been since 1998. She received bachelor’s degrees in finance and economics from Washburn University and a master’s degree in finance/management from the University of Texas at Odessa. She received a doctorate of education administration and community college leadership from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009.
“A community college is a critical piece of economic development,” she said. “I’m not sure most people think of it that way.”
Dr. Danette Toone, left, and SIster Marcia Allen chat in the moments before the presentation begins Monday evening.
She noted that Cloud, with campuses in Concordia and Junction City, has about 150 full-time faculty and staff members. There are another 175 part-time faculty and staff working on one of the campuses or at the 39 high schools served by Cloud, she said.
“They pay taxes, they buy groceries,” she noted. “That’s economic development.”
Added to that is the money spent by students while attending school at the Cloud County and Geary County campuses. One solid number she cited was roughly $2 million a year in purchases by students shopping at the Concordia Walmart.
“If you think a community college is not important, think what Concordia would be like without it,” she said.
But while she said Cloud does an “amazing job of getting students here,” that’s not enough. “It’s not just about opening the door; we also have to ensure our students are successful.”
She noted that about 70 percent of incoming Cloud students have “deficiencies” in at least one area of reading, writing or math, and they require extra attention to succeed. That means more focus on individual learning plans and “developmental” or remedial classes, particularly in reading.
“The old ‘vo-tech’ model doesn’t exist anymore,” Toone said. “This is a high-tech world, and even the burger-flippers at McDonald’s have to read and use computers.”
The mission of a community college, she said, is to “provide the scaffolding” from where a student is today to where he or she needs to be for success in life.
She cited a recent analysis by Georgetown University that estimates 482,000 new jobs will be created in Kansas by 2018 — and 75 percent of those will require some sort of post-secondary education. “Figuring in the jobs that already exist,” she added, “by 2018, 64 percent will require post-secondary education” of some type.
One example of the kinds of new jobs that will exist, she said, is wind energy, where Cloud has been a leader with its associate of science degree. The program was recognized earlier this spring as one of seven in the country to receive the American Wind Energy Association Seal of Approval.
Toone gave the fifth of eight scheduled presentations in the 2011 Concordia Speakers Series. The free public talks were an outgrowth of the Community Needs Forums that were held throughout 2009 and 2010 and hosted by the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Upcoming speakers in the series include Cloud County Convention and Tourism co-directors Susie Haver and Tammy Britt on July 18 and Concordia City Manager Larry Uri on Sept. 26.
