DC President's Blog

I just returned yesterday from several days of meetings with dozens of prospective students in Florida.  It was lots of fun meeting each student and his/her family individually, as well as talking about Defiance College more generally.  And I enjoyed telling the students how they are part of a growing trend of students from all around the country applying to Defiance.  In fact, so far this year, applications from outside Ohio to Defiance College are up nearly 20%, and we are now at the point where approximately half of all our applications are coming from out-of-state students.

When I was talking with many of these students and their parents, I found that there was a lot of interest in the distinctive ways that Defiance College prepares its students for their careers and their future.  Of course, it all starts with the Personal Success Plan – as we start working with students even before they arrive on campus in putting together their personal strategic goals for the next four years.  These goals run the gamut from academic goals to career and personal goals.

A number of parents of prospective students told me how struck they were by the ways in which Defiance College then offers a wide range of hands-on experiences that link what goes on in the classroom with the realities of the outside world.  For example, our innovative student-run non-profit (which now has over 100 students working on it) – Project 701 – gives students an opportunity to create, develop, manage and run their own service projects.  These projects range from DCPC Solutions (in which computer students are providing computer repair services in the community) to Creating Defiance (in which graphic design students run their own studio), from the free primary health care clinic our students are working on setting up (which will give such great hands-on experience for our pre-med, nursing, athletic training, social work, and other students) to the micro-finance lending project a group of business students are working to establish in Jamaica.

But the truth is that Project 701 is just the tip of the iceberg.  Under the DC Business Advantage Program, we can offer our business majors real hands-on experience running and managing a business, as our business students are about to open up for an initial pilot run their own retail outlet on campus.  Our Cold Case Initiative gives criminal justice, forensics and other students an opportunity to investigate cold cases for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office in Detroit.  Our Restoration Ecology students get hands-on experience managing a real living laboratory – the 250 acre wildlife sanctuary just minutes away from our campus.  Our Sport Management students will play a major role in running and managing our new Field House when it opens later this year.  I could go on and on across the different majors, but I think there really is something special in these opportunities that our students receive to build their own distinctive Defiance Resume.

After all, we want our students to be able to stand out both in the marketplace and in applying to graduate schools, and these kinds of hands-on experiences, together with the international travel under the DC Global Program (which I discussed in a previous blog); the exposure to different cultural, arts and humanities performances in domestic excursions throughout the Midwest and the East; the tremendous service opportunities through our path-breaking McMaster School for Advancing Humanity; the networking and other opportunities made possible by our dedicated alumni as well as our ever-increasing number of advisory boards related to different majors; our Defiance College Partnership for Jobs in which the College subsidizes up to half the salaries for students working part-time to gain experience and contacts while they are attending DC; and much more – they all add up to a set of skills, training, and experiences that really can enable our students to stand out from the crowd.

We are, of course, proud of the ways that our students grow on a personal level while at DC, developing their leadership potential, expanding their perspectives, having an opportunity to go “beyond their comfort zone” in an environment which will both challenge and support them.   Taken together, from their initial conversation about their Personal Success Plan before starting as freshmen through the next four years of personal growth and professional development, DC students receive many opportunities to build that distinctive Defiance Resume which will enable them to stand out in special ways.  As President of Defiance College, I look forward to working closely on a personal level with those students I met in Florida as well as with the numerous prospective students I meet with individually whenever they come to visit our campus in helping them achieve their personal goals in our unique DC environment.

I had a delightful time this past Saturday with a group of our students, as we traveled together to Cleveland to tour the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, followed by a dinner in Little Italy (and, of course, some gelato nearby), and then a performance of the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall.  This Friday, Anne and I will be taking a group of students interested in dance to see a performance of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company in Detroit; and on Sunday and Monday, I will be showing about 25 of our students around New York City.

Of course, taken together, that all makes for a very action-packed ten days for me.  But this has really gotten me thinking about the even wider breadth of  cultural and travel opportunities our students are currently enjoying.  In fact, if you just take a period of about three months (from mid-February to mid-May) this semester, by my count approximately one quarter of our college students will be on the road at some point:  learning, enjoying new experiences, opening their minds to new ideas and cultures, gaining insights that can help them in the competition for jobs and graduate school placements.

In addition to the trips I have already mentioned, here are some of the other excursions our students are participating in during this three month period:

• A trip by Honors Program students to Italy
• A McMaster School-sponsored trip to Belize and then another one to Cambodia
• An excursion to hear a Mahler Symphony performed by the Cleveland Orchestra
• A one-day tour focused on art and historical sites in Detroit
• Training camp trips to Florida by the baseball and softball teams and to South Carolina by the Men’s Tennis Team
• A two-day trip to Chicago, which is expected to include going to an  “improvisational” performance; attending a play; seeing a museum; visiting the Shedd Aquarium, and more
• A multi-day Civil Rights History trip to Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, Nashville, and Cincinnati
• A service trip to Jamaica
• A service trip to North Carolina

I know there are more, but that is a nice sample, and I think it illustrates one of the ways that Defiance College offers students the best of all worlds:  the benefits of a small college together with a world of opportunities.

Frequent readers of this blog may recall my blog several months ago when I was traveling with DC students and faculty in Belize.  I was amazed by the experience, and I was particularly proud of our students.  They truly excelled in terms of performing their individual projects, but they also grew and developed in remarkable ways.

The experience that comes from traveling internationally, from being exposed to different cultures and peoples, is truly a life-changing one.  That is why I am so pleased that Defiance College has decided to take a truly transformational step in introducing our new DC Global program.  Under DC Global, every incoming full-time freshman (starting this fall of 2011) who successfully completes the full four year program of study at Defiance College will be guaranteed an international opportunity while at DC.

And what an incredible opportunity that can be!  Some students will benefit from trips through the McMaster School for Advancing Humanity; others will travel with faculty members on trips related specifically to their major; while others may travel with their sports team (as the Men’s Basketball Team is traveling to Jamaica this coming May), through the Honors Program,  or in other groupings.  In fact, we are also exploring ways to provide scholarships through DC Global to help defray the travel costs for students who may want to spend a summer studying abroad.

Imagine being able to meet with business leaders in Europe, explore the history of ancient Rome and Greece, see first-hand approaches to teaching on another continent, do chemical analysis of water in Central America, train local healthcare workers to diagnose malaria in Cambodia, work to save an endangered species in the tropics, observe social work practices in different cultures, discover how law enforcement techniques contrast in different countries, and much more.  There truly are a world of opportunities available for DC students!

DC Global is also part of our larger effort to help students create what I call a Defiance Resume.  Many of the experiences that DC students can take advantage of – whether internationally, domestically, or close to home; whether inside or outside the classroom – are geared toward assisting students to develop a resume of distinctive skills and experiences that can help them stand out in the marketplace (or when applying to graduate school).

Personally, I cannot wait to begin seeing all the wonderful international experiences that our DC students enjoy.  And, I must admit, I hope to be able to travel along on at least some of them!

It is tough to believe that we are already two full weeks into the new semester.    From my perspective as President, it is really wonderful having all the students back on campus after the Christmas break.  I missed seeing them during the first week, because I was traveling in Florida visiting nearly 30 alumni of the college.  My meetings with those alumni went very well, and I am always struck by how many alumni tell me about how much they enjoyed their time at DC and what an impact it has had on their lives.  The mentoring relationships with faculty, the friendships with classmates, the ways their DC experiences helped prepare them for jobs and success – all seem to have an enduring impact years and decades after they graduate.

This past week, I have been on campus, and it has been a particularly active time.  I don’t think an evening has gone by that Anne, the boys and I have not had numerous students over at the house – whether for dinner, study tables, watching TV or a movie together, discussing students’ plans for this semester, playing ping pong or any combination of these.  In fact, yesterday (Saturday) evening we hosted the Pep Band over for dinner at 5:30.  We all had such a great time that by the time we turned around, other students were starting to arrive for Movie Night at 10 pm.  So several members of the Band ended up staying for the movie as well.

But the days have been even more active than the evenings.  Our computer students are moving forward setting up their innovative project to provide a computer repair service to members of the community.  Our graphic design students are about to launch their new graphic design studio.  Our early childhood education students are involved in a pilot project which gets them actual classroom experience much sooner than has traditionally been the case.  And this past week, we hosted the first meeting of our Sports Management Advisory Board.  This is part of our continuing effort to use outside advisory boards for many of our majors (already operating are advisory boards for Digital Forensics, Criminal Justice, Business, and others) to advise us regarding our curriculum and ways to make our students even more competitive in the marketplace after graduation.   The membership of the Sports Management Advisory Board is particularly impressive, including members affiliated with the Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia ‘76ers, Detroit Lions, New York Mets, Washington Wizards, Cleveland Browns, Philadelphia Phillies, Nike, and others.  That is a lot of expertise, networking, and contacts to have helping us make sure that our students get the best mixture of knowledge, skills, and hands-on experience possible.  And we are hard at work on our Communication Arts Advisory Board, which is tentatively scheduled to meet next month.

As I write this early Sunday afternoon, I have already heard from multiple students who are planning to stop by the house later this afternoon, as well as others who will be joining us for dinner.  It sure is great to have the semester in full swing!

I am writing this Blog from Belize City, where I just arrived with a group of Defiance College students (and two faculty) after having spent about 10 days in and near the jungle at the Hillbank Research Station in a nature preserve in the interior of Belize.  This has been an incredible trip and experience for all of us — and it is just one of the many such experiences that DC students enjoy as part of the pioneering McMaster School for Advancing Humanity, funded through the generosity of the family of Harold and Helen McMaster.

I have been very impressed with the way the students have implemented their various service projects, from teaching in the schools to training the community in CPR, from doing chemical analysis on water sources to mapping nesting sites for a particular species of parrot.  Each of these projects was devised with the active input of the communities affected, and we have now even more ideas from the communities for additional projects for future years.

While implementing all the projects has been the main focus of activity, we have also had an opportunity to participate in a wide range of fascinating experiences.  Mayan history came alive for us as we climbed the ruins of several ancient temples at Lamanai.  We spent yesterday evening on the lagoon spotting crocodiles.  We have hiked through the jungle to do soil compaction studies, spoken with members of the Mennonite community, tested soil at numerous farms, attended a wedding celebration in a town in northern Belize, seen countless different kinds of wildlife in their natural habitat (including crocodiles, howler monkeys, an agouti, a coatimundi, owls, a huge snake, turtles, and countless species of birds), learned to drink water from the water vine tree in the jungle, and much more.  We have had an opportunity to interact with a wide range of people in Belize, getting to know school children, farmers, and, in one case, an entire village.

As President of Defiance College, I have really enjoyed watching our students learn from these experiences.  They have all grown together as a team, but they have also each grown individually — becoming more confident in their abilities to navigate in a different country and becoming increasingly aware of the challenges and customs of different cultures.  I cannot even begin to describe how powerful an experience this has been for all of us — and I am thrilled that our DC students have an opportunity to engage in these kinds of activities each year.  Each project is tailored to both the needs of the community and the interests of the individual student.

We are now spending a few days in Belize City before heading back to Defiance. I am sure I will be blogging more about this trip in the future, but I wanted to share these quick thoughts with you right away.

It made for a pretty late night – we didn’t get back to Defiance until nearly one in the morning -  but it was definitely worth it.  This past Friday, my wife (Anne) and I accompanied a van-full of DC students to Detroit on an excursion to see Puccini’s opera La Boheme at the Detroit Opera House.  For all of the students who came, it was their first time seeing/hearing an opera.  And, while I don’t think any of them became huge opera fans overnight, they all told me how much they enjoyed it, and they all seemed eager for our next excursion.

The opera trip to Detroit is just the tip of the iceberg of the excursions that DC students have been taking this semester.  From the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario in Canada, to the Van Gogh exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute; from the Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati to next week’s scheduled visit to the Zoo Lights in Toledo, our students receive wonderful opportunities to explore not just the areas around Defiance, but other parts of the Midwest and beyond.

And there is much more to come.  I met last week with the Arts and Humanities faculty who are already hard at work putting together a whole series of educational adventures for our students next semester and then next academic year.  Already in the planning stages are trips to Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, and Toronto.  Types of activities include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the symphony, ballet, art exhibits, historical sites, and a film festival, to name just a few.

Why do we do this?  First, at Defiance College, we believe in encouraging students to open their minds to a wide range of new experiences.  Second, as a liberal arts college, we think it is important to expose students to a broad spectrum of culture and the arts.  Third, one of the great benefits of these trips is the informal interactions that students have with faculty members.  We are already proud of the close relationships our students establish with faculty members on campus.  These trips enable those relationships to grow and flourish even more, as long van or bus trips, the stops at various eateries along the way, and just walking around a different city, can all provide special opportunities for even more relaxed and more meaningful conversations.

Fourth, while we at Defiance College enjoy our great environment in the small town of Defiance, Ohio, we are also fortunate to be within relatively short drives of numerous key urban areas.  Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago are all two, three, or four-or-so hour drives away, respectively, and places like Toronto, and even St. Louis, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York are all within a full-day’s drive.  We believe in helping our students take advantage of the best of all worlds:  the safety, security and special community of our small town campus together with the excitement and culture of major urban areas.

Anne and I really enjoyed the Detroit opera trip.  And while it was fun enjoying our boxed meals on the drive to Detroit and then stopping late at night at Arby’s on the way back to all have a bite to eat, next time I think we’ll leave an hour or two earlier so that we can all enjoy a leisurely dinner together in one of Anne and my favorite restaurants in  Detroit’s Greektown before heading off to the opera, symphony, or whatever the cultural event happens to be.

The wonderful weather that we enjoyed for our Homecoming celebration last week was almost as sunny as our collective spirits.  It was a great week of celebration, including all kinds of events and activities, fireworks, a nice victory by our football team, a wonderful dinner with alumni, and much more.

Perhaps the most anticipated event of the week was the groundbreaking for our new Field House.  This is truly an exciting project, as the Field House is reputed to be the largest of its kind in northwest Ohio.  It will be approximately 84,000 square feet, with an NCAA-regulation 200-meter track, facilities for all our track and field events, four indoor courts for tennis and volleyball (three of which will also be basketball courts), batting cages for baseball and softball, a multi-purpose surface on which our football, soccer, and other teams can all practice, a weight room, a fitness center, an athletic training room, and more.

And construction should be complete by the end of next summer, so our incoming students will be able to enjoy it during their freshman year.  While we were all excited about the Field House groundbreaking, I must admit that I am also excited by some of the next steps we are taking to improve our students’ educational experiences.  In fact, we truly are laying the foundation for further enhancements to our distinctive Defiance Model of undergraduate education.

What are some of these enhancements?  At the Celebrate DC Dinner during homecoming, I announced that we were raising money both to expand financial aid to our students and also as seed money for these enhancements.  They include a culture/performing arts and humanities initiative to enable our students to attend a wide range of cultural institutions and events in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and elsewhere; an initiative to enable more of our students to travel to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia to learn more about our nation’s early history; a program to fund student travel domestically with our faculty members so that they can learn more about their majors through real on-the-ground experiences (imagine business students meeting with business leaders in multiple cities; education students visiting school systems in different states, etc.); and a significant expansion in opportunities for our Defiance College students to travel internationally.  We are already beginning one of these enhancements as we wire more of our classrooms so that the entire globe can truly be our classroom, as we use technology to pipe into the classroom experts and practitioners from around the world.  And we are already working to take initiatives like the Cold Case Initiative (in which students in criminal justice, forensics, and digital forensics investigate cold cases for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office in Detroit) and create similarly distinctive professional experiences for students in each of our majors.

That’s why I am really excited.  We are not only breaking ground on our new Field House, we are also laying the foundations for an enhanced Defiance Model of undergraduate education in which our students will be able to stand out even more in the job market and in life.

I wish everyone could have seen what was going on at the President’s House the other night.  Regular readers of this blog may remember that my wife Anne and I invite students over to our house all the time.  In fact, we host Study Tables at the house every Monday through Thursday night (from 7:30 to 10 in the evening) for any students who wish to study there.  We provide beverages, snacks (those who stay pretty late also get ice cream, if they wish), a quiet atmosphere,  and encouragement.  I always have fun talking with students when they are taking short breaks from studying, and the ping-pong table in the basement is always available for any student willing to take me on.

The other night was a great example of our Study Tables.  It seemed like every place I looked on the first floor had students studying in it.  Some were at the dining room table; others were sitting together in the sun room; one was on the couch in the living room; and others were at various tables around the first floor.

While the Study Tables were happening on the first floor, a group of students were meeting with me and two faculty members on the second floor.  This is the group that will be traveling to Belize as part of our pioneering McMaster School for Advancing Humanity, and they come to meet at the house every week as part of the learning community process to prepare for the trip.  We discuss Belizean culture and history; we learn about wildlife in Belize; and we also discuss each student’s individual service project and what needs to be done.

But, while things were hopping on both floors of the house, I really think that is just the tip of the iceberg of the kinds of unique interactions students have with faculty at Defiance College.  For example, last weekend, a group of students went with faculty members to Stratford, Ontario in Canada to see Shakespeare’s play The Winter’s Tale.  Another group of students went with both faculty and staff to visit the Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati (followed by a Cincinnati Reds game).  I spoke recently with faculty who are planning a trip for students to see the Van Gogh exhibit in Chicago; and some of our pre-veterinary students recently traveled to Toledo to hear a lecture by Jack Hanna, Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo.  Prof. Gregg Gunsch recently had a group of students over to his house for dinner; I was speaking yesterday with some faculty who will be taking some students with them to present at a conference; and I keep hearing from students and faculty about other informal opportunities that they have to spend time together, exchange ideas, and enjoy each other’s company socially.

Everyone knows that what goes on in the classroom is really important; but I believe that a critical component of both a well-rounded college education and a fulfilling college experience is what goes on outside the classroom as well.  And whether it is Study Tables or Movie Night or trips together with faculty all over the place or just enjoying a moment together at a meal – those are also great ways to learn and enjoy being part of the Defiance College family.

One of the wonderful things about being a college president is having the fun of greeting all the new students (and the returning ones) as they arrive back on campus.  There is always a level of excitement and energy that is truly rejuvenating for all of us.

Our move-in day this past weekend went very smoothly.  Yes, it was raining pretty hard at times.  But a group of returning students representing several student organizations together with faculty, staff, and many members of the football team did a great job in helping students move in.  In fact, I heard from several parents how surprised they were when they drove their car up to the residence hall, only to discover a swarm of students surrounding the car (sometimes even before it had come to a complete stop) to begin the unloading process.  There were so many helpers that the entire car was unloaded in one – or at most two – trips.

Once the new students had moved in, everyone spent several hours together at the Y – playing volleyball, ping pong, cards, swimming, eating, and just generally getting to know each other.  Of course, as President, my wife and I (together with our two sons) also have the fun of welcoming students to our home.  The day after move-in, all the new students were invited over for ice cream.  This week, we already have dinners for various groups of students at the house scheduled for four nights in a row.  And next week will begin our study tables at the President’s House – any student who wants can come by and study at our house from 7:30 to 10 in the evening Monday through Thursday.  Of course, free food will be available – as always!

Many students know how much I enjoy playing ping pong.  And this Saturday ping-pong playing students will be joining me at the house for a get-together with the national ping pong champion in his seniors age group.  He will be giving us all some pointers and advice, and then he’ll join us all for dinner.  We’ll need to finish that dinner in time for our first Movie with Mark (our regular Saturday night event) to start at 9:30 p.m.

I had a wonderful summer (especially the days during the first week of August that Anne and I spent in Germany visiting my German family [with whom I was an exchange student back in high school]), but it sure is great to have everyone back on campus for another year!

The photos were great, and I did pretty well in identifying some of the animals.  I got the toucan right and was really proud of myself when I correctly identified the photo of the agouti.  But I didn’t quite get the peccary, and I messed up totally on the jabiru stork and the coatimundi.

You are probably wondering what I am talking about.  As you may know, each year groups of students at Defiance College are selected to participate in different learning communities as part of the McMaster School for Advancing Humanity.  Members of these learning communities — faculty, administrators, and students together — work as a team on developing a series of service projects that get implemented by the team members on trips to places like Cambodia, Belize, New Orleans, and elsewhere.

As President of Defiance College, I am lucky enough to be a part of one of the Belize learning communities sponsored this year by our pioneering McMaster School.  I am very much looking forward to our trip to Belize in December.  But, before then, there is lots of work for all of us to do on preparing our projects, and we also have to learn together about Belize, its people and government, its culture and wildlife, and much more.

As part of that learning process, Prof. MaryAnn Studer, interim dean of the McMaster School and fearless leader of our Belize learning community, was quizzing all of us team members on some of the wildlife that we can expect to encounter in Belize.  (I now realize how important it is to be able to identify correctly which are the poisonous snakes!)  We have all started doing some of our required reading over the summer (I now understand the historical basis for the tensions between Belize and its neighbor, Guatemala, and we have all been reading as well about some of the corruption and other elements that have, unfortunately, tended to characterize the Belizean political environment.)

I will be occasionally keeping you up-to-date on what is going on in our learning community as we prepare our projects.  I am thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in such a hands-on manner.  And I promise to do better on the next wildlife quiz!