A Blog on McConnell Center Life

As each day passes I am in disbelief that I am wrapping up my third year here at the McConnell Center. With each day I value more and more all of the opportunities and experiences I have had and will have in the next year. Even though we have had distinguished speakers and noteworthy scholars come in the past, we keep finding new ways to set the bar even higher. For example, later this week  I will be able to tell other people my age that I had the pleasure of meeting the Defense Secretary of the United States. Even typing that statement right now gives me goosebumps. In a time where our country is in a delicate state regarding defense; my fellow scholars and I are going to question Secretary Panetta, who is not only the current Secretary of Defense, but is the former CIA director, and was a former Congressman. Not to state the obvious, but it seems that he is qualified to discuss the issues of today. The Middle East is becoming the main issue of all countries not only in regards...

This year we have been doing our Debate ELO a little differently. Instead of everyone competing in biweekly debates, we have extended the ELO to include a discussion group and a forensics speech section, while also keeping the traditional debate section. Each of these three sections offers a different perspective and a different way of looking at issues. Having not been extremely active in the forensics section, I will speak here just on the debate and the discussion tracks. In both of these, we take a look at various issues and share opinions on them. However, they are very different in the way that these opinions are expressed. In the debate group, we have set debates where each person is designated a debate and a side and must argue for that side, regardless of their own personal beliefs. In fact, it is often the case that someone is forced to argue a side that they are fundamentally opposed to. As the leader of this track, it is up to me to decide what...

Spending the past three years in the McConnell program has given me the opportunity to meet a wide and impressive array of people, from Hilary Clinton to John Boehner. However, it is not these speakers that have most impacted my life but instead Elizabeth Sawyer, an alumna of the program I met at a dinner in the fall. Upon meeting, Elizabeth told me about the organization she is the director of, Emerge Kentucky. Kentucky ranks 39th in the number of women in elected offices across the United States. The mission of Emerge is to change that by providing training to women that want to run for political offices. The classes teach the women skills in public speaking, how to file for election, and how to successfully fundraise, among others. Currently, as Emerge Kentucky’s intern I have the opportunity to be involved in everything happening at Emerge, from planning the classes to last months roast of Crit Luallen. I am also working on a personal research project in Eastern Kentucky. Th...

It seems like a life-time ago when I came to the University of Louisville to interview for the McConnell Scholars Program. It was on this weekend a few years ago that I ended up meeting some of my closest friends and most respected mentors(some Scholars and alumni can even say this is where they first met their current or future spouse!). This weekend we have around thirty new prospective scholars coming to participate in a process that will be virtually the same as when I and all the current scholars went through. The McConnell Scholar interview is an intense two-day process separated by a social on Friday night. Each student will have a number of group and solo interviews that will test their knowledge, personality, and creativity. The interviewers consist of McConnell Center alumni, UofL proffessors, and UofL faculty. The caliber of the interviews can be pretty intimidating for a high school student, but everyone involved in the process is usually very accommodating. There is also ...

"Awoken by Socrates" by Gary L. Gregg For some reason, I found myself awake this morning at 4:30 am thinking about the great seminar we had yesterday afternoon at the McConnell Center. We read Plato's "Apology" and "The Crito" in preparation and used them to unwind some terrific discussion threads dealing with leadership, culture, gadflies, materialism, democracy, sophism, ethics, rhetoric, and the like. It was a really wonderful two hours. Probably because we spent Tuesday night discussing a smattering of contemporary/ recent British poets, and a few of us spent an after hour continuing to muse on the subject afterwards, I found myself beginning to compose in that wee hour. I eventually gave up trying to go back to sleep and just decided to obey the muse. I won't blame the muse for my lack of talent, but will blame her for encouraging me to share my lack of talent this morning with the world. . . . Socrates: of man and men Man In society Outsid...

I have officially been living in Costa Rica for 9 days now — what an interesting experience it has been! From experiencing a very interesting first evening at the airport to taking salsa lessons on top of a mountain overlooking all of San José to learning how to cross a street without being road-kill (trust me it’s much harder than you might think!), Costa Rica has had and will have many more surprises in store. My first real culture shock was discovering that my image as a tall, pale-skinned woman with “intense eyes” and reddish hair is not so common here. In fact, I’m quite the rare sight — it definitely is taking me some time to get used to the extra attention. Oh, and by the way, excuse my simple English — my transition from thinking in Spanish back to English is anything but smooth. During the first couple days in Costa Rica we (14 students in my program) spent time for orientation at Juan XXIII—an old monastery with incredibly beautiful grounds and a peaceful perch to gaze atop...