A Blog on McConnell Center Life

By Arsh Haque , Class of 2015 Arsh Haque It was a disliked, but necessary ritual, like drinking Kool-Aid at the end of a Jonestown party. We filed in with straight postures and dusty blazers; made small talk around small circles covered with white tablecloths; and asked, “So, what are you doing this summer?” The emcee, fumbling his thumbs nervously, called the names of local icons. Icons whose resumes were read and applauded, though everyone already knew them. A long and tedious procedure that set the tone that yes, this is just another McConnell Center event. But it was not. And while everyone knew this fact, one did not recognize it immediately. Rather, it sank in slowly, like squeezing honey out of a Waffle House bottle. Praise, name, and recognition; one after the other. And after enough names one’s mind began to wander, to remember the year before – to remember what was to come. All ten of them walk on to the stage, one at a time, and yet...

Sarah Stovall By Sarah Stovall, Class of 2014 Is there such thing as a balanced approach to nuclear arms control? The problem of nuclear weaponry was introduced when the United States dropped two atomic bombs as a means to end War World II. War is not a matter of balance; there is a winning side and a losing side, at least in the most general sense. But Hiroshima and Nagasaki exhibited a new level of this imbalance. The use of those two atomic bombs produced a more immediate and intense imbalance than could have been imagined pre-atomic era. In the case of a nuclear attack there is such an extreme disparity between the attacker and the attacked, because of the total destruction. During the Cold War this consequence of the nuclear arms race was referred to as “mutually assured destruction.” Ambassador Tom Graham played a major role in the U.S. international relations regarding disarmament and nuclear proliferation treaties following the end of the Cold War. Ambassador G...

Evan Shepherd By Evan Shepherd, Class of 2014 This lecture had three interesting goals. The first was to explore how social movements effect the transition of democracy. The most known case is undoubtedly the Arab Spring; however, the prominence of social movements has also played a role in bring democracy to Southeast Asia too.  Myanmar, more than the others, is a great example of a social movement for freedom bring change to an entire regime and country. The second goal of the lecture was to explore the relationship between democratic protest and existing movements within the country.  Dr. Vincent Boudreau, the Director of the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies at City College of New York, remarked that democratic protest have strengthened existing movements within countries.  This could be due to the fact that democratic movements allow people, who otherwise would have remained quiet for fear of reprisal, to join movements they are passionate about. The l...

Canoeing on Green River By Cathrine Mountain, Class of 2015 What could be better for a scholar who loves the outdoors than a seminar with the glorious Benjamin Whitlock about camping etiquette and Leave No Trace procedures? The only thing I can think of would be a camping and canoeing trip in Greensburg on the Green River to complement the seminar. One can only imagine how ecstatic a scholar would be when a fellow group of fun-loving scholars decide to take this trip as spring goes into full swing: the flowers in bloom, the wild birds out and about before the sun begins to bathe the Earth, and the kind of inner peace that only comes from communing with Mother Nature. During the seminar, Sir Whitlock went over the basics and the luxury items that really make the camping experience complete. Just when I thought I had enough gear to make my own camping experiences safe and enjoyable, Sir Whitlock showed me that I have been living in a dank basement compared to the camping mansion...

Arsh Haque By Arsh Haque, Class of 2015 Last year, Professor Skinner held a seminar on British Poetry. Afterwards I took his Introduction to Creative Writing and Advanced Creative Poetry. It has provided me with much creative growth and is an example of the McConnell Center extending past the sphere of the program. Rather than delineating this point with prose, it seemed more apt to do so with a recent poem. Chocolate Tangerines Sometimes she throws on a salt-and-pepper wig and acts like a spinster. There’s a bronze pot in her attic she calls a cauldron. When things feel blue she cooks that way. You wouldn’t believe what a handful of bananas and beakers can do. The Greeks used to do it that way too. She showed me once. They talk about her at reunions - quietly. My younger cousins say she’s a witch. My older cousins get real quiet and sad. My mom said it’s because she lost something special. One day after Academic Team she picked me up instead of mom. Mrs. Rod...

Ben Whitlock By Ben Whitlock , Class of 2015 Each semester, we McConnell Scholars retreat to state parks; however, we never fully immerse ourselves in the wild.  To remedy this, the Scholar Adventure Team has traditionally camped with the illustrious Dr. Kleber or Mr. Cox… For whatever reason, this too has slowed to a near-stop.  Along with Senior McConnell Scholar, Adam Dahmer, a few Scholars – the truly adventurous – have decided to retreat to the forested wilds of the Commonwealth. On Friday March 29, a small, but hardy, group of Scholars gathered to discuss the finer points of rustic, traditional, low impact camping.  We discussed the 7 principles of Leave No Trace, a program supported by the Center for Outdoor Ethics in Boulder, CO.  The 7 Principles are: Plan Ahead and Prepare Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces Dispose of Waste Properly Leave What You Find Respect Wildlife Be Considerate of Other Visitors Minimize Campfire Impacts During the...

Meghan Waters By Meghan Waters , Class of 2014 This semester I’m enrolled in an honors seminar titled “Civility and Community.” We just finished reading Walter Lippmann’s The Public Philosophy . While some of my classmates were no doubt lulled to sleep by Lippmann, I found the book to be very insightful. The book also jogged my memory of past classes (namely, Dr. Gregg’s Political Leadership class), as well as topics that we often discuss in McConnell Center seminars. As the product of a classical liberal education, I particularly enjoyed Chapter 8, “The Eclipse of the Public Philosophy,” where Lippmann addresses modern men’s rejection of philosophy and the “outdated” lessons of history. Lippmann’s argument throughout the book is that we’ve abandoned the public philosophy that, according to him, is the bedrock of democratic states. One of the reasons we’ve abandoned this philosophy, he says, is because we modern-day folk fail to see the power of...

McConnell Scholars at the Harvard IOP National Campaign Consortium. This semester I was fortunate enough to attend the National Campaign Consortium at the Harvard Institute of Politics as a representative of the McConnell Center.  During this two-day conference, we discussed "Beyond Voting: Deliberative Democracy and Civic Engagement" with various experts in the field.  Of these, Bob Stains from the Public Conversations Project presented the "Power of Inquiry and Searching for Wise Questions." Here are a few of my notes from his presentation: In Elie Wiesel's autobiographical depiction of the Holocaust, Night , his religious teacher Moshe tells him "every question possessed a power that was lost in the answer." This brings into question whether the answer is more important than the journey traversed to find it.  There is a certain power in the desire to discover capital-T Truth .  It is this power that drives us to continue seeking meaning ...