A Blog on McConnell Center Life

By Lauren Reuss I’d like to think I’m a thankful person.  I grew up saying please and thank you, just as any other kid taught to mind their P’s and Q’s, and every night after laying my head on my pillow, I’d reflect on the day and tell God how much I appreciated every prayer He answered.  In school, I said thank you to my teachers for taking extra time to work with me; at church, I said thank you for kind words and well wishes.   When parents volunteered their time to make sure competition weekends ran flawlessly, a thank you was the first thing to escape my lips as I saw them carrying props or serving hot meals to chilled band kinds. Despite being raised to be grateful for all the wonderful blessings in my life, I’ve noticed lately that life is quick to squash out my gratitude.  It’s not that the service of others and the incredible experiences don’t merit my attention- if anything the people and opportunities deserve more praise than I can ever express in w...

By Bella Beilman  Already.  The 4 year old little boy I babysit already knows that pink is for girls.  He already knows that women have breasts and bottoms that are sexualized.  He already plays with his penis, “because I [he] like[s] to.” He already knows that girls aren’t supposed to be as strong or fast as boys.  “I don’t like playing with girl games.”  “Why?” I asked.  “I just don’t want to or like to. They are for girls.”  Four years old.  He already thinks women are inferior and different.  As people, we tend to assume that females and males are different — are indeed “opposite sexes.” We see someone’s sex as an important predictor of their abilities and interests and assume that if we know someone is a girl or a boy, we know a lot about them. This four year old boy has already picked this up.  Parents stereotypically have lower expectations for girls in math and science....

By Madelin Shelton Placed among the rolling hills of rural Owenton, Kentucky sits my family’s farm. Having lived there since I was born, my childhood was filled with activities typical of many country girls: splashing in the creek, going fishing, climbing trees, riding four wheelers, and galloping on horseback. The community I grew up in can be described in many ways: humble, small, conservative, supportive, traditional, and tight knit. One characteristic it does not possess is being “backward.”  Being thrust from a rural Kentucky town to the biggest city in the state brought with it many changes. Most became easier to deal with, such as heavier traffic, the loud noise, and being away from my family. One change that I will never get used to, that will always hit me in the stomach with the familiar pang of anger and frustration, is when my fellow Kentuckians describe rural Kentucky as “backward.”  City life is undoubtedly different than country life. In a small town, ...

By Laura Hinkle  Trauma-informed care is a concept that has only recently gained traction at universities around the United States. This idea is deeply personal to me, both from personal experience and my time volunteering at the PEACC (Prevention, Education, and Advocacy on Campus and in the Community) Center. Trauma is defined as any experience in which a person’s internal resources are not adequate to cope with external stressors. A few common sources of trauma in young adults are adverse childhood experiences, sexual assault, violent assault, racism, and poverty. What’s even more important to realize is that trauma causes a ripple effect that infiltrates every aspect of people’s life. It can lead to social, emotional and cognitive impairment, adoption of unhealthy coping mechanisms, severe health problems, and even an early death. Thus, trauma is not something that should ever be treated lightly. From my time as a college student, I’ve witnessed just how many students ...

By Emily Davis  My Nana was the best cook. She was most famous for her spaghetti. Even if mom or dad tried to make spaghetti using her recipe, it would never be quite like Nana’s. I remember when we were little, the boys didn’t like to eat meat sauce when Nana fixed spaghetti. They would just eat noodles with Kraft parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. But Nana did something magic to those noodles, because they just tasted better at her house. Everything tasted better at Nana’s—even Eggo Waffles. My mom would buy the homestyle frozen waffles and Log Cabin syrup—just like Nana, but they never turned out the same. Nana just had a magic touch with everything she cooked.  My Nana was a gardener. There are flower beds and flowerpots all around the outside of Nana and PawPaw’s house. She used to do all the picking and planting and pruning herself, but us grandkids always made sure it never got to be too much for her. We’d pick her flowers and use them in our soups and salads...

By Eli Graft As I’ve gotten older, I have become more and more interested in investing and wealth management in general. I am at the point in my life where I realized that saving for the future and investing your money into growing assets is the best way to be prepared for raising a family and eventual retirement. Ambition isn’t the only thing you need when it comes to investments. You need to have a solid plan with little risk if you want to see any capital gains to your portfolio. I am taking a Finance class this semester called Investments and it has only helped me hone the skills of trading that I so desperately need.  When I was investing on my own with little to no knowledge, I was seeing days with massive payoffs and other days where I was dropping cash down the drain. Now that I have a better understanding of how to create an optimal portfolio, I have been able to make steady gains that will only continue to grow. When I first started, I was bullish, buying stocks ...

By Will Randolph  It had been a long and exhausting four days in Annapolis. Every single delegate at the Naval Academy Leadership Conference was flat out beat, and most were ready to board the buses and planes that would take them back to their respective universities. It was the last day of the conference and there was surely one thing that all of the participants had learned: the military will wear you out. Not that any of the delegates were running miles around the Yard or carrying logs in their pantsuits and sportcoats, but four days of lectures, keynote speeches, and breakout sessions has a way of making one wish for a cramped Southwest flight where they know they’ll be able to close their eyes for a bit.  Yet despite all of the sluggish movement and sleepy eyes, every delegate to the conference was up and as attentive as they could be for the final hours on the schedule. And they had good reason to be excited. The Director of the FBI was the morning’s k...

By Dennis Mashindi  The utilization of ethics over the course of history has been implemented in general and specialized human activity to allow morals to guide society. From government to education, ethics has allowed communities to follow an objective and ever evolving moral code. This moral code is reflected through laws, policy, curriculum and standard operations. More specifically, within the medical realm, ethics has guided the relationship between patient and healer as early as the genesis of medicine and medicinal practices. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, is quoted with saying,” As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least, to  do no harm .” As we humans look to further advances in many avenues, the idea of ethics beckons what decisions we can and cannot make. When understanding the field of medicine, more specifically physicians, it is important to understand the relationship between ethics and its relationship  to ...

By Malcomb Haming Like many political junkies, I was up quite late on Monday night awaiting the results of Democratic Iowa Caucus. I was annoyed, but not necessarily surprised, by the incompetence displayed by Democratic Party of Iowa. They had months, if not years, to prepare for this moment. Turnout was nearly identical to 2016 levels. THEY’VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR OVER 50 YEARS. I was upset as a conservative who has never even been to Iowa. I couldn’t even begin to fathom how frustrated Iowa campaign staffers and volunteers were. It also baffles me how the party that is increasing dominated by younger voters has such technological ineptness, and I’m not just talking about the train wreck of an app the precinct captains in Iowa were unable to use. The way the Democratic National Committee collected and facilitated voter data in 2016 was vastly inferior to the RNC’s , and while the Russian hacking into the DNC servers was unethical, stronger cybersecurity technology could ...

By Ben Barberie For fifteen hours this weekend, I peered into the soul of America.  Yeah, I know. Could I have written a weightier metaphor if I tried?  I spent the bulk of my Saturday and the early hours of Sunday morning seated in the familiar red and gray plastic bench seats of my local Waffle House. I knew I would be met with the usual rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee, sizzle of eggs and hash browns on the griddle, and clink of newly plated waffles on my table. What I didn’t expect were lessons in community, charity, and consciousness that will stick with me for years to come. Why spend fifteen hours in a Waffle House? Admittedly, I’ve asked that question of myself in the days following my venture. The idea was birthed from the now-viral Waffle House Challenge fantasy football punishment, wherein league losers are privileged to spend 24 hours at the all-day establishment, subtracting an hour for each waffle eaten.  I set out on an odyss...