A Blog on McConnell Center Life

 By Joe Wilson   Over the summer, I received an unexpected email from my high school social studies teacher. Each year, my alma mater—a small Catholic high school in Northern Kentucky—hosts a retreat for the senior class. My teacher invited me to participate in this year’s retreat, asking me to prepare a talk on leadership. Without hesitation, I accepted. Although I initially felt unqualified to speak on such a topic, I was eager to share my perspective and immediately put pen to paper. Reflecting on my understanding of leadership from four years ago, when I was a high school senior, I realized how much my perspective has evolved. At age seventeen, I never thought of myself as a leader. My senior year coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when everything felt unmanageable and out of control. Seeing thousands of people—including my friends and family—fall ill with a virus that had no cure left me feeling helpless. I believed there was nothing I could do to c...

 By William VonHandorf   I have been debating between a few topics for my last two blogs at the McConnell Center, and it has been more stressful than I ever figured this process could be. I thought about doing a play of Margaret Edson’s W;t, a great work discussing the struggles of death, professionalism, and self-erasure. I thought about discussing the Alumni conference and dystopian literature, giving some vision of hope for the future. But, as I have been using this work as the basis of my graduate school applications, I felt I was focusing too much on the end of my undergraduate education and that gave me a melancholy feeling, as if I was walking into the conclusion of something rather than ending it formally and with grandeur. So, I want to use this time to start the process of closing out my time at UofL by discussing some of my favorite lessons. “Oh and I have moved and I've kept on moving/Proved the points that I needed proving/Lost the friends that I needed losing, fo...

 By Mallory Slucher    English food is stereotyped for being bland and unappetizing. As a self-proclaimed foodie, I was eager to see how English cuisine fared on my recent class trip to the UK with the McConnell Center this summer. Overall, I really enjoyed the heartiness and warmth of traditional English dishes. If you left the pub hungry, it was your own fault! Below are four of my favorite pub eats from my trip this summer, and one honourable mention that isn’t pub food, but is quintessentially English!  Pub: Rose and Crown, Oxford, UK Sunday Roast served with Yorkshire pudding, parsnip, peas, carrots, cabbage, roast potatoes & gravy Everything a Sunday afternoon should be: comforting and satisfying. The perfect meal to eat with a friend after a long week, and long church service! This particular Sunday in Oxford, I visited St. Aloysious Catholic Church, the church home of J.R.R. Tolkein in his Oxford days. As the server placed this meal in front of me, I cou...

 By Allie Rose Phillips    Over the years, the number of long-distance friendships I have continues to grow. These friendships have often formed because of major life changes, either in my life or in the lives of my friends. Whether it’s moving to college, pursuing a dream job, getting married, etc., these transitions create distance between us. As graduation in May is fast approaching, the number of long-distance friendships I have will grow drastically. It’s bittersweet, but these friendships have taught me to appreciate the little things more every day. The little things allow these friendships to continue no matter the distance that may separate us. A simple text can remind these friends that you still care and love them. Receiving a short and simple text from one of my friends who lives far away will always warm my heart as it’s a reminder that we are still connected no matter the distance between us. The distance doesn’t weaken the love you have for these people, it...

By Greta Noble    For three years, I have worked with a community of women who historically have been marginalized within the city of Louisville, KY. The female workers of Churchill Downs are Latina immigrants who face enormous challenges to their medical care due to a lack of insurance, low income, and a language barrier. This past year at the Kentucky Racing Health Servings Center, a clinic that serves these women where I work as a Spanish interpreter, I identified a barrier to their healthcare and well-being: Hispanic women are 40% more likely than caucasian women to develop cervical cancer from HPV, yet not one of our patients had received the HPV vaccination. To receive the three-part vaccination, the women must walk nearly a mile and take two buses during work hours. They must also pay $300 for each of the injections. While this fee can be reimbursed, many of our patients are simply unable to pay it in the first place. Working alongside my supervisors, both within my job...

 By Jack Moseley   I) The Illusion of Permanence  I recently had a few days off from work and school, and decided to make the trek out to Western Kentucky to visit my grandparents in Ohio County. My parents were able to do the same, and so we all returned to the little farmhouse where my dad grew up.  My family has kept that land for generations now, and these days it’s like walking through a museum–tobacco memorabilia, antiques, farm machinery, Maytag collectibles, the graveyard of dozens of forgotten family cars from the past 90 years. It’s a time capsule, in a way.  This time, the weather was poor and we stayed inside. Conversation drifted, and we eventually started talking about weddings. My dad let slip that they had a tape recording of their wedding from 1996, and after some time digging in the attic we were able to find it.  With bated breath, we slotted the old VHS into the dusty VCR and played the tape. At first, there was nothing but static. A mes...

 By Camryn McPherson   “How’s the wedding planning going?” That’s what everyone wants to know. I’m engaged, the wedding is six months out, so… how’s it going? Do you have your dress? What’s the color scheme? Where’s the venue? Are you excited for your wedding? Well… OF COURSE I’m excited. I literally can’t wait to put on the white dress I’ve been dreaming about my whole life (yes, I’ve bought it) and to have my best friends to celebrate with me all day (they’ll be wearing lilac) and to walk down the aisle (at The Refinery). Our wedding day will be a whirlwind and a dream. I hope the day is perfect, the flowers are gorgeous, and everyone enjoys the food and dessert. I hope our guests know how grateful we are for them, and I hope the day represents us and our love story well. I have been dreaming of my wedding my entire life. But that’s not all I’ve dreamt about. I’ve dreamt of the man I’d marry, the children we would have together, and the life we would build. I’ve dreamt of tr...

By Shelby Disney    When I was six years old, my family and I went to DuPont Lodge for dinner one random Sunday after church. I wandered upstairs to find the restroom but ended up stumbling upon a Corbin High School Class of 1955 reunion happening in the Moonbow Room. After some time had passed, my family came looking for me and found me happily chatting with the reunion attendees. Even back then, I was naturally drawn to conversations with older generations—their stories and life experiences fascinated me and gave me a glimpse into a world so different from my own. Fast forward to today, and I find myself reconnecting with that same curiosity through my internship with AARP Kentucky. From the beginning, this experience has been all about learning from and working alongside people with a wealth of life experience. It’s been eye-opening in ways I never expected. One of the most memorable projects I’ve been part of was helping Tihisha, my supervisor, organize AARP Kentucky’s ann...