Rick Peterson

Author: Rick Peterson

The Ultimate Brain Tease: Lawrence University Salutes the Insignificant in 47th Annual Trivia Marathon

What’s older than the Super Bowl, more challenging than U.S. tax laws and highly likely to cause more insomnia than sleep apnea?

If you said the Lawrence University Great Midwest Trivia Contest, there is a team somewhere that wants to add you to its roster.

The country’s oldest continuous salute to the obscure and offbeat returns Friday, Jan. 27 for its 47th year of 50 straight hours of the most mind-numbingly insignificant questions imaginable. Following tradition, the playful questioning begins precisely at 10:00:37 p.m. and continues through midnight Sunday, Jan. 29.

Launched as an alternative for students who didn’t trek off with professors for an academic retreat, the trivia contest made its debut in 1966, one year before the championship football game that later became known as the Super Bowl was first played. Originally broadcast over Lawrence’s campus radio station WLFM, the contest transitioned to an Internet-based format in 2006, expanding its reach to a global audience.

“Lawrence’s Great Midwest Trivia Contest is the greatest thing since Edison invented the electric hammer,” senior Jake Fisher said with a laugh. A senior bassoon performance major from Lake Forest, Ill., Fisher holds the coveted title of Grand Trivia Master this year.

Like many Lawrentians, Fisher got hooked on the trivia contest as a freshman after attending a meeting in his residence hall about forming a team.

“My friends and I were really into the idea,” said Fisher, who personally wrote 40 questions for this year’s contest. “Once the contest began, I became completely immersed in it.”

The sole purpose of the contest is fun and for nearly five decades it has attracted a loyal following of trivia addicts who take great delight in correctly answering ridiculous questions in the hopes of winning an equally ridiculous prize, ranging from a stuffed chicken with broken springy legs inside of a black cardboard coffin to a Batman stocking.

Last year’s contest attracted 69 off-campus teams, including a one-person entry from Japan, and 15 on-campus teams. After two straight runner-up finishes, the Trivia Pirates ARGH!! edged the Trivialeaks 1,275-1,260 to win the 2011 off-campus title. Morgan Freeman’s Plus Plantz’s Pecorous Pastures Propose Presenting Persnickety Penguins with Ponchos won the on-campus title.

Yes, clever, and sometimes borderline offensive, team names are part of trivia contest lore.

The contest annually provides the perfect mid-winter diversion for students and community players alike.

“There’s something almost therapeutic to it,” said Fisher. “Winter term is always the hardest. Moral is lower, students tend to become more exhausted and drained of energy. The contest acts as a great way for students to take their mind off of schoolwork and give them a break. When the trivia contest comes around, it’s almost as if we’re not in school anymore. The stress of getting that paper done goes away and you get lost in the question searching. I’d like to think that happens for the off-campus teams as well.

“Plus, the contest also gives you the freedom to do something extremely ridiculous,” Fisher added. “Players don’t think twice about running outside in the freezing cold weather to do something absolutely absurd just to get 10 points. That’s part of the beauty of the contest. There’s always the fascination with searching for answers to the most ridiculous questions ever conceived.

The contest features questions of varying point values with hour-long sessions of questions centered around specific themes sprinkled in throughout the weekend. Without tipping his hand, Fisher promises Trivia opus. 47 will have a few new wrinkles under this direction.

2012 Trivia Masters (from left): Patrick Pylvainen '13, Chris Mlynarczyk '12, Provie Duggan '12, Ethan Landes '13, Nick Paulson '14, Addy Goldberg '14, Jake Fisher '11, Ian Terry '14, Maija Anstine '11, Geneva Wrona '12, Kyle Brauer '11, Travis Thayer '13, Micah Price '13.

“On-campus teams should be prepared for a little bit of cruelty,” said Fisher, among the latest generation of students who have turned matters of minutia into an art form. “I might abuse my power as Grand ‘Dad’ Master. Nothing that would make people angry, but I do have some tricks up my sleeve.”

Following tradition, Lawrence President Jill Beck opens the contest Friday evening by asking last question of the previous contest. Known as the Super Garruda, the question is worth 100 points and virtually unanswerable, but that never stops teams from trying.

Last year’s Super Garruda — “What was the log entry on September 29, 1961, at 2 p.m. PST in the Alamo Airways daily log at McCarran International Airport? — had teams calling pay phones and car rental centers at the airport, hoping to reach someone to help search for the answer.

“I was actually proud I could cause so much disruption at a place like the Las Vegas’ airport in the middle of the night,” said Fisher, who wrote the question that became last year’s Super Garruda.

While the question went unanswered last year, every team should be able to start this year’s contest with an easy 100 points because they’ll now know the answer is “Drunks called back. Left their pants in the apache. Said for me to take care of them.”

About Lawrence University

Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a world-class conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. Ranked among America’s best colleges, it was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,445 students from 44 states and 35 countries.

MLK Day of Service Generated More than 500 Volunteer Hours

Lawrence University students, faculty, staff and local alumni did their part to turn the annual Martin Luther King holiday from a day off to a day of service.

Working with several local organizations, including the Appleton Boys and Girls Club and the Appleton school district, 169 Lawrence volunteers contributed 507 hours of service on Monday (1/16).

A total of 630 area students participated in a special age-appropriate curriculum focused on diversity and social justice issues that was developed by Marika Straw ’13. The program, led by Lawrence volunteers, included a variety of hands-on activities to bring Dr. King’s message to area youth.

“The students chose to focus their efforts this year on supporting youth in the community and were very pleased to partner with all seven local after-school sites of the Boys and Girls Club of the Fox Valley,” said Kristi Hill, LU director of volunteer and community service programs. “Lawrentians are very involved with both this organization and the Appleton Area School District and seem to be increasingly concerned by the lack of funding and overall support of educational initiatives. In response, our students worked with club staff to develop activities that would allow Lawrentians to support K-12 youth and give the hard working staff of the club a bit of a break.

Gabrielle Rakidzich '15 (left) and Emily Crowe '14 were among 169 LU volunteers who participated in Monday's Martin Luther King Day of Service activities. (Photo by Emma Moss '13.)

“I can say with absolutely certainty that Lawrentians gained just as much from this day as the youth,” Hill added. “Students returned to campus with both humorous stories and some more serious stories of important discussions that occurred around the topic of fairness.”

In addition to school activities, a team of volunteers repainted an affordable housing unit owned by the Housing Partnership of the Fox Cities while 16 students helped winterize the Heckrodt Nature Center.

About Lawrence University

Author, Educator Parker Palmer Helps Lawrence University Launch New Civic Engagement Initiative

Renowned author, educator and activist Parker Palmer visits the Lawrence University campus Wednesday, Jan. 25 to launch the college’s newest initiative, the Civic Life Project, a program designed to stimulate engagement among Lawrence students and the Fox Cities community through short, student-made documentary films about local issues.

Palmer delivers the address “Democracy, Higher Education and Habits of the Heart: Restoring Democracy’s Infrastructure” at 7 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. A question-and-answer session will follow his presentation, which is free and open to the public.

A traveling teacher, Palmer focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He founded the Center for Courage & Renewal in Bainbridge Island, Wash., a national non-profit organization that supports people in the serving professions —education, medicine, ministry, law, philanthropy — through programs such as “Courage to Teach,” “Courage to Lead” and “Circle of Trust.”

Palmer, who lives in Madison, has written nine books, including “Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit,” which was published last August, “The Active Life,” “The Company of Strangers” and “The Promise of Paradox.”

A senior associate of the American Association of Higher Education for 15 years, Palmer was named one of “25 People Who Are Changing the World” in 2011 by the Utne Reader in its annual listing of “Visionaries.”

Palmer has been cited by the Council of Independent Colleges for “outstanding contributions to higher education” and the American College Personnel Association named him a “Diamond Honoree” for his contributions to the field of student affairs. In 1998, The Leadership Project honored Palmer one of the 30 “most influential senior leaders” in higher education and one of the 10 key “agenda-setters” of the past decade.

Lawrence’s Civic Life Project, set to launch on a pilot basis in 2012-13, is a unique educational initiative that prompts students to participate as engaged citizens through documentary filmmaking. It is modeled on a successful program that award-winning filmmaker Catherine Tatge and her partner Dominique Lasseur created for several high schools in Connecticut several years ago.

Tatge, who is spending the current academic year at Lawrence as an artist-in-residence, will coordinate the program in collaboration with Monica Rico, associate professor of history, Pieper Family Chair of Servant Leadership and director of the Office of Engaged Learning, and assistance from Lasseur of Global Village Media in New York City.

The program, which will be open to all students, leverages several strengths of the college: community engagement, visual and musical creativity, communication skills and research abilities.

“Our goal is to encourage young people to become active participants in our democracy, to collaborate, deliberate and take the initiative to solve problems that they consider important in their communities,” said Tatge. “It centers on developing the core skills involved in producing a documentary film. In the process of researching stories and investigating all sides of an issue, students acquire valuable tools to better understand the complex workings of our society and our democracy.”

Plans call for the first short films — 8-12 minutes in length — produced by the students participating in the project to be screened for the Appleton community at the end of the 2012-13 academic year.

About Lawrence University

Lawrence Launching New Summer Internship Program for Conservatory of Music Students

Providing a musical complement to Lawrence University’s successful LU-R1 student science research initiative, the president’s office, in conjunction with the conservatory of music, is launching a new summer internship program specifically for conservatory students.

Known as “Conservatory² — Grow Your Music Career Exponentially,” the program will begin this summer with eight internship opportunities designed to encourage student thinking about how a music degree can lead to success in a variety of career fields after graduation.

“This groundbreaking program will provide opportunities that will expand our students’ musical lives, and in some cases, open our students’ minds to completely new career pathways in music,” said Brian Pertl, dean of the conservatory.

Conservatory² is designed to jump start “life after Lawrence NOW!” by providing a summer experience that both complements and accelerates each student’s education while offering substantial career experience and networking opportunities.

Conservatory students participating in the program will be selected though a competitive application process, placed in prearranged internships and awarded a university grant to assist with their expenses.

Inspired by a $25,000 gift from the Olga Herberg Administrative Trust to support arts programming and guided by student concerns raised last year regarding the college’s new 10-year strategic plan, Lawrence President Jill Beck used the gift to create Conservatory².

“Student feedback on the recent Strategic Plan asked that Lawrence expand LU-R1 opportunities into areas beyond the sciences,” said Beck. “Katelin Richter has worked with me this year as presidential intern to do just that: to take the LU-R1 model and replicate it in the conservatory for the benefit of music majors. In future years, I hope that this expansion will include the social sciences and humanities, if student and faculty demand is there. In the meantime, the summer internship opportunities that Katelin has created will add greatly to students’ experience, learning, and ability to bridge from college to career or graduate school.”

The eight available internship positions for the summer of 2012 include an array of prominent employers and alumni at organizations both in the United States and abroad:

• Saxophonist Javier Arau ’98 of the New York Jazz Academy offers a summer-long internship at New York’s fastest growing music school. Arau will integrate the student intern directly into his administration and engage them in strategic planning for his expanding organization. The student will gain exposure to summer jazz workshops and have the possibility of assistant teaching.

• The Deep Listening Institute in Kingston, N.Y., under the supervision of composer Pauline Oliveros and other DLI staff, offers an internship opportunity tailored to the student’s specific interests in deep listening philosophy. The internship could include: assembling a book of Oliveros’ pieces, archiving recordings, managing the website, doing computer programming, writing grants, assisting with the Adaptive Use Musical Instruments Program for people with disabilities, developing a networking system for DLI-certified instructors, as well as gaining exposure to Oliveros’ summer intensive Deep Listening Workshops. DLI’s office has a performance and recording studio, which could provide a venue for the student’s work.

• Olivera Music Entertainment is a full-service entertainment and talent booking agency that provides professional music entertainment production in the Washington D.C. area. The student will work with co-owner Connie Trok Olivera ’82, who has used her music education degree to produce and perform entertainment for prominent guests, including President Obama. The internship will provide start-to-finish production experience, as well as special projects, such as developing a marketing strategy to target younger demographics and selecting and arranging repertoire per client requests.

• Oberlin Conservatory has partnered with Lawrence to offer internships in two of its summer programs: the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and Oberlin in Italy. The Baroque Institute internship combines experience in festival administration with full participation in the annual festival. Oberlin in Italy offers two exciting performance opportunities for qualified students in two of three areas: vocal performance, stage direction or rehearsal accompanying in the beautiful city of Arezzo, Italy.

• Beth Snodgrass ’93 will oversee the Carnegie Hall Community Programs internship in New York City. The position will provide general assistance and administrative support for the Community Programs team in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, the education and community arm of one of the leading music presenters in the world. The intern will work with a dedicated staff to help prepare for the 2012-2013 season which will include more than 100 events across three different programs – the Neighborhood Concert Series, the McGraw-Hill Companies CarnegieKids and Musical Connections. These programs provide free, quality music programming featuring first-class musicians from all over the world. The intern will contribute to a team focused on providing quality community engagement events through exceptional artistic programming, production, artist professional development, strategic marketing and rigorous program assessment.

• Beit Yehuda Guest House Amphitheatre in Israel offers a student internship managing the hotel’s offerings of plays and concerts. Nestled among the foothills of Givat Massuah, the facility is a short drive from Jerusalem’s city center.

“This program is a perfect complement to our course offering in entrepreneurship and our Lawrence Scholars in Arts and Entertainment program, which brings successful alumni back to Lawrence to work with and inspire our students,” said Pertl. “Now Conservatory² will allow our students to leave campus, and through their hard work, inspire our alumni. We are starting with eight fantastic internships, and there is a potential to grow the program substantially. I look forward to watching Conservatory² become a signature program for our conservatory.”

For additional information on eligibility and application requirements, grant allotments and how to apply, visit www.lawrence.edu/conservatory/squared/ or follow Conservatory² on Facebook. Deadline for applications is February 15, 2012.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a world-class conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. Ranked among America’s best colleges, it was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,445 students from 44 states and 35 countries. For more information visit www.lawrence.edu or follow us on Facebook.

Annual Community Celebration Honors Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life, Legacy

Dorothy Cotton, the only female member of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, executive staff and one of his closest confidants, delivers the keynote address at the 21st annual community celebration of the late civil rights leader Monday, Jan. 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.

With the theme “Martin Luther King Jr.: This Life and Legacy,” the celebration is presented by Lawrence University and Toward Community: Unity in Diversity with the support of numerous Fox Valley organizations, churches and individuals. The Post-Crescent is a media partner for the event.

The community celebration is in conjunction with Lawrence’s annual Martin Luther King “Day of Service,” which offers volunteer opportunities for students, faculty and staff. Part of this year’s activities includes a report on the recent “Life Study of the Fox Cities” at 11:30 a.m. in the Warch Campus Center.

“Everyone wants to leave his or her own mark on the world as we strive to live a meaningful and purposeful life,” said Pa Lee Moua, assistant dean of students for multicultural affairs at Lawrence. “Once we are gone, we hope to be remembered as heroes. In my opinion, there is no greater hero than someone who fights for the rights of others. Martin Luther King Jr. is truly a hero who continues to teach us the true meaning of love, peace and social justice.

Moua credits her father for instilling in her many of the values embraced by Dr. King.

“As a very influential man in my life, my father told me, ‘Respect and reputation doesn’t come from being too rich, educated, or powerful; it comes from being a humanitarian. You will never regret giving your time to someone in need. And as you grow older, you will look back and forever cherish these experiences because you will have already made your mark on the world.’”

Cotton began making her mark in the early 1960s as the education director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, where she provided training for the disenfranchised on the importance of political participation, voter registration and nonviolent protest. In 1964, she accompanied King to Oslo, Norway, where he was presented the Nobel Peace Prize. Following King’s assassination, she served as the vice president for field operations for the Dr. M.L.K. Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta and became Southern Regional Director for ACTION, the federal agency for volunteer programs.

A native of North Carolina, Cotton has addressed issues of race relations, multiculturalism/diversity, personal development and nonviolence education around the world. Following more than 20 years engaged in civil rights activities, Cotton spent 10 years as director of student activities at Cornell University. She also is one of the founding members of the National Citizenship School, which focuses creating publicly accountable institutions that reflect high democratic ideals and support individual capacity to live a meaningful life.

“Having Ms. Cotton as our keynote speaker is a rare and rich opportunity for the Fox Valley,” said Kathy Flores, chair of the MLK Planning Committee and diversity coordinator for the city of Appleton. “While many people participated in marches during the Civil Rights era, Ms. Cotton had the honor of working side-by-side with Dr. King as a member of his staff. We hope many members of the community take advantage of her appearance and come hear her share her real-life experiences with us.”

In addition to Cotton’s remarks, the King celebration will feature the presentation of the annual Jane LaChapelle McCarty Unity in Diversity Award. Given by Toward Community, the award honors an area individual who has made great strides in bringing different people in the community together.

The celebration also features readings by area student winners of the annual Martin Luther King essay contest and musical performances led by Tim and Ezra Dorsey and 2008 Lawrence graduate Erica Hamilton.

A sign language interpreter will be present for the program and a reception for all in attendance follows the event.

Wild Space Dance Company Brings “Delicious” Performance to Stansbury Theatre

Inspired by appetite, the culinary arts and the pursuit of satisfaction, Milwaukee-based Wild Space Dance Company serves up a moveable feast of inventive dance and wry humor in “Delicious” Friday, Jan. 13 at 8 p.m. in Lawrence University’s Stansbury Theatre.

Tickets, at $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and students, are available through the Lawrence University Box Office, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton, 920-832-6749.

The menu for “Delicious” includes flying dishes, favorite and feared recipes and onstage directions on good dinner manners. Through interwoven vignettes of theatrical movement and full-bodied dance, performers reveal desires and disappointments in the pursuit of satisfaction.

“Creating a performance inspired by the art and act of cooking reflects my own love of the culinary experience,” said Debra Loewen, artistic director of Wild Space. “Like preparing a meal, dance begins with directions, ingredients like dancers, props and costumes are added, and then there is time to rehearse until a final performance is ready to be served. To invent movement for ‘Delicious,’ we looked at the similarities of the cooking and choreographic process, and the desires that drive us to find a sense of fulfillment in food and life.”

Wild Space Dance Company has served as a company-in-residence at Lawrence since 2000, bringing professional dance to the Lawrence community and providing students principles of dance art in performance through classes and workshops taught by Loewen and members of her company.

Named 2011 Artist of the Year by the Milwaukee Arts Board, Loewen has led Wild Space Dance Company for 25 years. Known for its site-specific dance events and artistic collaborations, the company merges dance with visual art, architecture and music to create inventive choreography and emotionally-charged performances. It has toured performance work to Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, South Korea and Japan.

Lawrence Awarded NEH Challenge Grant to Establish Humanities Institute

A new $2.7 million Lawrence University initiative designed to foster the professional development of faculty members in the humanities and attract recent Ph.D. recipients in the humanities for the Lawrence Fellows Program has received a $425,000 boost from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Lawrence was awarded a highly competitive NEH Challenge Grant to support the creation of the Lawrence Humanities Institute and two new positions at Lawrence through a permanent endowment for two Fellows exclusively in the humanities.

To receive the NEH Challenge Grant and fully fund the project, Lawrence will need to raise $2.275 million in matching funds toward the $2.7 million project goal by the end of 2016. The college already has received a lead gift of $1 million for the program from Tom and Julie Hurvis of Glenview, Ill., 1960 and 1961 Lawrence graduates, respectively.

The Lawrence Humanities Institute is an innovative twist on the successful Lawrence Fellows program that will leverage the expertise of talented post-doctoral fellows to create opportunities for sustained professional development for Lawrence faculty. By fostering greater curricular diversity, team teaching, interdisciplinary research collaborations, and incorporation of new ideas and techniques into research programs, the Lawrence Humanities Institute will help keep all participants at the forefront of their fields as scholars and teachers.

Conceived by humanities faculty, the Lawrence Humanities Institute will actively engage five faculty members and two NEH Fellows in the Humanities in year-long, graduate-style seminars on an emerging, rapidly evolving or other timely area of humanistic study under a two-year theme selected by the Institute’s director and advisory board. The goal of the seminars is to foster both an individual inquiry into the topic’s relevance to a faculty member’s scholarship as well as create a shared exploration of the larger implications for humanities teaching and learning in a liberal arts context.

“The activities of the endowed NEH Fellows in the Humanities and the Humanities Institute will advance the college’s mission of transformative liberal arts education,” said President Jill Beck. “Those activities also will support several key objectives in the college’s new 10-year strategic plan, including deepening and broadening the curriculum, enhancing faculty professional development programming and promoting cross-fertilization among disciplines.

“The NEH Humanities Institute will invigorate humanist discourse at Lawrence and stimulate greater integration of recent advances in the humanities into the scholarship and teaching of Lawrence’s excellent tenure-line faculty,” Beck added.

Established in 2005, the Lawrence Fellows program brings recent Ph.D. recipients to campus for two-year post-doctoral appointments. Each Fellow is mentored by a tenured faculty member, teaches a reduced course load and devotes significant time to developing their teaching and scholarly work. In any given year, Lawrence hosts 6-12 Fellows at a time across varied departments and interdisciplinary programs.

The Fellows program provides a successful transition from graduate school to life as a teacher-scholar in a liberal arts setting. Although doctoral candidates at major universities receive some teaching experience, relatively few graduate programs offer strong training in course development or pedagogical skills suited for small college environments. Unlike teaching assistantships where course materials and procedures may already be set, new liberal arts faculty bear full responsibility for all aspects of the several courses they teach each year.

“Lawrence is an ideal environment for Fellows to develop as teacher-scholars,” said Beck. “The focus on individualized learning that characterizes Lawrence’s approach to educating students translates naturally to nurturing Fellows’ individual development. Small classes, a highly engaged intellectual climate, and a campus ethos that values collaboration over competition, combine to help Fellows hone pedagogical skills quite different from those typically called for at research universities.”

This is the third time Lawrence has been awarded an NEH Challenge Grant, which are highly coveted and extremely competitive. Just 22 Challenge Grants were awarded in 2011 out of 108 proposals from leading colleges, universities and museums of all sizes.

Lawrence successfully completed a Challenge Grant in the mid-1970s to renovate Main Hall and received a $500,000 NEH Challenge Grant in 2001 to endow Freshman Studies, meeting the $2 million matching obligation more than six months ahead of schedule.

Lawrence Earns Energy Rebate for Björklunden Wind Turbine

Mark Breseman '78, director of Björklunden (far left), and former Lawrence President Rik Warch, current chair of the Björklunden Advisory Committee, accept a rebate check from Bill Plamann, energy advisor for Focus on Energy, and Kevin Pitts, account management consultant for Wisconsin Public Service (far right).

Lawrence University recently received a $200,000 rebate from Wisconsin Focus on Energy and Wisconsin Public Service for a 120-foot tall, 50-kilowatt turbine installed at Björklunden, the college’s 425-acre “northern campus” outside Baileys Harbor. Lawrence’s first investment in wind energy, the $400,000 turbine is expected to generate enough electricity to cover nearly one-half of the electrical needs of the 37,000-square-foot lodge on the estate.

An independent study project undertaken by Steve Schnorr ’10 was the impetus for the turbine, which became operational in early December.

“This project was only possible thanks to a massive collaborative effort by students, faculty, alumni, staff, the development office and facility services,” said Jason Brozek, assistant professor of government and Stephen Edward Scarff professor of International Affairs and current chair of the campus’ Green Roots initiative. “It’s a fantastic symbol of our long-term commitment to environmental sustainability.”

Tim Troy’s “The Life of Me” Gets Reading at Minneapolis Theatre

The latest playwriting project of Tim Troy, professor of theatre arts at Lawrence University, “The Life of Me,” will be performed Monday, Dec. 19 at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, Minn., as part of the company’s Members Stage Reading series. The reading, at 6:30 p.m., is free and open to the public.

The reading, which explores many of the cultural and political conflicts that marked the period from 2003-05, features Katie Hawkinson ’09 in the role of Julie and veteran Milwaukee area actor Jacque Troy in the lead role of Kate, along with some of the Twin Cities best actors. An earlier version of the play was presented at Lawrence in the spring of 2006.

A parent’s capricious demand to inflate her son’s grade threatens Kate’s career. Surrounded by eclectic siblings who’ve conspired to reconcile an on-going family crisis, Kate desperately seeks renewed stability in her personal and professional relationships. She turns to art, literature and religion to lead her past doubt, learning that even a middle school teacher is vulnerable to those who will use faith as a weapon.

Earthquake Relief Funds Heading to Haiti for Music School Reconstruction

Almost two years after a devastating earthquake leveled much of the island nation of Haiti, Lawrence University’s campaign to help rebuild the Holy Trinity Music School in Port-au-Prince is taking shape.

The school, a long-time destination for Lawrence student and faculty volunteers, was destroyed by the January 12, 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 Haitians. Nine days later, Lawrence hosted the “Concert for Haiti” which was recorded by Fox-11 WLUK and rebroadcast several times across Northeast Wisconsin.

The concert raised $32,000 through donations from the community and a recent gift from the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac pushed the overall total to more than $40,000. The funds are now being sent to Haiti to begin reconstruction efforts.

Tom Clowes '01 is one of numerous alumni who have traveled to Haiti to work with young music students there.

“Weeks after the earthquake, musicians from Holy Trinity began performing for displaced people living in makeshift tent cities. With this donation the music school will build a temporary rehearsal structure enabling work to go on even in inclement weather,” said Lawrence Professor of Cello Janet Anthony, who has traveled to Haiti annually to teach music. “Plans have been drawn up to rebuild the entire cathedral complex (cathedral, convent, elementary, trade and music schools, art museum, concert hall, administrative offices, guest house) but, even with the most optimistic estimates, the completion date is several years off. This donation marks the first large step in the process of rebuilding and is hugely important. The generosity of our local community is astounding, moving and extremely gratifying.”

The funds raised, with generous support from Fox-11 WLUK, the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, the American Red Cross and the Northeast Wisconsin community, are being used to build a temporary shelter in downtown Port-au-Prince that will house two rehearsal halls, a studio and an instrument depot, as well as office space at the school’s annex in nearby Petionville.

“This was a wonderful example of our community pulling together to collaborate for an important cause,” said Lawrence President Jill Beck. “Lawrence could not have done this alone. We are so grateful to our many community partners, especially to the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region for stewarding the donated funds and to the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac for raising additional funds and coordinating with the diocese in Haiti to ensure the money is safely transferred to the school.”

Since 1996, Lawrence students and faculty have traveled to Haiti to teach at various music programs. The Holy Trinity Music School began in 1963 and slowly became one of the only institutions in Haiti to integrate children from all economic levels. At the time of the earthquake, more than 1,200 students attended the school with its five orchestras, three bands and the renowned Petits Chanteurs. Over the years, the music school has gained international acclaim, touring the United States several times.

Type here to search

Information For

Helpful Links