Posts tagged friends
Flagler College faculty-led trip to Costa Rica
Jun 5th
The following is an update on the program from Flagler student Adam Krell who is currently on location with fellow classmates Ana Chambers, Diane Cassidy, Matt Garber, Elijah Hayes, Adrienne Gonzalez, and Stephanie Sweeting.
The program is led by Assistant Professor Agnieszka Johnson.
It is not every day you get on a plane to travel to a different country for five weeks. Upon arriving in the beautiful country of Costa Rica, we were greeted by our host families at the airport, who speak no English. From that point on, it has been non-stop Spanish speaking for all of us. It is truly a rewarding experience watching not only myself, but also my friends grow in the language and culture.
Intercultura School of Languages here in Costa Rica strives to provide full Spanish immersion for students so we can fully develop the skills and techniques required for learning a second language. From the intensive Spanish courses and the homestay experience with our Tico (Costa Rican) family, we are building the confidence needed to speak in Spanish.
Each day we wake up early with the sun and eat breakfast with our host families. We converse about what we have planned and make our way to the school. Spanish class starts at 8:30 a.m. sharp each morning and lasts until 12:30 p.m. with two fifteen minute breaks. After taking an hour to walk around and eat lunch, we either have a Costa Rican cooking class or dance class followed by another class taught by our faculty leader, Professor Aggie Johnson. During the cooking classes, we have learned how to cook several local dishes, like Patacones (smashed plantains that are fried, like chips) with guacamole and beans, biscochos (a Costa Rican corn cookie), and empanadas, all while learning our way around the kitchen speaking Spanish. During our Latin dance class, we learn one of three styles of dance: merengue, salsa or bachata. As we move our hips to the beat, we have fun dancing with each other and a variety of other students who also are attending Intercultura.
Our other class, with Professor Johnson, is a Spanish literature course that will eventually end with each of us writing and reading our own short stories. This class is more challenging, as we come to class and discuss a short story completely in Spanish each day. After class, we head home to eat dinner with our host families and talk about our days. It’s non-stop Spanish speaking until we go to bed.
As we are ending our third week here in Heredia, a suburb of the country’s capital of San José, we have experienced many different adventures. From seeing an active volcano, Póas, visiting a waterfall garden, taking a tour of the coffee plantation Doka (a local company near Heredia), to taking weekend trips to San José, we are not missing out on anything that Costa Rica has to offer.
In the next two weeks we are going white-water rafting on Mount Chirripó, the highest peak in Costa Rica, and making our way to Playa Sámara for a week. There, we will spend the week with another homestay family and attend classes right on the beach. When the week ends, we will make our way back to Heredia for one night and fly back to the United States on June 11.
As the Ticos say here in Costa Rica, ¡Pura Vida! (which translates to “pure life”)
Source: Flagler College
Flagler College names AARP Bulletin editor Jim Toedtman as new Flagler Forum director
May 13th
Toedtman, a speaker at the program for the last 13 years, succeeds Victor Ostrowidzki, who passed away this past spring after battling cancer. Ostrowidzki, 80, was a veteran journalist and former White House reporter who covered every presidential election from 1964 to 1988. He joined the faculty at Flagler in 1997, founded the Forum series and taught classes on elections and the media.
The Forum brings nationally-recognized journalists and authorities to St. Augustine to discuss issues of local, federal and global importance. Past speakers have included Robert Novak, Mark Shields, David Broder, Joe Klein, Anne Coulter, Pat Buchanan and Chris Matthews.
“I am delighted with the opportunity of continuing and enhancing the Flagler Forums in ways that enrich the academic lives of Flagler students and benefit the St. Augustine community,” Toedtman said. “I look forward to the challenge of building on the solid foundation set by my friend Vic Ostrowidzki.”
Toedtman has had a distinguished career as reporter and editor for the New York daily newspaper, Newsday, and as an editor for Hearst Corp. newspapers in Boston and Baltimore. At Newsday, he was part of a team of reporters investigating Long Island land scandals that won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for public service. From 1986 to 1995, he served as managing editor of New York Newsday and helped develop and direct the staff, which won numerous awards including the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. He was named Newsday’s Washington Bureau Chief in 1995.
He was named editor of the AARP Bulletin in 2005. Since his appointment, the Bulletin has been consistently recognized for excellence in covering a range of public policy and consumer issues. It is published 10 times a year and has a circulation of 22 million. He also helped develop AARP’s online news and information website.
Toedtman graduated from the College of Wooster and earned a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. He also studied at the University of Queensland, Australia, as a Rotary Foundation Fellow.
Flagler College President William Abare said, “I am delighted that Jim Toedtman has agreed to accept our offer to serve as the director of the Forums. Over the past 13 years, Jim has become a good friend of the College and a close personal friend.”
Abare added, “We are extremely fortunate to have someone with Jim’s experience to lead this important program. He is a well-respected journalist who has a great network of friends and colleagues from which to draw Forum speakers. He is very familiar with our campus and our community and will be a great addition to our staff.”
Source: Brian Thompson, Director, News and Information, Flagler College.
Occupy Denver upcoming events
May 12th
The Downtown Denver People‘s Partnership including organizations like the Denver Catholic Worker and Occupy Denver will conduct a series of protests leading up to the Monday night city council vote on an ordinance that will criminalize the survival act of sleeping by our homeless friends. The protests seek to highlight the business influence pushing this ordinance through city council.
Saturday, May 12th Actions:
6:00 to 8:00 pm: Protest at the Palm Restaurant, 1672 Lawrence Street, Denver, CO 80202 (map) and other members of the Downtown Denver Partnership supporting this ordinance. Meet at 5:30 pm in Lincoln Park if you’d like to march to the Palm Restaurant via City Hall.
8:00 pm overnight: Mass overnight sleep-in protest in front of the Downtown Denver Partnership, 511 16th Street, Denver, CO 80202 (Between Glenarm Place and Welton Street) (map). Bring your sleeping bags and/or blankets for an all night sleep-in.
Monday, May 14th Actions:
Noon to 5:30 pm: Bring your sleeping bags and/or blankets for a day-long rally on the City Council steps (City and County Building, 1437 Bannock St, Denver, Colorado 80202). From noon until 5:30 there will be a series of actions and speeches highlighting the injustice of this ordinance. The City and County Building will be open to the public, let your voice be heard.
4:30 pm: Rally to OPPOSE the “Urban Camping” Ban at the City and County Building (1437 Bannock St, Denver, Colorado 80202)
Corporate and business interests in downtown Denver coalesce in the Downtown Denver Partnership, an organization that believes the homeless “will drive future conventions, tourists, residents and businesses from downtown.” Partnership members control billions of dollars of assets. The opportunities to obtain funds for campaigns and city services from the corporations represented by the partnership are clearly tempting city council members away from their duty to listen to the people who elected them and to find compassionate ways to eradicate homelessness.
The Downtown Denver People‘s Partnership has information from a reliable source that the partnership has been discussing this ordinance for two years. After the ordinance emerged from “embargo” at Councilman Brooks’ office, it has consistently appeared like a “done deal.” City council insiders Shepherd and Lopez have consistently pointed this out. Before the ordinance passed first reading, Councilwoman Shepherd said, “I know the way this vote is going to go. I know it. And I think you all know how this vote is going to go too. And unfortunately, the sad thing about it, is that it has been like that from day one.”
While this ordinance was embargoed, Mayor Hancock and Councilman Brooks bypassed consulting the Denver Homeless Commission, the Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation and the homeless themselves. Little effort was made to pair adequate resources with the ordinance.
While the Bill Request specifically states that ordinances like this “are justified on the basis protecting the health, safety and general welfare of the public,” the ordinance was assigned to the Land Use committee instead of the Health and Safety committee. As Councilman Lopez pointed out, this was done so that it would advance. All amendments to make the ordinance safer have been rejected.
Mayor Hancock is already training the police on implementing this ordinance before it has even passed.
Protests
The Downtown People‘s Partnership plans to protest Palm Restaurant, the Colorado Restaurant Association and other members of the Downtown Denver Partnership that are supporting this ordinance. Colorado Restaurant Association members voted unanimously to support criminalizing homelessness. We will then conduct an all night sleep-in protest in front of the partnership itself.
Tamara Door, CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership, spoke strongly in favor of the ordinance criminalizing homelessness at the city council public hearing. Door believes that, “Unauthorized camping poses a threat to the health and safety of the city’s residents, employees, visitors and to the unauthorized campers themselves.” As the Downtown Denver People‘s Partnership conducted their first sleep-in protest last week in front of The Pavillions on 16th Street Mall, we did not notice any overwhelming health and safety issues for “unauthorized campers”. On the contrary, we appreciated the well lit, safe environment provided by the 16th Street Mall.