Thursday Roundup
Today is starting out grey and cool, and will devolve into rain within a couple of hours. After the early part of this week was sunny and 80 degrees, this is going to be an unpleasant surprise to your Deacs. A good day to stay inside.
So we turn our attention to a few things that are coming up in Deacdom. Next Thursday at 6:00 pm in Wait Chapel we have a Voices of our Time event (part of our speaker series on important topics from renowned thought leaders). This one is “The Human Face of Environmental Inequality” and the speaker is Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland (Bio). Please, please encourage your students to attend. There will likely never be another time in their lives when they can be in an audience of only 2,400 people to hear from a former president. This is a rare and wondrous opportunity.
Today and tomorrow, the Z Smith Reynolds Library is hosting a symposium entitled “Mass Incarceration and the Criminal Justice System Student Panel and the Opening of Release: From Stigma to Acceptance.” This will be held in the ZSR Auditorium (404) and will have a faculty panel today, a student panel tomorrow followed by an opening reception in the atrium. Looks like a wonderful opporunity for students to reflect on the role of the criminal justice system and to consider their thoughts on an important societal issue for all of us.
Also tomorrow night is Wake-Appella, Wake Forest’s First Annual a cappella festival hosted by Demon Divas and Plead the Fifth. This event is bringing together collegiate and high school a cappella groups from throughout the Southeast, and is a fundraiser to help the arts community in the Triad area. If your Deac is a fan of Pitch Perfect or Glee, or just wants to hear some amazing music, this is an event for them.
On Saturday from noon until midnight, Wake ‘N Shake will take place. This is one of the signature Pro Humanitate events of the year. Reynolds Gym will be rocking with 1,300+ students who will be on their feet for 12 hours to raise awareness and funds to support cancer research at the Wake Forest Cancer Center via the Brian Piccolo Cancer Fund. If your Deac isn’t involved but wants to be, or if you want to help their efforts, visit wakenshake.com.
There are other events too of course – and your Deac can visit the Events calendar to see more.
The range of opportunities at Wake Forest is enormous. Your students have so many potential opportunities outside of class to think, to serve, to participate in important conversations, to reflect, to dance, and to simply enjoy. To use (once again) my smorgasbord metaphor, this is a rich buffet filled with so many dishes. Encourage your Deac not to be a picky eater, but to try a bite of as many things as they can.
— by Betsy Chapman