I just got back from broomball (pictures soon!) and earlier today our orientation meeting with our new students. Dr. Spanier opened the evening and I added a few words after that. Pizza with faculty followed and it was great! Well, I hope everyone else thought it was great. I enjoyed meeting so many of you and I was pleased to see so many faculty come to meet with the students. Their support is fantastic and I encourage students (as they heard from me today) to get to know their Honors advisors and other faculty. They are a great source of information and interesting people too.
The orientation events continue tomorrow and I look forward to seeing you at the tailgate on Saturday!


One of our new programs this year are Roundtables. These are weekly meetings, alternating Wed and Thur afternoons (with a few exceptions) that will be held in the Grandfather Clock Lounge in Atherton from 4-5pm. Food will be provided! Below is the schedule for the start of the semester. I hope to see you there!
Thursday, September 14:
Dr. Christian M.M. Brady, Schreyer Honors College
“That Vision Thing – The Future of Schreyer Honors College”
Thursday, September 21:
Dr. Kristine Clark, Department of Nutrition,
“Fueling Your Performance in the Classroom and in Your Active Lifestyle”
Wednesday, September 27:
Dr. J. Phillip Jenkins, Departments of Religious Studies and History,
“Must There be a Clash between Civilizations and Religions”
Thursday, October 5: TBA
Wednesday, October 11:
Dr. James Pawelczyk, Department of Kinesiology,
“The Future of Space Exploration”
Thursday, October 19:
Dr. Clay Calvert, Department of Communications and Law,
“The First Amendment and Free Speech: A look at Current Issues”
Wednesday, October 25:
Dr. John Harwood, Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology,
“Some Modest Reflections on Originality, Creativity, and Academic Integrity: Penn State’s Experience with Cyber-plagiarism and Turnitin”

Our student mentors arrived today and are ready for our newest class to arrive tomorrow! I look forward to meeting you all tomorrow evening.
My brother, a PSU PhD and a new faculty member at PSU-Harrisburg, and his son, no doubt a future Penn Stater, have started their own podcast. The latest episode is mostly about football. It is amazing what a 14 year old (currently living in central OH!) knows about PSU football.
SHC will be starting our own podcast this semester and this won’t be lil’ ol’ mean and my computer’s mic. It will be a bi-weekly show featuring news, interviews, maybe even some trivia, and will be produced by our own students. So stay tuned and let us know who you would like to have interviewed! (Maybe even the Coach?)
Friday evening was the medal ceremony for this summer’s graduating scholars. It was a wonderful event with the Provost and President Spanier attending along with Mr. Schreyer himself. We were also honored to have these board members with us: Anne Riley, J. Lloyd Huck (emeritus), and Quentin E. Wood (emeritus).Needless to say, it was my first medal ceremony and my first glimpse of this class. President Spanier’s speech revealed the amazing accomplishments of this tremendous group of students. The ones that stick out in my mind are the student who will have an article published in a peer review journal, the student who played an won “fabulous prizes” on the Price is Right (a grand piano!), the student in the trombone choir (and about 10 other groups), and the two students who are parents as well as highly accomplished academics.
It was a great pleasure and privilege to be there to celebrate with you and your families.Congratulations to you all!
Today I was very pleased when David Young became the first SHC scholar to send me an IM! Don’t forget that you can reach me on AIM at drcbrady.
Tonight I am in NYC after meeting with a wonderful group of alumni and students. The evening was a celebration of the accomplishments of women involved with the SHC and included two of our current students who are completing their summer internships. Our speaker for the evening was Leslie R. Caldwell ’79 (Econ), currently a partner in the Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, but formerly a 17 year veteran of the US Department of Justice. Perhaps most prominently Ms. Caldwell was director of the special task force that investigated the Enron corporate scandal. Her presentation outlined the collapse of Enron and the subsequent investigation but the Q&A afterward was just as worthwhile as Ms. Caldwell shared about her experience interviewing various people (such as Dick Cheney) for the Enron case and being a woman in criminal law and the department of justice.
I am very grateful to Ms. Caldwell for speaking and for all who came to the program! This is one of the first of various programs we will hold in cities around the country in order to remain connected with our alumni and supporters, but most of all to bring our current students in contact with alumni. I hope to see you at a gathering soon!
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