Summer 2019 Blue Review

Blue ReviewSpring/Summer 2019 MILLIKIN UNIVERSITY’S FAMILY MAGAZINE Courage Teachers 01 & Possibility Seekers A Message from President White The Art of Research 03 Turning Students' Passions into Careers When Did You First Feel 07 at Home at Millikin? Get Lost; Be Found 09 The Study Abroad Experience From Millikin to Medicine 11 LV Scholar, Rubi Rodriguez An Afternoon with the President 13 Interview by Caitlyn Garrity Big Blue Athletics 17 Spring '19 Wrap-Up Immersion Excursion 19 International Immersion Courses Roommates by Chance; 21 Friends by Choice Office of Residence Life The Job Interview 23 A Student's Perspective He Came for Love 25 Faculty Spotlight with Dr. Eduardo Cabrera Greek Life Gets Philanthropic 27 Greek Students Make Major Contributions Passion. Pursuit. Profession. 29 Athletic Graduate Assistants Earn their MBA 31 Dates to Remember CONTENTS COURAGE TEACHERS & POSSIBILITY SEEKERS Springtime brings a flurry of new activity to Millikin. The Perkinson Music Center is packed with students rehearsing for senior recitals, juries, and the final ensemble performances. Our sports teams in tennis, track, softball, and baseball have full schedules, coming off spring break trips to sunnier climes to face the unpredictable weather and tough competition of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), one of the nation’s best Division III athletic conferences. Students are preparing to present their research, including their James Millikin Scholar projects, in the Celebrations of Scholarship. As President, I revel in this whirlwind of activity and delight in the energy on our campus. One day might have me going to a late afternoon Q and A session with Student Senate and later stopping by a game at our new Workman Family Softball Field, before heading to a couple of innings of baseball. The next day might find me addressing prospective students and families on Admitted Student Day, enjoying a Presidential Scholar’s senior voice recital in the afternoon, and applauding a theatre performance that evening. Meanwhile, seniors in all areas are getting ready for graduation, applying for graduate and professional schools, and taking job interviews. Millikin students have been accepted to law schools at DePaul, Boston University, University of Indiana, University MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT WHITE PRESIDENT FROM MESSAGE 1 of Massachusetts, University of Illinois and how to sing and dance, but how to manage By performing what they have learned, Washington University (St. Louis). Others a career and understand how all parts of students do more than gain the confidence will be off to medical school and graduate a theatrical performance come together. they can do again what they have schools at Southern Illinois University and Students organize the business behind Pipe already done. Because they have made University of Illinois, and veterinarian Dreams Studio Theatre and the 14 other a presentation in class, they also have school at University of Illinois and Purdue. student-run businesses that give valuable confidence to present their research at In recent years, a number of our students experience in working hard, but also in a national conference. Yet even more, have entered positions with companies ownership, planning, and carrying on a students also gain the courage to do research like State Farm and ADM, theatre and career and a personal life. In the natural they have not yet done and to take on roles arts organizations like the Opera Theatre sciences, social sciences and the humanities, and positions they have not yet tried. of St. Louis, and regional theaters across the research that students do is not just for the country. Last year, according to our the classroom and the teacher, but also Yes, Millikin University teaches courage. First Destination Survey, more than 99.4% for presentation on campus to faculty and Our faculty literally encourage our students of our students were in graduate school, students from other disciplines and in so that they will do more and become more. professional school, or employment within regional and national conferences. We can do this because our faculty and six months after graduation. staff are experts in seeing possibilities and potential that our students do not yet see in These data points are exciting, but how can themselves. we best talk about the special character of a "To the world’s Millikin education? I am sure that students With honest encouragement in an from hundreds of colleges and universities question, 'What can atmosphere of trust, we hold a mirror up lead very busy spring semesters on their to our students to show possibilities; and, campuses and graduate to find jobs and you do?' Millikin in so doing, Millikin students gain a life- opportunities. So, what is so special about changing experience. As we say, "Ah, there Millikin? graduates stand you are Millikin," students understand profoundly what they can do, who they A few years ago, we asked students why ready to say, 'What are, and what they can achieve. Thus, the they like Millikin University. We heard cycle of Performance Learning, doing, and statements like, "Millikin is so warm and encouragement ultimately produces not just friendly and people care about you," or, have you got?'" a change in what you can do, but a change "I feel at home at Millikin." While these in who you are, how you live, dream, and responses are genuine, and I certainly perform in the future. would not want Millikin students to say Performance Learning is at the heart of the that Millikin is a cold and unfriendly Millikin experience, to be sure, and thinking To the world’s question, "What can you do?" place, students at many colleges say about what happens in Performance Learning Millikin graduates stand ready to say, "What the same things about their schools. Yet leads to a more fundamental understanding have you got?" there is something different and special of a Millikin education. I believe the key about Millikin, and we are beginning to impact of Performance Learning is not just It is a cliché to say that we live in difficult understand and celebrate the particular that students do, as valuable as that is, but times, but it is true. Our families, our character of a Millikin education. how that doing changes who they are and country, our students and our beloved what they can become. The experience Millikin University face a number of In recent years, we hear students pointing of Performance Learning teaches skills challenges as we seek to fulfill our best to the special character of our signature and techniques, but it also fundamentally imagination of who we are and what we Performance Learning as engendering the changes the way students at Millikin think can become. At Millikin, whether parents, qualities that set us apart. The Millikin about their majors, their careers, their lives, students, faculty members, staff, or difference is less about what our students their futures, and what is most important, coaches, we learn to perform, to take on the know than about how they learn, centering how they live and move in the world. challenges before us, and to be the courage- on how Performance Learning teaches teachers for one another. This is important our students who they are, what they can Every college claims to help students gain and vital work. It makes all the difference. become, and how they can enact their expertise and confidence. Millikin does lives for great success. that for sure. In recent months, I have Thank you for your leadership, your pondered the question of, "What is so special support, your performance, and most of all, At Millikin, political science students not about Millikin?" Each time, I come back to your courage. only study how government works, but something deeper and even more profound also travel to our state capitol to lobby than confidence, and that is Millikin’s legislators for support of private higher Performance Learning teaches courage. education. Here, students learn not only Patrick E. White President THE ART OF RESEARCH The Millikin Difference lies not only in what students learn but how they learn it. Research plays a big hand in every discipline of study, across colleges, majors, and career paths. But these efforts are not driven by faculty; rather, they are the design of students themselves who decide what they want to know more about, what burning questions they have, and how they want to go about getting those questions answered. At Millikin, research is a vehicle to support students’ goals. Not our own. "Millikin’s commitment to research and Performance Learning means that we are always finding ways to engage students in doing the real work of the discipline they study," says Dr. Jeff Aper, Millikin Provost. "That means that students in the arts not only have opportunities to create but can get involved in the business of the arts, whether that may be running an art gallery, a studio theatre, a record label, or organizing performances. It means that students in the sciences not only learn from accomplished and influential scientists, they work side by side with them in laboratories, field settings, and applied work with university partners to explore the world around us, explain how and why things work as they do, and extend our understanding of natural phenomena of all kinds. 3 THE ART OF RESEARCH their language skills in other countries. "I am currently researching tadpole It also means that students interested in business will gain knowledge and behavior and their ability to learn. skills critical to success but will also be I have always loved amphibians, and involved in running businesses, investing they behave in a quizzical manner a substantial portfolio in the stock market, working as consultants, and fostering that I find fascinating.

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