Showing posts with label UW-River Falls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UW-River Falls. Show all posts

Friday, December 7, 2012

Elected Winter Carnival King in 1988

Dad (me) on right and Billie Jo on left
in Winter Carnival competition.
Did you know that in college I was the Winter Carnival king? In early 1988, I was living in the upperclassman dorm, and a bunch of my dormmates convinced me and a friend, named Billie Jo (she was an exchange student from Nebraska), to run for carnival king and queen to represent the dorm. A vote was held in the dorm, and we won!

The winter carnival theme that year was "Hooray for Hollywood," so we had to do all kinds of skits and competitions related to that theme. The posters we made matched that used on the "Top Gun" movie posters, and we did a skit from "Revenge of the Nerds".

We received points for the skits and contests, and then a campus-wide vote was held. We won again!

The week was a lot of fun. Maybe one day you'll also run to be a carnival king at your school!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Campus literary magazine editor

In addition to being the editor of the campus newspaper when I was in college, I also was the editor of the campus literary magazine, called Prologue, for three years. When I was a freshman and a sophomore in college, I'd gotten writings published in them, and I was an English major, so I was a natural for the job! The magazine published short stories, poems and essays.

As editor, I changed the look of Prologue so that it was the size of an actual magazine. Then I got artwork for the cover, which ran in color, something we'd never done before. To keep costs low, I lowered the quality of the paper within the magazine.

We produced the magaine at the campus newspaper office, which made it very easy to do, as I became lit mag editor after I was the newspaper editor.

Would you believe that I'm still friends with people I met while working on Prologue?

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

My involvement in college forensics

While in college, I was actively involved in forensics - or speaking contests (Not the science of how people died, which is another definition of the word!). I participated in forensics during the first four years of college.

At first, my big events were prepared serious speeches, such as communication analysis, informative, and persuasive speaking. My speeches included an analysis of Carl Sagan's "Cosmos", toothpaste, and bilingual education.

But my biggest success came in making up speeeches off the top of my head, specifically extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking. In extemp, you're given a political question and have 30 minutes to write a speech about it; you can use one note card. In impromptu speaking, you're given a quotation and have up to 2 minutes to come up with a 5 minute speech about it. In both categories, I took second place in state during spring 1988 and went on to nationals.

I also was president of my campus' honorary forensics society, Delta Sigma Rho-Tau Kappa Alpha.

Monday, December 3, 2012

My work as campus newspaper editor

Campus newspaper offices
During college, I was the editor of my campus newspaper. The paper was called the Student Voice.

I began just helping the newspaper staff on Wednesday nights during my freshman year. Then I was asked to be the Arts and Entertainment editor, which I did during my sophomore year. In March of that year, I was named editor, a position I held for the next 12 months.

While the editor, I oversaw a staff of 72, redesigned the newspaper, and expanded its size to include more stories. It was a lot of work, and I had to cut back on my class load to make time for it all!

It also was a lot of fun. Many good friends were made during that time, and I learned a lot about newspapers, my abilities, and how to be a leader.

Maybe one day you would like to work on a publication, like a newspaper or a magazine?

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Thinking about our parents' lives before we were born

Your picture on the cover of my hiking books (All of which are dedicated to you.) and your name as my son continues to appear all over the place. This time, the cover for my first book is in my college's English Department newsletter. I attended UW-River Falls from 1984-89, graduating with a bachelors degree in education, double major in English and Journalism. At UWRF, I was the campus newspaper editor, the literary magazine editor, the Winter Carnival King, and was a national qualifier on the forensics (intercollegiate speaking) team. They were very happy days indeed - but never so happy as the days I spent with you.

For most children, thinking about their parents' life before them is both odd and fascinating. It's difficult to imagine your parents without you as part of their lives. But just as you are growing up now without children, learning how to be an adult, so your parents also had to grow up and learn what making your own way through the world involves.

I look forward to seeing what you will enjoy doing and will excel at when in high school and college. There will be much experimentation with different activities and interestest as you try to determine what you like and don't like, but ultimately you'll settle on some path that brings great joy and meaning to your life. Then you'll settle down with a beautiful woman or man and raise children of your own. And they'll then wonder with fascination about the life you once led before they were born!