Category: Stanford/Ministry News

I just read this paragraph in the Ivy Jungle’s Campus Ministry Update and thought it worth posting here: In her recent book, Hillary Rodham-Clinton describes herself as a Goldwater conservative prior to her college years. The daughter of a staunch Republican, it was in college that she changed her political views. One catalyst for the change, she says, was the “MOTIVE” magazine published by the Methodist Church. The magazine, which ceased circulation in 1968, was designed for college students and helped her see the cause of social justice. Regardless of political your political views, this reminds us that college ministry matters. Press on.

July 1st was our one-year anniversary here in the Bay Area… a year ago our life was full of cardboard boxes and lots of other fun stuff.

Wow–a lot has happened this year.

Last night we had a great service with Chan Keith in Lodi, CA. A college-aged lady who was visiting the church that night chose to follow Christ!

I love my job…

Also, Nicholette Lockwood, a student from our former ministry in Springfield, MO moved in last night. She’ll be staying with us for a month this summer.

Right now I’m focused on two tasks:
1) Helping to select the Chi Alpha leader for Northern Cal/Nevada.
2) Helping to plan Chi Alpha’s Winter Conference in 2004.

We got back from Reno yesterday. It was a great trip!

If you ever need to travel to Reno, you really ought to look into staying at the Peppermill, a hotel/casino. Their rates are great and the rooms are wonderful!

We stayed in three different hotels this weekend (for perfectly good reasons which I won’t go into here), and the Peppermill blew the other two away.

Stanford has now won 9 out of the last 10 Director’s Cups. The Director’s Cup is given each year to the best overall sports school in the nation.

The Cardinal claimed NCAA Championships in men’s cross country and men’s water polo in 2002-03, in addition to second place finishes in women’s volleyball, men’s soccer, women’s cross country, synchronized swimming, women’s tennis and women’s water polo. In all, Stanford recorded 12 national top five finishes and 24 top 10 finishes. from the Stanford press release.

See the official NACDA page.

first photo: glen with a handful of MS&E grads
second photo: our grads from the grad party we had on Saturday. We’re missing a few, but you get the idea.

This was a pretty hectic weekend–it was graduation time for a number of our students!

This was my first Stanford graduation, so I wasn’t sure what to expect…

Here are some observations:

1) Stanford doesn’t take graduation too seriously. Less secure schools make everybody act formal and solemn, but Stanford lets students act celebratory at their celebration. You can see a video of the aptly-named “Wacky Walk.” I heard there were streakers, but I didn’t see any. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were–it fits the school culture.

2) The commencement speaker was Alejandro Toledo, the president of Peru. There’s a video snippet from his speech online. He’s got an amazing story. He was raised in abject poverty, and through the intervention of the Peace Corps was able to come to America to get a degree, and ultimately to become the first indigenous president of his country.

3) It was HOT! I’m just glad I didn’t get worse sunburn than I did.

4) After the main graduation ceremony, there were around 70 smaller graduation ceremonies for individual departments. That was the one where they call students name by name and actually hand them a diploma. The one I attended, for the major of Management, Science, and Engineering had a rather scrumptious free buffet afterwards.

5) We’re really going to miss our grads. Bye, guys! Don’t forget to write!

I often tell people that Stanford alumni change our lives on a regular basis. I came across an unexpected angle on that today…

Stanford alumnus Tiger Woods is perhaps the best known (and loved) athlete in the world today. He’s also a key figure in clothing trends! 

When Tiger Woods wakes up this morning, he will not have to think twice about his outfit. It was picked out for him a year and a half ago, just like the clothes he will be wearing Friday through Sunday at the U.S. Open at Olympia Fields.

It is all part of the marketing strategy for Nike Golf, which scripts Woods’ clothes for the majors and then ships the merchandise to stores around the country a couple weeks after each major. Woods’ popularity and the television exposure generated by the tournaments combine to increase sales of the selected items.

…

‘I was just inundated with phone calls after he wore [a short-sleeved mock turtleneck],” said Lynda Reis, the apparel buyer for Chicago Tennis and Golf. ”I could not believe the response. There have not been too many things I’ve had so many phone calls about. And the men will come in and say, ‘I don’t know if I’d wear it playing golf, but it looks so cool on him.”’

That’s not exactly what I had in mind when I told people about the influence of Stanford’s alumni, but it does illustrate the point in a bizarre sort of way. Tiger–a role model to us all. 

Read about Tiger’s stylistic influence.

Today I had the opportunity to go and just spend some time on campus watching students in their natural habitat. I was expecting to just sit down and set up my laptop and work on sermon prep and making some phone calls all day, but instead I bumped into students I knew everywhere I turned around! 

Kwasi biked by after I set up, and then I bumped into Shaowei upstairs, and shortly after that I bumped into Jimmy and a friend of his named Winona I hadn’t met before. Jimmy and I talked for several hours about all sorts of stuff, and then Song showed up. 

Song and I talked about different ways to raise money for missions–he’s planning to bike across America this summer. I hope it works out, ’cause it sounds really cool.

I was both tickled and saddened when I read the news in the Stanford Daily today: Stanford To Ban Alcohol At All-Freshman Dorm Events.

Beginning next year, Stanfords all-freshman dorms will no longer be allowed to serve alcohol at events in their lounges, hallways or outdoor areas.

Seems reasonable to me, especially since almost all freshmen are way under 21 and therefore are not allowed to drink alcohol. Nonetheless, the move produced controversy: Junior Nic Kanaan, a resident assistant in Otero, said he believes the policy will have unintended negative consequences. “I think this new policy will make a kind of introverted drinking culture that could potentially be more dangerous, because its behind closed doors and you cant see whats going on…”

Fortunately, the university simply reiterated its logically compelling position: Administrators counter that allowing drinking in freshman dormitories is illegal, detracts from efforts to create a safe and comfortable atmosphere and has failed to prevent serious alcohol-related incidents among freshmen in recent years.

Personally, I can’t believe this is even an issue. It just seems clear to me that the university is obligated to prevent illegal behavior.…

Tomorrow Paula and I will be heading to Jenness Park with a bunch of our students–it’s retreat time!

Out speaker’s going to be Scott Martin, and I fully expect the retreat to rock!