When you think of college tours, you probably think of something for students who are trying to choose a college, not students who have already enrolled in one.

However, if you’re a student who will be attending McDaniel in the fall, you may find that you want to come see McDaniel again over the summer before your orientation in August. I know that after I graduated high school, I suddenly found myself with a lot of time to think about what my future at college held. All of this thinking made me nervous, and I hadn’t visited McDaniel since March of that year, so I felt somewhat out of touch with why I liked the college and why I had chosen it. As a result, my mom said that we should go visit McDaniel for a day so I could get excited about it again. She even told me to try to set up a tour if I could.

Set up a tour with admissions I did, and it was great for relieving some of the anxiety I was feeling. The other girl on my tour was also an incoming first year student, so I felt even better because I learned that I wasn’t the only one who wanted to see the College again. The tour got me reacquainted with McDaniel, and more importantly, it renewed my excitement.

So if you’re an incoming student or even if you’re a prospective student still, the summer can be a great time to tour McDaniel. If you’re an incoming student, I’d recommend calling Admissions to make sure they know that you’re already committed to attending McDaniel. Otherwise, you can schedule your visit online. You can find visitation information here. Have fun on your visit!

Last week when I was hanging out with a high school friend of mine, I brought up how I was looking forward to having my academic advisor as a professor again for the 20th Century British Literature class I’m taking this fall. I talked about how wonderful she is as an advisor, a teacher, and a friend–she’s great to talk to.

My friend, who attends a large state university said that he too had a great advisor but that she’s not a professor but rather a full-time advisor. This struck me as odd, though it shouldn’t have. Larger universities have much larger student to faculty ratios, so there’s no way professors there could possibly advise all those students.

Truth be told, I couldn’t imagine having an advisor that wasn’t a McDaniel professor. My advisor knows the ins and outs of our department, the English department, and I visit her even when it’s not advising time to talk about topics both fun and intellectual. I couldn’t be happier with her.

Everyone’s first advisor at McDaniel is the professor of their First Year Seminar (FYS) class. Once you’re assigned an FYS, you and your new advisor will get in touch with each other to learn more about each other and discuss classes to register for for your first semester.

You can choose an advisor in your department once you declare your major, though your FYS advisor will be involved in your advising process throughout your first year. Because my FYS advisor also happens to be a member of my department, I decided to stick with her.

You have a pretty good say in who your departmental advisor is. Though there are some departments that will suggest specific professors who currently have the flexibility to take on new advisees, you are pretty much free ask whichever professor in your department you’d like to be your advisor. Chances are, that professor will say yes to being your advisor.

And if it turns out that you’d rather have a different advisor in your department, it tends to be pretty easy to switch with some paperwork and departmental permission. Your old advisor will not have his or her feelings hurt if you decide to choose someone else.

Being able to have a professor as an advisor and having the advising process so personalized is just another great thing about academics on the Hill. This is one aspect of my education that I couldn’t be happier with.

A lot of you incoming first year students have graduated in the last couple of weeks, and more of you will graduate in the next few weeks. Some of you even had your high school graduation ceremonies at McDaniel if you live nearby.

I want to extend the utmost congratulations to all of you high school graduates and soon-to-be McDaniel first years! You all have worked hard, accomplished great things, and have shown McDaniel that you are worthy to be a part of our community. You should be proud of what you’ve done in the past four years and excited for your next four!

My own brother graduated on Sunday, so naturally, I heard a lot of speeches from various students and administrators of my high school alma mater. The speech that resonated the most with me, however, was the one given by the school board president, who encouraged the graduates not to build walls but to build bridges in their future endeavors.

And you know what? I’d like to encourage you to do the same at McDaniel. Do not build walls around yourself and isolate yourself from your peers and our community. Coming to college is new and can be intimidating, so the best way to make friends is to be a friend right from the start. Most people on campus will always be friendly toward you, but to find friendship, you need to play an active role in fostering it.

Build bridges not just to form interpersonal relationships with your peers but also to get to know your professors and other adults on campus. On a small campus like McDaniel, this isn’t difficult, but it requires action on your part. Go to office hours just to strike up a conversation and get to know your professor. Say hello to the administrators and staff you encounter on campus. Being friendly helps you form important relationships and will help you access important resources, such as letters of recommendation or supplies for your next campus event.

Build bridges by joining clubs and other student organizations. Being involved will enrich your experience on the Hill and help you gain experience in teamwork, organization, and leadership–all skills that you’ll want and need for life after college (though you probably don’t want to think that far at this point).

Build bridges to the Center for Experience and Opportunity (CEO), so they can help you build more bridges to community service opportunities, to internships, to jobs, to careers. This bridge to the CEO is one that many people neglect to build though it’s a simple one.

Throughout your time at McDaniel, build these bridges and more. Take an active roll in making your time at college rewarding and wonderful–from the minute you step foot on campus for orientation in August.

Episode number: Season one, episode two

Air date: June 15, 2013

“Mesh Traps” is the second episode of the TV series The League of the Green Hornet and first broadcast on June 15, 2013. The series started its production on June 14, 2013. After week of careful planning and scheduling, it was finally the day to ut in action the soil re-colonization project. List of supplies and specific plans were made in order for filming to happen. On June 14, the team finally started shooting under the supervision of Dr. Brett McMillan.

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A total of 48 mesh traps were buried 3 inches in the soil in 6 different sites. There are two locations per site, one near the path and one away from the path.  The near the path and away from the path mesh traps are filled with topsoil. Every sample has its own control mesh trap filled with regular soil. The purpose of the Soil re-colonization experiment is to determine the rate of re-colonization of invertebrates near the path and away from the path in order to verify if the path serves as a barrier for soil invertebrates.  We hypothesize that the samples near the trail will have slower rate of re-colonization due to the disturbance of the path used by humans and horses.  An early harvest will be collected in 5 days (Wed. 19 ) to determine the rate of re-colonization.  A late harvest will be collected in 11 days (Mon. 24).

Detectives Mary Chow, Xi Huang, Shirley Mancia, and Dr. Brett McMillian had a very efficientday placing 48 traps in 5 hours.  Thanks to Mary’s muscle power with the apparatus, Xi’s courage to go through the vegetation, Shirley’s speed filling the traps, and Dr. McMillian’s broad knowledge of vegetation. After completing 4 sites, we took a lunch break and on Shirley’s way to the van she saw an eastern smooth earthsnake.  It was not terrifying but surprising as it slithered back in to the tall grass. After completing the sixth site we felt very satisfied and accomplished after a long morning in the field.

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Episode number: Season one, episode one

Directed by: Dr. Jacobs and Dr. McMillan

Written by: Xi Huang

Starring: Invertebrates

Mary Chow

Shirley Mancia

Xi Huang

Dr. Molly Jacobs a.k.a. Molly

Dr. Brett McMillan

Air date: June 9, 2013

From left to right. Xi Huang, Mary Chow, and Shirley Mancia.

Getting soil samples.

“A Study in Soil” is the first episode of the TV series The League of the Green Hornet and first broadcast on June 9, 2013. The series started its production on May 29, 2013. It took three days of careful planning and getting ready. List of supplies and specific plans were made in order for filming to happen. On June 6, the team finally started shooting under the supervision of Molly.

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PLOT

During the summer of 2013, in an ordinary neighborhood called Hashawha, three private investigators (Mary Chow, Shirley Mancia, and Xi Huang) joined forces to solve a mysterious case: whether trails in Hashawha act as a barrier in the migration of soil invertebrate communities.

A total of 60 soil samples will be collected from eight different sites. Nine samples will be from each of the four path sites: three samples from the center of the trail, three 3 m from the creek, and three 8 m from the creek. Six samples will be collected from each of the four non-path sites: three 3 m from the creek and three 8 m from the creek. The purpose of doing this is to test if soil invertebrate communities change on a gradient away from stream.

Detective Shirley Mancia recovers her thermometer.

While the investigators were working on their first site, something unexpected happened. Detective Shirley Mancia lost her precious thermometer! After Inspector Mary Chow poked a 9-inch-deep hole in the ground with a Soil Compaction Tester, Detective Shirley Mancia accidentally dropped the thermometer that was used to measure soil temperature down the 9-inch hole. In a moment of panic, Shirley started digging frantically. Fortunately, the thermometer was recovered. So once again, the day is saved. thanks to the League of the Green Hornet. But will they be so lucky next time? Until next episode.

It’s finally summer 2013, and this year the Jacobs lab is working locally, in and around McDaniel’s campus.  We’ve teamed up with botanist/ecologist Brett McMillan, and we will be studying the mysterious world of soil invertebrates (more on this soon).

We’ll be joined on the blog this summer by the Becker lab (Environmental Science), and the McKenzie/McCole lab (Exercise Science & Physiology).  Stay tuned!

If you live in a metropolitan area, suburban area, a rural region near a larger city, or really almost anywhere. If you are middle or upper class, economically stable, have a job, a steady income, have a car and a house or rent a nice apartment. If your local grocery store was caught selling rancid meat mixed with other meat, what would the outcome be? Would there be a national news story? Would it be picked up in the state news? What if the local people got really sick and had to be transported to the hospital for treatment? Would it be picked up by “Good Morning America”?, “The Today Show”? It could be, especially if you lived in the northeast, maybe near New York City or DC. There would be a huge public outcry over the deliberate poisoning of the general population.

In May this past year(2012), the meat department of the Sioux Nation Shopping Center in Pine Ridge was closed for 10 days for repackaging out of date meat and selling it as fresh. The store is owned by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, but operated by Cohn Wholesale Fruit and Grocery, Inc. Did you hear about this? Probably not, when I did a quick google search, the only news sites that came up were local to Pine Ridge and southwest South Dakota.

To add insult to injury, groceries on Pine Ridge are almost prohibitively expensive. My price point, a jar of Gerber Beef Baby Food, costs about $1.00 in Westminster, MD. When I was on Pine Ridge, the same food cost $1.33/jar. Add that same increase in cost to all the other items you need on a daily basis. So, not only was the meat department at the Sioux Nation Shopping Center selling outdated meat, but it was selling it for an increased price.

Hw often do you hear news from the Native American reservations? Not often, I am sure. You ended to seek it out. Please check out:

Lakota Country Times
and
Indian Country

for news from Native American reservations.

We have left South Dakota. On Wednesday, July 11, 2012 we traveled from Lower Brule to Rapid City via Wall, on interstate 90. We arrived in Rapid with time in the afternoon to visit some sites and stores in the city.

The drive itself was uneventful, a good thing. We were quiet, taking in the scenery. The students napped in the back seat of the Suburban. It was been along two weeks for them. We passed down along the Missouri and out past Medicine Butte, a site sacred to the Lower Brule tribe. We passed a group of dilapidated aged trailers, called “Malfunction Junction”; an alcohol town just off the Lower Brule reservation. We drove through the small western village of Reliance and picked up 90 west. The scenery gradually changed from the rolling and agriculturally farmed land to stark and more desolate carpeted grazing grassland.

We made a quick stop at Wall Drug, just to stretch our legs and pick up some coffee. Wall, SD interestingly enough is host to the Wounded Knee Museum; to put it in context, Wall, SD is about 100 miles from Wounded Knee, SD. When we were at Wounded Knee we spoke to some of the local artisans selling their wares and heard that the museum was originally supposed to be in Wounded Knee but for some reason ended up in Wall. No one is quite sure why. I have to be honest, I enjoyed the Wounded Knee site without the museum, it was quiet and reflective. Maybe having the museum in Wall encourages people to think about stopping on the reservation. More people certainly pass through Wall than Wounded Knee or Pine Ridge. While I support the idea of more visitors to Wounded Knee, I am not sure a museum would be appropriate for the site, but that is my opinion.

Rapid City seemed large, even though it only has about 67,000 people, after spending two weeks on the reservations. We checked in and headed downtown for some food and last minute shopping. We stopped at Prairie Edge, a rather well known store in Raid City that sells Native American crafts. If the craft was made by a Native American, it is certified and noted as such. There were brochures around the store highlighting the artists that contribute to Prairie Edge. The artists are not only Lakota, but represent tribes from all over North America.

I was really glad that we bought directly from the artists on the reservations. While I think Prairie Edge fulfills an important role in Rapid City (after all, many of the people who stop in will never make it to Cheyenne River, Pine Ridge, or Lower Brule), the artists most likely receive less per piece that is sold. I also think that the locations on the reservations that sell crafts are more in tune with the people. For example, when we were at Singing Horse Trading Post, there was an artist there making her jewelry. The owner of the trading post, Rosie, announced that we should, if at all possible, buy directly from the artist that was there before looking through the wares in the Trading Post. How cool is that? You would not find that happening in Rapid City. On the reservation, people are more in tune with the way everyone has to live.

I have since left South Dakota. It was a wonderful trip. If you have been reading the blog, I thank you very much. I have gotten some great comments from people. I do plan to continue with more thoughts and information as time goes on, but the posting will not be as prolific. I still have about six or so posts bouncing around my head for posting. I also plan to keep up posting about news from the reservations as well. So please check back every once in a while for new posts and keep the comments coming, it is good to hear from you. If you would like anyone information about anything I posted about, please let me know and I can email you.

I will be going back to South Dakota next summer.

Some awesome graffiti art from Rapid City

A statue at a Rapid City street corner.

Bee hives we passed on the way back to Rapid City. It wasn’t just this day, but we saw bee hives ALL over the place. We also noticed a lot of local honey for sale. What great pollinators.

We drove into the Lower Brule Reservation yesterday (Monday, July 9). It was obvious as we drove through the countryside that the Native Americans living on the Lower Brule were financially more secure than the Pine Ridge or Cheyenne River Lakota. There was a lot of agriculture going on, there were many herds of cattle, the grass was much greener, and hills were not as sparse. It was still amazingly desolate, it was even emptier than the southwestern part of the state near Pine Ridge. The hills rolled on for miles without houses, just cattle and grasslands.

The Lower Brule still have their share of high unemployment, drug and alcohol use, poor housing, and poverty, but it did not seem as pronounced as when we were on other reservations.
A sign greeting us in front of the Tribal Council Building.

Today (Tuesday, July 10) we spent visiting with the Lower Brule Tribe. We started first by visiting their arts and craft center, Sung Maka Ska (White Earth Horse), a business of the Lower Brule Tribe that employees some of the tribal members to make arts and crafts. It is an amazing place where you get to see the artisans at work.

We then went to Lakota Foods, again a food marketing company that produces popcorn! The Lower Brule tribe supplies the popcorn for Con-Agra (I am sure you heard of it). But they also market their own brand of Lakota Popcorn.. We were lucky enough to get a tour of the facilities and enjoy some free samples. A great Christmas gift for folks back east, all you need to do is visit their web site.

We then went up to the tribal administration building and received a wonderful tour from Evelyn. The Lower Brule Tribe manages their agriculture and marketing very well, which is providing a growing local economy for the members living on the reservation. Again, there are still many problems, but they are in a good position and continue to grow with solid infrastructure.

The outside of the Tribal Administration Building and the Buffalo hide which hangs in the conference room.

We then went on a very very very cool eco-tour with a Lower Brule tribal member and Dr. Brian Molyneaux. Brian showed us the rehabilitation that has been taking place along the Missouri River, which has been dammed in a number of places. We went on a walk through chest high grass to observe the rehabilitation of cottonwoods, river grapes, choke cherries, and riparian environments. We heard a rattlesnake that we disturbed with our footsteps, but we never saw it. While there were lots of snake skins around, we never saw any at this site. We were also able to get up close and personal with a buffalo herd and observe a burrowing owl at a prairie dog town.

Buffalo Pictures: the bulls have straight horns, the cows have curved horns, the calves are just cute.

Below is a photo of a burrowing owl. He was quite a distance away, but I was able to get a good shot with the camera.

Brian also took us to an Earth mound dwelling at an Arikara site. The Arikara tribes were farmers, as opposed to the hunting and gathering Lakota. They occupied the same land in South and North Dakota, however they lived quite differently. There are archeological sites along the Missouri that Brian is working on with his students. The site we went too has an Earth Mound reconstructed to honor the Arikara. It took young men from the Arikara and Lower Brule Tribes two days to build. Here, we saw a rattlesnake nesting in the rafters.

The entrance to the Earth Mound house.

Inside the Earth Mound house.

The rattlesnake in the rafters. I am not sure which is worse…bats in the belfry or rattlesnakes in the rafters.