Ben makes it to Madrid

Ben made it to Madrid without too many problems.  His flights were fine and he got a taxi to his new home.  He was not very happy to find out that he doesn't have a room mate and his host mother doesn't speak any English at all.  However, he now has a lot of room to spread out (by European standards!)

Luckily, he met some English speaking people by the end of the day, but I think he was wondering what on earth he had done at first!!!! 

Ben goes to Madrid

 We had a huge storm come through Brentwood the day before Ben left.  It took down a massive tree in our neighbour's yard.  Ben is going to miss our melodrama!!!!

Sam and I went out to breakfast with Ben at Half and Half

As far as we can tell, Ben had a pretty good flight, even though it was long.  He found his way to where he is staying.  He was a little shell-shocked at the beginning as he found out that there are no other students staying at the same home and his host cannot speak any English.  By the end of the day, he had been out wandering about and had already made some friends.  I suspect we are not going to hear much from him in the coming months!!!!

The advantage of being on his own is that he's got twice as much closet space and twice as much room in general

Once again, he's landed on his feet.  So far he's loving being in Madrid, I hope it continues and he has a great time.

Summer Chemistry at SLU

Ben signed up to do chemistry this summer, but it just didn't work out well for him.  The combination of the accelerated pace and online was not the best for his style of learning, so I suggested he withdraw from the class.  He was able to keep enrollment in the lab though, so he has been going to lab 3 days a week.  Good practice for when all the students are back in class!!!!

Saint Louis University Enrolls Largest Freshman Class in History

 ST. LOUIS (August 21, 2019) — The first class of Saint Louis University’s third century also will be first among all those that have preceded it in terms of size. This year’s freshman class is the largest in SLU history.

After celebrating its bicentennial in 2018, the University expects to enroll a record 1,900 first-year students for fall 2019, a more than 25% increase over last year. SLU last set a record for freshman enrollment in fall 2011 when it welcomed 1,707 new students.

This year, there were also increases in the numbers of underrepresented minority and first-generation students who enrolled for the fall. Increasing the diversity of the student body has been a strategic priority for the University.

“I am immensely proud that the largest class in SLU history is also the most diverse,” said SLU President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D. “Increasing affordability and student diversity are two of the primary commitments I made when I began at SLU five years ago, and we continue to make progress in those areas.”

SLU welcomes the record-setting class at a time when the number of U.S. graduating high school students is at its lowest in two decades, and numerous colleges and universities have experienced lower first-year student enrollment.

“We are excited to welcome this record-setting class to SLU; its size reflects the widespread desire for the rigorous Jesuit education we offer,” Pestello said. “It is now our job to deliver the challenging, experience-rich, values-based experience that is the hallmark of SLU – the sort of education that leads to the success in life and career for which our alumni are known.”

Record Financial Assistance
SLU’s record class is receiving a record amount of financial assistance – $54 million this year alone. By increasing financial aid for students, SLU is creating greater access to higher education for families of all backgrounds, said Kathleen Davis, vice president for enrollment and retention management.

“The national trends indicate that students and their families have a great need for financial assistance.  The projections show that this will continue for the foreseeable future. Saint Louis University is not immune to this,” Davis said. “At SLU, we’re committed to doing all that we can to make the dream of a college education a reality for more and more students.”

Other Facts about the New Class
In addition to being the largest, this year’s freshman class is among the brightest as well, with average high school GPAs of 3.92 and ACT scores placing the newest Billikens among the top 10% of all students tested in the United States.

The new students hail from 45 U.S. states and more than 35 foreign countries, with a sizable increase in students from the St. Louis region. Just over 600 graduated from Catholic high schools across the country.

The big move

Ben has packed up all his stuff and gone. It took him days to pack up everything he took with him.  There was stuff all over his room!!!

He is rooming with Louis and Nick (haven't met Nick yet).  Hope they all gone on together!!!!

Looks pretty hectic!!!

Sam packed everything in the back of the van and took it over to Reinert for Ben

It was a lot, but he got it in one load!!!

Looks like they managed to put the bulk of it away, but still looks messy enough to stress me out!!!!

Ben's closet!!!!

Ben moves in to SLU

Today is the day.  Ben becomes a Billiken.  Ben leaves home (for the first time).  Ben gets to be independent (somewhat).  Ben gets to adult......All of the above
Ben is moving into the SLU dorm today.  Sam is helping him.  I'm staying out of the way!!!!

Now, that's how to do a 5K!!!!!

This is the first year I have done the Komen Race for a Cure.  I am usually out of town, but had told Ratna last year that I would do it with her in 2017.  Ratna doesn't run, but was willing to walk it with me.  I had no idea walking one of these could be so much fun.  We just talked the whole way round.  There was a huge number of people walking, so we didn't feel out of place at all.
SLU had a team and so we were able to get a shuttle from the SLU garage to the start of the race, which was huge because we didn't have to pay to park and fight the traffic to get downtown.
I got a rare picture of the hard-core runners at the start (usually I'm waiting somewhere at the back of this pack)

Selfie before the start!!!!

Here they go.....

SLU had these balloon arches over the road by the parking garage, so cool!!!!

We found the Billiken!!!!

And, we were done in about 1 hour and 15 mins.  Not bad for hanging out for photos, going into the arena and strolling along......

Another week at Culinary Camp

Ben went back to SLU Culinary Camp this past week since his camp at YMCA was canceled.  They did eastern Mediterranean food this week.  Apparently, this is what happens when Ben doesn't have Maggie to cramp his style with the ladies!!!  He looks pretty happy....

They made some great food this week, it's amazing how much they can get done in a week.  They made their own pita bread and even made their own Greek yogurt to put in the tzatziki

It was a great week to be in the garden every day because the weather was so nice

Ben had a great time again and is talking about going back next year, for at least two weeks!!!

Walk to Madrid

The SLU "Walk to Madrid" program ended on August 24th. The teams ended up walking more than 6 times that distance. I had a great time doing it & have managed to keep my walking distance up pretty well since then. During the 12 week program, I almost doubled how far I walked each week. In total, I took 1,456,775 steps, walked 728 miles and lost 6 lbs in weight. I feel like I achieved at least one thing over the Summer!!!!

Prerna's graduation

Prerna's graduation ceremony was last week. She is my success story for a PhD student. She has accomplished so much during her time in my lab, improved immensely and has now achieved her goal of getting into a Pathology residency program. I am very proud of her achievements.
This was the first year that they used Chaiffetz arena for the ceremonies and it is a great venue (if you ignore the Bud Light signs!!). They had the whole ceremony posted on the big screens and so you could easily see what was going on. PhD graduations are fun because the mentor gets to hood the student & it's always a challenge to get the hood over someone's head without knocking their mortarboard off or strangling them!!! At times like this, I really wish I'd bought my PhD robes when I graduated, but at the time I thought I'd never need them again. Now, I have to rent them every year & the ones I get are never right, this year the colours of my hood weren't even right for my University!!!! However, I have to say that academic dress has to be the most uncomfortable thing to wear EVER!!!! as you can see, I got rid of mine very quickly after the ceremony, I guess Prerna was making the most of her day!!! Unfortunately, none of the pictures taken inside came out very well, it's a pity as they would have been great to have. This is me, Prerna and my 2 current students, Janhavi (on the left) and Dawn (on the right). I refer to them as my adult children (comes from trying to explain my teaching to Ben) rather than the ones I have at home!!!!

Another room with a view?

The building across the road from the SLU research building burned down on Sunday. I think we are lucky that it was a Sunday or we would have had to evacuate our whole building and all the streets were closed off. Luckily, no-one was injured. I was completely clueless about it on Monday when I walked into work and never even noticed that it wasn't there any more. My only defense is that it is still dark when I get to work & I don't walk right by it!!!! However, it was still smoking and they were still pouring water on it on Monday, so I must be completely oblivious at that time of day.....I can see the building from my office window & we have all been watching it be demolished this week. At least one lane of Grand has been closed all week and the traffic is backed up constantly. They are not wasting any time in getting it removed. They started pulling it down and taking everything away on Tuesday. There was another small fire on Wednesday and they had to bring the fire trucks out again. By Friday, almost all of the building was gone. The building is quite a landmark & probably has historic status, luckily the anchor building on the corner of Chouteau and Grand is still standing and unaffected.

Little Shop of Horrors

Even though I have been at SLU for 12 years, I have never been to see any of the plays that the theater group puts on. However, I saw that they were doing Little Shop of Horrors and thought that it would be right up Ben's alley. I asked him if he wanted to go and see a play about a man eating plant and he was all over it. We went to the matinee performance on Sunday. One of Ben's friends and his mother went with us and I took Maggie with me because Sam went bike riding. When we walked in, the place was full of older people dressed to the nines and there were no other children around. My immediate response was that the outing would be a disaster as the kids would be laughing and we'd upset everyone around us and we'd have to leave. I could not have been more wrong. Even though Maggie said it was boring, wriggled the whole way through and asked after every song if it was done, she did very well and I managed to keep her quiet. The boys sat enthralled through the whole thing and didn't make a sound. One of the ladies in front of us complimented them twice on how well behaved they were. The show was brilliant. The set was very professional and the actors all did an excellent job. They were easily as good as some professional shows I have seen. I am usually very selective about picking events for the kids to go to. This was definitely one of my better decisions. I will keep my eye out for other shows that the kids might be interested in.