Hello, CALS,
What a beautiful weekend! I hope you were able to get outside and enjoy it, or at least to watch the Cyclone football game from inside and enjoy that, too!
This week, please watch for and attend Tuesday's lecture by Steve Hanke, "Money Madness: The Federal Reserve is Flying Blind. Why?" It will start at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union and is co-hosted by the Department of Economics.
We are looking forward to next weekend's CALS Family Weekend – more than 400 are expected to attend! During family weekend, from 8-10 a.m. on Saturday, October 14, at Rieman Gardens (come out and participate if you like!), we have families coming to learn more about all of our college's academic areas of focus. Great thanks to everyone in the Office of Academic Innovation for all the arrangements to make this such a success.
Next week is the fall CALS Town Hall, on Tuesday, Oct. 17, from 9:30-10:30 a.m. in 127 Curtiss (Dolezal Auditorium). Looking forward to seeing you there if you can make it.
The week after that is the second annual Food Insecurity Challenge on Oct. 23, from 5-8 p.m. in the Gerdin Business Building. This is an event CALS puts on in collaboration with the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship and the Ivy College of Business. Please encourage your students to register to attend and participate in the challenge to create innovative solutions to the global food insecurity issue.
Last week was a blur for many of us with connections to the work of the ISU Foundation, and the many terrific donors that visit campus during the ISU Foundation Governor’s Week events. Among the highlights were discussions about our Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods programs in Uganda. At one of the meetings, there were updates on the work there from our faculty and staff - Curt Youngs (AnSci), Tom Brum (ABE), Lee Burras (Agron), Tammi Martin (CSRL), Gail Nonnecke (Hort/GRS) and Dorothy Masinde (Hort/GRS) - and from a variety of donors and supporters. They have produced amazing results in their work with Ugandan counterparts and communities, and our students and other faculty from across the college have been deeply engaged.
At one of the CSRL meetings last week, we also took the opportunity to formally award one of the college’s highest honors, the George Washington Carver Distinguished Service Award, to Jerry and Karen Kolschowsky. Normally, the formal presentation would be along with other awardees at a university-wide event in November, but the Kolschowskys are not able to be here then, so we honored them last week. It was a wonderful moment to recognize their many gifts and inspirations, all very much aligned with the meaning of Carver's work. One of Carver’s most famous quotes is, “It is simply service that measures success.” And that is truly a statement of the work of Jerry and Karen. If you are not familiar with them, just as one example, next time you are in the first floor rotunda of Curtiss Hall, check out the plaque that honors their contributions to the renovations that created the “global wing” of the building. They have also sponsored scholarships, grants and so much more. Our program in Uganda is possible because of them, and they have inspired so many others to contribute, too. Jerry is a 1962 agricultural business alumnus, and with Karen and their sons, Tim and Mike, they are stalwarts of the college and our missions!
We also had an alum and donor reception at the Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center last week, called Taste of CALS, and it featured great fare from the college, including summer sausage, turkey sliders, ice cream, beer, wine and honey! A terrific event, and special thanks to all those at the displays, and to our CALS Development team for putting it all together.
Lots more to report and going on in the college by you and your colleagues. My best - Dan
Scenes from CALS
Jerry and Karen Kolschowsky were presented the George Washington Carver Distinguished Service Award during a special event Oct. 5, in Kildee Hall's Ensminger Room. They are pictured below with David Acker, myself, their son, Tim, and Robert Waggoner.
Tom Brumm captured this sunrise photo late last month at Hickory Grove Park near Colo, Iowa. He was on a five-mile morning hike at the Scouts BSA Prairie Wind District Camporee. He shared that the park was recently renovated and is a bit of hidden gem worth checking out.
A typical fall evening in Story County last week - first looking east toward a moving combine in a soybean field, then looking west soon after at the sunset over a field of tall corn.
Lastly, two funnies from the Des Moines Register that are relevant to our teaching mission!
