LAST ROSE OF SUMMER As my mom used to say, things are winding down here... The last few days have been rainy and cool. The days are getting shorter. And the UVA football team has a .500 record. Taken as a whole these facts might represent a portent of things to come, but that doesn't mean I have to kiss the summer goodbye just yet.
For one thing, the vegetables shown above are from local area farms -proving that there are still plenty of summer goodies on the vine. For another, the meteorological end of summer isn't until the 22nd of September so I've still technically got about a week and a half.
All that notwithstanding, it is beginning to feel like the summer is winding down. Each week our local produce gets a bit lumpier and droopy. The morning air felt downright crisp yesterday as I headed off to Entrepreneurial Thinking, and somewhere in the back of my mind a little voice reminded me that my window of opportunity for tent camping is closing.
On the Darden front, things are going well. Classes are just as busy as last year but much less stressful -as I am fairly sure that I will survive- and enjoy recruiting a lot more due to a degree of focus and self-knowledge that was woefully lacking at this time last year.
Regarding my marketing responsibilities, the day before yesterday was the kickoff meeting for the Darden Blog Team. We had a couple dozen first year's (FY's) show up and everyone seemed very excited to represent Darden on our site. Then yesterday I had a meeting with my Marketing Intelligence Prof. (Ron Wilcox) and convinced him to advise a group that I'm a part of called Darden Marketing Management. DMM is only about two years old right now, but hasn't had a faculty advisor until now. With his help, we hope to bring in several guest speakers and formalize a marketing plan to represent Darden a lot more intentionally in the New Media space... More on that later.
What else... Oh yes. After five days of interviewing (nearly 200 candidates) the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society admitted 51 probationary members to the Hall on Tuesday. Among this group were two Darden students (we also added another who re-activated his membership) and several Law students (one of whom I know very well from Church). This was a lot of fun for us, and for myself personally, as the interviewing process really gives me a tremendous amount of hope that the West has not fallen completely into disrepair. Many students could converse intelligently about Latin etymology, classical literature, and history while also discussing interests as wide as New Southern Hip-Hop (you know who you are) and US-Iranian relations.
Finally, we had a great kick-off meeting for the Darden Christian Fellowship yesterday with a speaker from the Center for Christian Study - Tim McConnell. He talked about dealing with disappointments, brought in a story from his time in the US Army, and somehow connected it all to the life of Saint Paul.
For anyone interested in DCF, you should check out this link to the iTunes page of Ken Myers - next week's speaker. Ken formerly worked for NPR on Morning Edition, focusing on arts and the humanities and will bring a lifetime of cultural criticism to our group for lunch...
And if that wasn't sufficient to impress you, perhaps knowing that he once had a great interview with Johnny Cash will pique your interest!
Anyway, I have to get on with my studying. I'll get out of here and leave you with a simple benediction (blatantly stolen from the Navajo):
Walk in Beauty.
Posted September 11, 2008 Busy? Posted by: Anand You seem to be doing quite a few things this quarter. Thats why I dont see you around much I guess. Good work. keep up the pace Posted 2008-09-11 19:15:03
Posted by: Bill Gray It seems that you're keeping plenty busy during our second year. I keep saying that us Darden students choose to be busy. Posted 2008-09-27 11:34:18 COMMENT ON THIS POST
