Make Deep Work Your Superpower: Deep Work and School (Part 1)
By Dr. Colleen Worrell, Director of the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning
Make Deep Work Your Superpower: Deep Work and School (Part 1)
Want to learn complicated things quickly, be more productive, and generate higher quality work? Make Deep Work your superpower.
“Deep work” is a term coined by Georgetown University professor Cal Newport to refer to the ability to “focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task” (“Cal Newport on Deep Work”). In his newest book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (NY: Grand Central Publishing, 2016), Professor Newport argues persuasively that the ability to do deep work is the superpower of the 21st century. By training your ability to focus and by actively carving out time “for real intense focused work,” Newport argues that we can train our brains and cultivate habits that build a (more…)
A New Mantra in College Counseling: “Yes, and!”
By Eric Monheim, Director of College Counseling
A New Mantra in College Counseling: “Yes, and!”
I typically think of “Yes, and!” as a guideline for ordering food as in “Yes, I’ll have the steak and lobster.” Better yet, “Yes, I’ll have the brownie and the ice cream.”
The reality is that the idea of “Yes, and!” has long served as a foundational principle of improvisational comedy allowing an actor to accept what his or her partner has said or done and expand upon it. Proponents of Design Thinking have more recently adopted the philosophy. They argue that “Yes, and” allows for more out-of-the-box or beyond-the-status-quo thinking.
I would like to suggest that adopting the “Yes, and” mantra in the college counseling realm would do us all—students, counselors, and schools—a whale of good. To get us to the point of putting the mantra into practice, however, we have to reflect a bit about the traditional notion of how we evaluate success in the college process. (more…)
Becoming a Musician at Interlochen Arts Camp
By Jason Hwang, V Form
Becoming a Musician at Interlochen Arts Camp
Not many people recognize the beauty of classical music. I might not deserve to say this because I was actually one of them before this summer. Attending Interlochen Arts Camp was by far the most engaging and life changing experience of my life in terms of the depth of what I learned and how I advanced into a better musician. (more…)
Memorialization, Memory, and the Civil War
By Joseph Lyons, IV Form
Memorialization, Memory, and the Civil War:
The Evolution of Civil War Memory through the Monuments of North Carolina and Maine
Introduction:
Driving up the hill from downtown Bridgton, Maine, one sees a towering Civil War monument looming on the horizon. The monument itself is unremarkable, as there are at least 144 other Civil War memorials in the state. Given the imprint that this conflict left on America’s collective memory, the prolific memorial-building efforts in Maine are no surprise. However, the way Maine memorials portray the conflict is rather puzzling. Despite the fact that the Union fought the war, at least in part, for emancipation and racial equality, Mainers constructed monuments, like the one in Bridgton, that largely disregarded the significance of slavery to the conflict. The inscription on the Bridgton monument reads: (more…)
Read the Pilot Episode: GASLIGHT–a Sci-Fi T.V. Series
By Sarah Robertson, Chloe Ene, Jasmine Williams, Madison Falzon, Justin Elkinson, Payton Nugent, Penelope Benkard, Aigerim Bishigayeva, Jasen Ripley, Lilly Drohan, Abby Moses, VI Form
Read the Pilot Episode: GASLIGHT–a Sci-Fi T.V. Series
GASLIGHT is a nine-episode television sci-fi drama written in Getting LOST II: The Writers’ Room during the Spring Semester.
Click here to read the Pilot episode written by Chloe Ene, Sarah Robertson, and Jasmine Williams.
Check out the Official GASLIGHT WEBSITE HERE. (more…)
Migraine Mania: Exploring the Link Between Disorder and Diet
By Marissa Huggins, VI Form
Migraine Mania: Exploring the Link Between Disorder and Diet
Abstract
Migraine is a debilitating neurological condition associated with symptoms including: intense pressure in the head, nausea, blurred vision, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light, sound, touch and smell.11 Migraine disorder, wherein an individual suffers from a migraine episode at a minimum of two times per month, affects approximately 12% of the population of the United States.1 When an individual suffers from a migraine episode, their mental and physical capabilities are inhibited, making daily tasks extraordinarily challenging, if not impossible. Migraines cause normal neurotransmission – communication between neurons – to be disrupted, and the role of the central nervous system becomes compromised. Treatment options are limited and often ineffective thus exploration of new treatment options would greatly benefit migraine sufferers. The goal of this investigation was to explore the potential relationship between migraine disorder and diet using the model organism C. elegans. The Unc-2 C. elegans genotype is known to mimic human migraine disorder; every abrupt directional change in an Unc-2 C. elegans organism is equivalent to a human migraine. C. elegans consume bacteria as their primary source of nutrition, thus two strains of C. elegans, wildtype (N2) and Unc-2, were fed one of three different bacterial strains and their behavior was observed for one minute. This procedure was repeated three times for each organism. Based on the data collected, it can be concluded that Unc-2 C. elegans grown on a diet of either Comamonas testosteroni (C. testosteroni) or Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) experienced a decrease in migraine frequency as compared to those grown on Escherichia coli (E. coli). (more…)
A Whole Universe Is Out There with Bigger Stuff To Deal With Than My Broken Phone
By Natalie Novak, VI Form
A Whole Universe Is Out There with Bigger Stuff To Deal With Than My Broken Phone
Editors’ Note: This is Natalie’s chapel speech, spoken to the community on 29 January 2016.
Sarah: A reading from Life of Pi by Yann Martel
“I saw my suffering for what it was, finite and insignificant, and I was still. My suffering did not fit anywhere, I realized. And I could accept this. It was all right. It was daylight that brought my protest: No! No! No! My suffering does matter. I want to live! I can’t help but mix my life with that of the universe. Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness – how can I not dwell on this brief, cramped view I have of things? This peephole is all I’ve got!”
Kat: A reading from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy by Douglas Adams
“In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.”
Good morning.
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Natalie Novak. Also known as Natalie Novak. And if this still isn’t ringing any bells, I’m also the girl who threw up in chapel her freshman year. For all you freshmen that are afraid you’re gonna embarrass yourselves, I’m here to tell you that people forget about those things fairly quickly. Until they remember a year or so down the road, and then they never forget. So, my advice to you is, if you need to make a quick escape go out that door because this one is harder to open. (more…)
Best Cities to Work and Live
By Nathan Cunningham, Ryan Ferland, and Freddy Masri, VI Form
Best Cities to Work and Live
Summary
We were tasked with creating a ranking function on a subject of our choice. We decided that our equation would rank US cities and would output an index indicating the best cities to work and live in. Our ranking is only intended for cities within the United States and does not include surrounding suburbs. The equation takes into account annual salary, annual cost of living, unemployment rate, and poverty rate giving an index anywhere from 0 up to several hundred. The higher the index, the better the city. (more…)
LEO 
