Last week the Rivers Institute presented in Washington DC at a national meeting of the AAC&U (Association of American Colleges and University). The six person panel consisting of Dick Ferguson, Leslie King, Susan Byrnes, Emily Klein, Sarah Peterson and myself presented on the topic of “Creating Stewards of our Communities.” We presented to a small, but enthusiastic crowd. Both the orientation and senior video impressed the audience, but I think more than anything attendees were excited to see students presenting at a conference for administrators, deans and presidents. The only academic on the panel, Don Pair, was unable to make the conference, but Sarah stepped up and illustrated just how seriously we take student involvement! One of the many running jokes throughout the conference came from the opening night speaker. During the introduction of author Jonah Lehrer, the speaker jokingly said she would recognize him as the youngest person in the room. Wrong! Sarah wins again.
While we were in DC we ate a lot of good food, met plenty of nice people (including the AV guys and the Obamas), ran into some old friends and squeezed in some much needed community building. We learned about how other schools engage their students and shared our model with them. All in all, it was a great trip with lots laughs, learning and synchronicity! 
P.S. We didn't really meet the Obamas, just cardboard cutouts.
Great work! It was really nice to present the Fitz Center's model of community buidling with other colleges and universities. I think we can continue to share our mission and work with others.....next stop will be a SOCHE conference in February at Sincalir, titled "the Greening of Curriculum" and then, hopefully, another SOCHE/OCC conference at OSU in April.
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