(I’m at the First Year Experience Conference in Atlanta this weekend celebrating the Superbowl and my birthday. I thought I’d share the page I made for educators considering using Where Am I Wearing as a common reader. )
First Year Experience
In the 2010-2011 school year Where Am I Wearing was selected as a freshman common reader by Elmhurst College, Pfeiffer University, and Wingate University.
In the following video you’ll…
Learn why Pfeiffer University selected Where Am I Wearing
Watch what Kelsey has to tell an auditorium full of freshman about getting kicked out of his first college class & being undecided
See a synopsis of Kelsey’s global quest
Hear Kelsey’s advice on how we all can be glocals (local & global citizens)
Day 3 of the Little Princes hostage crisis. Between here and facebook and email and twitter about 40 of you have come to my rescue. Now, how to find another 60 people to do one of the following and report back in the comments?
I’ve written about Jake and NURU before. I’m thrilled to share my latest piece on the World Vision Report. I’m still sort of new to the full-length radio feature thing (this is my second), but am really proud of this one.
The knocker was Terry our RA. We called him worse things. He was treated like a substitute teacher. His endless threats were powerless to stop the amount of hallway urination, dorm room pot smoking, and an actual kegger in my neighbor’s room complete with Bon Jovi karaoke.
Poor Terry.
As he knocked he should’ve known that we were going to be trouble. A good part of the hallway residents were jammed in my room playing Madden. It was the first week of college and we were mutinous already. It was Terry’s job to bring us all to hear the author of My Own Country our freshman common reader program book by Abraham Verghese.
Verghese, born in Ethiopia to Indian parents, was…
Andrew (my partner on the Nothing Personal project) have a piece in the Huffington Post today - Finance Reform: How Short Memories are Created.
The timing of this piece is more than ironic. Tomorrow we’re hopping flights from Indiana to NYC. Goodbye Main Street! Hello Wall Street!
Our goal in NYC is to treat investment bankers and quants with the empathy that we treated the people we met around the world who had been hit by the crisis. It should be fun….
I’m speaking at the Midwest Writers mini-conference today. The organizers originally expected around 25-30 attendees, but 100+ signed up. Why so many more? Annie asked if it had anything to do with me. (That was nice of her.) But I’m sure it doesn’t. You give a free writing conference and supply it with donuts and they will come.
Since there are so many attendees, I decided to forgo the killing of trees and just share my bits of wisdom here:
“You can leave Africa, but Africa won’t leave you.”
That’s what the high-powered executive told me after I mentioned my upcoming trip to Kenya. He spent three years in Africa teaching English when he was in his early twenties. He never said what it was about Africa that makes it not leave you, but I expect he might not know.
That was on Wednesday night.
Today I saw a friend’s Facebook post that Africa was calling him to return, Liberia specifically.
I’ve visited sunny beaches and shantytowns around the world and, I must admit, it’s the beaches that tend to call for my return. (Oh Na Pali coast of Kauai, how I long for you!) Sure, I’ll never forget the dump I visited in Cambodia, but I have no…
Okay, since I started #ten4tues we’ve had more than enough earthquakes. I think we’ve more than met our quota for the year, so let’s stop having them.
That said, this week I’m supporting the relief efforts in Chile by donating $10 to the World Vision Project. I hope you’ll join me.
I know that some folks are hesitant to donate to faith-based groups and I understand and respect that. Missionaries haven’t always had the best reputation through the years. At their worst they are culture-killers that offer a message along the lines of “our God provides us with food. Worship Him and you won’t go hungry.” At their best, which is where I believe so many have evolved to today, they serve their fellow man. They don’t…
“Why should we care about the people who make our clothes?”
This was the first question of the first interview I did after my book came out. It was such a simple question, but I struggled to answer it. I stumbled around and said something about how connected we all are. But just today I stumbled upon what I really wanted to say.
From Martin Luther King’s “A Christmas Sermon on Peace” (1967)
It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think…
Chuck wrote the song “Albino Sasquatch” (a great name for a band) which had the judges - Dan at Rule29, Larry, at Wiley, and me - rolling. I’ll send out emails to the runners up in the near future so they can choose from the other prizes: ARC of WAIW, Moju Project T-shirt, or writerly advice.
Without further ado…ALIBINO SASQUATCH
Kelsey is dancing to an autobiographical song that he wrote himself. Kelsey wrote the lyrics and Elton provided the melody. He plays it whenever he goes to a new place. It’s his way of introducing himself to the people.
I am the Albino Sasquatch
I’ve roamed all around this land
Be not afraid! I am friendly
Come shake my furry hand
