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Welcome to The Lawrence D. Starr
Global Studies Institute!
Listen online to audio of
Colin Powell's Former Chief of Staff to Speaking at University of Saint Mary On
"Why the American Empire May be Finished"
Lawrence Wilkerson Lecture
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Five years or so ago, when Larry Starr gave Saint Mary the million dollars to start a Global Studies Institute, he insisted that we expand the horizons of our students by bringing the world to them and by sending them out to see the world insofar as that would be possible. Larry would have been pleased, I think, at the progress of the GSI this year. If you want to see some of that progress, just click on the image of the Starr Report cover on this page.
We've reached a new level on the way to achieving the goal of making GSI a true "Studies" institute. We went off to Jamaica to study poverty; we engineered two day-long conflict resolution conferences on major world crises for students from ten different high schools over the past two years; we had some pretty provocative and challenging lecture events; and we began to publish the essays of both students and distinguished guests at Saint Mary in our Starr Report.
We also became a partner with the Marketing Department in sponsoring the yearly Lincoln Lecture, and we helped bring LTG William Caldwell, Commanding General of The Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth to our campus as the Lincoln Lecture's eleventh distinguished speaker in this highly regarded series. General Caldwell spoke eloquently about "Leadership in a Time of Crisis" and demonstrated a scholar's knowledge of the Lincoln presidency.
The "Fort connection" is something that was very dear to Larry Starr's heart. He always said "You've got this great international connection right next door to Saint Mary, and you ought to take advantage of it." GSI set out to do just that with the introduction of the famous "Know Your World" talks which have been so popular at the Fort for years. Over the past year we had six such noontime luncheon talks by international officers studying at the Command and General Staff College. They proved to be very popular and we plan to adopt them permanently at Saint Mary.
[Additional info: GSI Quiz Bash 2008 photos]
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We are also immensely proud of our work to help Kate Schebaum become the first ever student Fulbright Scholar from Saint Mary. Kate was the Student Government Association President for the past year and has been an officer of her class throughout her four years at Saint Mary. She richly deserves the honor. Kate leaves for South Korea on July 3 for a year of representing America in myriad official and semi-official capacities, studying the Korean culture and its language, and teaching English, enriched by her knowledge of the U.S. educational system. Kate will share her experiences in South Korea for the next year on GSI's web site. Starting sometime in mid-July just click on Publications and Writings and then on Student Blogs.
One final word about last year: none of the accomplishments of the Global Studies Institute would have been possible without the good offices and expertise of our two outstanding Graduate Assistants, Matt Budreau and Deanna Monaco. Very providentially both will be with GSI for one more year. That makes four for Matt and three for Deanna. We have been extremely lucky to have them for that length of time.
Matt and Deanna will be working closely with Academic Dean Dr. Bryan LeBeau, who will chair our Steering Committee for the coming year. Lucky, too, is the fact that our excellent Steering Committee has not changed in composition and will continue to guide and give its full support to GSI as it did last year.
Things We're Working On
The Quiz Bash – please go to the Coming Events page for news on this spine- tingling event.
The Starr Report has three good articles in it this year. But we'd like to publish more than just once a year and we'd like the contributed essays to be from our students and faculty, as well as from distinguished guests. Hopefully, there will be an incentive through the Starr Awards, which are cash awards for excellent writings. If The New Yorker can do it, so can we.
We'll be looking for a destination for the recipients of this year's Starr Award for Scholarship and Service over Spring Break. We'd love to send them to Haiti under the auspices of Food For the Poor, with whom we traveled to Kingston last spring. Haiti takes the dubious prize as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and poverty on that storm-wracked and politically unhinged island takes on an entirely new meaning. Unfortunately, the U.S. State Department has put Haiti on their "No-Go" list for the time being. Nevertheless, several intrepid Sisters of Charity continue to travel and work in Fondwa, Haiti, where they have a strong interest in Father Joseph's ministry and school, supporting him with successful grant applications. A Sister of Charity is also on the board that manages microcredit loans to Haitian women.
So far, however, we've struck out in getting Sister Diane, our illustrious and very responsible president, to let us go. Perhaps things will change with the State Department this year. If not, there's Guatemala and maybe Mexico. Much depends on getting funding for the Scholars. It takes about $1500 to send a scholar for a week on a "study poverty" trip like the one to Kingston. If you want to be a Starr Scholar benefactor, please contact the GSI. These trips are mind-blowing experiences for our students and quite the best thing we do.
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