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Showing posts from April, 2019

How One International Relations Alumna is Changing the World

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by Dr. Kanji Watanabe Su Bin “Alison” Park, who graduated from Cottey in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Business, is on track to be the first Cottey baccalaureate program graduate to earn her Ph.D. She is a native of South Korea.   Su Bin "Alison" Park at her 2013 Commencement “Learning international relations theories and examples at Cottey enabled me to gain a holistic understanding of global affairs from political, economic, social and cultural aspects,” said Alison. “Moreover, I developed skills to analyze complex international issues, and I became passionate about issues of poverty and inequality.” Given her interests in alleviating social problems, Alison moved to Kansas City after she graduated from Cottey and participated in several programs at Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, the Kansas City Health Department, and Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences (KCU), which all serve disadvantaged communities a...

Spring Break in Barcelona, part III

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Steve Reed, Cottey's director of public information, traveled in Barcelona, Spain, with Cottey students, faculty and staff over spring break. He reported back with a series of articles written as letters home to his mother. This is the third of five letters. Buenos dias, Mama! It is a beautiful morning in Barcelona, and today our entire group is going to visit the monastery at Montserrat. It's about 25 miles from Barcelona, but the twisty mountain roads the last few miles make it close to an hour-long bus ride. Fortunately we had an informative and entertaining tour guide named Angel (Angel is a man, and you pronounce his name Ahn-hel) who made the bus ride seem shorter. A view from Montserrat towards Barcelona. Montserrat literally means "serrated mountain" and looking at it from a distance you can definitely see the saw tooth shape of this elongated peak. This location has been the site of a Benedictine monastery since the 11th Century, although t...

Spring Break in Barcelona, part II

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Steve Reed, Cottey's director of public information, traveled in Barcelona, Spain, with Cottey students, faculty and staff over spring break. He reported back with a series of articles written as letters home to his mother. This is the second of five letters. Buenos dias, Mama! Today is another busy day in Barcelona. This afternoon I helped bury the sardine for Lent. I'll back up in just a bit and work through the sardine business. Let's start with this morning, our first day of educational modules. Mine didn't begin until 11:30, so that gave me a little bit more time in bed this morning, and a couple of hours to take care of some work. At 11:30, Priscilla and I met most of our students in the lobby of the hotel to leave for our module. Three others were already out and about in the city and were going to meet us. We traveled to Plaça Cataluña and crossed onto La Rambla.    I stopped to show the students the Fontain de Canellones, a big ornate drinking fount...

Spring Break in Barcelona, part I

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Steve Reed, Cottey's director of public information, traveled in Barcelona, Spain, with Cottey students, faculty and staff over spring break. He reported back with a series of articles written as letters home to his mother. This is the first of five letters. Buenos dias, Mama! Or should I say Bon Dia, as that's how you say “good morning” or “hello” in Catalan. We have safely arrived in Barcelona, although weather in the States did delay both flights a bit. Fortunately we avoided the large amount of snow the weather folks were predicting. We arrived at our hotel, 505 Catalan, checked in and met our tour guides, Ann and Anna. That first afternoon was a bit of a whirlwind because of our late arrival. We received our metro passes, got Euros from an ATM and set off on a walking tour. We took the metro to Plaça Cataluña, explored La Rambla, and saw the Cathedral of Barcelona and the Plaça St. Jaume (St. James) where a lively protest was going on.    It was teachers and...