A-maize-ing Ear-chitecture and Complementary Toe Service

I'm already about a third of the way down with my field camp in South Dakota, which is a little surprising. So far, we've gone through some geologic history of the black hills, worked with equipment to map terrain, and worked a good deal in the hydrology lab. I've enjoyed my time here, although I'm definitely missing my family, friends, and especially my new Truman buds.

The drive up here was long--about 13 or 14 hours. But, I actually enjoyed the trip. I've discovered the joy of audio books. Both "Freakonomics" and "The World is Flat" helped me avoid sleep hypnotism. Still, my trip had some interesting elements.

Missouri was a rather predictable drive. Of course, the could be because I am from Missouri, so nothing seemed too out-of-the-ordinary. Although, I did pass the occasional sex shop. For some reason, Missouri sex store owners like to buy these huge billboards along the highways, like "Big Louie's House of Porn" or something of the sorts. Of course, since it's Missouri, there always seems to be a "JESUS" billboard right after these sex shop advertisements. I love my state. :o)

Iowa's rest stops were quite interesting. When I first crossed from Missouri into Iowa, I passed a rest stop that was quite dilapidated. Basically, it consisted of a dirt road pull off and a rusted, brown sign that said "Rest Area." A sign a little ways after the rest stop said "Modern Rest Area, 60 miles." I thought any rest area would be more modern than the dirt road. In fact, the next area contained stainless steel benches and barbeque areas, a futuristic glass welcome center, and wireless internet access. Visitors typed away on their laptops in open areas. I found this incredibly interesting, especially as I was listening to "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. Just as I passed these dichotomous rest areas, Friedman discussed the wireless internet network extending quickly over the world, often providing widely varying areas of technological savvy competing with areas of old world simplicity.

Finally, I entered South Dakota. Nearly immediately, I was greeted by billboards advertising the world's only Corn Palace! The Palace obviously must have a creative marketeer; slogans such as "Amaizing Earchitecture" dotted the freeway. Unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to stop. I didn't realize that the Corn Palace stop was nearly the only exit along I-90. I saw a few more billboards, but not much else. In fact, I saw one billboard that stated, "Dick's Complementary Toe Service." I'm assuming that the sign was just unfortunately misspelled. Otherwise, I would guess it was an advertisement for some sex store offering strange foot fetish benefits. Of course, the large signs simply declaring "JESUS" probably offset any assumptions I may have had. Hmm, apparently billboards don't seem to change across the Midwest.

Hooray, South Dakota!

TSLW 2007

I write this post as the sun sets on a busy day. In preparation for my future trip to India, I have to get a slew of shots and medications. Needless to say, I'm not exactly looking forward to being a human pincushion this week. Nevertheless, I arranged all of that today, with the help of mom and grandma, and I'm still enjoying the afterglow of an amazing Truman Scholars Leadership Week.

Going into the week, I expected to meet a number of great leaders and future public servants. These expectations were met the very first day. 65 Truman Scholars descended on Liberty, Missouri and we immediately completed ropes courses and leadership training exercises. I've done plenty of these activities previously, but I noticed the caliber of my teammates as surpassing anyone I've worked with in the past.

Over the course of the week, we worked on policy proposals in different areas of public service. These ranged from increasing education standards in New York to determining the future of Iraq to using mosquito nets in Kenya to reduce malaria rates. I worked on addressing food insecurity in American rural areas. Overall, we came up with systemic changes in the Farm Bill up for renewal in 2007, including subsidies and social service programs. Our awesome team included Umair, Paul, Jenna, Sheila, and Josh ("J-Lo"). We presented for over an hour and did a great job. It was a pleasure to work with these great scholars!

Of course, we also did plenty of other things during the week. We learned about different opportunities post-graduation, including other fellowships (Rhodes, Marshall, etc.), civil service (Peace Corps, Americorps, etc.), and of course graduate schools. I found this interesting, as a large portion of the Truman application included a detailed path through graduate school and beyond. But, the national staff stressed the importance of the 'constructive confusion' of TSLW helping us to make informed decisions about the future. If you had asked me about a week ago what my plans after next year were, I would have assertively said that I wanted to gain my MS/MPP at a top-ranked school, such as Michigan or Harvard. Now, a slurry of options are on the table, which is a bit nerve-racking but also quite exciting!

In my opinion, the culmination of the week was the "Wild About Harry" variety show. Originally, it was meant to showcase the various talents of the 2007 scholars. A group of us got together and wanted to do something a little different... so we produced "Harry: The Musical." We basically rewrote well-known Disney and Broadway songs by incorporating aspects of the Truman application process. We did "Be Our Guest," "Seasons of Love," "Prince Ali," "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better," "We Didn't Start the Fire," "Hello Mother, Hello Father," and "Circle of Life." We worked hard and had a ton of fun writing and practicing the musical. It was received with great laughter and ovation on Saturday night! We just wanted to make everyone laugh and have a great time, and I think we succeeded. As I left KC on the drive home, I already incredibly missed all of my new friends I made over TSLW. Everyone offered amazing enthusiasm and intelligence with such a positive attitude. The week made me incredibly optimistic and hopeful for the future. Even though all of us 2007 Trumans are already sending long emails and calling one another, I can't wait for the next time we all hang out. Summer Institute 2008 can't get here soon enough!