On the evening of Oct. 24, the class for Digital Media Communications Theory and History, DMC 100, hosted a Halloween party in Jewell Hall’s IDEAx lounge. Inside room 103, students set up a photobooth, haunted house walk-through set and Día de los Muertos altar, along with plenty of places to sit and hang out. The set will be available for everyone to experience until Halloween night on Oct. 31. The entire event was planned and executed by students using self-made decorations with some props supplied by the Theater Department. 

“I think the event ended successfully because each group completed their tasks to prepare and communicated with one another,” Jolia Bernal, a junior DMC major, said. “All members took part in the event and were able to apply their creative skills.”

Beginning as just an idea the week before fall break, the DMC 100 class eventually settled on the idea as their final project. The class then sectioned off into teams to brainstorm how to plan and execute the event. Their main focus was not whether or not the event  would be successful, according to Bernal.

“I was on the scene setup team and we prepared for the event by deciding on the theme of the room, collecting props from the Theater Department and setting the scene in the IDEAx room,” Bernal said. “I [also] had the opportunity to paint the backdrop for the photo booth at the event.”

During the week of Oct. 17, as the set team worked away decorating for the party, the advertisement teams posted on social media, distributed flyers and decorated campus sidewalks with chalk to get the word out.

“[The event] was successful due to the advertisements and the amount of chalk designs that were placed on campus,” Andrew Ivy, a junior theater major with a DMC minor, said. “Plus a lot of people walked in the first five minutes of the event.”

Overall, the event turned out “spook-tacular,” according to the class since many students from different areas of study showed up. Participants were given a quick tour through the haunted house set, then sent over to get jumpscared at the photobooth. Lastly, they were shown the Día de los Muertos altar and asked to take a survey about the event. Some students stayed to hang out and tell stories, while others grabbed candy and headed out for the night.

Photos courtesy of Koda Payton, the class of DMC 100 and the DMC Department.

What do approximately 20 engaged students, 10 invested faculty and staff, and an inordinate number of Chipotle burritos have in common? They were all gathered in Yates Gill College Union 221 for a University Innovation Fellows (UIF) hosted Rapid-Prototyping and problem solving event, April 18.

The event was headed by Denver Strong, senior mathematics and physics major, a UIF passionate about invoking change on campus through creative problem solving. With the guidance of Dr. Kelli Schutte, chair of the Business Department and UIF faculty advisor, Strong organized this event to get student athletes and relevant school officials in the same room and talking about the things that matter.

Each individual attending the event was allowed to select their seat at a table with a designated conversation topic. The topics discussed included: academic achievement, counseling, facilities, funding and events. These became the focus of conversation during the event.

These subjects were identified for two key reasons: first, they were deemed to be relevant to all William Jewell College students, but have special significance for student athletes, and second, at a UIF event hosted Nov. 2018, these areas were identified to be in need of positive change.

During the event Strong imparted onto attendees some of the skills learned during the extensive UIF training process – to be accepted into the program, students must complete an online application, be vetted by officials at Stanford University and then complete a six-week training program culminating in a four day workshop in Silicon Valley, CA.

Strong concentrated on the UIF model of creating rapid change by developing small-scale physical representations of ideas – prototypes – allowing for immediate feedback from potential users, as opposed to waiting weeks for bureaucratic procedures and high-tech models to be constructed. At the April 18 event Strong had groups of students, faculty and staff work together to construct prototypes for solutions to issues affecting athletes on campus.

The event was supported and co-hosted by former Student Senate President Jakob Miller, senior economics and mathematics major, who was exposed to the UIF design thinking process at the Nov. 2018 event hosted at Rock’n’Run. UIF is an organization that has been active on Jewell’s campus for a number of years and has implemented several projects in the Kansas City community, including the popular #OneDayKC event. This year Jewell’s UIF cohort has focused their energy on empowering community groups – including local schools – by teaching them some of the tools learned through the Stanford designed training program.

Timothy Krause speaking at William Jewell College about his book “Finding Theo.”

Timothy Krause, ‘83, graduated from William Jewell College with a degree in physics and an amazing Jewell experience. Following his graduation, Krause spent 30 years in high technology and is now a member of the Deloitte Consulting Game Changer Program and director of the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. He is a 2015 recipient of the Jewell Citation for Achievement.

While at Jewell, Krause was on the track team, in Lambda Chi Alpha and spent a majority of his time in Marston or in the music department – Krause admitted that he loved music and his girlfriend who was always there.  Both Krause and his wife are Jewell alumni in the class of ‘83. Krause wasn’t the only one from his family to attend the College. His two brothers and his sister also attended Jewell.

“My Jewell experience was great. I’d kinda like to go back!” Krause said about his life at Jewell.

According to Krause, while college can never fully prepare someone for the professional world, the liberal arts education he received at Jewell did launch his career.

“I would have to say the key to any career success I had was built on the liberal arts education that I got at William Jewell,” said Krause.“The world changes so fast that the only hope that you have is to be able to learn how to learn.”

Earlier this year Krause attended campus to present his book  “Finding Theo,” about his son’s battle to live after a tragic biking accident on a Colorado mountain trail.

According to goodreads, the text is a raw account of the events and prompts the reader to wonder about the miracles of the world.

Finding Theo is a father’s raw account of his son’s courageous battle for life. It is also a deeper story of discovery about the people whose lives became interwoven with Theo’s: the son of an Iranian immigrant who found him beside the trail, medical professionals―one, the sister of a Columbine High School massacre victim―and the cast of friends who guarded his soul.

Long after the last page turns, Finding Theo provokes questions about the meaning of “miracle” and the way the world was made to work.

Krause acknowledged that the book he was thinking about writing was completely different than the book he did. In the writing process, there was a transition from a story about one family’s miracle to a broader tale about finding your way in life.

When the Krause family first found out about the accident, they had a sense of disbelief mix with fear and horror.  

“[It was a moment of] ‘this only happens to other people,’” said Krause.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Theo’s parents relied on their friends, family and faith while Theo dropped everything to focus on his recovery.

Krause is proud of the determination his son had through recovery.

“The one thing that we would regret the most would be, looking back on it, if we did not give it everything we had to try and recover,” said Krause.

This determination guided the family through a challenging 12 weeks spent in the hospital and onto the emotional recovery of current times.

“You have to get to the point where you can not take the pain away from your son, you can not take it on for him, you can’t solve it for him, he has to solve it for himself, so the healthiest thing to is not to ask him how his pain is, but more about how he feels about his pain, how he is dealing with his pain,” Krause said of the advice he was given about helping with his son’s emotional and physical recovery.

“When dealing with these things, you’re not the only one to have ever dealt with this; you’re not alone,” Krause said.“You need to have your own vision for your future.”

Photo by Mykala Crews.

Opening speaker, Brian Gordon, SVP and Manager of the International Banking Group at Commerce Bank, advocated for the U.S. to adopt a more trade-centric economic mentality.

“Trade, not aid!” said Gordon. “When you export products, you’re importing money […] and that floats all boats higher.”

In a discussion about emerging economies, Gordon iterated that trade agreements are negotiations and not win-lose situations and told audiences that agriculture will be one of the most interesting and rapidly developing trade sectors throughout the next few years.

Gordon concluded by discussing China’s Belt and Road Initiative, warning audiences to keep a close eye on the global economic landscape and alluding to the reality of economic gaps facilitating an opportunity for the U.S. to implement a new Marshall Plan.

Melissa Miller, senior manager at the World Trade Center KC, spoke next. Outlining the trade and export scene in Kansas City, Miller reported that Kansas City outperformed the U.S. throughout the recession and, in 2016, was the 44th largest exporter in the nation generating about 6.7 billion dollars in value from exports.

“It must have been our midwestern risk-adverseness,” said Miller.

Continuing with a list of benefits to global trade, Miller stated that companies which trade globally pay workers an average of 20 percent more than those which don’t and that one-in-five jobs in the U.S. are trade dependent, implying that increasing trade will boost national the job market. These claims are echoed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Regional manager of the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of International Trade Larry Cresswell was next to speak.

Cresswell, an employee of the federal government, presented the official definition of a small business – fewer than 500 employees for manufacturing businesses and less than 7.5 million dollars in annual receipts for most non-manufacturing businesses – and discussed loan options the government offers small business owners who trade internationally.

Larry Cresswell discusses small business.

The final speaker, Mark Klein, regional director of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. (EXIM), presented statistics about the U.S. as an international economy in comparison to the economies of other nations.

While the U.S. is one of the world’s largest exporters of goods, second only to China, Klein believes that more funds ought to be directed towards developing this segment of national business. With only 14 percent of the U.S. GDP coming from exports, Klein does not believe that this accurately reflects the amount of resources the country has.

“Hanging out with Rwanda and Haiti is probably not the cocktail party we want to be at,” Klein said when discussing nations that devote a similar percentage of their GDP to exports.

Yet, Klein warned U.S. business owners to exercise caution when exporting products and to seek the assistance of the Federal Government.

“Turkey right now is a political risk issue, Argentina that’s a political risk issue… there’s some strange things going on in those countries that might prevent them from making a payment. Luckily we [the federal government] can protect [U.S. businesses] against that,” said Klein.

Elaborating, Klein outlined three restrictions to protections the government offers businesses – the U.S. Content Policy, Military Policy and Country Limitation Schedule. So long as companies within the U.S. do not violate the clauses of any of these policies the government will assist the owners in ensuring that they are compensated for exported products.

But, as Klein explained, the policies should not be considered restrictive.

“I don’t care if the little rubber buttons come from Vietnam or if the wiring inside comes from China. I just want to know that it was designed in the U.S. and assembled in the U.S.,” said Klein using a remote control as an example of an export good. “So long as at least 50 percent of the product, on a cost basis, can be traced back to the U.S. it fulfills our content policy.”

The event concluded with a panel session during which time the four speakers answered questions from the audience.

The summit was sponsored by the World Trade Center of Kansas City and Commerce Bank. Entities including the Liberty Economic Development Corporation, the Liberty Area Chamber of Commerce and Jewell supported the event.