I'm also trying to work on our Christmas letter for our cards, which will be lucky to be in mailboxes by Easter! We always do a Top Ten list of our year instead of the typical letter, so people may actually read it rather than it just get thrown on the kitchen table with their recent Capital One credit card ad. Sometimes, it's hard to summarize a year into only a Top Ten, but I guess that's a good thing...
Anyway, enough rambling, here's the ScOoP from this past week:
> Simpson hired a new head football coach, Jim Glogowski, who was the defensive coordinator at DII University of South Dakota. He seems very enthusiastic & dedicated with great coaching & recruiting experience, so I'm happy about that since I work directly with all the coaches. I look forward to meeting him next Wednesday & work with he & the assistant coaches to bring Storm Football back to the top!
> One of my prospective students, Travis, from Minnesota came for an overnight campus visit this week & then went home to tell his mom that he really wants to go to Simpson; that it felt like home! YAY! He's a football player & an excellent student academically, so I'm so excited he had a great time on campus.
> Simpson hosted the annual "Lessons and Carols" in Smith Chapel last Sunday, which is an annual holiday tradition of Enlgish Christmas carols and Biblical readings. The Women’s Chorale, the Simpson College Choir, the Madrigal Singers and the Simpson College Brass Ensemble perform at the service - it really is a beautiful program!
> Campus was hit hard by an ice storm this week, cancelling finals for that day & leaving quite a mess of tree limbs and power outages. I'm sure students weren't too disappointed with an unexpected day off! Campus is pretty quiet now, though, since students are on their 3 week winter break.
> I was shopping in Omaha on the day of the unfortunate Westroads Mall shooting spree, but thankfully not at that mall. May God bless all the family & friends of the victims!
> "In response to a growing urban population, larger minority & immigrant populations and an increased need to examine the social justice issues arising from this growth, Simpson and Urban Dreams have partnered to create the Simpson Urban Studies Institute to provide greater integration of research and program developoment in the Des Moines metro area, which will lead to better programs and services for citizens." I'm very passionate about social justice & civil rights activism, so I was pretty excited to hear of this project!
> Storm Women's Basketball continues to be awesome, ranking #11 in the nation with their most recent win over St. Thomas (Minn.) - they forced The Tommies to 20 turnovers in the 1st half! They leave for a tournament in Daytona Beach, FL in a couple weeks.
> I ate lunch with one of my friends, Kathryn, yesterday on her way home to Colorado - so, it was a double dose of cOoL - eating with her AND getting my Wisconsin Mac 'n Cheese at Noodles & Co.! She told me about this new project Simpson's Environmental Awareness Club proposed to President Byrd - to have recycle bins in every dorm room & every office! - he approved the test run, so I think it's a GREEN step in the right direction & so nice to see students taking charge of it. Kathryn also said she's now considering a minor in environmental 
science because of how incredible her professor was for her science cornerstone (gen. ed.) this semester. She said 80% of the class was just taking that class because they had to, and Professor Ryan Rehmeyer made it into one they were all glad to have chosen! Check out a story about BIO 103: Environmental Issues in The Simpsonian.
> I found out my family friend, Kyle Orton, will be the starting quarterback in the Chicago Bears' next game vs. the Vikings! DA BEARS!
> "Simpson and Indianola communities were given an opportunity to invest in their world and shop fair trade during the annual Ten Thousand Villages Festival. Shoppers were able to discover hundreds of handcrafted musical instruments, baskets, ornaments, toys and jewelry made by skilled artisans in more than 30 countries. The handicrafts are marketed by Ten Thousand Villages. Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to artisans around the world by 
marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. All proceeds from the RLC sale benefit Ten Thousand Villages artisan partners."
> Students will arrive back on campus after break to a revamped weight room thanks to a generous anonymous donor. "We wanted to improve the facility for both athletes and non-athletes," Justin Snyder (Strength & Conditioning Director) said. "We met with consultants and came up with what we thought would be more efficient for both groups of people."The new layout will include replacing old equipment and things such as an additional elliptical machine and treadmill, as well as a variety of weight lifting machines, weights and lifting platforms. The estimated cost of this new layout is over $80,000."
> A group of Simpson students returned home from their semester abroad in 
London, England and my friend Drew, wrote about his experience in his article, London's lessons not learned in textbooks in The Simpsonian.
> Associate Professor of Art, David Richmond, is headed to Australia on sabbatical this next semester to study Aboriginal art.
> Storm Softball Coach Henry Christowski was inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Hall of Fame at the NFCA convention at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev. The induction is the NFCA's highest honor. "Christowski is in his 13th season as head coach at Simpson. Christowski has compiled a 368-90-2 record (a .802 winning percentage). Christowski's winning percentage is the second best among active Division III coaches and is third in the history of Division III coaching. His winning percentage is the eighth best in the history of softball in all divisions."
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