College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
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Performance Optimization of a 1:10 Scale Radio-Controlled Car through Aerodynamic and Mechanical Enhancements
Get PDFChanges in the performance of a 1/10 scale radio-controlled car due to various mechanical and aerodynamic modifications were investigated. The car’s mechanical performance was evaluated by measuring lap times on custom figure-eight and oval tracks to assess handling. A straight 60-foot track was used to measure acceleration times. Mechanical modifications included a low-center-of-gravity chassis, a higher power motor, and wider street tires to optimize suspension, drivetrain, and grip. Aerodynamic enhancements included the integration of front and rear spoilers, a diffuser, and an undertray all designed using Autodesk Fusion. All aerodynamic components were 3D printed and mounted to the vehicle for physical testing. These components were analyzed using computational fluid dynamics to determine drag and lift coefficients. Computational fluid dynamics results were compared to force measurements made on the car in a crude wind tunnel using a leaf blower. The final car configuration yielded significant improvements in aerodynamic efficiency, increased downforce, and reductions in both lap and 60-foot acceleration times
Lunch & Learn: Benedictine Yoga?!?
No full textWhat a Group of Benedictine Monks Learned about Themselves and God by Doing Yoga presented by Dr. Chris Conway.
This past year nearly 35 million people in the US engaged in some kind of yoga practice. More than fifty years ago a few Benedictine monks began to experiment with yoga and discovered a great deal about themselves and God. Dr. Conway shares their insights
Aaris Sherin Designer Presentation
No full textAaris Sherin, Professor, St. John\u27s University (Queens, NY) introduced by Andrea Shaker, Professor of Art, CSBSJUAaris Sherin is an educator, writer, and designer. She is an associate professor of graphic design at St. John’s University in Queens, New York where she teaches classes on typography, sustainable design, packaging and advanced projects. Sherin is the author of Sustainable Thinking: Ethical Approaches to Design and Design Management (Fairchild Books 2013), Design Elements: Using Images to Create Graphic Impact (Rockport, 2008), Design Elements: Color Fundamentals (Rockport, 2011) and SustainAble: A Handbook of Materials and Applications for Graphic Designers and Their Clients (Rockport, 2008). Sherin is currently working on the upcoming book Modernism Reimagined: The art and design of Elaine Lustig Cohen (RIT Press 2014). As guest editor of GroveArt (Oxford University Press), Sherin supervised the addition of more than thirty entries on female designers as part of the 2006 Women in the Arts update. Her writing has been featured in publications such as PRINT magazine, STEP Inside Design, Form, Leonardo (MIT Press), and Design and Culture. In research and client-based work, Sherin addresses complex issues including the environment, creative thinking, and innovative problem solving that can occur across media and disciplines
From Capitol Hill to Collegeville: Kevin Brady on Taxes, Trade, Energy, and Healthcare in America
No full textMark Kennedy
As Director of the Wilson Center’s Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition, Mark Kennedy (U.S. Congress, 2001-07 MN) defines paths to strengthening the alliances, technology, and economic foundations of America’s global leadership.
As President Emeritus of the University of Colorado and past President of the University of North Dakota, Kennedy highlights the central role of technology in economic development and geopolitical competition.
As an appointed Civic Leader supporting the Secretary of the Air Force and a Senior Fellow at CNA - Center for Naval Analyses, Kennedy champions the grand strategy and military needed to deter aggression.
Mark applies experiences as a first-generation college graduate, presidentially appointed member of the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, author of Shapeholders, Business Success in the Age of Activism (Columbia University Press), member of the Council on Foreign Relations, member of the Boston Global Forum’s Board of Thinkers, Chairman Emeritus of the Economic Club of Minnesota, corporate executive, University of Michigan MBA (with distinction) and St. John’s University (MN) graduate.
Kennedy has engaged wide cross-sections of society in over 45 countries, including refugee camps, war zones, 60+ military bases and three aircraft carriers at sea.
Kevin Brady
Former U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) advises clients on a range of public policy and government relations issues, with a special focus on tax, healthcare, energy and trade matters. He served for more than 25 years as a member of Congress representing the 8th congressional district of Texas, including northern Houston, as well as The Woodlands.
Throughout his career, Rep. Brady played a pivotal role in shaping economic policy in the United States. As Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee (2015 - 2019), he led the Committee\u27s efforts to deliver a detailed blueprint for comprehensive, pro-growth tax reform, the first in 30 years, resulting in the passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Rep. Brady also chaired both the Health Care and Trade Subcommittees, where he led efforts to make permanent the research and development tax credit, incentivizing American-led research in crucial medical advancements and technologies. He also played a leadership role in Medicare modernization and health care innovation. In the energy sector, Rep. Brady negotiated an end to the 40-year ban on selling U.S. crude oil overseas. Additionally, he helped secure approval of 13 of America’s 15 free trade agreements and played a key role in the historic passage of the U.S.-Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Rep. Brady served as Chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation and Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress and has earned a reputation as a highly regarded leader within the Republican caucus in both the House and Senate. His extensive experience has allowed him to cultivate strong relationships with policy-makers and staff members in both parties. A dedicated advocate for pro-growth policies, tax reform and free trade, Rep. Brady is committed to shaping a favorable business environment for his clients.
Prior to serving in Congress, Rep. Brady worked as a Chamber of Commerce executive for 18 years and served for six years in the Texas House of Representatives, where he was named a Top Ten Legislator for Families & Children and one of Five Outstanding Young Texans
Fathers Using Light Touch on Their Infants and Its Effects on Postnatal Paternal Depression
Get PDFBackground: During the postpartum period there are multiple resources available to address maternal postpartum depression. However, there are limited resources available to help fathers during this transition period. Currently, limited data is available for best practice to decrease postnatal paternal depression, and increase paternal bonding and comfortability when caring for the infant. Method: Fathers were recruited from a Midwestern Public Health Department. After recruitment, fathers were provided with in-home education on how to perform a light touch intervention. Pre-intervention qualitative and quantitative surveys were provided at this time. Fathers were then asked to record their emotions as well as infant response to the intervention that took place for 10 minutes a day over two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, a post-survey and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) were collected. Results: The intervention had mixed results, depending on the temperament of the infant. When the infants were distracted, fussy or resistant, fathers felt frustrated and disappointed while doing the light touch. When the infant was relaxed, fathers reported positive emotions such as calm, happy and appreciative. There was no effect on depression scores from pre and post surveys. Although there were different successes between fathers, they stated that they would continue to do the light touch intervention after the two weeks and recommend it to their friends and family. Discussion: The primary outcome of the intervention was to have fathers use a light touch intervention to decrease paternal depression scores, however, this did not occur. There was a small sample size as well as a limited time frame of two weeks for intervention. Both of these may play a role in lack of supportive data. Fathers did report that they felt more comfortable holding and interacting with their infant and also that they would recommend it to friends and family. Further investigation would include a greater sample size as well as a longer duration of intervention. Keywords: postpartum, depression, fathers, infants, massage, bonding Highlights: ● Fathers using light touch with their infants can increase paternal bonding and comfortability ● No decrease in depression scores were noted during two week intervention ● Fathers would recommend light touch intervention to family and friend
Ecowomanism: Resilience, Theology, and Justice in a Time of Climate Change
No full textEcowomanism is an approach to climate change that centers the voices of Black and Indigenous women and communities of color. It highlights the theme of interconnectedness woven throughout many indigenous cultures, African cosmologies and religious systems that draw an intimate connection between human, spirit and nature. This understanding of the cosmos presents an alternative vision of wholeness with the earth and calls for justice in all creation based on a recognition of an intimate and sacred connection between humans and earth. Ecowomanism notices the significance of what Catholic scholar Chanelle Robinson calls “ancient theological anthropologies” that insist on deeply relational and non-hierarchal frames. It carefully explores Black and Indigenous ways of knowing and earth-honoring religious practices for current approaches to climate justice. In this sense ecowomanism agrees with Pope Francis’ corrective lens in Laudato Si, calling us back to recognize the sacred connection between humans and the earth. Bringing together sacred song, contemplative practice, and intellectual engagement, this lecture will introduce ecowomanist principles and methods of analysis that allow us to touch the beauty of earth by noticing the gift of the sacred in ourselves, in earth, and in each other.
Dr. Melanie L. Harris is Professor of Black Feminist and Womanist Theologies jointly appointed with African American Studies at Wake Forest University. She also serves as the Director of Food, Health and Ecological Well Being at Wake Forest University. A graduate of Spelman College and Harvard University, Dr. Harris is a leading scholar in ecowomanism, a poet, preacher and mother. As an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Dr. Harris weaves her academic work and scholarship with her artistry as a singer, researcher and writer. She is the author of many scholarly articles and books including Gifts of Virtue: Alice Walker and Womanist Ethics (Palgrave), Ecowomanism: Earth Honoring Faiths (Orbis), Ecowomanism, Religion and Ecology (Brill) and co-editor of Faith, Feminism, and Scholarship: The Next Generation (Palgrave) as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Harris is the founding director of the Ecowomanist Center in Research, Climate Justice, Leadership and the Environment, a non-profit 501c3 dedicated to celebrating the life work, activism and writings of ecowomanist and environmental writers.
Dr. Harris is also a former broadcast journalist who worked as a news producer for ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates. A community leader whose passion for education is linked to a commitment to social justice, she has also served as an educational consultant with the Ford Foundation, the Forum for Theological Exploration, and the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, Lilly Endowment Inc. She is on the executive board of the Society for the Study of Black Religion and has served on the Board of Directors of KERA-TV/Radio, the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics. Dr. Harris has been awarded several prestigious awards and academic fellowships including the AddRan College of Liberal Arts Administration Fellowship and GreenFaith Fellowship. Dr. Harris earned her PhD and M.A. degrees from Union Theological Seminary in The City of New York, an M. Div. from Iliff School of Theology
Native Organizations Fill Gaps in Federal Support for Tribal Renewable Energy, Healing Native Communities
Get PDFLi-Young Lee: Reading and Conversation
No full textLi-Young Lee is the author of six critically acclaimed books of poetry, most recently The Invention of the Darling (W. W. Norton, 2024), The Undressing (W.W Norton, 2018), Behind My Eyes (W.W. Norton, 2008), and a chapbook The Word From His Song (BOA Editions, 2016). His earlier collections are Book of My Nights (BOA Editions, 2001); Rose (BOA, 1986), winner of the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award from New York University; The City in Which I Love You (BOA, 1991), the 1990 Lamont Poetry Selection; and a memoir entitled The Winged Seed: A Remembrance (Simon and Schuster, 1995), which received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and was reissued by BOA Editions in 2012. His translation of the Dao De Jing debuted in October 2024.
Lee’s honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Lannan Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, as well as grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He is winner of the 2024 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and in 1988 he received the Writer’s Award from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. He is also featured in Katja Esson’s documentary, Poetry of Resilience.
Li-Young Lee’s collection, The Undressing, investigates the violence and dispossession increasingly prevalent around the world, as well as the horrors he grew up with as a child of refugees. Lee draws from disparate sources, including the Old Testament, the Dao De Jing, and the music of the Wu Tang Clan. While the ostensive subjects of these layered, impassioned poems are wide-ranging, their driving engine is a burning need to understand our collective human mission. Most recently, he just finished co-translating The Dao De Jing, which will be forthcoming with W. W. Norton in 2024.
Born in 1957 of Chinese parents in Jakarta, Indonesia, Lee learned early about loss and exile. His great grandfather was China’s first republican President; and his father, a deeply religious Christian, was physician to Communist leader Mao Tse-Tung. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Lee’s parents escaped to Indonesia. In 1959, his father, after spending a year as a political prisoner in President Sukarno’s jails, fled Indonesia with his family to escape anti-Chinese sentiment. After a five-year trek through Hong Kong, Macau, and Japan, they settled in the United States in 1964.
Through the observation and translation of often unassuming and silent moments, the poetry of Li-Young Lee gives clear voice to the solemn and extraordinary beauty found within humanity. By employing hauntingly lyrical skill and astute poetic awareness, Lee allows silence, sound, form, and spirit to emerge brilliantly onto the page. His poetry reveals a dialogue between the eternal and the temporal, and accentuates the joys and sorrows of family, home, loss, exile, and love. In “The City In Which I love You,” the central long poem in his second collection, Li-Young Lee asks, “Is prayer, then, the proper attitude / for the mind that longs to be freely blown, / but which gets snagged on the barb / called world, that / tooth-ache, the actual?” Anyone who has seen him read will add that Lee is also one of the finest poetry readers alive.
He lives in Chicago with his wife Donna and their two sons