Knox College hosted its first Peace Corps information session this year. The new program is featured in the Register-Mail.
Excerpt:
Knox College has a running history with the Peace Corps.
The school has had 159 graduates participate in Peace Corps since it began in 1960. There are currently seven Knox graduates serving in the program.
In June, Knox College signed a partnership agreement with the Peace Corps, making the college the first to offer a pilot program that will help junior and senior college students prepare for international service.
The Peace Corps Preparatory Program will also give students applying for the Peace Corps the college’s stamp of approval, giving them a better shot at acceptance in the nationally competitive program. Only about two out of every five applicants become Peace Corps volunteers.
The Peace Corps chose Knox as its first location for the preparatory program, which it hopes to initiate at other colleges and universities throughout the nation, because of the school’s commitment to service and global understanding.
“The mission of Knox to understand and improve our world is clearly aligned with the Peace Corps service mission,” said Christine Torres, public affairs specialist with the Peace Corps Chicago Regional Office in June.
The Register-Mail explores why fall colors aren’t at their finest yet. Miava Reem, Knox greenhouse supervisor, and Stuart Allison, Knox associate professor of biology, comment on how leaves change color.
Excerpt:
While vendors and gawkers prepare for traditional fall events like the Knox County Scenic Drive, unseasonably warm temperatures could translate into a delay before October offers its full palette of fall colors.
“I know there isn’t a lot of change going on right now,” Miava Reem said. “I would be surprised to see a lot leaves change color until you start to see cooler temperatures - at least some cool temperatures at night.”
Reem serves as academic support staff for Knox College’s biology department and has overseen the college’s greenhouse for 14 years.
Galesburg’s average temperature this September is 69.2 degrees - above the normal average of 64.7 degrees. Those higher temperatures is one of the factors that retards many leaves’ change from green to yellow, orange and red.
But temperature isn’t the only factor that determines when leaves change color.
“The thing is, you just never know,” Reem said. “The two main factors that determine when leaves change are the length of the day and temperature.
“In general - first and foremost - the changing color is based on the length of the day. When it starts to get dark earlier, photosynthesis stops.”
Knox President Roger Taylor is featured in the Northwestern University magazine, along with 13 other Northwestern alumni who have risen to college and university presidencies.
Read the story by Ed Finkel in the fall 2007 Northwestern magazine.
Excerpt:
Barack Obama chose a summer, 2005 commencement address at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, to voice what his advisers and friends say was his most ambitious attempt to sketch out the Obama political brand. At the time, Obama had no intention of running for president. But echoes of that speech can be found in just about every public policy address Obama delivers, including today’s speech on middle class tax relief.
Read the full story in The Atlantic online.
Knox College’s radio station WVKC 90.7 will soon begin airing National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.” The show will air weekdays from 5 am- 9am.
Read an excerpt from the Register-Mail:
Knox County residents will be able to listen to National Public Radio beginning Monday thanks to a new partnership between Knox College and Western Illinois University.
A cooperative agreement between the two colleges will allow Knox’s radio station, WVKC 90.7 FM, to pick up NPR’s “Morning Edition” weekday mornings from 5 to 9 a.m. from WIU’s Tri States Public Radio. “Morning Edition” is public radio’s most listened-to program; the program content includes stories and commentaries.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan gave the opening convocation on September 6, 2007.
Excerpt from WMBD TV-31:
The state’s top law enforcement officer kicked off the school year at Knox College today. Lisa Madigan not only delivered a convocation address, she updated the public on some major, ongoing issues.
Addressing the students, Madigan encouraged them to pay tribute to their school’s past.
Excerpt from the Peoria Journal Star:
Madigan was at Knox to formally announce the beginning of the 2007-08 academic year. Madigan spoke to Knox students, faculty members and staff members about Knox’s tradition of “social justice” and how her own commitment to public service has shaped her life and career.
“What is remarkable about Knox to me is that its dedication to pursuing social justice isn’t relegated to its history,” Madigan said. “It continues to embody a long tradition of improving not just its students but our society and our world.”
Madigan was elected last November to her second term as attorney general. Her priorities in office have included adding protection to safeguard children from Internet predators, supporting legislation to toughen restrictions on sex offenders and stop the spread of methamphetamine.
Madigan became a lawyer, she said, after teaching experiences in South Africa and Chicago’s west side.
Those experiences made her want to “work to prevent injustice and improve peoples’ lives,” she said.
