Washington Post article

This semester has been more of a whirlwind than any thus far, but that's to be expected since each new semester will be significantly harder than the last until I graduate. I'm barely hanging on in Physics and Chemistry is kicking my butt. Genetics is the only one that is going fairly smoothly. Despite how hard this semester is, it's been a very exciting one with tons of opportunities.

First, during the month of February, our campus took part in activities and seminars that were meant to counter the many celebrations that were going on all over the country in honor of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. The Liberty Law School hosted an all day symposium on intelligent design (ID) and public schools. Their keynote speaker was famous biochemist and ID proponent, Dr. Michael Behe. The Law School hosted a dinner where he spoke. Le’Rae came up to surprise me for my birthday, so she and I went to the dinner along with other biology students and law students. It was a great experience for me and partly justified my decision to come up to Liberty. Back when I was making the decision to uproot myself and come way up here I thought that if any university was going to give me the opportunity to meet such science celebrities, Liberty was it.

Later on that week, another famous science scholar visited our campus. Dr. Paul Nelson, who is featured in Ben Stein’s documentary, “Expelled”, gave a seminar. I, along with other biology club members, got the opportunity to go to this seminar and meet him.

At the beginning of the next week, Answers in Genesis came for a large conference called “Answers for Darwin”. The biology club along with other biology students volunteered during the conference. We were able to take a picture along with Answers in Genesis founder, Ken Ham. He took a copy of that picture and posted it on his personal blog that is featured on the Answers in Genesis web site.

The most recent excitement followed a trip that Dr. DeWitt takes every year to the Smithsonian. Every year, Dr. DeWitt, Dr. Marcus Ross and the advanced Creation Studies class goes to the Smithsonian to get a creationist view of what is displayed there. A reporter for the Washington Post caught wind of this and asked if he could meet us there to do a story on creationist groups that go to secular museums. The reporter talked to me and many students throughout the day. A photographer also followed us around. This week, the article came out on the front page of the paper. It was also featured on the Washington Post website. I was quoted in the article and was in many of the pictures online. Dr. DeWitt was happy with the outcome. The article was actually pretty well done. When it comes to secular articles talking about Creationism, a well done article is one that isn’t blatantly negative.

Apparently, this article was one of the most popular on the website all day and got a lot of feedback. The paper and the reporter actually got nasty blogs and emails simply because the article didn’t outright trash us. It’s pretty exciting and hopefully it will open doors for the biology department at Liberty. The link to the online article is below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031003690.html?nav=hcmodule

First week of Spring '09

Hello and welcome back to the crazy little disaster that I call life. Last semester had a surprisingly painless ending once my final grades were posted. I sure am glad my professors use funky math because that's the only way I ended up with 3 A's and a B. I bombed two final exams and still ended up with those grades. Thank goodness for weighted lab grades. This semester is turning out to be a crazy one...well, they all are, so at least I'm consistent. I have genetics, my second semester of physics and, after an 8 year break, my second semester of chemistry. I will most likely be continuing with the salamander research as well.

One new thing that I've been asked to head up is the dilapidated Biology Club. In it's glory days, the club would take different types of trips to all sorts of cool natural places. The purpose is for biology majors to actually be able to get out there and enjoy the subject that we sacrifice our lives to study. I hope to be able to get a lot of people signed up and plan some cool trips.

As if that wasn't enough to do, I will be applying for a third job. The amount of money I'm making at my current two just will not cover my expenses.

I leave you with a funny picture that illustrates the craziness of university life. The first week of school, the bookstore is about as crowded as Disney World on a holiday. The lines snake their way all the way to the back of the store.