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Croft News
December 1, 2014

From the Executive Director

Greetings, Croft students, faculty, and interested readers!

With the Thanksgiving Holiday behind us, and the winter break coming up in less than two weeks, this is the time to refocus our energies for a final burst of hard work and concentration on the tasks at hand. Students, I urge you to do you very best and live up to the expectation of what it means to be a Croftie. As the Institute’s staff and administrators, we are doing our best to make everything go as smoothly as possible and provide extra help as needed.

We will keep the Croft Building open at night beginning Sunday December 7, from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm; then, during finals week, Monday December 8 through Thursday December 11, the building will stay open till 12:00 midnight.    

Tonight Monday, December 1, at 6:00 pm, room 305, we are hosting Croft alumni John Rhodes Martin (class of 2009) and Maggie Savely (class of 2011) to talk about the relevance of a Croft education for their chosen careers as healthcare providers. John started medical school at Tulane University in the fall of 2011 and Maggie started nursing school at the University of Tennessee in 2012. All interested Croft students are invited to what promises to be a very interesting event.

The Institute will host its annual holiday party for faculty and staff Tuesday, December 9, from 11:00 to 1:00. We look forward to seeing all of you next Tuesday.

For the new, 2015 cohort of incoming Croft students, we introduced an early decision deadline this year. Those who submitted their application by the deadline of November 20 will be notified by December 20 whether they are admitted for the fall of 2015—which means that we are reading those applications right now.   We look forward to another outstanding crop of new international studies majors.

We were especially fortunate this semester to have as a visiting faculty member Ms. Jessica LeCroy, who has been teaching a short course during the second fall term on her life’s experiences as a foreign service officer with the Department of State.   Both the course’s short format and the topic proved extremely popular with our students, and we hope to have an opportunity to do something similar in the future.

Closing on a personal note, I want to thank the Croft students and former Croft students in Nanjing and Shanghai, China, for making my wife’s and my recent visit so very special. Thank you, Alison, Conner, Erin, Kim, Liana, Maggie, Max, and William. It will take all your hard work and then some for America to keep up with China. You are leading the way!