The Mayor鈥檚 SummerWorks Program started in 2011 when Mayor Greg Fischer saw the high unemployment rate among youth and wanted to improve the community. The program helps students, ages 16 to 21, find jobs and includes workshops, practice interviews, resume reviews and resources. Since its first year, the program has placed 11,600 local youth. The program spans seven weeks throughout the summer and students work in various capacities at various companies around the city.

Williams participated in a similar program in 1973 when he was 16 and worked at the Jefferson County Board of 成人直播. Students in that program worked 7 hours a day Monday through Friday in the summer and 1 to 2 hours after school during the school year.

Williams said that experience inspired him to be a part of the Mayor鈥檚 SummerWorks program, adding that the mentorship component is why he believed it would be a good fit for UofL.

Exposure to college experience

Orientation was held on March 15, where employers were educated on the program. Eighty businesses set up booths later that month as part of a career fair for the students participating. Each business brought two to three recruiters to discuss their business with students and gauge their interest. Williams estimated at least 200 students attended the event, and 21 students expressed interest in working with UofL鈥檚 Physical Plant department as part of the program.

Those students will work on both the Belknap and Health Science Campuses, doing custodial and groundwork, including landscaping, Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., from June 12 to July 28. These students are expected to not only gain valuable work skills, but also a better understanding of life on campus.

鈥淲e hope to expose them not only to good work ethics and what we do, but also take them on a tour of the campus for that college experience,鈥� said Carla Meredith, custodial services manager in the Physical Plant Department.

The program requires at least two staff to be trained as mentors, but Williams said all three of his staff will be trained to accommodate summer schedules and ensure the students feel welcome and well assisted.

鈥�(The students) will bring new and fresh ways of doing things that will come from young creativeness and from a young person鈥檚 perspective,鈥� he said.

There are already plans for this partnership to continue next year.

Her parents, Gina and Doug are alumni, and have made it a family tradition to attend each year since 1996, enjoying a buffet of crawfish, sausage, potatoes and corn together each April.

This year鈥檚 boil will be a little different.

Kemper, the Spirit and Traditions chair for the Student Activities Board, is one of the organizer鈥檚 for this year鈥檚 feast.

鈥淚 used to dream of being a UofL student while I was attending and now I get to live it out and be the one planning it,鈥� Kemper said.

This year鈥檚 boil, sponsored by the Student Activities Board and Red Barn Alumni Association, will be 5-8 p.m. Friday April 21. The theme is 鈥淪omething Fishy.鈥�

Admission is $5 for all-you-can-eat crawfish with lemon, polish sausage, potatoes, corn on the cob, onions and red beans and rice. Hot dogs will also be available for purchase, as well as beer for those 21 or older.

The first crawfish boil dates back to 1985 and was started by Charlotte Bowen, a member of the Student Activities Board鈥檚 Adults On Campus Committee. Charlotte Bowen鈥檚 father, Bill Bowen, raised crawfish in South Carolina. She convinced her dad to drive 200 pounds of crawfish to campus for a boil.

The first boil was held on the Threlkheld Hall lawn with 100 people in attendance.

鈥淚t was a good time,鈥� recalled George Howe, director of Red Barn special programs in student affairs.

Bill Bowen supplied crawfish for the event for many years, ending it when a hurricane took out his fish hatchery.

Today, the 650 pounds of crawfish needed to feed 500 people will be ordered from Louisville鈥檚 Bluefin Seafood.

About 50 staff, alumni and volunteers cook, serve and feed the many guests who attend year after year. The money raised from the event goes to support scholarships through the Red Barn.

Kemper鈥檚 family, including aunts and uncles, will be back in the Red Barn to check out Kemper鈥檚 work.

鈥淚 am honored and a little nervous for my parents to come. They always hear me talk about my work but hardly get to see it in action. I can’t wait for them to see,鈥� Kemper said.

During his presentation, Oduor explained that liberal democracy struggles in Africa because it does not match its cultural values and is considered an 鈥渁lien concept.鈥�

鈥淒emocracy has not failed in Africa, liberal democracy has,鈥� he said. 鈥淪omething alien has problems.鈥�

Liberal democracy tends to emphasize the individual, while Africans focus on community and seeing others as family, Odour said. Residents of his country, for example, call their president “father of nation.”聽

鈥�(Africa is) not nations, but multi-ethnic states,鈥� where everyone feels they belong, he said.

Oduor said a model for African democracy includes socialism based on African communalism, joint power, and a fusion of African and Western democracy.

Oduor鈥檚 discussion was hosted by the Commonwealth Center for Humanities and Society department, Arts and Science and Philosophy.

The ISLP is designed to encourage students to learn and serve in other countries. Since 1997 there have been 38 trips to destinations such as Belize, Botswana, Croatia, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The students typically spend their time on the trip teaching and providing much-needed services to underserved areas and populations. The December trip to the Philippines will focus on providing dental care and teaching high school students.

Here are 5 things to learn about聽UofL鈥檚 ISLP:

1. ISLP鈥檚 first trip was to Barbados in 1997.

2. It will take the UofL team roughly 24 hours of travel time as they make their way from Louisville to Cebu.

3. The nine School of Dentistry students who are going to the Philippines will run a dental clinic that is expected to serve more than 100 Filipinos.

4. Other students going on the trip will help in the clinic and spend 8-hour days in the classroom teaching 100 scholars from three area schools.

5. The students and faculty will also take time out for fun. They will go snorkeling and shopping and visit local landmarks including Magellan鈥檚 Cross.

For more on the ISPL, check out their .

The program, called 鈥淎ll in for Algebra,鈥� was established with an MSP (Mathematics and Science Partnerships) grant from the U.S. Department of 成人直播. The Carroll County School District, in partnership with UofL, was awarded the $400,000 grant from the Kentucky Department of 成人直播.听

MSP grants are designed to improve the content knowledge and teaching skills of math, science, technology and engineering teachers. All in for Algebra was one of only nine funded projects through this grant.听

Williams and Hill submitted the grant application in May of 2015 and it was approved in August. Their project includes lesson plans, course content throughout the year and a summer institute program. Hill wrote the program and is in charge of the lesson plans and has been implementing content for the summer program.

鈥淚t has been especially enjoyable for me to work closely with Carroll County teachers who are part of the grant. I’ve seen up close their hard work and dedication to their students and it has been fun to work on substantive mathematics that is closely connected to the curriculum they use in their classrooms.鈥� Hill said.

Williams added that the project is focused on improving teacher content knowledge, confidence and teaching expertise, as well as increasing an administrator understanding of effective teaching.听She emphasizes the importance of this project because it benefits the entire district.

鈥淢any schools have tried lesson study (urban and rural) and can鈥檛 sustain it, and yet it is one of the few forms of teacher learning that has a lot of evidence that it impacts student learning,鈥� she said.

Williams and Hill plan to bring the project into other schools.

This is the first time the department has been housed under the same roof. Most recently, it has been dispersed throughout three separate buildings around campus.听The move was necessary because the Crawford Gym is to make way for a new academic building.

HSS has 39 employees and all of them made the move to the SAC during the first week of classes. The SAC location was picked because HSS frequently collaborates with athletics, which is also housed in the SAC.

While in Crawford, the department鈥檚 co-chairs 鈥� Margaret Pentecost, assistant dean for student for student services, and Meg Hancock, assistant professor 鈥� worked to build a strong work-family community. Some of the department鈥檚 employees said they will miss the rich history of the gym and having former athletes visit them.

Even so, they are excited about being in the SAC, the extra space for growth and having the team in one place. The new space allows for more hands-on activities for their growing department, which serves more than聽1,000 students. HSS’ projects include working with NASA, studying juvenile diabetes and fitness evaluation programs.

The newly renovated space for HSS includes pediatric treadmills, a fitness wave hydrostatic body fat measurement tank and a sport marketing lab that includes phones and computers for ticket sales and video conferencing.

聽鈥淭his will be a great environment鈥� Pentecost said.

鈥淚t will be an adventure but everyone is very excited and has been on board (with the move),” Hancock added.

The co-chairs also expressed their gratitude to those who planned, executed and helped make the move to the SAC.听

UofL Superintendent of Grounds, Greg Schetler, defines a rain garden as, 鈥渁n area that retains water and filters it during a rain event that slowly releases after the rain has stopped. This area would act as a natural water filter, support wildlife,聽and聽reduce mowing, while providing aesthetic value.鈥�

About 30 fraternity members worked on the rain garden last semester, as well as a handful of volunteers from several sororities on campus and employees from the grounds department. The initial phase of the project was completed in four days.听

According to聽Tyler Hoffman, Sigma Pi member and coordinator of the project,聽the goal is to keep the garden maintained with a few workdays each semester.听

“We will pull weeds, replace any plants that have been damaged or removed and overall just make sure it is in good condition,” he said.听

The fraternity has worked closely with the UofL Sustainability Council聽throughout the past two years to develop and complete聽its ACE (Altruistic Campus Experience) project. The rain garden is one of six different projects they could have chosen from.

“We felt that the rain garden was both the biggest task to tackle and the one that would have the longest noticeable results and would benefit the campus for the longest,” Hoffman said.听

He expects that the rain garden will require less maintenance and yield fully developed native plants within three years.听Milkweed was also planted and is the only plant that the monarch butterflies will lay its larva on, so he expects聽more monarchs on campus soon as well. Sigma Pi members plan to participate in maintenance days in the near future to help the garden grow and prosper.听

Blair, a 2014 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, now works in UofL鈥檚 Office of International Student and Scholar Services and with the U.S. Department of State Institute on Contemporary American Literature hosted by UofL. The聽English and humanities major spoke to UofL News about her time in Turkey during the Syrian refugee crisis.

UofL News: What was the most challenging part of the trip?

Blair:聽A combination of the language barrier and also continually undoing my own stereotypes that arose due to the general distrust and dislike of ‘foreigners’ in my city, in particular non-Muslim Westerners. I think that language is essential to reducing the tensions that otherwise might exist between individuals of two different cultures. At the same time that I was hoping English would provide this critical bridge between my Turkish and Syrian students, I, too, needed Turkish to understand and appreciate my host culture.

UofL News: What was the best part of the trip?

Blair: The best part of my Fulbright experience was the plethora of relief organizations in my city for Syrians. It felt impossible not to become involved in various community centers, libraries, and medical organizations teaching English. My Fulbright teaching experience at the university was challenging as well as rewarding, but — as was the case during my years at UofL — my deep involvement with community organizations was what motivated me daily.

UofL News: If you could do it again, what would you do differently?

Blair:聽I would have taken more books on contemporary American literature with me as resources (for English language books) were scarce. Most of all, I would have studied the host-country language (Turkish) more intensely before my departure.

UofL News: Was this the type of academic and cultural experience you expected when you won your Fulbright award?

Blair: My academic and cultural experience in Turkey has exceeded my initial expectations and I am so thankful for this. I did not expect so many opportunities to design and lead community literacy projects, collaborate with relief organizations, or attend academic conferences. In other words, my experience provided me with a professionalism that I did not think possible this early in my academic career.

UofL News: What was the most surprising part of聽the trip?

Blair: The great amount of Syrians leading or working in medical and relief organizations with projects in Turkey and Syria. My initially na茂ve view of ‘NGO life’ involved Europeans and Americans as the leaders helping the passive Syrians, which sadly I think is a common view. However, the leadership of Syrians helping Syrians is what defines relief efforts in Gaziantep and gives the community a unique character.

UofL News: Did the trip change your perspective? If so, how?

Blair: The trip changed so many of my different perspectives in life, but the most changed perspective involves how Americans are perceived by other cultures. Via the comments of my students and peers, my own experiences involving my nationality, witnessing how other Americans interact socially in a foreign culture, and viewing the conversations of Americans from outside of the U.S., my image of Americans has been humbled.

UofL News: What would you tell others who may be considering academic study in an unstable part of the world?

Blair: I would tell others to spend some time self-reflecting in order to decide if what they would be doing was worth the challenge and risk. At a certain point during my grant period, I was offered the chance to return home to the U.S. due to security concerns regarding my placement along the Syrian border. This moment solidified for me that staying in Gaziantep was worth the risk I was taking, for I could not imagine my life without teaching English to such a motivated, appreciative and resilient community.

The event is Saturday, June 25 at The Crossings, 205 Letts Road, Brooks, Kentucky. Check-in is at 7 a.m. and the shotgun start is at 8 a.m.

Cost is $60 per person and includes 18 holes of golf, golf cart, award ceremony and cookout which includes hamburgers, hot dogs and assorted drinks.听The first 80 paid participants will be accepted.

Please note that the golf course requires the use of soft spikes and all food and beverage must be purchased through The Crossings Golf Club.

All net profit to benefit UofL students through the RBAA.

The winning team qualify to play in the held at Pinehurst #2 and #4 and will receive an expense paid trip to compete in the Acura College Alumni Team Championship Oct. 27-30. The trip will include accommodations at the Carolina Hotel, all meals and two rounds of golf on the world famous Pinehurst #2 and #4 courses. Transportation to Pinehurst is the responsibility of the winning team.

For additional information contact Kenny Quisenberry, 852-0313, or George Howe, 852-7467.

Photo .听