Day 3 of #4C17 . . .

Well, yesterday, day 3 of 4C17 was a very busy, but wonderful day. I had more packed sessions. I saw some former students, and of course, I received my book award.

My first session was a small one with Lisa Ede and a number of others, a cultivate session on mentoring. It was a stimulating and informal, just the way I like things. As I sat in our circle talking with the group and listening to people's ideas about mentoring, I couldn't help but realize how wonderfully collaborative, engaged, and filled with goodwill most of the folks in our field are. It made me feel a very fortunate to have found the field of Rhetoric and Composition to work in and for, and Lisa herself has no small part in me finding my way to Rhetoric and Composition. She was an early mentor herself to me at Oregon State.

Meredith, Piper, Kelly, and me

Next, I chaired a super-full session on mindfulness with Emily Beals (a former student of mine), Donna Strickland, Christie Wenger, and Jennifer Consilio. I really love it when folks incorporate mindful and contemplative practices in their sessions, and they did this nicely. Jennifer led us in a short practice and connected it to her classroom practices. Emily had an engaging discussion about her own mindful assessment practices.

For lunch, I had a chance to spend a few minutes with two of my former students from Fresno State, Emily Beals and Meredith Stone (formerly Bulinski). Meredith brought her beautiful baby girl, Piper, who was incredibly cute. I pretty sure I fell in love.

I got some great ideas from several folks at my meet the chair booth in the action hub. Tori White from UC Davis offered me a great idea, escape rooms to gameify our Cs next year. I love this!

My own cultivate session on social justice at Cs was also packed and I got lots of great ideas collected, which I'll need to go through and think about. I have to thank my co-facilitators:

• Frankie Condon
• Elaine Richardson
• Stephanie Kerschbaum
• Vershawn A. Young
• Damian Baca 
• Qwo-Li Driskoll

At the awards ceremony, I broke down and got all tearful. I couldn't even thank the people I wanted to. I had such nice things to say to them too. Alas, my work is just too personal to me and too connected to the beautiful students I get to learn with every year, so at times like that, I'm just tearful and emotional. So, here's who I wanted to thank and something like what I wanted to say:

Thank you to Jonathan Buell and his committee for their work and selection. Thank you to Mike Palmquist and Sue Mcleod's guidance at the WAC Clearinghouse. They were wonderful to work with. Thank you to the reviewers and their good feedback that helped finalize the ms. Thank you, of course, to Victor Villanueva and Bill Condon, both of whom have helped me be the scholar and writer I am today. A special thanks to Chris Anderson, my first mentor at OSU and his careful and honest reading of the entire ms at an earlier stage. His feedback was essential. And of course, thank you to my dear wife Kelly, who creates the loving conditions in my life so that I can do such work. I'm very lucky, honored, and humbled to get the award.

We ended the day with a great dinner at Hubers with a past student, Mason Pellegrini and  Stephanie Kang, who are both at U of New Mexico. We were joined by Bill Condon and Mike Palmquist. We had a great time, and I was able to give Bill his retirement gift, THE Georgia Bulldog Yard Gnome (aka Uga Gnome).

Peace