Babson will commemorate the day with a number of activities and events, and I invite you to participate in any that interest you. The Glavin Family Chapel will be open from 8 a.m. to noon for private prayer and reflection. At noon in the Chapel, Professor Jeff Melnick from the History and Society Division will share insights from his book 9/11 Culture. This brown bag lunch event is open to the public.

The Bernon Center for Public Service will provide service opportunities and kick off new initiatives on this day. As part of the First Year Service in Action Program, students will volunteer on 9/11 at the Friends of the Homeless of the South Shore in Norwell. Signups will begin on 9/11 for the first Alternative Winter Break Trip to build homes in Thibodaux, Louisiana, an area still impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Also, look for an announcement on 9/11 of an exciting new Bernon Center program that will combine service with your studies to recognize those students committed to creating positive social change. Contact the Bernon Center directly for more information about any of these initiatives.

My memory of 9/11, though colored by personal loss, is one of an incredible sense of community. People supported each other in many, many ways as we all dealt with feelings of loss, disbelief and uncertainty. Babson is a community that provides this kind of support every single day. We are a community built around the ideals of support for each other and personal and community development. Whether you participate in any of the community events around 9/11 or not, I hope you do take some time on that day to reflect both on the impact of 9/11 and what it means to be part of a community like Babson. And, as always, I’d be glad to talk with you if you need support in any way, as would many others on campus.

Babson offers these international elective courses in Europe, Latin America and Africa. All courses provide an intensive classroom experience prior to travel and combine that with ‘in country’ guest lectures, company site visits and rich cultural experiences. Off Shore Courses are offered during winter and spring breaks and the summer term.

Shortly after spring break, we had the norovirus outbreak. It was a very abnormal week, but the support and effort by many both on and off campus was outstanding. I’m sure you have seen many of the reports in the media with great interest. Dean of Student Affairs Betsy Newman and I were on campus through the entire process spearheading the “recovery” efforts.

The amount of sanitizing that occurred was extraordinary. While we continued to see a steady decline in reports of illness from the norovirus trickle down to no reports last week, the cleaning and sanitizing protocols are ongoing. All of these procedures will continue through the next couple weeks and likely thru the semester. We also continue to encourage everyone on campus to keep up these new routines of personal cleanliness.

I have been walking around campus a lot in the last couple weeks, talking to students and checking on things. The mood is incredibly positive and things surely have returned to normal. There continues to be a lot happening on campus (this past weekend was Spring Weekend) leading up to Commencement …already just a few weeks away.

It’s the Thursday before Spring Break and you can feel the excitement in the air! For those of you with plans, I hope you have a great break - whether you are having some fun in exotic and warm places, spending some time at home relaxing, or catching up on work or other obligations. I can’t wait to hear about everyone’s adventures after you return. I’m off to Argentina and Uruguay with a group of students and I’m excited about new learning (and adventures) in new places. After Spring Break, there are a LOT of activities happening in March so we hope you can be a part of them. See you around campus!

As I’ve said to many in the Babson community already, we’ve all seen the headlines. It’s a tough job market out there but Babson is prepared to help our graduates find employment in these tough economic times. The Center for Career Development (CCD) is proactively working with seniors in a number of ways – old and new - geared towards helping them “find a job in today’s economy.”

One concern I have is that some students will choose to sit on the sidelines rather than take an active role in securing employment. In past years, it was often as easy as submitting a resume to find a job. That is definitely not the case this year. I recently sent out an email to the seniors asking those who have not yet secured employment to let me know. The CCD staff will be meeting one-on-one with these students to help them develop personalized job search strategies for these tough times. However, we won’t be able to do that if students don’t come forward for this assistance. We find the biggest problem is that students don’t take advantage of the resources we have to offer. We appreciate any encouragement that helps spur a student to come in to our CCD office for assistance. There’s a lot we can do, but not if someone sits on the sidelines!

This holds true for non-seniors as well. In addition to the many programs designed for those seeking summer employment, our annual Internship Fair that was held this afternoon in Knight Auditorium was lively and well-attended. More information on all of CCD’s programs can be found at www.babson.edu/ug/ccd or on their Babson Career Connections blog.

I delivered 9 almost new computers to Ahantaman Senior High School, ten almost new computers to Adiembra Secondary School in Sekondi and nine almost new computers to Takoradi District Secondary School (TADISCO). All high schools are in the the Sekondi/Takoradi twin city area, which is the third or fourth largest city in Ghana. Before this gift, Ahantaman, had 10 working computers for approximately 1400 students; Adiembra had 9 working computers for over 900 students; and Takoradi had 11 working computers for over 1500 students.

I wish you could have been there each time when I walked in to tell the headmistress and headmasters that their schools had been selected. One exclaimed that she had been praying to God that this would happen ever since I stopped by to do my evaluation and immediately burst into a schoolwide teacher’s meeting to tell them the news. A huge cheer went up, and this cheer was loud, but it was dwarfed by the commotion in another’s classroom when I stepped in to say hello and announce the gift to some students. A headmaster at yet another school must have said, “Praise God!” and shook my hand at least 10 times. He showed me a request on his desk from the teachers for three computers that he had just received that day and he indicated he had been troubled by how the school could even afford this.

I can’t begin to describe what a great day it was when I dropped these off to the schools! I delivered the computers in a van, and it was quite a sight to see a whole stream of students helping to unload and carry the computers off to be put to immediate use at each school. It was truly an unbelievable sight, and the joy that was in the air attests to the need for these resources and the impact they will have.

Here is a video created by local producer Confidence Yintii after all the computers were set up and in use already. Thanks again to these organizations for their gifts. What an unbelievable impact they will have and they will certainly help many students better themselves.

This past week, the group spent their time at various secondary schools to teach Entrepreneurship. They worked with 13 different schools with class sizes ranging from 30 to 80 students. On Thursday, Dean Hanno and Rev. Andoh dropped off 25 computers in total to three of the secondary schools. The headmasters of the three schools were overwhelmingly grateful and profusely thankful for the gift.

At the end of the week, our group’s work culminated by holding a business plan competition between all the schools. This was held at the Assemblies of God Church with a record number of 800 attendees, which included students, faculty, and members of the community. The competition was fierce with business ideas ranging from healthcare centers to customized t-shirts to movie production. The winning team pitched an idea for water purification. When the winners were announced, the crowed erupted. At the end, all the students walked away feeling accomplished and with more confidence.

On Sunday, the group attended their final church service followed by a friendly football (soccer) match between Babson and Friends of Ted, a local team. With slight bias in refereree-ing, Babson came out on top with a score of 4-3. That evening, a group of drummers visited the church and performed with dancers. All Babson group members joined in on the dancing and learned some traditional Ghanaian steps.

Today began with a bit of friendly chaos as we all grabbed a Ghanaian style breakfast to-go and headed to our respective schools. On my group’s ride in particular, we toured all of Takoradi, getting dropped off at the wrong school not once but twice. Since traffic signals and streets signs are simply suggestions in Ghana, the ride to school is always an interesting one - to say the least. Walking into class for the second day it was clear that we were met by expectant eyes - further proven by the now empty back rows and filled font seats. After teaching, the schools faculty took us on a guided tour through the main food market - now this was not your average Stop & Shop. The tour included delicious spices, fluorescently colored chickens (don’t ask), beautifully ripe fruits, and meats most of us would consider household pets. Following the market place & slight nausea, we came back to the church to rest, relax, and chat about all things Ghana before our night sessions. At night, we spoke in detailed discussions to Ghanaian business owners and hopefuls who were more excited to talk business than a Babson student - clearly something that happens infrequently in the states. With a second day of exploration under our belts (each belt now one notch farther back), it is safe to say two things: the rest of the trip will be filled with a similar excitement & the Ghanaian people are more than ready for the Timmons Model of Entrepreneurship. It’s also safe to say that we’ll all continue sweating. Amen.

We woke up this morning with excitement and nervousness. It was the first day that we would start teaching at the churches and schools. The morning began with the usual breakfast of eggs and toast. We then waited patiently for the buses to come and pick us up to go to our designated teaching sites. All of us were extremely nervous because we didn’t know what to expect - whether it would be walking into an auditorium full of people waiting to hear a lecture or to a nearly empty classroom. We weren’t sure what the people might want to learn about or if we would be able to keep their interest. While some groups stayed in Sekondi and Takoradi, my group ended up going to a town about 60 miles away called Cape Coast. I was especially nervous walking into a church full of 60 or 70 people waiting for us. I, as well as my group, began to quickly feel comfortable and was able to go with the flow. By the end of the day, we felt like we really helped our new students create business plans and wanted to stay longer to do that because the time seemed to go by so quickly.

At 10 a.m. we departed the Erata Hotel and made our way to Sekondi. Frank, Rev. Andoh’s right-hand man, was able to secure us a charter bus (with AC, TVs, and cushioned seats!!) for our five-hour journey. This was quite a miracle compared to previous years! Upon arrival, we were greeted by Reverand Andoh himself before choosing our sleeeping quarters. We toured the church and surrounding neighborhood, then unpacked our bags before dinner and turning in for the night.

To kick off our Sunday, we all met for breakfast in the restaurant for eggs and toast. The meal was quite good, as were the inspirational words from Dean Hanno and a handful of fellow group members. Next we proceeded to the church where we attended our first service with Rev. Andoh. Everyone was so enthusiastic; it was quite uplifiting. At 3 p.m. we unloaded the children’s books and read to more than 100 children from the community until 6 p.m. The kids loved it! We also handed out some school supplies to them before another good dinner cooked by Rev. Andoh’s wife. We spent the evening getting ready for our first day of teaching… only 12 hours away. You can feel the excitement level rising!

After an early morning breakfast of fruit, toast, cereal and pasta (yes, pasta), our entire group went to Ashesi University to learn more about Ghanaian politics, culture and business. During our first break, we were asked to meet a student from Ashesi and share ‘crazy business ideas.’ I met Afua, a second-year student, and she told me she was interested in accounting. She said that she was glad she attended Ashesi because the school encouraged students to think out of the box, unlike most schools in Ghana. Her business idea was to sell ice cream on the free buses provided by the government to take children to school.

After a great lunch making new friends at Ashesi, I and a few others took a walk near our hotel. We passed, ‘God is Our Saviour’ hair salon and the ‘God is Great’ convenience store. We also enjoyed some fresh coconuts while we discussed our eventful day.

In the evening, some of our group decided to experience some Ghanaian nightlife. It took some negotiating, but 24 of us secured a bus that took us off to several spots in the city center. It was a night full of fun and laughter - along with some great bonding!