E-News - February 3, 2020

New York Term returns for Spring 2020

Eighteen Kohawks are spending the next several months immersed in the arts and culture of the Big Apple, and alumni are making sure they enjoy every minute.

Spending a term in New York City offers Kohawks an experience unlike any other. “New York is the center for the arts, culture, business — no other place compares. It offers a diversity and richness students can’t get anywhere else,” said Program Director and Alma A. Turechek Professor of Music Bill Carson.

Throughout the term, students will take courses in art, music, theater, film and dance from five faculty members who are experts in their fields. Two have taught New York Term for over 30 years, and one is an alumnus of the program. Each course consists of several events with accompanying discussions and written assignments. Students will hear the New York Philharmonic, take in the Broadway musical “Hadestown,” explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art and much more.

Another major component of the program is a part-time internship that gives students hands-on career experience and a taste of what it is like to work in a major city. This term students will intern at a variety of organizations including W.W. Norton & Company, Japan Society, TheaterWorks USA and the New York City Criminal Justice Agency.

Living and working in the country’s largest city can be a big adjustment, but alumni have been more than happy to help students feel at home. Past New York Term participants contributed their stories and advice for a guidebook created as a resource to help students get the most out of the program. Local alumni offered their support as well by attending a welcome reception on January 12, which gave them the chance to network with students and answer their questions.

Program alumna and local resident Whitney Hu ’13 loved her New York Term experience and is now sharing her passion with the current participants. “I wouldn't be in New York City if it wasn't for this program! Being able to share this wild, messy city that I love with current Kohawks is a great feeling,” she said.

Alumni who are interested in connecting with current and future New York Term students are encouraged to contact the Alumni Office at alumni@coe.edu.

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Cook named director of athletics and recreation

Longtime Coe Head Baseball Coach Steve Cook has been selected as the new director of athletics and recreation. Check out the video and click here to learn more about Cook and his plans for the future of Kohawk athletics.

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Kohawk takes flight to bring an end to polio

Peter Teahen ’75 and his cousin, John Ockenfels, are on a mission to help eradicate polio worldwide. To complete that mission, the two seasoned pilots are flying around the globe in Teahen’s single-engine 1978 Piper Lance airplane. Their journey will span 51 days and consist of 29 landings in 16 countries.

Teahen is president and funeral director of Teahen Funeral Home in Cedar Rapids, and Ockenfels is the retired CEO of City Carton Recycling in Iowa City. Both pilots are members of Rotary International and are partnering with the organization to raise awareness and funds for continued polio vaccination efforts. Although the disease has been eliminated in the U.S., it remains a threat in other countries. “Studies show that unless we end polio within 10 years, as many as 200,000 new cases could occur around the world each year,” Teahen said.

Teahen and Ockenfels will take off from Cedar Rapids on March 24. Their journey is estimated to take more than 135 hours of actual flight time and presents several obstacles. “The 20,000-mile eastbound route has us facing one of our biggest challenges almost immediately, as we fly nearly 10 hours across the North Atlantic between St. John’s, Newfoundland and the Azores,” Teahen said. When flying over hazardous water, the pilots will wear immersion suits and have a four-man raft with emergency supplies, satellite phones and personal tracking devices.

The aircraft also is equipped with a 165-gallon fuel tank to supplement the 96 gallons in the wings. Due to the lack of aviation fuel in most parts of the world, over half of the fuel stops will require the two pilots to hand-pump fuel from 55-gallon drums, which will be shipped by train or cargo ships to the various airports.

One planned visit along the route is to Pakistan, where polio is very active. Teahen and Ockenfels will meet with medical providers and victims suffering with polio to better understand the needs of care teams and individuals affected by the disease.

The pilots are covering the entire cost of their trip so that 100% of all donations raised prior to, during and after the flight will go toward the Rotary Foundation Polio Plus Program. In addition, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is matching all donations 2:1.

Incredibly, Teahen will not be the first Kohawk to fly around the world. In 1966, Joan Claassen Wallick ’52 and her husband, Robert, achieved the feat in their twin-engine Beechcraft Baron. In the history of aviation, only about 700 pilots have flown around the world in light aircraft.

To learn more about the flight and make a donation, visit www.flighttoendpolio.com.

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Coe College Decade in Review

So many exciting achievements and milestones happened at Coe in 2010-2019. Watch our recap of the biggest highlights.

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Director of MIT AgeLab Dr. Joseph F. Coughlin to speak at Coe Contemporary Issues Forum

Joseph F. Coughlin, Ph.D., teaches policy and systems innovation at MIT and is an expert in disruptive demographics. Dr. Coughlin will speak at the 17th annual Coe College Contemporary Issues Forum on Tuesday, February 18, at 7:30 PM in Sinclair Auditorium.

Dr. Coughlin’s research provides insights on how demographic change, technology, social trends and consumer behavior will converge to drive future innovations in business and government. He takes a practical approach that pursues “use-inspired” basic research and focuses on developing new business and policy strategies that respond to the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s older adults — a huge and fast-expanding market demanding innovations for enhanced quality of life in all areas.

Dr. Coughlin has garnered international attention with his research and has been featured on ABC News, CBS Sunday Morning and BBC. He was named one of Fast Company Magazine’s “100 Most Creative People in Business,” and The Wall Street Journal named him one of 12 pioneers inventing the future of retirement and how we will all live, work and play tomorrow.

This year’s event will be planned and hosted in partnership with Mercy Medical Center. It will be a great event for people of all ages planning for a successful future in an ever-changing economy.

Tickets can be purchased here or by calling the Coe College Box Office at 319.399.8600, Monday through Friday, 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM.

Established by the late K. Raymond Clark ’30, the Contemporary Issues Forum presents the views of distinguished leaders whose work has shaped and altered the course of world events. The forum has featured former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, former Poland President Lech Walesa, deep-sea oceanographer Robert Ballard, civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, “Doonesbury” cartoonist Garry Trudeau, ecology expert Jared Diamond, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts, celebrated author Sir Salman Rushdie, former Senate Majority Leader and Special Envoy George Mitchell, Pulitzer Prize-winning global health expert Laurie Garrett, legendary soccer player Abby Wambach, leading commentator on race Jelani Cobb, environmentalists and social entrepreneurs Yvon Chouinard and Craig Mathews and pioneering astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

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Award-winning writers coming to Coe

Coe will host readings with poet Nick Bertelson ’11 and author Mat Johnson in February.

Bertelson is a fourth-generation farmer and a writer from southwestern Iowa. His poetry has appeared in the Coe Review, Prairie Fire, Poetic Diversity and North American Review as a James Hearst Poetry Prize finalist. His chapbook “Harvest Widows” won the 2019 Poetry of the Prairie and Plains Prize through North Dakota State University Press. Bertelson’s reading will be held Thursday, February 6, at 4:00 PM in the Perrine Gallery in Stewart Memorial Library.

Johnson is the author of the novels “Loving Day,” “Pym,” “Drop” and “Hunting in Harlem,” the nonfiction book “The Great Negro Plot” and the graphic novels “Incognegro” and “Dark Rain.” He is the recipient of a United States Artist James Baldwin Fellowship, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. Johnson’s reading will be held Thursday, February 20, at 6:00 PM in Kesler Auditorium in Hickok Hall.

Both events are free and open to the public. Johnson’s visit is made possible through the Ed Gorman Celebration of Popular Fiction Fund, which honors the memory of prolific author Ed Gorman ’68 by bringing mainstream and genre fiction writers to campus to hold workshops with creative writing students and share their works with the Coe community.

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#KohawkDay is April 2!

Mark your calendars and get excited, Kohawks! Coe's annual Day of Giving is Thursday, April 2. Want to get involved? Contact Annual Fund Director Mary Springer at mspringer@coe.edu to learn how you can spread Kohawk pride on April 2. Visit alumni.coe.edu/KohawkDay for unfolding details.

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Coe Sweethearts 2020

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and we’re celebrating by featuring love stories from Kohawk couples! Click here to read about this year’s Coe Sweethearts.

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Upcoming Alumni Events

March 13-14 — DIII Wrestling Championships — The Coe College wrestling team invites you to join them as Cedar Rapids hosts the Division III Wrestling Championships at the U.S. Cellular Center. Following the evening session on Saturday, all Coe fans are welcome to attend a Kohawk social in downtown Cedar Rapids. Coe wrestling shirts also will be on sale until Friday, February 14.

March 15-19 — Kent Herron Aspen Reunion — Kent Herron is looking forward to meeting up with old friends and making some new ones on this ski trip reunion in Aspen! All friends and family of Coe are welcome to come.

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