Chuck Drury, President and CEO of Drury Hotels, will present a speech at 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 25, in the Plaster Student Union. The event is free and open to the public.

Drury helms the family-owned company that has 130 hotels in 20 states. Drury Hotels has received the J.D. Power and Associates award for excellence for the past four years, “which is just unheard of,” according to Melissa Dallas, head of the Department of Hospitality and Restaurant Administration, which is sponsoring the event.

“Definitely (students) will get some ideas for successful entrepreneurship, delivery of quality goods and services, and be able to hear from a very highly respected leader in business,” she said, noting that Drury rarely conducts public speaking engagements.

“We are very, very lucky to have him hear,” she said. “It should be a very dynamic presentation.”

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Pulitzer Prize winning poet Ted Kooser entertained a crowd of MSU students for an event sponsored by the English Department on April 17.

Kooser, also a two-time U.S. Poet Laureate and Stanley Kunitz Prize winner, read several of his most famous works, while also discussing his life and experiences, before a packed crowd in the Plaster Student Union Theater on Friday evening.

With a soft, but resonant voice, Kooser began with a humorous introduction of himself, in which he recalled the story of a young boy who noted Kooser’s resemblence to a hobbit in a picture from the newspaper, before turning to his poems.

His simplistic works have called forth a generation of memories and vivid images that almost any audience could relate to. Among the many poems he read, a few were “Tattoo,” “Father,” “At the Cancer Clinic,” and “Site.”

The depth of his words captured many in the audience and few appeared disinterested. In the hour that he read, he spoke of death, life, the plains and about several people that influenced his own life in one way or another. He visited an era long forgotten by the fast paced world of today.

After the reading, his books Delights in Shadows, The Poetry Home Repair Manual, and Sure Signs were for sale and a book signing took place.

Prior to the reading, Kooser visited several MSU creative writing poetry classes and gave a question and answer session. For many students, the ending of the poem is the most difficult portion to complete, so one student asked him how he finishes his poems so well.

“My endings are not always deliberate,” he said. “The objective is to set it up, confine the reader, squeeze them in, before letting them go at the end.”

Kooser’s poetry is world-renowned for it’s deft and detailed imagery.

“I have always be known to be a descriptive poet,” he said, “and simplicity is key.”

Kooser mentioned throughout the question and answer session and the reading that he prefers not to write in the first person. He said he despised putting himself too much into his own work.

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Have you ever had a dream for your future? Do you want security and prosperity for yourself and your family?

Most people will discourage you, because the chance of failure is so great, but you are special. If you have faith in yourself and the commitment to see this journey to the end, you can overcome the odds. Also, I’m selling a book and audio CDs that reveals the secrets of how to get there, so you can have the benefit of overcoming the mistakes that I made.

Sound like a sales pitch? Actually, this is the bulk of the message from the speakers at the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, which came to the PSU Theater in the afternoon of April Fool’s Day. The program started off, as many pitches do, with subtle promises. Did you know 80 percent of millionaires are entrepreneurs? That almost sounds like 80 percent of entrepreneurs are millionaires, so you can’t lose! As entrepreneurs, the speakers on the tour only work with people they like. That almost sounds like all entrepreneurs only work with people they like!

Fun, not money, is the driving factor for the entrepreneurs we heard from. They showed a video of a guy playing with a yo-yo who had some kind of online business related to yo-yos. It left the impression that he played with yo-yos all day and money just poured out of the internet. The internet is the new vehicle of get rich quick schemes. I’m surprised one of the speakers wasn’t selling a “Making money on eBay” CD.

The other domain of such schemes is real estate, represented at the tour in the person of Doug Fath, who created and sold two online distribution businesses while in college, and then got into real estate. He’s never worked a salaried job since college, and he can show you how to get rich in real estate, using none of your own money. His system, contained in an 800 page binder and eight audio CDs, is valued at over $2000. This is one of the guys the Provost paid, with our money, to come speak to us.

Fath described his philosophy to the crowd in terms of cultivating assets, like owning rental properties, which generate passive income. It was largely lifted from Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the tremendously popular book by Robert Kiyosaki, with whom Fath said he was friends.

Fath told us to forget about working a job and concentrate on generating wealth. The core problem with that idea is confusing the ability to spend with being wealthy. People create wealth by doing work that adds value to society, such as building a house or caring for the sick. The so called passive income described by Fath actually destroys wealth because it transfers money to owners without adding value. Fath appears wealthy because he has a lot of money to spend, but he gets his money by siphoning it from people that actually work to create wealth.

For example, Fath described a recent property acquisition of his as a “win, win, win” because he was able to pay the scout that found the property, rent the property to someone, and generate $2,200 of passive income for himself each month. He didn’t go into detail about how it’s a “win” for the renter. If he looked at that “win” in any detail, he would find that the renter actually lost. The renter has to pay $2,200 a month extra, above the cost of renovations, for Fath’s “service” of arranging for the renovations and Fath’s risk in buying and marketing the property. Hardly a fair deal.

Nick Friedman, CEO of College Hunks Hauling Junk and another Tour speaker, described taking this extra money from customers as creating added value of the customer service experience. He realized early on in his business that he couldn’t keep charging $600 for junk hauling when his competitors were charging $50. So Friedman created procedures that control every action his employees take. The handbook tells them how to wear the uniform, how to groom themselves, how to address the customer, etc. All this effort enables Friedman to fool his customers into thinking that paying twelve times the price is a good deal for being treated like a human being.
But for an example of adding the value of the experience, the audience didn’t have to look any farther than the stage.

The Office of the Provost didn’t respond to a request to find out how much of our tuition money was paid by the school to bring these charlatans to campus. From looking around myself, I estimated 200 students attended, meaning the price tag was easily in the range of tens of thousands of dollars. Should we be using tuition money to bring people to campus to hock books, CDs and subscriptions to websites, all promising riches for virtually no effort? Is this part of creating well-rounded, educated individuals?

Apparently it is, because several teachers offered extra credit for students to attend. Among the names of instructors I saw as offering extra credit were Lapraza and Haggard. What part of the show on Wednesday was part of a university curriculum? Shameless Exploitation of Desperate People 101?

Finally, one statement by Friedman struck me above all others as being particularly telling and particularly crass. His parting words were, “Those who do nothing, have nothing, and are nothing.” My father was involved in several entrepreneurial ventures in the restaurant industry.  We have been wealthy at times and flat broke at other times.

During the rough parts, the whole family pulled together, and we worked our fingers to the bone for what little we had. To see a 25- year-old like Friedman, standing up there and implying that the billions of people in the world who work very hard for the little they have are ‘doing nothing,’ and as a result, ‘are nothing,’ was sickening. It highlights the undercurrent of arrogance running through the entire Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour.

April 1, 2009, was not a day just for fooling around.

English Society hosted one of its central programs in the Plaster Student Union on April 1, where they served cookies, soda, and delectable information,

Faculty members of the English department and other speakers discussed the possibilities  of what a student can do with an English degree.

A total of six speakers made presentations, kicking off with junior Tyler Snodgrass.

Through poetry and pure humor, he set the ball rolling and entertained the students and faculty that attended.
Tracey Glaessgen, academic advisor at the Advisement Center, followed with a spectacular presentation of her own.

She got to the heart of the issue, directly asking the students why they wanted to be English majors. Many of the answers were vague, like, “I love to read. I love to write. It’s all I can see myself doing.”

Glaessgen challenged the students to think deeper. She said English is a gray major because there are so many channels that one can follow.

She emphasized the critical thinking skills English majors attained through their various literature and writing courses.

Danielle Evans, an instructor for the English department, followed with information about publishing and creative writing. Evans received an M.F.A. in Fiction from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.

Her short story, “Virgins,” was published in The Best American Short Stories of 2008. She was also published in the Paris Review, Phoebe, Black Renaissance Noire, and the L Magazine. She discussed the ins and outs of publishing, shared her experiences of M.F.A. workshops, and described the sacrifices one must make as a creative writer. Evans also touched on editing and agent opportunities.

Technical writing followed, with a presentation by Lyn Gattis, an assistant professor for the English department. Technical writing was described as the world of writing that’s invisible, but that people see every day.
Technical writers are responsible for the labels on toothpaste, proposals in the corporate world, and all the important stuff people tend to overlook.

Gattis discussed job opportunities that are available to technical writers, and her advice was supported by the speaker that followed.

Robert Blevins, a graduate student at Missouri State University, gave a show and tell presentation of his position in college. “It’s a lot of work. You are reading and writing about twice as much as you did in undergrad,” Blevins said. He discussed the big “GRE” and gave tips to proper preparation for it.

The event ended with an education section by Mara W. Cohen Ioannides, an instructor for the English department teaching professional writing. Her book, A Shout in the Sunshine, was published by the Jewish Publication Society in 2007. Besides discussing the facts of teaching English, she gave advice about what not to do as a graduate student. Ms. Ioannides advocated that, despite everything, English majors should love their jobs. If they don’t, then they’re in the wrong place.

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Last Wednesday’s volunteer fair in the Plaster Student Union hosted over 50 different organizations, all looking for motivated college students just wanting to help out.

With opportunities ranging in focus from dog-lovers to multi-lingual tutoring and bikers for a cause, students with a variety of interests can find a position unique to their desires.

One such opportunity exists at Christian County Animal Shelter.

They are looking for volunteers to do “a multitude of things,” said Lisa Haney, a representative from the shelter.

They need student support to run the thrift store that funds the shelter, to feed and walk the animals at the adoption center opening next month and even transporters to drive animals from one location to another.

“It’s like a dog relay,” Haney said. When dogs need to be transported to a shelter in another city, students can take dogs with them.

Haney described it as “ideal” for college students because they take the dogs on their trips home to see family and drop them off when they arrive.

Haney has worked in animal rescue for over 15 years now, and her reasons for it haven’t faltered. “It’s just saving these dogs that have no chance—that’s the amazing thing,” Haney said.

The shelter has already saved numerous animals that would have otherwise been euthanized because of overpopulation, and they look to expand that success with student volunteers. Check out http://www.cc-as.com to find out how to get involved.

The Literacy Center provides another option for volunteers to choose from, placing students in various elementary school settings in order to help kids with their homework and play games with them during recreation periods.

“These kids will fall in love with you,” W Roy Roworth said. “A lot of these kids, when they go home at night, don’t have anyone to nurture them. . . .Our focus is to get them through school.”

As a friend and a role model for these children, the student volunteers “give them a different perspective,” Roworth said—a different perspective on what they can become. He emphasized how the volunteers, by doing so, become “all the difference in these kids’ lives.”

For students with an interest in multi-lingual volunteer opportunities, many programs need help with their children from backgrounds where parents speak very little English.

The Literacy Center places volunteers in these after-school programs that focus on English as a second language. Roworth can be reached at wroyroworth@missouristate.edu.

Other groups, such as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, provide short-term volunteer opportunities for students looking to participate in sporadic events. The group hosts various fundraisers throughout the year, two of which are Walk MS and Bike MS.

Walk MS takes place in downtown Springfield with three, six, and nine mile walks. The routes remain completely accessible for wheelchairs and scooters, so all kinds of participants can join. Afterwards comes lunch at Outback Steakhouse, so Heather Hodges, Development Coordinator, encourages all to “come out for a 4-hour shift and have fun.”

Bike MS involves a little more endurance. A two-day ride of 150 miles, the event starts in Springfield as bikers move to Joplin on day one and then ends at the same place when bikers return on day two.

“It’s so much fun,” Hodges said. “It’s a big, big machine once it starts.”

Hodges’ favorite story to tell involves a client with MS who, although he can’t physically walk or ride during the events, never misses his chance to participate.

He makes signs to thank all the volunteers for supporting him, then goes down the line “high-fiving all of them,” Hodges explained. Excitement lit up her face as she recalled the energy he brought to the cause.

Students paraded the different booths during the volunteer fair, scouting out various possibilities that would fit their focus.

As a therapeutic recreation major, junior Carly Scott utilizes volunteer work as a key element in her field.

In the past, she has participated in Champion Athletes and Habitat for Humanity, among various other organizations, but she doesn’t want to stop there. “I’m always trying to look for new places,” she said.

For Mindy Towe, a senior Psychology major at Missouri State, she’s “just now getting started.” Although she’s worked with various agencies in the past, she needs ideas of what to do because of her soon approaching graduation.

She enjoyed the idea of joining the Down Syndrome Group of the Ozarks. “I’m really going to try to get involved with that,” she said.