Six Baylor students and three faculty members are currently attending the annual Round Square Conference in Melbourne, Australia. Click to enlarge.
photo by Baylor
Six Baylor students and three faculty members are currently attending the annual Round Square Conference in Melbourne, Australia.
Each year Round Square schools send teams of representatives to a five-day conference held at a member school. During the conference the prior year's collaborative activities are reported and evaluated, and new projects are planned.
Discussions examine topics of importance to schools and the world, especially as they relate to the special theme of each conference.
Visitors are also introduced to the host school's country, culture and environment, and to a theme topic.
Baylor is one of only four schools in the United States recognized as a member of the Round Square Conference of Schools.
Michael Schulson will be sending regular updates from the conference for the Baylor website. Other delegates attending the conference are Fynn Glover, Hunter Morgan, Fritsl Butler, Geoffrey Millener, and Meredith McCue. Faculty members include Michael McBrien, Shayna Sutherin-Pou, and Megan Cooke.
The group left for their adventure last Friday and will return Oct. 2.
Correspondence from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
from Baylor student Michael Schulson
Tuesday, September 27
Another day of the conference has come and gone. Today was adventure day, when Ivanhoe offered various day trips. I went rock climbing on Mount Macedon, an ancient extinct volcano located a bit north of Melbourne. The view was amazing from the top of this very rocky mountain, and the climbing was excellent. The forests (or "bush" as they say in Australia) are filled with big ferns and tall eucalyptus trees. Fynn Glover and Hunter Morgan went mountain biking, and said they had a very good time. Geoff Millener spent his day in the Dandenongs, a nearby mountain range.
This evening, my host family to me to a local park, where we saw some kookabarras, a famous local type of bird. A bit later, on a nearby farm, we ran into a group of kangaroos. They are about as common as deer here. Tomorrow we head up to Ballarat, a town northeast of Melbourne. This site was the location of a gold rush years ago.
michael
p.s.
I will not be able to post tomorrow, because we are spending the night at Ballarat.
Monday, Sept. 26
Melbourne is a beautiful and large city. Everyone drives on the left side of the road, which feels very strange. We were welcomed to Ivanhoe at a brief congregation. Over 500 people have converged on Ivanhoe, which is a small K-12 school outside of Melbourne. The diversity and activity here is amazing. The welcome over, we were sent off with our host families. I am staying with the McLean family in a suburb of Melbourne called Eltham. Hunter Morgan's host family lives well outside Melbourne, on a vineyard with many kangaroos.
Today (Monday) we had an official opening ceremony, with many ceremonies, speeches by Roundsquare trustees King Constantine of Greece and the Duke of York, and an aboriginal didgeridoo player. After morning tea, which is definitely needed at Baylor, we listened to the first conference speaker. Julian Burnside, a well-known Australian lawyer, spoke about many important issues, mainly immigration. We then discussed his speech in groups. As I write this, representatives from each school are voting on Roundsquare issues and inducting new member schools. Later, there will be a student social, about which few details are being made public.
Sunday, Sept. 25
The journey was a long one, but we finally have made it. We had a bus ride to Atlanta, a flight to Los Angeles, and then a fifteen hour flight to Melbourne, Australia. Due to the fourteen hour time difference, we skipped Saturday and arrived Sunday morning. We all spent the afternoon exploring downtown Melbourne, which is a beautiful city. In a few minutes, the opening ceremonies begin and the conference finally begins.
Michael Schulson
Prince Andrew, King Constantine of Greece and other dignitaries join students from around the world attending the conference. Michael McBrien, Shayna-Sutherin-Pou, and Megan Cooke are in the center of the crowd. Click to enlarge.
photo by Baylor