My 38-year tenure as coordinator of sports medicine and lecturer in sport science has been a very rewarding time, allowing me to teach and to provide medical care for an incredible group of outstanding young people throughout the years.
I will miss the opportunity to teach surgical anatomy and to advise students in medicine and allied health. However, perhaps my greatest satisfaction lies in the development and existence of the new science and anatomy lab in the basement of Barnes. This is a multi-use facility which will help our students master human anatomy and physiology, as they compete for a chance to matriculate into medical, DO, DMD, PT, PA, NP, and other allied health fields.
I will continue to work on clinical development projects and program reviews in sports medicine and athletic training from a newly formed Sports Medicine Services, L.L.C. Retirement will allow me to continue to foster my interest in rodeo medicine, as well. It is also highly likely that the fish population in Montana will decrease exponentially as my retirement years increase.
I’ll start by slowing down, just a bit. This is first time in 39 years that I won’t be teaching teachers during the summer. Because of grants, my summers have been jammed the last 15 years. Yet, I have no regrets. The summers have been enormously rewarding in letting me work with dedicated teachers in K-12 science improvement and co-teaching summer institutes with great CC science faculty who are trying more inquiry-based teaching. I know I will miss always running full speed with fabulous colleagues.
This past year of phased retirement has allowed me to appreciate family even more, and explore life beyond CC. I continue to work with the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation (www.kstf.org ). I have been involved since its inception in 2001, was elected a trustee in 2008, and now serve as a consulting executive director. In another year, I also become an associate editor of an international science teacher education journal. So, instead of learning to say NO, I am afraid that I still have a habit of wanting to KNOW.
I will retire at the end of June from Colorado College. My only plans at this moment are to move to extreme South Texas, Brownsville-Harlingen-South Padre Island, to be with my extended family. I want to reestablish my friendships from an earlier time and reengage with my immediate family. The latter include my brother, Arturo and his wife Pat, and their three children, Marisa, Arturo Antonio, and Cristina, who are all married with families of their own. I am especially looking forward to being present in the lives of my six great-nieces and -nephews, the oldest of whom is 12. From oldest to youngest they are Isabella Rose, Andrea Flor, Victoria Guadalupe, Ava Elizabeth, Arturo Antonio, and Nathaniel, who just had his first birthday. I want to support them as they grow up and teach them how to spin a top, just as my grandfather taught me, as well as be there for them when they need me. I also want to tell them about the benefits and opportunities that a liberal arts education can provide for them in the future.
I do not have any immediate plans for travel and specific tasks. I am embarking on a new path for myself and plan to be open to new opportunities that life will present to me. I plan to read, listen, observe, and hopefully write about the region I am returning to and that I have studied for many years. I plan to return to visit friends and colleagues in the Springs and fish the South Platte and the other wonderful rivers and streams of the state. I have been honored to serve Colorado College for these 30-plus years, and it has been a rewarding experience thanks to the students, faculty, staff, and administrative colleagues, including Professors Jeff Noblett and Brenda Tooley, who have been so kind to me. I am especially grateful to Rita Zook, my staff assistant for many years as well as to my fellow retiree, Marlyn Burch, who served as the assistant to the dean for four of the five deans under whom I have served. I am very grateful for your love, compassion, and support during all these years. This is a great college that is headed in the right direction with the values and beliefs developed over its long tradition and history. Thanks.
Life after CC? I can hardly imagine what that may be like. At first, I will probably strain to hear the sound of the distant drummer over echoes of Shove’s chimes.
Though I’ll miss those five bells—and the many special colleagues and students who have shared them with me for the past 30 years, I do know I have a lot of catching up to do; older friends beckon: Adwoa, Janie, Inspector Maigret, Akosua Brago wɔ Juaben Asante, the Maiden without Hands, Kim, the occupants of 124 Bluestone, Murasaki Shibiku, Mr. Micawber, the Marx Brothers, Kweli, Spencer Williams, Kathleen Collins Prettyman, Eloyce Gist, the Vanishing Hitchikker, and kudzu. I guess this “plan” entails lots of travel in one form or another, but not as an afterthought on my way to a conference or with a pen in my hand. But as they say, if you want to hear the gods laugh—make a plan.
Wang is chairing the upcoming 2012 daCi/WDA Global Dance Summit held in Taipei, Taiwan (www.daciwdaintaiwan.org). The event is co-sponsored by daCi and WDA, both under UNESCO. Nearly 1,000 people have registered to join the event in July. She also received a grant from Ministry of Culture for The Platform for Performing Arts with Technology. This project will bring together performing artists in Taiwan to work closely with the technology specialists to reach the goal that is the current trend in performing arts. In addition, Wang has been elected president of World Dance Alliance—Asian Pacific which includes 18 countries in the Asian Pacific area and is aimed at promoting dance education (www.worlddancealliance.net or www.wda-ap.org). In the coming year, she will join Colorado College’s Semester-in-Singapore, which is part of CC’s Asian studies program.
Congratulations on your retirement from CC!! Hopefully, you remember me but it has been quite a few years back—I am glad to hear about the anatomy lab in Barnes and always remember your visions and dreams to help both anatomy and physiology teaching at CC. Kudos to you Bruce and have a wonderful, happy and health retirement!!