Theme: Know Wonder

“No wonder.” It’s a little thing we say when something fails to take us by surprise. It’s reserved for the commonplace, for the everyday…the mundane.

But what if we took a second glance, a closer look? What if we paused to ponder those things we’ve relegated to “no wonder” status? What if we took time to question the known and revisit our convictions?

It’s no wonder that our collective soul seems burdened by the weight of busyness, competition, global strife, natural disasters, and the repeated injuries of social injustice. And yet the balm to soothe the wounds might be lying just before our eyes.

To pause and soak in the majesty of the heavens instead of cursing the rain,

to consider the mind-blowing capabilities of technology rather than balk at buffering signals,

to take in the beauty of the vast and diverse array of faces, forgoing our screens for a moment in favor of the real and tangible life occurring before our very eyes.

What if we found healing in our ability to stand in awe of the life, creation and innovation around us?

What if we learned to know wonder?

North Central College- Meiley-Swallow Theatre
31 S. Ellsworth St.
Naperville, Illinois, 60540
United States

Davonte Sanders-Funches

Davonte Sanders-Funches is a 2018 graduate of North Central College with a degree in finance. During his time at North Central, Sanders-Funches was a national forensics champion, commencement speaker, TEDx speaker, and campus leader in the Black Student Association and Residence Life programs.

Frank Harwath

Frank Harwath spent over 3 decades working in industry designing and developing products and processes. As an entrepreneur, he started 3 companies and ran an independent consulting firm for 13 years. During his career he has accumulated 88 patents, and designed products used in high performance computers, graphics hardware, cell phones, fiber optics, and sporting goods.

Ian Brugman

Born in Texas, my family moved north to Tennessee, and I moved even farther north to arrive at North Central College. I am a member in the College Scholars program, and am a psychology and neuroscience major, but I have always been interested in social psychology and its applications in marketing.

Jack Shindler

Originally hired in 1981 to develop a program for teaching English as a Second Language, Jack Shindler served as chair of the English Department and the Division of Arts and Letters before becoming director and founder of the Office of International Programs in 1994. His scholarship and research interests have been primarily focused on the pedagogy of international education, moving from his work in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) to his more recent series of presentations at NAFSA (Association for International Educators). His primary academic interests remain in globalizing the undergraduate curriculum, as well as teaching courses in writing and linguistics. He completed a second master's degree in TESOL from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 1987. In his work as director of the Office of International Programs-- recently renamed the Center for Global Education--Professor Shindler has developed, written, and managed three major grants designed to develop and expand the global dimensions of the College's curriculum. Most recently, he wrote the final application that resulted in the College's being given the Senator Paul Simon Comprehensive Campus Internationalization Award in 2015.

Kai Ruggeri

Dr Kai Ruggeri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy & Management. Kai joined Columbia from the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, where he directs the Policy Research Group that he founded in 2013. He studies how policy influences population behavior, and how integrating evidence into policies can improve economic outcomes and population well-being. His teaching is primarily in analytics and decision-making as well as in behavioral and managerial economics. His current projects involve a number of data-driven policy studies focusing on large-scale behavioral insights related to economic and health choices. Partners include local and national governments, non-profit organizations, industry, and other academic institutions, in New York, various parts of the US, and abroad.

Rachel Davis

Rachel Mecca Davis is a Organizational Communications and Political Science student at North Central College. She is currently the Vice President of Sonata Problem, a competitive co-ed a Cappella group. When she isn't running social media for Sonata or participating in theatre at North Central, she can be found working as a local Starbucks barista or spending time with her family. She enjoys going home for home cooked dinners, drinking too much coffee with her mom, and seeing movies and musicals with her dad.

Samantha Sowa

Samantha is an actuarial science student at North Central College. A childhood cancer survivor, Samantha has conducted research on childhood cancer funding that she will continue through her college career.

Stuart Patterson

Like many Shimer students and graduates, I have had a somewhat varied academic and professional career. I first studied visual art at the Cooper Union in NYC before getting a great books education at St. John’s College in Santa Fe. For five years after that, I was an arts therapist in northern California before returning to school to get a degree in American Studies from Emory University with a dissertation on race relations and collective memory in the 20th century. I have been with Shimer since 2004, and have taught all the courses in the core curriculum. I’ve also taught electives on the history of economic thought, on theories of metaphor, on the history and phenomenology of reading, and on museology (among others).