Susie Haack | Contributing Writer
The student panel for this year’s American Heritage Lecture Series (AHLS), “A Conversation with Dr. Condoleezza Rice,” has been preparing for several months. The event will take place this Saturday, Oct. 12, at 3:15 p.m. in Schaller Chapel and provides students panelists the opportunity to take the stage with the former Secretary of State and ask her questions.
With Rice’s visit fast approaching, Assistant Professor of Economics, Dr. Jeremy Horpedahl, is one of four faculty members preparing students for the event. He serves a faculty coach. He explained that the faculty members involved in the event held the responsibility of choosing a student panel from nearly 40 applicants last spring. These applicants, as part of the process, had to submit two original questions for Rice to answer. The faculty members assessed the questions anonymously.
“They had great questions in the application process,” Horpedahl said.
To prepare for Rice’s visit, over the summer the student panel and the faculty members read her most recent memoir, No Higher Honor, and one other book that dealt with one aspect of her life. The panel split into smaller groups to read the second book. The panel also searched the media and stayed up-to-date on Rice’s recent activities. Some read about her childhood while others read about her collegiate and graduate education. They also researched her work with the Bush administration.
The student panel has spent the fall semester coming up with and refining questions to ask Rice when she visits on Saturday. Each week the students propose new questions and refine the others. The faculty members have been helping the students.
Junior Hannah Puderbaugh is serving as a student panelist for the event.
“The chance to ask Rice questions is an amazing opportunity that students will learn a lot and benefit from greatly,” Puderbaugh said.
She also believes it was an honor to be chosen for the student panel.
Horpedahl was excited because this is his first time being involved.
“The American Heritage Series is used to bring in people the students recognize, get students interested in and talking about the issues in class or outside of class,” Horpedahl said.
He also noted that he has enjoyed working with the students on the panel and can’t wait for Rice’s visit on October 12.
Rice is a Republican who was born and raised in segregated Alabama. The Buena Vista University (BVU) speaker was named the National Security Advisor in 2001, the first woman to hold the position, and then moved on to be the 66th Secretary of State under George W. Bush. She was the first African-American woman to be the Secretary of State. There had been women and African-Americans in the position before, but she was the first African-American woman to be third in line for the presidency.
