A Mid-America College

In the summer of 2017, I had a chance to tour a small public university in Missouri.  The University of Central Missouri (UCM) is located in a small city name Warrensburg.  Warrensburg is about 1 hour southeast of Kansas City and is about 5 hours east of Lebanon, Kansas (Lebanon is situated in the center of the United States).   UCM is a public state university with an enrollment of approximately 14,000 students.  The school was founded in 1871 and got its start as a teachers college.  Today, the school offers 150 majors and minors and 37 graduate programs.  I was quite impressed by its campus scene and facilities.  I had a chance to walk inside the Elliott Student Center, where modern lounges, meeting rooms, eateries, a large lovely ball room, a bookstore and a bowling alley are located.  I visited the Maastricht Friendship Tower (a symbol of friendship and of a welcoming environment) and next to it was the football stadium and a new student housing complex that featured a second bookstore. Also, I noticed an interesting piece of outdoor artwork named the "Equiponderation", a welded steel sculpture located along the northern edge of campus.  It symbolizes the balance of life.

Maastricht Friendship Tower

Walton Stadium

Equiponderation

Wish Upon A Star

This past spring, I spent a few days in Roanoke, VA.  Roanoke is a major city of the New River Valley region in southwestern Virginia.  It serves as a regional center for commerce, transportation and medicine.  Roanoke is also home to a good friend of mines and his wife and while visiting, I was able to spend some time with them and explore parts of the city.  One of my favorite visits was to Mill Mountain - a 1,700 ft. tall mountain that features a beautiful tree shaded park, a zoo and trails overlooking downtown Roanoke.  The best feature on the mountain was the "star".  The star is a 88-foot tall steel structure that has been illuminating (at night) from the top of the mountain since 1949 and it remains as the world's largest man-made freestanding star.

Downtown Roanoke (taken from atop Mill Mountain)