2009 August: Community News

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Marriage research

NHL draft

Speech master

Archive collection

China lecture

Inside

UNIVERSITY OF DENVER 0 8 . 2 0 0 9

[C A M P U S | N E I G H B O R H O O D L I F E | R E S E A R C H A R T S | E V E N T S | P E O P L E

]

Rocky Mountain Conservatory Theatre (RMCT) participants performAnnie Jr.

on July 16. Participants of the childrens day-camp theater program performed

Peter Pan earlier this summer. The DU camp founded three years ago by

theater professor Anthony Hubert and his wife, Jamie Roehrig-Hubert has

been nominated by Nickelodeons Parent Picks Awards in the categories of

best day camp and best theater camp for kids. The results will be published

online Aug. 17 at http://gocitykidsconnect.com. RMCT will offer youth acting

and dance classes on campus this fall.

>>rockymountainconservatorytheatre.com

A hard-knock lifeWayne

Armstrong

Steve Fisher, DU special

collections curator, will give

a slide show and present

his book University Park and

South Denver Aug. 19, 7:30

p.m., at the Tattered Cover

Lodo. The book is part of

Arcadia Publishings Images

of America series. It shows

page after page of the history

of DU and its environs, most

notably the University Park

neighborhood and former

town of South Denver. The

book is available for purchase

at the DU bookstore.


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Study shows couples who live together before

engagement are more likely to struggle

DU researchers have ound that couples who live

together beore they are engaged have a higher chance o

getting divorced than those who wait until they are married

to live together, or at least wait until they are engaged.

In addition, couples who lived together beore

engagement and then married reported a lower level osatisaction in their marriages.

The research, which appears in the Journal o Family

Psychology, was conducted by Galena Rhoades, senior

researcher, Scott Stanley, research proessor, and Howard

Markman, proessor o psychology.

We think that some couples who move in together

without a clear commitment to marriage may wind up sliding into marriage partly because they

are already cohabiting, Rhoades says.

It seems wise to talk about commitment and what living together might mean or the uture

o the relationship beore moving in together, especially because cohabiting likely makes it harder

to break up compared to dating, Stanley says.

The three researchers also studied the reasons couples decide to live together. That study,

which appeared in theJournal o Family Issues, shows that most couples chose to live together in

order to spend more time together. The second most popular reason is convenience, ollowed

by testing the relationship. This is dierent than previous research that ound most people cohabit

to test the relationship.

Cohabiting to test a relationship turns out to be associated with the most problems in

relationships, Rhoades says. Perhaps i a person is eeling a need to test the relationship, he or

she already knows some important inormation about how a relationship may go over time.

Kristal Grifth

Pioneers selected in NHL draftIncoming recruits William Wrenn and Drew Shore highlighted the University o Denvers

three selections in the 2009 National Hockey League Entry Drat at Bell Centre in Montreal.

Wrenn, o Anchorage, Alaska, and Shore, o Denver, were both selected in the second

round. Wrenn was selected No. 43 overall by San Jose, while Shore was picked No. 44 by Florida.

Wrenn is the third highest DU drat selection since 1994.

Paul Phillips, o Darien, Ill., was selected No. 195 in the seventh round by Chicago.

The Pioneers will have a school-best 13 NHL drat picks on their roster in 200910. The

total surpasses the 11 NHL drat picks DU had in 200607.

Joe Colborne o Calgary, Alberta, went No. 16 to Boston and Patrick Wiercioch o Maple

Ridge, British Columbia, went No. 42 to Ottawa in the 2008 NHL Entry Drat. Former Pioneer

and current Colorado star Paul Stastny was selected No. 44 in 2005.Wrenn and Shore starred or the United States National Developmental Team Program

Under-18 Team last season in Ann Arbor, Mich. Wrenn served as team captain and recorded 17

points while Shore tallied 49 points. Shore and Wrenn helped Team USA to gold medals at the

IIHF World Under-18 Championship, Five Nations Cup and Four Nations Cup in 200809.

The remaining Pioneers that have been drated include: Brian Giord, Pittsburgh Penguins;

Rhett Rakhshani, New York Islanders; Matt Donovan, New York Islanders; John Lee, Florida

Panthers; Tyler Ruegsegger, Toronto Maple Leas; Marc Cheverie, Florida Panthers; Jesse Martin,

Atlanta Thrashers; and Matt Glasser, Edmonton Oilers.

Athletics Media Relations

www .du . edu / t od a y

Volume 32, Number 11

Vice Chancellor for UniversityCommunications

Carol Farnsworth

Editorial DirectorChelsey Baker-Hauck (BA 96)

Managing EditorKathryn Mayer (BA 07)

Art DirectorCraig Korn, VeggieGraphics

Community News is published monthly by theUniversity of Denver, University Communications,2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208. TheUniversity of Denver is an EEO/AA institution.

Contact Community News at 303-871-4312or [email protected]

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U N I V E R S I T Y O F D E N V E R

[ ]

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DU is one of the top60schools Jews choose, according

to Reform Judaism, the worlds

largest circulated Jewish magazine.

In the magazinesthird

annual Insiders Guide to College,

DU is ranked No.28 for the

top private schools Jewish students

select.20percent of DUsundergraduate student population

is Jewish, and there are5 Jewish

organizations on campus, according

to DUs Hillel organization.

iStockphoto


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Even as a student at the University of Denver, Rory Vaden talked topeople incessantly about how to be successful. The key, he said, was selfdiscipline. To be successful, you had to do the things other people werent

willing to do. His college roommate and a fellow member of the Pioneer

Leadership Program heard the argument often, and used it to make funof Vaden once on an airport escalator: Mr. Discipline doesnt even take the

stairs, he said.

After I smacked him, Vaden jokes, I thought there was something

about that that really resonated with me, that simple decision every day

between taking the stairs or an escalator.

The 26-year-old has since earned his MBA from DU, won second place

in the World Championship of Public Speaking, co-founded a multi-million

dollar company that puts on motivational sales training conferences for

people by the thousands, and grown his own personal brand: Take the

Stairs.

Hes even in the midst of a Take the Stairs World Tour climbing

the 10 tallest buildings on the globe and anticipating the release of his

book, Take the Stairs. As it turns out, the joke that became Vadens motto is

really a metaphor for his whole life.

Vaden was raised by a single mom in a trailer park outside of Boulder

While other kids played video games, he practiced martial arts and became

a black belt by the age of 10. In high school, he studied instead of going

to parties, and the work paid off in the form of a Martin Luther King Jr

Scholarship to DU.

He spent his free time at the library, meeting with professors

participating in the Pioneer Leadership Program and AUSA Senate. And

when he was a freshman, another student recruited him to the Southwestern Co. internship program in which college students re-locate for

the summer and sell childrens books door to door for commission. He spent that first summer break in Montgomery, Ala., getting thousands

of doors slammed in his face.

It would have been easier for me to go home and be a lifeguard, but that would have been the escalator, Vaden says. Taking the stairs

means Im going to make sacrifices. If I had never gone through that, theres no way I would have a multi-million-dollar company. Theres no

way companies would have me come and speak to them. I would have no right.

He made $17,000 that summer and came back to DU to recruit a team of students for the following year.

The next summer, Vadens team of 22 was the most successful in Southwesterns history, with 800 campuses participating worldwide. He

took home $65,000. Back at school, he continued to recruit and grow his business while taking 18 credit hours each quarter.

He started speaking publicly about self discipline at high schools, colleges and youth groups and joined a Toastmasters club to further hone

his skills. After being accepted into DUs dual-degree program enabling him to earn his bachelors degree and MBA in five years he used

his graduate classes to write a business plan for a motivational conference venture he was planning to pursue under the Southwestern banner

with two other veterans of the internship program.

In June 2006 he graduated, became the youngest person to ever make the top-10 of the Toastmasters World Championship of PublicSpeaking and moved to California to co-found the business Success Starts Now (SSN).

Later that summer, 750 people came to the first SSN conference. In 2007, Vaden returned to the World Championship of Public Speaking

where he came in second. To prepare, he spoke 304 times in 18 months for free.

Today, SSN has two teams that put on conferences all over the country for as many as 1,000 people at a time. Many of those attendees

become clients of the companys core individual sales training and consulting business.

Meanwhile, Vaden travels the country giving his trademark Take the Stairs speech at conventions and corporate functions.

Its while youre on the stairs thats the fun part, he says. If youre on the escalator, youre not doing anything, not growing, not changing

Youre being dragged through life. On the stairs, youre moving, learning, failing but youre getting better.

>>www.takethestairs.wordpress.comJessica Center

Speaking successAlum models life, business after taking the stairs

CourtesyofRoryVaden


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EventsAugust

[ ]Arts

12 Elyse Ader, viola. Senior recital.7:30 p.m. Hamilton Recital Hall. Free.

14 Joseph and the Amazing TechnicolorDreamcoat. Byron Theatre. 7 p.m.$23.50. Additional performances August15 and 22 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and

August 21 at 7 p.m.

28 Mixed Martial Arts. 7:30 p.m.Magness Arena. $28-$60.

Around campus

8 BrewGrass Festival. 10-bandmusicfest. Noon. South Pearl Street. $5.For information, call 3037340718 or

go to www.oldsouthpearlstreet.com.

14 Summer Commencement. 9 a.m.Carnegie Green. Tickets not required.For more information, visit www.du.edu/commencement

16 University Neighbors SweetSummer Social. 4 p.m. DeBoer Park,South Vine Street and Harvard Avenue.

For more information, call Liz Ullman at3037331442.

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Penrose collection tells extraordinary family story

The amily o ormer DU Proessor Edwin Sears has donated a collection o his archiva

papers to Penrose Library.

The git includes numerous items relating to a number o World War II-era events

and people, including the plot to assassinate Adol Hitler, the Nuremburg trials and Albert

Einstein.

Andrea Sears-Van Nest, Sears daughter, has already turned over most o the collection,

which appraised or about $25,000, to Penroses special collections and archives. The entire

collection will be turned over in time.

Growing up, Sears-Van Nest had a vague

idea about her athers role in world events.But ater her mother, Vera Sears, died in 2008,

she ound boxes o photographs, newspaper

clippings, journals and letters that shed light on

her parents past.

My husband and I were sitting here with

mouths open; it was just so tremendous,

Sears-Van Nest says. My ather died when I

was so young and my mother was mum about

everything.

The collection includes documents rom

the Reich Director describing the assassination

plot o Hitler by Colonel Claus Gra von

Stauenberg and others, as depicted in therecent Hollywood movie Valkyrie.

The collection also includes Sears

correspondence with Albert Einstein. Sears

had been a secretary or Einstein at the

University o Berlin in the late 1920s. The letters show that while Einstein wanted to help

the Sears amily immigrate to the United States, he could not fnancially sponsor another

amily. However, Einstein put the Searses in touch with an attorney in New York who did

sponsor the amilys move to the U.S.

Other documents in the collection include papers rom the Nuremburg trials. Edwin

Sears was also drated into the U.S. Army to help prosecute war criminals.

I encourage people my age to talk and discuss their parents history with them, Sears-

Van Nest says. Be curious and take pride in it.

Edwin Sears studied law at the University o Berlin, where he met Vera. The two

married just beore it became illegal or Vera, who was a gentile, to marry Edwin, who was

Jewish. The two lived in Berlin while Edwin completed his law degree and then became

a proessor o law at the University o Berlin. In 1939, he was orced to leave because he

reused to sign a pledge o loyalty to Adol Hitler and the Nazi party.

Edwin Sears was a proessor o law at the University o Denver rom 1943 until 1951.

Nancy Allen, dean o Penrose Library, says the collection will support research across

campus, including DUs Holocaust Awareness Institute, the Korbel School o International

Studies and the Carson-Brierly Dance Library collection.

Kristal Grifth

Lecture theme announced

James Fallows, national correspondent or

The Atlantic Monthly, will be the frst speaker in

the 200910 Bridges to the Future series. Titled

China Rising, the three-lecture series ocuses on

China and its role in the world.

Fallowswho has worked or the magazine

or more than 25 yearshas written about

national security policy, American politics, thedevelopment and impact o technology, economic

trends and patterns, and U.S. relations with the

Middle East, Asia and other parts o the world.

Fallows lecture is scheduled or 7 p.m. Sept.

21 in the Robert and Judi Newman Center or

the Perorming Arts (2344 E. Ili Ave).

All Bridges to the Future events are ree

and open to the public, but RSVPs are required.

RSVPs will be accepted in mid-August at www.

du.edu/bridges or by calling 3038712357.

Kristal Grifth

Documents

2009 August: Community News