Rockhurst University Leadership Series Welcomes Astronaut Scott Kelly
T
he Rockhurst University Leaders Council will welcome astronaut Capt. Scott Kelly as the guest of the fifth Rockhurst University Leadership Series luncheon, scheduled for Tuesday, April 4, in the Muehlebach Tower at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown. In his presentation, “The Sky Is Not the Limit: Leadership Lessons from a Year in Space,” Kelly will share a selection of photos of the cosmos taken from space and talk about insights into teamwork and leadership gained on his yearlong NASA mission, shared with his millions of followers in real time on social media. The mission, aboard the International Space Station, was part of a study of how the human body adapts to the conditions of extended space travel.
A limited number of individual tickets to the event will be made available in early 2017. For more information, visit rockhurst.edu/leadershipseries.
Professor Deepens Students’ Compassion Through Theater
S
usan Proctor, Ph.D., professor of theater, has been sharing her passion for theatrical arts at Rockhurst for 11 years. If there is one thing she hopes theater will teach students, it is to open their hearts and minds.
career. She loves the moment in theater when an actor identifies what a character is thinking, and realizes that it is something they themselves have never thought before.
“The arts are about communicating in a different way,” said Proctor. “For example, music is nonverbal, it’s raw emotion. And with theater, you are wearing someone else’s thoughts.”
One of the aspects of teaching at Rockhurst that Proctor said she enjoys the most is how students treat each other.
Early in her career, Proctor took to working as a stage manager and director over acting, not wanting to be the one on whom all audience eyes are focused. “It may come as a surprise, but theater people are painfully shy,” said Proctor. Witnessing a student “open up” is what Proctor finds most fulfilling about her
4
WINTER 2017
“It makes you more understanding, more inclusive,” Proctor said.
“They are more kind to one another than any other group of students I’ve known,” she said. “Very thoughtful, careful and kind.” While some of her students have gone on to become theater professionals, many have followed in her footsteps as educators of the art form. Devon Whitton, ’15, now teaches at Bishop
Susan Proctor, Ph.D., professor of theater
Ward High School in Kansas City, Kansas. “She believed in me and made me the director and actress that I am today with her contagious love of theatrical arts,” said Whitton, whose former student at Bishop Ward is now studying theater at RU under Proctor.