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Week in Review: Family Staycation

Ali Lincoln

While stay-at-home vacations can sometimes turn into a boring week at home, I’m actually pretty excited about my family’s staycation next week. We’re not leaving the state of Virginia, but we’ve got some fun plans on the docket: the Blue Ridge Mountains, wineries in Charlottesville, the Children’s Museum of Richmond, a beach day, friends visiting. My goal is for us to enjoy our time off, not spend the entire week doing projects around the house. That said, we’re also finally finishing up our slate patio for our chiminea, complete with DIY wine tiki torches. But it’s so we can relax around a fire and enjoy an adult beverage (and s’mores), so I’m not exactly considering it a chore. I’ll be back after next week!

Don’t worry, the Week in Review won’t be taking a vacation—the TVP Comms team will have you covered next week. For the latest higher ed headlines from this week, scroll down.

What’s new this week:

The Mastery Transcript Consortium continued to make headlines with its game-changing new approach to high school transcripts. Be sure to check out articles and mentions in the Christian Science Monitor, teenVOGUE, Education Dive, Crain’s Cleveland Business, and Education Writers Association Radio.

Professor Leif Brottem of Grinnell College examined Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Mali from a foreign policy lens in a piece for U.S. News & World Report.

Congratulations to the College of the Holy Cross Dining on winning the Gold Award from the National Association of College and University Food Services in the annual Loyola E. Horton Dining Awards for its “Be More” Gala.

In a piece for Fortune, Holy Cross Professor Donald Brand reminded Donald Trump that political incompetence is an impeachable offense.

This week on Inside Higher Ed’s Call to Action blog, be sure to check out posts on how marketing and advancement should work together and how to prepare for the coming of the phigital generation.

What we’ve been talking about:

Teresa’s Quick Hit this week is a must-read for all PR colleagues—if you’re a part of the story, you’re part of the problem.

With commencement season in full swing, we pulled together a roundup of our favorite Pomp and Circumstance memories.

Thank you to the University of Arizona for allowing @teresavalerioparrot to spend the day with your Marketing and Communications teams. You have some amazing stories to tell!

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What’s next on our calendars:

Teresa will serve as a panelist to discuss responsive leadership during American University’s summit for higher ed thought leaders, the NEXT University: A Summit for Innovators, on May 22.

Erin, Teresa, and Ali will be in Washington, DC to attend the 70th National EWA Seminar May 31-June 2.

Erin will be facilitating a session on understanding media relations for the American Council on Education’s National Women’s Leadership Forum in Washington, DC, on June 22.

What we’re recommending:

Teresa Valerio Parrot
I wear my love of our national parks on my sleeve and one in particular has earned my deepest love—Glacier National Park. Last summer my husband and I visited for the first time after winning a lottery spot to stay at the iconic Sperry Chalet. From the Chalet, a visit to the glacier isn’t such a bad trek and the experience can’t be summarized in words. Once standing in the middle of the glacier, my husband and I swore we would return (and we are this summer) and hoped our daughter would someday see the glacier, too. Well, she better hop to it. We saw firsthand that the glacier had receded significantly in size from the pictures in our guidebooks and all of the park’s glaciers are now predicted to disappear in the coming decades. The thought breaks my heart and even just the idea of its further recession means I’ll take twice as many photos while hiking this summer.

Ali Lincoln
I’m sad to say that my first batch of strawberry ice cream was less than excellent. It was very icy and the texture was kind of off. So I did some research and decided to check out Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home from the library. My second batch was vastly improved in texture, but I misread part of the directions and so it still wasn’t quite there. But the book has some other flavors I’m itching to try out, and to pass my cookbook test, I’ve got to try out three recipes. Contenders for my taste test include: backyard mint (I love mint chocolate chip, so I figured this would be a good basic to test), Buckeye State (honeyed peanut butter ice cream with dark chocolate freckles), and cranberry royale sorbet (they recommend serving it over champagne). I’m going to take a pass on the strawberry, since it was a user-error, and I’m hopeful these others won’t disappoint!

Kristine Maloney
I can’t stop thinking about the cover story for the June issue of The Atlantic. It reads like the plot of a novel—an almost unbelievable (and I would have thought, and hoped, unlikely and impossible) story of a modern-day immigrant family living in the United States with a slave. It’s a long read, a hard story full of complexities, but it’s beautifully written and, I think, so important. The author, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Alex Tizon, passed away unexpectedly in late March, which adds another layer of emotion and density to the story—one that would never have been told had he died a few months sooner. This story, which has stayed with me and is one I think I’ll remember for a long, long time, is worth a read.

Erin Hennessy
A couple years into running, I can easily identify my biggest obstacle: discipline. I always feel great after a run, but it’s hard to remember that before a run. So this summer, I’m going to undertake a run streak—at least one mile a day between Memorial Day and Fourth of July. I’ve done two run streaks before, one successfully and one not so successfully thanks to a stress fracture in my ankle. But I’m ready to brave the DC heat and humidity to impose some much needed discipline on what is, in reality, one of my favorite activities. You can track my progress on Twitter by looking for my tweets with the #RWrunstreak hashtag. And feel free to join me!

Cristal Steuer
My son has been begging me to take him camping this summer, and after Kristine sent me this article about “glamping” in Maine, I’m considering it. Check out these luxury tents at Sandy Pines Campground in Kennebunkport. They boast, “one-of-a-kind, 430-square-foot luxe tents will each include a bed, seating area, lights, a mini fridge, heaters, fans, a deck, sheets, towels, and access to a shared bathhouse.” They also have more a more traditional area for RV’s and old-fashioned tents, which is probably where we will be. But maybe we could get the lobster delivery just one night?

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