Today we held a forum for students about the Visual Identity project, which was formed to review and update Wake Forest’s graphic identity – how we represent ourselves in words, photos, fonts, logos, etc. I am part of the Visual Identity committee.

Probably the most recognizable deliverable of this project was a redesigned Wake Forest logo. If you have not yet received an email from the University about the logo and the visual identity, you can check out the links below:

www.wfu.edu/logovideo

http://www.wfu.edu/wowf/2008/20080501.identity.html

The process of the creation of the logo and related materials was a little like giving birth – it took a long time, we had some pains along the way, but at the end of the road, our committee was so pleased with the final result.

See what you think.

I will have more about the logo in the coming days - but just got back from a 2 day road trip.  We breezed into Atlanta Monday afternoon to hold the “All Access Atlanta” event - which was a ton of fun - and left this morning so I could get back for the meeting to reveal the logo.  I did not even get to see my friends from Atlanta - since I knew i would be there for about 18 hours and would be working most of it.

So tonight I am tired.  More blogging once I am over my car trip-lag.

Is leaving Wake Forest.  Charles Kimball of the Religion dept, who has been here I believe 12 years, is going to Oklahoma U. on June 1st.   Charles is famous for his studies of Islam and was one of the premier commentators on Islam following 9-11.  He did countless alumni and parent programs for me and he is one of the best minds I know.  And funny as heck too.

I was fortunate enough to attend a small party for him lastnight.  It was a great group - top administrators, some trustees, faculty, some athletics colleagues (because if you know Charles, you know he is a big sports fan and a great supporter of our Deacs).  As a matter of fact, it was Charles’ class that helped both Josh Howard and Chris Paul decide to be religion majors.  That’s how good he is.

So we roasted him - and bless him, he is a very good sport - with a goodie bag called his Oklahoma Survival Kit, replete with toy sheriffs badges (because there is a new sheriff in town), a shovel to dig the storm cellar, and a variety of similar things.

The evening closed with Charles being asked to do a dramatic reading of the OU fight song, which has remarkably few words - Boomer, Sooner, Boomer, Sooner, Boomer, Sooner, Go OU! or something like it.  He is a great speaker and carried it off with aplomb.

I will miss him a lot.  He is thoughtful and kind and so smart.  His family is in Oklahoma and he grew up there.  He and wife Nancy have a lot to look forward to.

But we sure will miss him.

We had a great turnout for our event in Charlotte yesterday - 200ish people came to see Dr. Hatch, dean-elect Reinemund, and Coaches Grobe and Gaudio.  We had a luncheon and program in Founders’ Hall of the Bank of America building; for those of you who went to the Meineke Car Care Bowl, it was the same place as our Paint the Town Black party.

I wish I could do justice to some of the stories told by Dino Gaudio and Jim Grobe - but I know that I can’t.  They are accomplished storytellers with such interesting perspectives.  We heard a little bit about Dino growing up in a very blue collar town in Eastern Ohio and a town meeting about giving someone an important job with the meeting held in the fire station.  Coach Grobe talked about sleeping very soundly at night knowing that Ron Wellman is our AD.  Good times.

I am very excited that our “All Access” roadshow will be tomorrow (it’s not too late to sign up:  www.wfu.edu/allaccess)  Found out late yesterday that our new business dean, Steve Reinemund, is planning to attend.  This will be your first chance to meet this exceptional man, so I hope to see you there.

If you read the blog and you are in Charlotte, I hope you will stop by and say hello.  I will be at All Access and will most likely be working at the nametag table as you arrive.

Also - for those of you who will be there - you will be seeing a sneak peek of something new.  This will be the first time publicly that we are showing something we are very proud of.   Can’t wait for you to see it!

Big announcement for WFU today:  the new dean of the Babcock and Calloway schools is Steve Reinemund, former CEO of PepsiCo.  He has an incredible resume as a leader - and you will be able to go to http://www.wfu.edu/ and read an announcement about him.  But I got to meet the man at the WFU Summer Leadership Conference in 2006 and was so impressed.He was the keynote speaker for our conference and talked a lot about ethics and leadership.  I remember he told a story that someone had illegally come by the recipe for Coke and had offered it to some employee at PepsiCo, as it would have been a big coup to find out a secret recipe for their top rival.  It was also of course illegal and immoral.  Steve Reinemund said that the Pepsi employee who had been offered the information called the authorities.  It was the right choice - and what I recall was that Steve Reinemund was proud that across the company, people were moved to do the right thing because that was the corporate culture they built.

My own interaction with him was limited to this:  after the conference session was over, I was gathering all my things and waited until all the guests were finished thanking him for his speech.  I went up at the end and told him how much I appreciated his remarks and how moved I was by his examples of ethical leadership.  He stayed there and spoke to me for a few minutes and was as kind and attentive to me as he was to the president or the trustees or the others who are much higher than me on the totem pole.  It was very Skip Prosser-like.

And for that reason alone, I am thrilled.

Welcome to the Wake Forest family, dean-elect Reinemund.  I wish you well as you begin. 

With many meetings.  I will post later today - so check back in the late afternoon.

Campus seems so quiet today compared to Friday.  Then again, Friday was madness because of the Clinton event.  We do have a Campus Day for Accepted Students today, but it pales in comparison with the bustle of a presidential candidate visiting. 

You can tell it’s close to the end of classes.  There is only one more weekend left before classes end next Wednesday.  Though students lounged on the Quad on Friday (the daring were in bikinis getting some sun), it is all business now.  Students are moving with greater purpose and will be hitting the books and completing those final papers this week.  By Thursday, I suspect that we will see a lot more scurrying to and from the library.

The Hillary Clinton-Maya Angelou event was lastnight (and as an aside, I am tired to my very bones.  I think for sure I must have walked several miles yesterday between the Quad and climbing the chapel steps to the balcony umpteen times to help the student organizers of the 400 seats for the College Democrats, faculty and staff).

There were a couple of snags beyond our control - since WFU was not the sponsor of the event or providing the staffing, we could not dictate operational procedures - the lines were long and to a degree confusing, and it was a lengthy process to get through Secret Service.  Not that they were doing anything wrong, but nearly everyone had a cellphone or keys or a handbag that needed to be searched, and while I was watching probably 1/2 the people set off the metal detectors and had to be waived over with a hand metal detector to make sure they were OK before the next person could go through.

Much to the dismay of many of the “400″ (as we called the WFU-allotment of tix held for those on campus who registered through the College Democrats) - they were all asked to fill out a form with their personal information, etc. and it was *required* they turn that in before being admitted.  We tried to work with the campaign staff to let people fill them in inside and be collected by the College Democrat volunteers, as they handed these forms out quite late in the process and did not come armed with pens, at least not in the line I was in.  There was a very terse campaign staffer who in my humble opinion was downright rude to a few people who questioned the wisdom of slowing the line down requiring people to have forms.  But he would not hear of it.  I checked “The Quad” - the offshoot of the unofficial WF sports message board that is non-sports related - and some were upset about the forms.

The event itself began later than expected, and my hunch is that they wanted to get everyone in and that required time for security.  Maya Angelou came out and sort of sang/spoke a poem, then she and Hillary Clinton sat down and they had sort of a question and answer period, where MA would ask HC about a given topic and HC would respond.  It was not a typical stump speech, where it’s just the speaker and all rhetoric.  It was more give and take, which made it conversational.

After the event got started and we watched for awhile, my intrepid colleagues and I went outside to listen to it and have some dinner on the balcony of Reynolda.  Interestingly enough, a prom was being held in the Mag Room that night.  We asked some people who were bringing their kids to the prom which school it was for, and they said it was a prom for homeschooled kids in W-S, which I thought interesting.

Once the event was over, my colleagues and I went back to the chapel to do the remaining housekeeping things we needed to do.  It was an absolutely glorious night - warm and breezy, and my aching feet felt so good on the cool soft grass as we hoofed it to and fro.

All in all, a good night.  But darn I am tired today!

Well, the big event day is here and I have to say that the life of a campaign staffer is not easy.  I have been watching the two Clinton staff contacts with whom I have the most contact - one is Dan, Dan the Campaign Man (or at least that’s how I think of him).  Dan DTCM told me he got 47 emails between 12:30 am and when he first got up at 6ish.  

You have to be a really flexible person to work on a campaign.  You are constantly on the move, things are changing by the minute, and you are coordinating with tons of volunteers in the field and still stay in touch with headquarters.  Still, Dan DTCM has an amazing quality of inner Zen.  Despite all the chaos, he looks really calm.  It is surprising to me.

The low point of my day came when I was roping off the seats reserved for the College Democrats.  It’s up in the balcony, and the heel of my shoe got caught in the rug - and then BAM! I went tumbling down about 4 stairs.  Broke my fall with the heel of the hand I just got operated on.  Not fun.  And to add insult to injury, there were tons of Facilities guys working on the stage, and no doubt saw a long haired girl in a black dress falling down the stairs - as I was the only one in the balcony.  They are all gentlemen and did not laugh out loud.  Or at least I did not hear them : )

Students started lining up at 10 am to get in.  I walked by and told them they were intrepid to be here so early and they would no doubt get great seats.  It is a gorgeous day and it is really not hard to sit outside.  Probably low 80s, sunny, picture perfect weather.

Off to grab a quick bite of lunch and go back to see if they need me.  Hopefully will have another chance to blog this afternoon before the event starts.

Tomorrow I am officially going to be “Girl Friday” - as defined by Wikipedia as someone in an office assigned to do several different jobs, helping other people.  But instead of being a regular Alumni Office Girl Friday, I will be the Girl Friday for the Clinton campaign staff.

Technically, Senator Clinton’s campaign is running her appearance on campus themselves - Wake Forest is only letting them use the space in accordance will all sorts of regulations that I will not bore you with.  Because this is their event and not a WFU event, we can not provide our staff to run it.  However, they need a campus contact who knows the place backwards and forwards in case they need anything and will know who to call.  So I am on standby as their campus resource, since I am an event planner and know who to call for whatever various need.

I think it is going to be a cool job, if somewhat stressful.  It also almost certainly guarantees I will get into the Chapel to watch the event, which will be interesting.  I am a news geek and I like to watch all the political events that I can. 

One random, other, final thought.  As I was leaving work yesterday, one of the fraternities on the Quad was sponsoring a fundraiser for kids with cancer - it had shamrocks and was fashioned after St. Patrick’s day, but they were calling it St. Baldingtons day or some similar name.  Basically students paid $ to have their head shaved.  I am not sure if both the $ and the hair went to the cause of pediatric cancer, but in any event it looked like a fun event.  I saw several male students with shaved heads and I was impressed with their willingness to do something like that for kids with cancer.  Great, if unusual, example of Pro Humanitate and sacrificing one’s personal vanity for the good of others.  Rock on, bald guys!

Well, after weeks worth of whispering on campus, we finally have confirmation that Senator Hillary Clinton is going to be speaking on campus this Friday.  http://www.wfu.edu/news/release/2008.04.15.h.php  This event is being billed as a conversation with Dr. Maya Angelou and Senator Clinton.  

I am finding out about presidential campaign events that things can literally change from moment to moment, so your best bet for correct information is to stay tuned to the WFU main web page for details.  From what I understand at this moment, it is an event that is open to the public and that seats will be first come, first served.  If it’s anything like our Baccalaureate service - where seats are at a premium - I would expect people will be lining up in advance of 4 p.m. when the doors open.  She and Dr. Angelou are scheduled to speak at 6 p.m.

Whatever side of the political aisle you are on, this is big news to have a presidential candidate speaking on our campus.  I hope that students, faculty and staff - the public too - come out to hear Senator Clinton and what she has to say.  Agree with her or disagree with her, but at least you will have a clear sense of her position on major issues.

As an aside, this is the first time that I remember so much attention being paid to NC by presidential candidates.  Both the Obama and Clinton campaigns have been scheduling stops in NC in advance of our May 6^th primary, which makes sense since this is a close race.   For once, our primary might be newsworthy!

My hope is to do some blogging after the event.  The event is not formally sponsored by the University, but is an official campaign event that is organized and run by the Clinton campaign. I have also found out a lot about the legalities involved with schools and campaigns and non-profit status, and as best I understand, schools need to offer space and time for all candidates, lest it be seen as a University endorsement of just one candidate.  For what it’s worth, I would love to see the other candidates here too. [hint, hint!]

And on the subject of legalities…just to be on the absolute safe side, I will say this disclaimer: that the opinions in this blog are neither those of Wake Forest nor sanctioned by the institution.

To all my friends in Legal, you’re welcome : )

Though by nature I am not a numbers girl, there are some numbers floating around the office that mean a lot to us.  We have been trying to increase alumni participation in the College Fund, which supports students and faculty.  Our stretch goal is to have 14,180 alumni donors to the College Fund by the end of our fiscal year, June 30th.

Right now, we have 9,486.  That means we are 4,694 donors short of reaching our historic goal by 6/30.  And right now I am sweating the 4,694 and really want us to reach it.   

For those of you who will be getting the IRS check as part of the economic stimulus package, I would urge you to thoughtfully consider making a gift to Wake Forest.  In a way - for me at least - that IRS check will be like free money, for lack of a better word.  I was not expecting it, but it will be great to get.  It doesn’t matter if you give $50 or $25 or $5 or even $1, your gift will help us tick down from 4,694 so we can reach this milestone.

Why does a gift to the College Fund matter?  We use that money to help fund student financial aid.  Good kids who are smart and deserving can leave WFU with less $ owed in loans and more $ given in grants (which do not have to be repaid).  This is a great chance to pay it forward and help a current student leave here in a better position.  I meet so many exceptional students in my job - and I wish you could see all of them too.  They are smart, bright, resourceful, and I know will do great things in the world.  They are why I give to the College Fund. 

Anyway, if you want to help, I am looking for 4,694 alumni who will give a gift of any amount : )   In addition to feeling like you are doing the right thing philanthropically for today’s students, your gift will have another positive effect:  we can boost our rankings in US News and World Report, because one way to earn points in that ranking is through the percentage of alumni who give.

Thanks in advance to all who help. 

www.wfu.edu/giving

If you look on the main WFU web page, you’ll see a graphic about “Winning the White House” - which is our Lifelong Learning course for the summer.  The Alumni Council advocated for the creation of a Lifelong Learning program, so alumni (and parents and friends) could come to Wake Forest for brief classes and seminars.  We’ve run one each summer since 2006 and if I dare say so, they have been excellent.  It is a program we are trying to grow so that we can offer a lot of courses each year.

This year’s offering is timely because it’s about the upcoming presidential elections and understanding electoral politics.  It is also taught by one of my very favorite professors on campus, Katy Harriger.  Katy is an expert on independent counsels and was a much sought after commentator on the Ken Starr independent counsel lo these many years ago.  To use the parlance of today’s students, Katy is a rock star.  She is such a gifted teacher-scholar and I hope that a lot of you reading will sign up for the class:  http://www.wfu.edu/alumni/events/lifelong_learning/

I also discovered something this weekend called an RSS feed.  I would be lying if I said I knew what it meant : ) but I can tell you what it does.  Basically you can click a button and add this blog to your main web launch page, like Google or Yahoo or whatever.  It should work this way:  on the bottom right side of the blog, you should see a link for FEEDS, and if you click the RSS feed, you can then add my blog to Yahoo or Google or whatever.  For those of you who don’t want to bookmark, it’s another option to have this automatically show up.  Give it a try if you like.   

Some of what I blogged about yesterday is now up online.

Here is the wonderful State of the University introductory speech by Dr. Coates - http://www.wfu.edu/wowf/2008/20080409.coates.html

And here are Dr. Hatch’s remarks:  http://www.wfu.edu/president/2008.04.09.php  On this page, you have the ability to listen to Dr. Hatch’s speech.  I hope you take a few minutes to hear it.  Definitely worth the time.

One of the things I have been working on the most is our “All Access” series of events on the road.  Our web site is up and ready and I hope that if you live in/will be traveling to one of these areas, you will make every effort to attend: http://www.wfu.edu/allaccess/  I think we just finalized the Raleigh date as May 4^th - and we are hoping to have final info by the end of the day so we can get the Raleigh site live on Monday.

Today is a Campus Day for Accepted Students and there are tons and tons of eager-faced high schoolers and their parents here for tours and classes.  I always love this day because you can almost tell by the expression on their faces which students know they will enroll and they just want to be here and soak WF in from the earliest moment possible, and which ones are still deciding their college choice and are here to “kick the tires” and make some final judgments. 

Yesterday was the State of the University address by President Hatch.  It began with Dr. David Coates, who I believe is the president of the University Senate and an esteemed professor of political science, giving some opening remarks about why he is so proud to be ‘toiling in the vineyards of Wake Forest’ (what great imagery!  I wish *I* had written that!) with such exceptional colleagues, etc.  He captured what I feel about Wake Forest, which is that it’s an honor and a privilege to work here every day with such great people and toward a common goal and mission of learning and educating the whole person that is inherently noble.  I don’t know Dr. Coates but I wish I did.  Will have to find a way to make an introduction.

Then Dr. Hatch gave his State of the University address.  He focused on some broad themes that we as an institution will need to consider and address as we move forward.  These are things that have been incorporated into the strategic plan.  I tried to take good notes but apologize in advance if I miss any or misstate them.  Roughly, they were:

- our role as a ‘collegiate’ university and how we blend the best of the intimacy of a liberal arts college with the vitality of the big research universities in terms of academics

- how to work together more closely with the liberal arts and professional schools

- the very real challenge of needing significantly more resources to allow students to come to WFU without incurring tremendous debt.  (NOTE:  for all who are reading and have not given to the Annual Funds this year - this is how you can help us!!  Make a gift of any size today!  http://www.wfu.edu/alumni/giving)

- educating the whole person - and how at Wake Forest we believe you have to nurture both the intellect and the spirit or conscience

- intercollegiate athletics and how we excel at making sure our student athletes compete on the field and in the classroom as well, and that they do so with great integrity.  (My own editorial here - bless you, Ron Wellman, for doing things right!!)

- engaging with the larger community - locally and globally.   How can we use our students’ and faculty experience to assist with local and global problems and issues?  How can we become more diverse and more international?

- he touched on the issue of needing to increase faculty and staff salaries

- new and renovated facilities - he talked about the campus master plan and the work that is being done to identify where we need additional facilities and where to renovate.  They are trying to envision where the campus will be in the next 2-10-30 years, which I think would be very exciting to see.

That’s the recap to the best of my recollection.  In my humble opinion, it was wonderful to have the opportunity for the campus community to gather and come together and hear what is on the mind of the president. 

And since I know how much work goes into making an event like that happen, special kudos to the president’s office and the office of University events for all the legwork.  Whenever a special event happens and everything goes well, you can be sure that tons of work went into it in advance to make it all look seamless.  So thanks to that group too. 

We have an exciting series of events that I wanted to tell everyone about.  Dr. Hatch and some of his top leaders are going to be hitting the road in April and May for “All Access Wake Forest” - which will be regional events to help bring Wake Forest to people in other cities.  We’ll be talking about the strategic plan and the vision for Wake Forest, our athletic achievements and previewing the upcoming season.  And we even plan to give those in attendance a sneak peek at some new things - like the updated Wake Forest logo.

This is your chance to be part of an intimate discussion about all the best of Wake Forest and to get involved.  If you live in Charlotte, Atlanta, Greensboro, and Raleigh - we’ll be coming to you soon.  For other areas like DC, New York and more, we’re working on dates for the fall.

Information about All Access - including a link to register - is available online:  http://www.wfu.edu/allaccess/index.html

Come one, come all - these are going to be great events that give you an insider’s  perspective and an ”all access pass” to our top leaders. 

Yesterday there was a fascinating program on campus.  ”College of the Overwhelmed,” which is part of WF’s Voices of Our Time speaker series, brought national experts in college counseling and mental health to campus.  The head of Harvard’s mental health service spoke about the many pressures that today’s students face - from eating disorders to substance abuse to depression.  It was really fascinating.  Here is the conference link:  http://www.wfu.edu/voices/overwhelmed.html

One of the things that pleased me the most about this program was that so many departments from Wake Forest took advantage of the offering.  I saw colleagues from the counseling and learning assistance centers, athletics, student life, faculty members, the dean’s office and many more - as well as Dr. Hatch, who looked like he was taking copious notes.  

Following the Virginia Tech tragedy, I think people who work on college campuses have a much better understanding that the health and wellbeing of our students is everyone’s business.  We all have a responsibility to help each other and watch out for each other.  And in our type of close knit community, there are so many caring people and I think that can make a tremendous difference.

Today is one of my favorite days of the year:  Deacon Days at the Deacon Shop, where merchandise they are trying to move is all outdoors in boxes and on racks for sale.

Ladies, if you wear flip flops, you must go.  They have the cutest pairs - both WF design and really cute other ones - for sale for $5 a pair.  Seriously.  They are adorable and cheap.

Tons of WF clothes too - lots of hats and tshirts (many of them from our last 2 bowl games) and tons of gorgeous WF vineyard vines clothing.  There was not a ton of stuff for young boys (I was looking for my 3 year old) but if you have a girl there are more options.

And if you go and shop, say a kind word to my friends Allison and Megan and the other folks who work there.  Retail is a tough business and sale days like this are exhausting.  But bless their hearts, they are all bright and cheerful and putting the best Deacon face forward.  Props to them.

PS - GO JAYHAWKS!  What a debacle for UNC on Saturday night.  I have never seen a first half as horrible as that, with the exception of what I refer to as “The Game That Dare Not Speak Its Name.”  For all you Deac fans, you know what I am talking about.

I was talking today with one of my dear friends in Admissions about how this year’s incoming freshman class looks.  She told me that there was a 27% increase in admissions applications.  Not only was the volume of applications bigger, but the quality of the applicants had improved dramatically too. 

I am proud that Wake Forest continues to excel in so many ways.  Also a little sad, because I’d love to have every student who wants to be at WFU get an acceptance letter.  Then again, that would make the school WAY too big.

Trustee meeting concluded today.  I had no role in the meeting proper, but saw a number of the Trustees through my window as they left the meeting.  I have had the good fortune to get to know some of them - many are former Alumni Council members I have worked with - and they are such good, conscientious people who love this place dearly.   I have great confidence in their leadership.

Have a good weekend, all!

Walking onto campus today, the smell of tobacco is everywhere.  It’s one of those days where there is a hint of rain and the humidity is just right that the smell from the RJR plants wafts through the air. 

I noticed some things in the Quad trees that at first looked like bird or squirrel nests - sort of high up in the branches, brownish, not too big.  Upon closer inspection, they are actually full rolls of toilet paper that had been part of a Quad rolling - but were up so high that they got lodged in there and can not be budged.  They are brownish I guess because they have been rained on and nestled in all that brown bark. 

The trees are starting to bloom and once the leaves grow enough you will not be able to see them.  Wonder how long they can last up there?

That’s the million dollar question and there is lots of speculation/hoping/wishing going on in my office.With the Democratic race continuing to be neck-in-neck and the NC primary scheduled for May 6th, it seems feasible that the candidates would want to work NC voters as much as they can.  Wake Forest has made some inquiries and has expressed interest in hosting an Obama-Clinton debate.  http://www.wfu.edu/news/release/2008.03.20.d.php

I was privileged to be here for both the ‘88 and ‘00 debates, and boy howdy they were crazy fun times.  As a freshman in ‘88, I sat on the fire escape of Huffman dorm with some friends and had a bird’s eye view of people entering the front of Wait Chapel.  In 2000, it was a whole different ball game, with unbelievable levels of security.  Quad roof swat teams and metal detectors and rolling the Quad afterwards with red, white and blue crepe paper.  (I got to go to Costco to get the supply of TP for the students - as much as could fit in the back of my station wagon).  In 2000 I watched the debate from Brendle Recital Hall that time, along with 600 of my closest WF friends who were here for a special viewing party.

Working on the ‘00 debate was the single most fun professional project I have ever been privileged to work on in my life.  Everyone, please send us some good vibes.  This would be an incredible learning opportunity for our students - so let’s hope if a debate happens, it happens at Mother So Dear.

I just heard through the grapevine that Seth Gannon (’09) and Alex Lamballe (’09) of the WFU debate team have just won the National Debate Tournament!  GO DEACS!

Will edit with link once I get the official news story.

 Congratulations to the team!

 I am always excited to see members of the WFU family do well, and today I am especially proud.  Two of my colleagues’ children just won the social entrepreneurship portion of the Babcock School’s elevator competition.

Siblings Catharine (’06) and Frank McNally (’02) paired with Campus Kitchens co-founder Karen Borchert (’00) and others to create a business plan for Bonseye Guides. The team plans to use its winnings of $5,000 and the $40,000 in resources to provide deaf people and others access to audio tours at museums through personal media players.  Read about it here:  http://www.mba.wfu.edu/newsDetail.aspx?id=248

Catharine is hearing impaired, as is one of my very best friends from Wake Forest, who helped me see a tiny slice of what life is like when you can not hear.  My friend Heather coached me through Biology (which I barely passed even *with* her tutelage), and I coached her through French.  I don’t remember a lot of the sign language she taught me, but I do remember how important it is to always look someone in the face when you speak to them, because you never know if they might be reading your lips to help them hear.