THE UNIVERSITY OF HALY KANSAN
FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2007
FRIDAY, APRIL 13. 2007
NEWS
PROFILE
5A
Stellar student can do it all
Sarah Leonard/KANSAN
BY BRIAN LEWIS-JONES
Michelle Tran, Derby senior, maintains a busy schedule full of activities such as African drumming, flamenco dancing, calligraphy and working as a student assistant at the Dole Institute of Politics.
Michelle Tran has an insatiable interest in nearly everything and almost anybody. Eager and curious, she said she likes to take risks and step outside of her comfort zone, which, in high school, included calling complete strangers to hear about their stories.
"It's when you get to meet people and get to know them," she said. "You learn people can surprise you."
Tran, Derby senior, works as a student assistant at the Dole Institute of Politics. She's a 2006-07 KU Woman of Distinction and will attend graduate school at Harvard this fall to pursue her master's degree in public policy.
Tran's parents came to the United States from Vietnam in 1975. She grew up in a red brick house built by her father near Wichita's McConnell Air Force Base on a plot of land larger than 10 acres. She said she used to watch air shows from the roof and grew various vegetables in the yard during the summertime.
Tran speaks four languages
English, Vietnamese, Russian and Arabic. She'll be playing in an African drumming ensemble this Sunday at the Sisimuka Africa cultural celebration in the woodruff Auditorium. Tran said great percussion and drumming "just makes me feel like dancing."
She's learning how to play the accordion and the banjo. Tran also dabbles in flamenco dancing, rugby and calligraphy. She said her mom, who had beautiful handwriting, had several old calligraphy pens when Tran was young. To learn more, Tran checked out all of the calligraphy
books at the library.
"It's pretty special when you have a handwritten note or an invitation," she said. "Somebody put work into that."
At the Dole Institute of Politics, Tran helps with study groups and creates advertisements and flyers, Bill Lacy, director of the institute, said student assistants were heavily integrated into the program, allowing them to meet world leaders and gain workplace responsibility.
Lacy said Tran was bright, personable and had the determination to do just about anything.
"She'll be where she chooses to be in 20 years — whether she's serving in congress, running a business somewhere, being a scholar," he said, "she has the will to make that happen."
Tran said she wanted to work at Dole to "figure out where to hang my hat." She said after graduate school, she wants to work as a foreign service officer for the U.S. State Department.
"I just want to see more people working together." Tran said.
Because her parents didn't have the opportunity for college in Vietnam, she said it was amazing how in one generation, her two brothers, two sisters and herself had all that they had.
"People are given so much," Tran said. "I'm amazed when I look around me and see what's made from the human mind."
Kansan staff writer Brian Lewis-Jones can be contacted at bljones@kansan.com.
— Edited by Stacey Couch
MANKATO, Minn. — A jail guard has been suspended after allegedly thumping an inmate with a Bible.
James Lee Sheppard, 56, has been charged with two gross misdemeanors for allegedly swatting a Blue Earth County Jail inmate with the book, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against steel bars on Feb. 8, according to the criminal complaint.
A video shows a guard entering the cell of inmate Jeremy Hansen, 26. The guard then takes
BIBLE THUMPING Video catches jail guard hitting inmate with book
Hansen's Bible and strikes him in the side of the face with the book. The two exchange words as the guard walks away, said Mankato Police Officer Allen Schmidt who watched the video.
The rest of the confrontation was not captured on video because of an object obstructing the camera. But the complaint states that Sheppard walked back toward Hansen, grabbed him and pushed him into the cell bars.
Dennis McCoy, Blue Earth County administrator, said Sheppard was the first to report the confrontation. "He knew he violated policy and, to his credit, he turned himself in," McCoy said.
TERRORISM ARREST Jury indicts U.S. citizen for al-Qaida conspiracv
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal grand jury indicted a U.S. citizen on charges of joining al-Qaida and conspiring to bomb European tourist resorts and U.S. government facilities and military bases overseas.
Christopher Paul, 43, of Columbus, trained with al-Qaida in the early 1990s, the indictment issued Wednesday says. The indictment says he told al-Qaida members in Pakistan and Afghanistan that he was dedicated to committing violent jihad.
Paul is charged with providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide support to terrorists and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Fred Alverson, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Columbus, said Thursday that he couldn't comment further on the case.
Associated Press
"There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society," CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said in announcing the decision. "That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision."
Rutgers women's basketball team spokeswoman Stacey Bannan said the
Imus initially was given a two-week suspension for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" on the air last week, but outrage continued to grow and advertisers bolted from his CBS radio show and its MSNBC simulcast.
NEW YORK — CBS fired Don
Imus from his radio program
Thursday, the finale to a stunning fall
for one of the nation's most prominent
broadcasters.
BY DAVID BAUDER ASSOCIATED PRESS
But Imus found himself at the center of a storm as protests intensified. On Wednesday, MSNBC dropped the simulcast of Imus' show.
Time Magazine once named the cantankerous broadcaster as one of the 25 Most Influential People in America, and he was a member of the National Broadcaster Hall of Fame.
The Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson met with Moonves on Thursday to demand Imus' removal, promising a rally outside CBS headquarters Saturday and an effort to persuade more advertisers to abandon Imus.
Losing Imus will be a financial hit to CBS Radio, which also suffered when Howard Stern departed for satellite radio. The program is worth about $15 million in annual revenue to CBS, which owns Imus' home radio station WFAN-AM and manages Westwood One, the company that syndicates the show across the country.
team did not have an immediate comment on Imus' firing.
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Radio personality Don Imus appears on Rev. Al Sharpton's radio show, in New York on Monday. CBS fired Don Imus from his radio show Thursday, the finale to a stunning fall for one of the nations most prominent broadcasters. His dismissal comes in the wake of public outfall resulting from his referencing to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" on his morning show last week.
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