We hope you enjoy these top news stories about TFAS activities, alumni and events this week. Please visit us on social media for additional up-to-the-moment TFAS news and information and sign up to receive weekly updates.
TFAS alumni, staff and faculty continue to provide coverage of COVID-19. Read their analysis, information and tips by visiting this week’s “Quick Links.”
TFAS Virtual Summer Begins With Messages of Honorable Leadership and Civility
Two of the most important qualities that our world’s most respected leaders possess are integrity and honesty – this is the message that TFAS President Roger Ream ’76 shared with nearly 200 undergraduate students on Monday, June 8, during the 2020 TFAS Virtual Summer opening ceremony.
“We hope to reinforce the importance of integrity in honorable leadership,” Ream said. “It is through trust and integrity that a leader is able to improve things in the world.”
Students also heard welcome remarks and advice from U.S. Programs Director Joe Starrs, Chairman Randal Teague and Academic Director Dr. Anne Bradley.
The 2020 “Welcome Week” virtual orientation activities continued on Tuesday, June 9, with a topical guest lecture by TFAS summer program speaker, comedian and free speech advocate, Karith Foster. Foster’s presentation titled “Can We Talk?: Critical Thinking and Civil Discourse in an Uncivil Time,” touched on the importance of having real, civil conversations on world issues in a constructive way.
Read more of Foster’s and Ream’s remarks, and learn more about the 2020 Virtual Summer Program at TFAS.org/VirtualWelcome.
TFAS Podcast: Episode 5 – What Would Hayek Say?
Dr. Peter Boettke joins us to discuss the enduring lessons of Nobel Prize-winning economist F.A. Hayek. Sharing insights from his recent book, “F. A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy,” Dr. Boettke contemplates how Hayek would approach some of the modern issues of today such as the popularity of democratic socialism and the COVID-19 pandemic. As a college professor of economics, including many years as a TFAS professor in our Prague program, Dr. Boettke shares how he reaches young people with Hayek’s lessons and helps them to understand that these principles hold true today.
You can listen to our conversation above or read a transcription at TFAS.org/PodcastEp5. This episode was released this week on the TFAS “Liberty + Leadership” Podcast. To never miss an episode, subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google or your favorite podcasting app.
TFAS Launches Virtual Seminars for 2020 International Program
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, subsequent closings and logistical difficulties, TFAS is unable to hold in-person programs in Europe and Asia this summer. Although we are saddened to not be able to greet our students in Prague and Singapore, we are excited to announce new virtual programs that will connect students all across the globe for an exchange of ideas and meaningful engagement.
Students previously enrolled in this summer’s TFAS Prague and Asia programs have been invited to join us for an eight-week TFAS Global Political Economy Seminar. The premier program is a unique global enterprise: combining lessons and featuring professors from TFAS programs held in Prague, Singapore and Washington, D.C.
Through a series of lectures, companion reading materials and live discussion sessions, students will examine the relationship between governments and markets by exploring three alternatives: socialism, the welfare state and classical liberalism.
Learn more about the program at TFAS.org/GPES.
Economics Lesson of the Week: The Magic of Markets – Trade Creates Wealth
TFAS continues to provide resources to help teachers and parents carry on the important task of educating our nation’s future leaders. Each week, we feature a different lesson from our high school programming division – the Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE).
“The Magic of Markets” is an interactive lesson that sets out to answer the question: “Why do people trade?” This lesson involves students in a trading simulation designed to illustrate a complex marketplace in which goods and services are traded. Students use this experience to investigate the conditions that encourage or discourage trade among individuals. Downloadable guides, videos and a group activity introduce new concepts such as trade, voluntary exchange, costs, benefits and property rights.
TFAS offers a plethora of online lesson plans, readings, handouts, video demonstrations and hands-on activity guides to teach the “economic way of thinking” in engaging and relatable ways. Visit TFAS.org/FTELessons for a one-stop guide to our available resources.
Post of the Week
TFAS Virtual Summer Program student Gisenly Garcias ’20 displays the contents of her welcome packet from TFAS. Ahead of Monday’s virtual welcome ceremony, TFAS mailed students a folder containing a welcome letter and guides, as well as a T-shirt, pennant, and sticker so students can show their TFAS pride in their hometowns.
Every TFAS student receives a copy of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution when they participate in our programs – and a virtual program is no exception. Provided by our friends at the Cato Institute, these pocket-sized principles follow students throughout their TFAS Journey and life beyond as a reminder of our founding principles and institutions that make the American experiment in liberty possible.
QUICK LINKS
TFAS ALUMNI COVER COVID-19 CONCERNS
Kurt Couchman ’02, PPF ’07, opines for The Hill on how government shutdowns could harm national security.
Ben Nuelle ’14 reports for AgriPulse on restaurants’ efforts to fight community hunger by donating food surpluses.
Alexandra Hudson, Novak ’19, opines for the Washington Examiner on how the COVID-19 crisis has revealed the efficacy of alternative schooling models.
Jared Keller ’08 reports for Task & Purpose on new COVID-19 outbreak aboard a Navy warship.
Josh Holdenried, PPF ’18, opines for the National Catholic Register how faith can help people cope in times of crisis.
Matthew Walther, Novak ’10, writes in The Week about the importance of empathy during this tumultuous time in our country.
Katherine Mangu-Ward, Novak ’05, opines for Reason on impact of COVID-19 on the federal public health bureaucracy.
MORE QUICK LINKS
TFAS campus speaker and Venezuelan asylum seeker Jorge Galicia shares his personal testimony in a video for Liberty International’s “Project Arizona” – a program founded by TFAS alumnus Jacek Spendel ’08, ’09 designed to train international leaders to become advocates of freedom.
Neil Vigdor ’99 reports for The New York Times on a Texas inmate who was granted parole after nearly 40 years on death row.
Mollie Hemingway, Novak ’04, opines for The Federalist on CBS edits to Attorney General Barr’s recent interview on national protests and riots.
Kari Travis ’12 discusses increased political tension as the Republic National Convention considers moving from Charlotte in a piece for the Carolina Journal.
Sarah Westwood, Novak ’15, reports for CNN on Senator Ron Johnson’s response to President Trump firing the State Department inspector general.
Rym Momtaz ’05, ’07 discusses the crisis in Libya and the international power politics at play in a piece for Politico.
TFAS Regent Emeritus Lee Edwards writes about the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in the Daily Signal.
Peter Suderman, Novak ’10, opines for Reason on the elimination of police unions that advocate for neglectful officers.
Ryan Lovelace, Novak ’17, reports for the Washington Times on the “#OpenYourLobby” campaign that called for businesses to shelter protestors in D.C.
Jennifer Kabbany, Novak ’02, discusses how the New York Times’ new op-ed policy following the Tom Cotton backlash is reflective of ideological restraint on college campuses. Fellow Novak alumnus Tim Carney, Novak ’03, is quoted in the College Fix piece.
Laura Vanderkam ’99, Novak ’06, writes for Forge on the importance of meeting with work supervisors for weekly check-ins.
Naomi Schaefer Riley, Novak ’01, opines for The Wall Street Journal on how social workers may not be able to appropriately fill the role of police officers amid calls for police defunding.
Faysal Itani ’03, ’06 is interviewed by the Times of India to discuss Bashar al-Assad’s 20-year rule in Syria.
Ximena Bustillo ’19 shares how the recent protests across the country have reached rural America in a piece for Politico.
NEW CAREERS + HONORS
Patrick Kornegay, Jr. ’18 is a 2020-21 fellow for the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) for Young Professionals in Germany.
Mike Jayne ’07, PPF ’13, has won a Federalist Society writing contest for his article titled “As Far As Reasonably Practicable: Reimagining the Role of Congress in Agency Rulemaking.”
Isabela Christo ’13, ’15 is obtaining her master’s degree from Tsinghua University in Beijing where she was a member of the prestigious Schwarzman Scholars graduate fellowship program. Read Christo’s TFAS alumna profile.