St. Cloud Technical College

Student Life Lecture Series

The Student Life and Athletics Office invites you to a series of interactive discussions on topics that will provoke conversation, challenge your comfort zone and/or enhance your life or someone’s you know. Talk to your instructor about attending one for extra credit or adding the subject matter to a course curriculum.

September 23rd, 5:30 p.m. in the Commons
Greg Baird: Out In The Open

A genuinely gifted speaker with a witty sense of humor, Greg Baird has an informative and inspiring way of capturing his audience through his presentation, Out in the Open: "A Right to Live & Love." This program filled with sensitivity and compassion appeals to all audiences both gay and straight. He offers a message of unconditional love through his presentation of community, self-esteem, and coming out and how hate crimes affect all of us. Greg tells the story of growing up in a small conservative mid-western town, and how he struggled to overcome negative stereotypes with himself, family and society. He tells us why it is so important for everyone to be a role model and create a wave of change in our own lives. His message offers hope, compassion and understanding.

A comedienne and recovered anorexic, Michelle Garb created "Fat Brain/Skinny Body," a lecture on eating disorder awareness and positive body self-image, as a result of her own 15-year battle with anorexia. Michelle has a first-hand experience with the personal losses that stem from an eating disorder. She is still active in her recovery and in addition to speaking on the subject; she is in the process of forming "Edith Eats," a non-profit eating disorder organization and has recently gained support and funding through the NCAA. As a comedian, she works all the major clubs in New York City and Los Angeles and appeared on the Chris Rock Show. One of the hottest comics and most respected lecturers, Michelle makes learning fun and inspiration.

Monday, November 1 , 5:30 p.m. in the Commons
Chuck Derry: Manhood, Sexism and Violence

This presentation will look at how we have woven the ideologies of rape and battery so tightly into the fabric of manhood that it has become a part of male identity. How we are socialized and the benefits of sexism contribute to men’s decision to either participate in the sexist attack men make on women’s lives or to actively resist sexism in themselves and others.

Chuck Derry has worked to end men’s violence against women since 1983. For the first ten years, he worked with male offenders in the St. Cloud Intervention Project in St. Cloud Minnesota and was the men’s program coordinator for six of those years. In 1994, he co-founded the Gender Violence Institute in Clearwater Minnesota and through the work of that organization does training, assessment, consultation, and organizational development focused on the issues of domestic violence.

Blending a unique combination of improvisational comedy, education and audience participation, "Sex Signals" provides a provocative, in-your-face look at issues surrounding dating, sex and date rape on college campuses. Through the use of humor, the show explores how mixed messages, gender role stereotypes and unrealistic fantasies contribute to misunderstandings between the sexes. Students are thus engaged in a candid discussion on dating and the realities of date rape as they are challenged to provide solutions that will better improve communications in interpersonal relationships. All of the performers have extensive training in interactive theater and sexual assault education.