Kolbecast

18: Homer and The Hunger Games

AMDG. Alumnus Charlie Mihaliak, a current University of Dallas junior, joins us today to discuss how he relies on his Kolbe education in pursuing the pragmatic and the creative, the athletic and the artistic, the collective human experience and the unique individual self. Charlie reminisces with Jordan about the powerful experience of meeting friends in person after relationships developed through online classes without physical proximity. He and Hope discuss the strong sense of individuality that comes from balancing friend groups with varying interests rather than associating with one particular identity in high school. And he and Bonnie talk about the catharsis of encountering timeless big questions in drama and literature. Along the way, Charlie describes how the best opportunities to grow in college come when you acknowledge the fact that you have maturing to do, the importance of enhancing reality rather than escaping it, and what he would say to his tenth-grade self.  
University of Dallas Fall 2020 production of Love’s Labour’s Lost 
2018 Graduation recap 
2018 Graduation pictures 
Jordan’s graduation address 
Charlie’s graduation address 
Patricia Kolakowski’s graduation address 
The McCormick family’s graduation reflections 
 
Have a question for the Kolbecast team? Write to us at podcast@kolbe.org.   

17: Secure to Explore

AMDG. Homecoming season continues with alumna and classical violinist Sarah Thomas. On this episode, she visits with Bonnie and Hope about her experience of timelessness in homeschooling, her state’s requirement for homeschooled students of yearly evaluations with a state-certified teacher, and the skill of developing friendships with people of all ages. Sarah discusses how the security she felt being homeschooled was a foundation for her collegiate and post-collegiate travels, such as studying abroad in Austria and walking the Chartres pilgrimage in France. She also describes how her Kolbe education informed her experience working in underprivileged public schools. We wrap it up with some thoughts on the sacramental nature of music and the importance of “feeding your soul” time. 
Sarah’s website 
Bowdoin International Music Festival Q&A with Sarah 
Sarah’s master's degree recital performance of Brahms Sonata No. 1 in G Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 78 
Sarah’s bachelor’s degree recital performance of Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 
Sarah references Josef Pieper’s book Leisure, the Basis of Culture. 
Have a question for the Kolbecast team? Write to us at podcast@kolbe.org.   

16: It’s All Greek to Me

AMDG. In this episode, Jordan interviews Magdalen College sophomore and former Kolbe student Sophia Harne. They discuss language acquisition in general and how a strong background in Latin can help one learn any language more easily. As she indicates in the conversation, Sophia has been learning Latin since the time she learned to read English. Now, her linguistic focus is on Greek, a language that has some unique features that can’t be replicated by nor translated exactly into other languages. Underpinning the conversation is a shared journey of linguistic and educational history that began in Germany back in 2014. Enjoy the show!
Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts.
Latin Flashcards.
Greek Flashcards.
Have a question for the Kolbecast team? Write to us at podcast@kolbe.org.  

15: Asparagus Moments

AMDG. Taking another deep dive into the Kolbe curriculum, we visit with Therese Prudlo, who teaches history and homeroom for Kolbe’s Online Academy. She describes how, by orienting our study of history from the Incarnation, we see evidence of God’s guidance of the universe in its “state of journeying (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it.” (CCC 302). And we discuss how Kolbe’s chosen treasury of primary sources and textbooks with a narrative but rigorously accurate treatment offers Kolbe students a rich and thorough grounding in history with practical applications to everyday life. Therese offers several suggestions for approaching all subjects through the lens of history, including virtual tours, travel, and living history ideas, to underscore the idea that “history is ultimately hope.” 
Virtual tours: 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY) 
The Vatican Museum 
National Gallery of Art 
The Louvre 
Google maps: catacombs of St. Priscilla in Rome 
Chartres restoration; article on New Liturgical Movement 
Catechism of the Catholic Church #302 Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created "in a state of journeying" (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call "divine providence" the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection: 
By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made, "reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well". For "all are open and laid bare to his eyes", even those things which are yet to come into existence through the free action of creatures. 
 

14: We Don’t Think Those Words Mean What You Think They Mean

AMDG. In this episode we visit with Nicole O’Connor, veteran Kolbe Academy online instructor of classical subjects, about her experience teaching logic and rhetoric. While the term “rhetoric” can have an untrustworthy connotation in common parlance, Nicole deftly describes how it is a powerful and positive thing when rightly ordered. Similarly, logic is an integral area for both formation of the individual and participation in society—all the way from coherent discussion to computer coding. As two of the three parts of the Trivium (and courses in the Kolbe high school English curriculum), both logic and rhetoric are forces for good that help us relate to each other and convey truth. What could be more noble? 
Have a question for the Kolbecast team? Write to us at podcast@kolbe.org.   

13: The Next Generation

AMDG. In this episode, we kick off Homecoming season with Kolbe 2010 graduate Alex and his wife Alex, herself a Catholic homeschool graduate (and, no, we didn’t have a typo there—they're both named Alex). Mr. Alex discusses his experience as a chemistry major, law student, and Wisconsin Supreme Court judicial clerk, and Mrs. Alex discusses her experience as a pre-nursing student, massage therapist, and seamstress. Together, they’re raising a four-year-old, a two-year-old, and a babe on the way. Do these two homeschool graduates plan to homeschool their children? Listen in and find out! 
Mrs. Alex’s shop 
Have a question for the Kolbecast team? Write to us at podcast@kolbe.org.   
 

12: Phone a Friend

AMDG. Learning disadvantages and special needs are the topics of the day as Dean of Students Celeste Cuellar joins us.  Her background includes teaching every age between preschool and college as well as mental health and career counseling, and she serves Kolbe families by finding ways to meet students’ individual needs. Along the way, Jordan discusses the college professor side of working with students who have learning challenges, Bonnie references a few of the many resources Celeste has compiled, and Hope draws from both C.S. Lewis and Ferris Bueller about the undulations and nervous moments of life.  
Celeste on FB Live 
Understood.org 
Catholic Homeschooling with Dyslexia and Other LDs 
Screwtape Letter 8, read by John Cleese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcXMwlZi8hk  
Susan Barton’s Bright Solutions for Dyslexia 
Have a question for the Kolbecast team? Write to us at podcast@kolbe.org.   

11: Truth, Wisdom, Virtue

AMDG. Everett Buyarski, Kolbe’s Director of Academic Services, joins the crew this episode to discuss Kolbe’s history, mission, and philosophy. He discusses what “classical in content,” “Ignatian in method,” and “principle of subsidiarity” mean in the context of a Kolbe education; describes how the University of Paris in the 1500s and the University of Kansas in the 1970s both directly influence Kolbe’s rigorous curriculum; and turns the tables on Jordan, Bonnie, and Hope, putting each of them on the spot in Socratic form. 
Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages 
Everett’s recent Facebook Live detailing these topics 
What can you do with a degree in Philosophy? Everett’s January 2019 conversation with Jordan 
Have a question for the Kolbecast team? Write to us at podcast@kolbe.org.