Calendar of Events

University Club programs are open to the public and are held Tuesdays at noon in the Padua Room of the Hughes Community Center, 1700 Danbury Road, Claremont, California. A full buffet lunch, beginning at 11:45 AM is available for $12.00. For those who wish to come only for coffee and dessert, the fee is $5.00. No fee is charged for program attendance only. Membership applications are available at each meeting. Map to Hughes Community Center

September 7– “The Stranger in my Mirror – The Journey after Amnesia: A personal experience”

Speaker – Ms. Celeste Palmer
Ms. Palmer has reinvented her life after a near fatal car accident which left her with no recall for what it was to exist as a human being. Memories of a lifetime had been deleted. Nothing was familiar. Not faces of friends or family. Not her own clothes or house. Not even her hands looked like they belonged to her. How do you stay positive and relearn everything? Where does the strength come from to start all over again? When you do find the car keys, do you know what to do with them? From being reintroduced to her children to deciding if she could find a new career, it’s an amazing journey! Ms. Palmer is a member of the University Club. She currently volunteers at the Drucker School of Management. She has a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Cal State University L.A, and a Masters degree from Claremont Graduate University.
Introducer: Nancy Magnusson
Fellowship: Margaret Ward

September 14 – “Haiti after the Earthquake”

Speaker – Dr. Serena Evans Beeks
Dr. Beeks will give us an update on the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, its aftermath, and some of the reconstruction efforts currently underway. Dr. Beeks was born in Rome, Italy, and raised in Mariposa, California, near Yosemite National Park. She earned a BA in Music from UC Berkeley, an MA in Education from the Claremont Graduate School, and a Doctor of Ministry in Theology of Educational Leadership from Virginia Theological Seminary. She is a member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Upland, where she was founding Head of St. Mark's School from 1982-1998. She has traveled to Haiti annually since 1999, sometimes as often as three times a year, usually to escort groups who are establishing partnerships with Episcopal churches and schools in Haiti. She is married to Graydon Beeks, Professor of Music at Pomona College.
Introducer: Shelby Forrest
Fellowship: Jim Martin

September 21 – “The Immigrant Question in 20th Century France"

Speaker – Dr. Minayo Nasiali
In the last thirty years, immigration has become an important national debate in France. Some are concerned that immigrants are taking French jobs; others argue that recent migrants refuse to assimilate, to embrace French cultural values. These arguments have become the grounds for passing legislation that increasingly limits access to citizenship. Migrants—many of them from former French colonies—also contribute to these debates. They argue that as participants in French society, they do, indeed, have the right to full citizenship. The migrants claim they have the right to be French. This talk will put contemporary debates about the immigrant question in historical context by showing the relationship between decolonization and labor migration from the post 1945 economic boom in France through the recession of the 1970s and 1980s. Dr. Minayo Nasiali was born and raised in Claremont, California, and is the daughter of club member Opanyi Nasiali. She graduated from Claremont High School and attended Stanford University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in History. She attended graduate school at the University of Michigan, finishing her History PhD in June 2010. She specializes in France and the history of Empire. Currently she is a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley and will join the history department at the City University of New York-Baruch College full time in the fall of 2011.
Introducer: Opanyi Nasiali
Fellowship: Celeste Palmer

September 28 – “Lessons on Leadership - Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere of Tanzania”

Speaker – Dr. Dean McHenry
Frustration with our local, state, and national political leaders is widespread today. This presentation looks to Africa for solutions, specifically how the first president of Tanzania dealt with a myriad of problems faced in the early post-independence period. Obviously, the contexts are very different in a variety of ways, but similarities exist in the challenges faced. So often Americans expect other countries in the world to model themselves after us--and, we "advise" them about how they should govern themselves. This talk will look at the experiences of an African statesman whose leadership might provide us with a few useful lessons. A year ago, Dr. McHenry retired and became a "Professor Emeritus" of Claremont Graduate University. After completing his undergraduate work at Oberlin College, he went to East Africa on a joint British-American aid program to teach in a secondary school. On arrival, none of the East African countries was independent; on departure, they all were.  Fascinated with the change, he returned to the US to undertake graduate work at Indiana University in political science. Before CGU, Dr. McHenry taught at the University of Illinois, Brown University, the University of Calabar in Nigeria, and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Introducer: Brian Bowcock
Fellowship: Pat Kelly
Birthdays: John Najarian

Bulletin Committee Members: David Sonner, Opanyi Nasiali, and Roya Ardelan