Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Welcome to Kendall Speaks.
My name is Dr. Brian Stewart and I'm the president of Kendall campus. And today we have one of our amazing faculty members and three of our students.
We're going to talk about a couple of topics today, including our little free library and the environmental center. Welcome. Thank you for having us, Professor Sindon. It's your encore version. We're glad to have you back.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Hi. Thank you, Dr. Stewart. I'm glad to be back.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: And we have Victoria Cuellar. Welcome, Victoria.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Max Rodriguez. And Nicole, I'm going to have you say your name. I'm not going to take a chance.
[00:00:44] Speaker D: Nicole Cavities.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: All right, Nicole, Kay will call you. Well, great to have you guys here today to talk about our little free library. But first, let's talk a little bit about each of you and introduce yourselves and tell us about your connection with the little free library. And we'll start with you, Professor Sindon, if you don't mind.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Hi. So I'm the advisor of the English Honor society and I'm also the mentor of the Narrow Rich Earth Literacy center group that went to Narrow Rich this spring of 2025. So this is how I'm connected to the little free library. Also, students in the leadership class that I taught in fall of 2024 were interested in starting a free little library.
So it's all connected with Vicki as well as being the president of the English Honor society.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Well, Vicki, let's go to you next as the president of the English Honor society and Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy center alumni. So tell us about your connection to this and about yourself too, of course.
[00:01:41] Speaker C: So I am an English major, so I am really committed to my love of literacy. I really love reading books. I love spreading my love for reading books. And the little free library truly just came to me as a way to just have students engaged in the same love that I have.
And honestly, it is a really fulfilling and a really transforming type of journey for me with the little free library. Definitely.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: And that's awesome. I remember last year we dedicated it. Was it in the spring? When did we do it?
[00:02:16] Speaker B: In January.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: January, yeah. And you had a great turnout. So this is great. We're coming up on January and to talk about it again, Max, let's go to you. You also are a Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy center alumni. It's a mouthful.
[00:02:28] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Tell us about your journey to Kendall campus and your connection.
[00:02:31] Speaker E: So I am a second year honor student. I'm studying business, so I don't really have direct ties. Like I'm like an English major, communications. But reading is obviously something that can be universal. You don't have to be in communications in an English major to really enjoy reading and to really feel ties to it.
When we were on the Narrow Ridge field experience, it was kind of like a group idea to come back to the Kendall campus and bring this back and make ties to the environmental center and Narrow Ridge and bring that whole collective together.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Two really unique things. Because not every campus has an environmental center. And does any other campus have a little free library that you're aware of?
[00:03:08] Speaker B: There are other campuses that have. Padrone campus has two little free libraries.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Well, that's good. They don't have an environmental center.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: They do not.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: That's right. Nicole, tell us about your connection and journey to Kendall campus.
[00:03:21] Speaker D: So I'm a second year at the honors college. My major is biology. So I feel like I've always been into like environmental and like nature, which is what really made me want to go on the Nero Ridge trip. And obviously when we were there, we learned about sustainability and I guess it was kind of Victoria came up with the idea to have a little free library in the environmental center. And we all really liked that idea. So it's something that we really wanted to continue here and just was overall something that I feel like we all really care about.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: Why don't someone tell our audience about what the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy center is? Would one of you want to do that?
Well, yes, we should probably let them know.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Yeah. So the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy center is in Narrow Ridge, which is off Washburn, Tennessee. So it's in the mountains of Tennessee. It's an off grid community.
So everything is sustainable. They don't have electricity, they don't have Internet, only in their learning center. So very few areas where there's Internet and they use compost toilets. What else?
[00:04:29] Speaker C: They use vegetarian food.
[00:04:31] Speaker E: They're. They're vegetarian. Like vegan diet. They use. They don't have like a conventional heater per se. Like so in the winter they get like the. I forgot what it was called. It was like the solar.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Yeah, it's passive solar design.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Passive solar design.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: So yes, it's a way in which an architecture design that works with the sun in the winter and in the summer and like that it gets cooler in the summer, but it gets warmer in the.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: And they have some pretty cold temperatures there. So that's. That's a cool thing. Well, I thought we just needed to kind of bring that up and talk a little bit about that.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Can I, can I say something else? About it because I think it's really important to know that Bill Nichol is the founder of the Narrow Rich Earth Literacy center, and he was very good friends with Matt Greger Smith, who's a founder of our environmental center. And they actually worked together for many years and had a really great friendship, but also partnership in sustainable work.
And he, Bill Nicol has been part of the board for the Earth Ethics Institute for many years.
So I think it's really important to mention him because he is in so many ways connected to our work here with the Earth Ethics Institute. And Max Smith, who was the founder and funder of the Environmental center and the Earth Ethics Institute.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: That's a great connection. I'm glad you shared that. For those that are not familiar, let's talk a little bit about our little free library and how does it reflect or enhance the culture of our campus community. We'll start with you, Professor Sindon, and.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Then go to VICKI well, the little free library is about giving access to students, to literacy, to books, to reading. So I think Miami Dade College is committed to that.
So it is promoting literacy at a level that is free for everyone.
So it doesn't look at hierarchies, it doesn't look at class. Everyone is able to open up that little free library and grab a book and take it home.
I think it's very special. For instance, right now we're going to put a lot of children children's books and ya into that little free library so that parents could take it home to their kids as well. So for me, it is so great and sometimes a little stressful to see it empty because we have to be replenishing it all the time. But that is so exciting as well, right, because it means people are using.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: It and how appropriate. We're talking about this topic the week after the book fair. So we're right on target.
[00:07:04] Speaker C: VICKI Definitely I will say that the little free library really came along with a vision that here in Miami Dade College. KENDALL I pretty much believe that a big heart of it is education.
And with the books, people can just expand the horizons to things that maybe they might not actually buy from their own pocket. We have books there that have been given by biology majors, maybe teaching students about their research projects. I don't know how to really describe it, but the things that they're interested in that are related with nature.
And I saw recently that somebody gave like a GED book. And honestly, this is a really good way for people to interact, for people to just really see different things that they're not really accustomed to. And I feel that it really relates to the culture for campus community. Because being in a community college, we're not necessarily only people that are in our young adult years. We have mothers that are going to get their education here at Miami Dade College.
We have fathers that are also pursuing an education here. And having a little free library allows them to also just bring books home for their children to read or books that they themselves can read. And I think it's a really beautiful thing because like I said, it's really all about spreading the love and like Max said, bringing people from different majors and have an interdisciplinary approach to reading.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: And I think what's so cool is the Kendall campus has so many variety of majors in the communities on our campus. And to your point, it can impact so many different parts of our community. That's great. Talk, Vicki, a little bit about how you came up with the idea and what motivated you to bring a little free library to the Kendall campus.
[00:08:49] Speaker C: Well, for the first little free library, it wasn't only my idea. Maggie Curiel, she was a second year and my first year here at Miami Dade Candle, and she had the same idea as me to have a little free library. I did not know her at the time. I did not know that she was planning to do the same thing that I was. And I told Professor Sendin that I really wanted to engage with students with literature. And the idea of the little free library came about to me, and at the same time that it came about to me, it came to her. And so once Professor Senden saw that Maggie wanted to do it for her capstone research project, we basically combined both of our ideas and joined forces to create a beautiful thing for our campus. We both just really wanted to bring this opportunity to people. We both were really passionate about the fact of collaborating with this nonprofit and being able to just have this new way for people to engage with literature. The second liter free library idea really came with the fact that I noticed that the environmental center is a beautiful place. And when I was looking at it and sometimes even doing the.
Is it a workday? Is that how it's called?
[00:10:04] Speaker B: So, yeah, it was a work day. And you were removing air potatoes.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Yeah, there are a lot of those out there. Yes, yes, I've done that myself.
[00:10:15] Speaker C: So we were removing.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: We were removing air potatoes, which are non native species. Yeah.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: So when going there and just looking at the fishies, looking at the waters, looking at the nature, I just said to myself, well, this is a really nice place. For somebody to just sit here, relax in nature, be immersed in nature and read some books.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah, very peaceful.
[00:10:39] Speaker C: It's very peaceful, very quiet, and just a place that you can just even meditate or reflect. And I feel that it was like a really perfect place to install a little free library. And Max and Nicole just like really came in with that support for the idea, and we're all working into this beautiful project together.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: That's a great answer, Vicki. Max, tell us a little bit about how the little free library operates.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:05] Speaker E: Yeah. So the. The whole idea of the Luffy library is take a book, leave a book. So you show up to be. Well, after the environmental center one, we also have the Starbucks one. They're both have the same idea. You take a book and leave a book. And that just kind of helps keep it also replenish, but also share like what you love. So let's say I love this book and I want somebody else to read this. I'm gonna leave that one and take another one. And that's kind of just like how the. Basically the whole idea is. I'm actually working on like the whole build of it. So it was kind of a mission to get, like, funding. We applied for grants. It was.
Yeah, it was. It was a mess. But we didn't let that stop us. Like, we got denied from those grants. Didn't stop us. We all actually pitched in and it was like a collective effort to really make this work, make this happen.
So I'm taking lead on the build of the project. And yeah, I'm very excited to really bring that to life, that vision to life, and see how we can also cooperate to help the design. Because also Vicki had an idea to like put some like painting, like painting on it and put a little like a little design or something on it so we can really like. What's that word?
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Make it inviting.
[00:12:08] Speaker E: Yeah, like extra inviting. Because we didn't want just like a regular wood box. We wanted to have like an inviting.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Feel to it, tell our audience how it. What it looks like to keep the books safe.
[00:12:16] Speaker E: You know, basically just imagine. It's almost like. I'm just going to say out these measurements.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: It's.
[00:12:22] Speaker E: Imagine it's like a 12 by 24, like, box and it has like a Plexiglas window. So it has a little nozzle. You just open it. Almost like a regular cabinet, but it's just like on a stilt.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: It keeps the books from the weather.
[00:12:33] Speaker E: Yeah, exactly. And we're going to put like a ceiling on it to make sure.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Like, the.
[00:12:35] Speaker E: The wood doesn't get, like, wilted or molded, whatever. So we're going to put a ceiling on it to keep it protected. And it's nothing crazy. It's a simple little free library, but that idea really just prevails. And people. People understand how to.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: How to operate.
[00:12:48] Speaker E: How to operate. Yeah.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: All right, so it's good.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Can I. Can I add something to that? Because I think it's important to say that it's. We, after talking about it, we're going to place it outside. Right outside of the environmental center. So at the entrance of the environment Center.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Sort of circle, semicircle there.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: Exactly. Well, actually, we're going after this to go check out the space. But we were thinking, after really close consideration, that it would be better if on Perimeter Road, when people pass by, they could see it.
[00:13:18] Speaker D: So.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: So it's accessible to the entire community.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: We have a lot of people that use our outer perimeter to cut through the campus to go to 104-4- Street. So that's not a good thing. But the good thing is you're gonna get a lot of visibility, I think, from people who aren't necessarily Kendall students, but it's the community that come by and say, hey, look at that. So I think if you pick a good location, you could attract quite a few individuals that might not even know it's there until they drove by. Let's talk a little bit about how faculty and staff can participate in this.
And you've already talked about where it is on campus and how you're going to determine the environmental location. But talk a little bit about how faculty, staff, and even the community can participate.
[00:13:55] Speaker D: I feel like I can talk about how students can participate.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Okay, good.
[00:13:59] Speaker D: So it's pretty simple. Like, Max and Vicky touched up on how you basically participate.
So you just bring a book, take a book.
We also have, like, a donation spot in the honors lounge, so. So honor students can donate books that they would want to put in the little free library. And there's still, like, there's some donations in there already, so that's great for us to start. But, yeah, I guess it's pretty much very simple. You just take a book, leave a book. And it's really exciting because I know the one in front of Starbucks is doing really great.
I think I've seen it a couple times. Like, empty, empty. But that's really exciting.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: As you said, Professor Stinnon, that's pressure, but it's also meaning it's being used. So what about how faculty can participate in the Community.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Well, first of all, donating, I think it would be wonderful.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: You could just donate. You don't have to take a book. You could just send books to us.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: Right, exactly. So I think that donating books, we have so many, I know that I actually have books on storage that I'm going to just go and start pulling out books because I'm not reading them and I just have them there. So I think looking for those books that they're very dear to you but you no longer need, you have already read them and now you want to share with the world. That's the first thing that they could do. And the other thing is to engage their students, Tell their students about it. Tell them that they could get civic action scorecard points for donating a book. And I think that if the faculty share and spread the word, it will be really successful.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: Maybe we could add it to some of our orientations to start the semester and help get the word out. So we'll think about that. What types of books or genres are most popular? Max, we'll start with you on this one.
[00:15:34] Speaker E: Yeah. So it's really could be any type of genre. We're not very, like, very specific. We want to try and cover as many topics and genres as we can. So that way it's everybody that send in, let's say, likes romance novels, but Vicky likes fiction.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: No, I thought we might have learned something there.
[00:15:52] Speaker E: Yeah. But let's say we want to really try and just get as many types of books and genres that we can. So that way it encompasses everybody. And everybody can both take a book, leave a book, and just really get the whole idea of community and involvement and really getting everybody together.
[00:16:08] Speaker C: I will say a lot of the most popular genres that people really, really love are ya. They really love YA books. I've noticed that a lot of them like dystopian books, A lot of them like the powerful protagonist that has to fight a thousand monsters and oh my God, like, I've noticed that a lot when I go and check the little free library, because every time that you for Starbucks, just trying to get your cappuccino, you always look at the little free libraries. I think it was a really good spot to put it there. And because of that, when people go and pass by the little free library, they can see what type of books it like. So whenever I pass by there, I notice that most of the books that are out are ya.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good.
What's the most interesting or unexpected book that someone's left in the Free library. Anybody have one that you've seen?
[00:17:02] Speaker C: Well, I wouldn't say that it's really groundbreaking, but I've seen people put sometimes, like, workbooks for some of their classes. I've been seeing that some people put a GED book, how to get your ged.
And I think that, honestly, sometimes people just want to participate. And sometimes maybe they don't even have a wide range of literature in their home, but maybe here in campus, there is actually someone that's taking the same class as them and leaves a workbook for somebody that might actually use it instead of collecting dust in their bookshelves. So even though they're a bit unusual and they're not the classic type of literature that somebody would expect from a literary library, I think that it is still a way to contribute to our campus and shows a lot of community engagement.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: That's good. That's good. Maybe I'll leave a math book in there that might stay in there for a while. No one will probably ever pick that up.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: No, I think we've seen some math books. Have you?
[00:17:55] Speaker C: Of course. Yeah, we have.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: That's great.
What inspired us? You've talked about the environmental center, but what inspired us to go to the environmental center and do our little free library there?
[00:18:06] Speaker C: Well, like I said before, I feel like it's like, mostly the fact that it's such a peaceful place that people can just walk by and have a kind of meditative state when reading. I've noticed that even though, like, here in the heart of the campus, it's really.
There's a lot of traffic, there's lots of conversation, and it's beautiful. I love being there in the middle of the hammocks, talking with my friends. But sometimes, whenever you need, like, a quiet space and maybe the library doesn't suffice for you because you want to be in the outside, then I feel that the environmental center could provide that for you. And in a way, it could also make them more susceptible maybe, to engaging with the environmental center because they look at this beautiful gate and think, what is going on behind these gates? What is going on? What are they working on?
I feel that because of the way that the environmental center is set up in our campus, I feel that maybe some people might not even engage with it. Not necessarily because they don't want to engage, but they maybe don't know about it. So having a little free library there, I feel that will contribute a lot to that engagement, not only with the little free library, but also to participate with the environmental center. And if they have a passion for nature and a passion for sustainability and something that Narrow Ridge really planted in Max, Nicole and me, I feel that the little free library there will really help engage those students.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Yeah, you kind of took my next question. I was going to. Oh my God, that's good though. I was going to talk about how the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy idea, how it connects to the Environmental center. But I think you've answered it well. I think you know, the environmental center, we had some weather that took it out like about 2016 or 17. We've worked really hard to bring it back. And, and I think the more these things we bring to that area engages students in the community more.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Dr. Stewart, if I could tell you a little bit about context in terms of how important the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy center is and how they have influenced our students and how impactful it has been. The students that went to Narrow Ridge three years ago, they're the ones that really worked on getting the Environmental center back for us, for the Kendall campus community.
And it was because they went there and they had those discussions about sustainability and they saw how important the Environmental center was that they came back. When we came back there was a lot of work to get done and they just got to it and it was like a three year period. But now look what it is.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: It's come a long way.
[00:20:43] Speaker C: I really want to pitch in about Narrow Ridge because the way that maybe we have presented it at first, at times might seem like, oh well, you're just going in the woods and you're going to be like, you're going to be surrounded by nature, immersed by nature, and because of that then you're going to be automatically changed. But it's not about just being thrown into the woods and you're going to be completely changed. It's about the discussions that you have. I am really privileged to have had discussions with Bill and Mitzi, which were the main leaders of that program and they really have such in tune connection with nature. And honestly, when you're working in the garden with a local gardener, when you're looking for deer during the sunrises and maybe seeing one deer 1000-000000-00000, Gazillion feet in the distance, but you see a deer and you go and see all these things that maybe you won't find here in Miami, I feel that it's a really important experience.
And the mountains, the fog, the fog around the mountains, these are the experiences that maybe, maybe it won't really help you just listening about it. I feel like you really have to be there, experience it. And just being there and looking at trees that are, like, 100ft taller than you, you'd really get to feel the power of nature.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: That's great. What role do you guys feel the Little Free Library will play in promoting sustainability, literacy, and community engagement? Because I know that's really something important, as you've all mentioned how it's impacted the area around Starbucks, but now you're focused on a different area on campus. How do you hope that that'll impact that?
[00:22:25] Speaker B: Well, I would just like to say in terms of Earth literacy, which was actually coined. A term coined by Mac Smith is the idea that we are all interconnected in this universe and we are interacting with each other, including other species.
And I think the Little Free Library will not only bring people to the environmental center, but also we hope to instill that love for nature through the books that we place in the Little Free Library. So we want to make sure that we have certain books that are related to sustainability and earth ethics, including some of Mack Smith work. I feel so fortunate that I knew Mac and that I learned from him, and I think that this is such an important way to honor his memory.
And we will be dedicating the Little Free Library to him. So we're very excited about that. And I know that the students also have other things that they want to say.
[00:23:27] Speaker E: Yeah. So a big part that I really took away from narrative was really being in the moment, being present in the moment. A lot of the activities were exactly that.
Dude, we didn't have any WI Fi. Like, I'm not gonna lie. I tried going on my phone, trying.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: To go on Instagram, and it's hard in it.
[00:23:42] Speaker E: Yeah, it was like. That was like, the first, like, two days. I really tried to, like, get on my phone. Nothing. Nothing. Loaded. And then I kind of just, like, accepted. I was just like, okay, you know what? I'm just gonna go with it. I really disconnected from my phone and, like, really being present in that moment, it was unreal. Like, it's kind of crazy to think how dependent we are on our phones and being able to bring that back and kind of not really tell students, but really encourage students to maybe even borrow a book for a couple hours while they're in the environmental center. They take one, go into the environmental center, read it, really be in the moment, get off their phones, and then return it when they're done. They read a couple pages, maybe even take it home if they want to finish it. Really just being present in the moment. And really just taking it all in and really just honing in on themselves. And again, just being present, security wise.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: It wouldn't be smart, but it'd be cool if that area was a sale free zone. But security wise, we probably need that.
[00:24:33] Speaker D: So I feel like when we went on the trip, we had such, like, inspiring people to look up to, like Bill and Mitzi. They. They have done so much and they care so much about sustainability and they show that in so many different ways. And I feel like something that they made sure to like, tell us, I guess, was that even though, like, it's not such a big impact, it's still something. And I feel like that's. That's what matters is that, you know, with us putting the little free library in the Environmental center, like, it's not only something for like students on campus, it's something for the wider community and it's something that people can still interact with. And, you know, it's kind of like something that is for everyone, not just students on campus. So I feel like that's really, really beneficial for the community.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: That's great, Nicole. That's a great lead into my next question. What message would you like to share with the campus community as the Environmental center launches this new literacy and sustainable campaign?
[00:25:32] Speaker B: Books matter and Earth literacy matters and our nature and our surrounding environment, which we're so lucky to have at the Environmental Center. You mentioned before that no other campus has this.
We have this beautiful space that students don't know about. So we want them to continue, for those that already know about it, continue to engage with it and bring new students in. And not only students, faculty, staff, so that they gain the benefits that all three students had at Narrow Ridge. We just have like this little ecosystem, South Florida ecosystem, with like, native species. We have native bats that are part of the Environmental center.
Yeah, we're having our first, by the way, right before the inauguration on the third, we're having our first night event at the Environmental center. So we're going to have an evening at the Environmental center. We're going to have a cosmic walk.
Maybe the students want to tell you a little bit about a cosmic walk on what that means. But we decided to do it as an event prior to the inauguration of the little free library. Because they're all interconnected. All of these things, books, nature literacy, our love for this world, for this planet, for this earth.
They're all interconnected.
[00:27:00] Speaker A: Yeah, you mentioned. Didn't mention it. But there's also unique plants out there too. You mentioned the other Things. But there's. It's a great thing. Does anybody want to talk about the cosmic walk?
[00:27:07] Speaker E: I can. Yeah. I can kind of like start it off. So in Narrow Ridge, it was in the literacy center where they had it set up. It was. We did it at night, so. Because they have almost like a spiral that they set up on the floor with candles and then next to each candle.
What was it called?
[00:27:25] Speaker B: It was like an event in a universe story.
[00:27:28] Speaker E: Like a. From like the start to, like, present now. Like a. An event that happened. And as you walk around the spiral, you kind of, I guess, go through time almost and really get to experience from the start up until now and really get to see all walks of life and how we are. How we got to the point that we are now.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: Okay, that's great.
[00:27:49] Speaker E: Somebody wants to like, fine tune that a little bit.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Well, you know, we talked about donating books, but there are other ways that people can volunteer that you'd like to recommend that can participate in the little free libraries.
[00:27:59] Speaker C: Other ways to participate, that is, besides donating a book. I will say just spreading the word that, for example, for this new literary library that we have in the environmental center. Spreading the word that there's one in the environmental center to bring awareness to it. And also we often have events that are somehow conjoined with the literary library. For example, the reader's fest that the English Learner Society creates. And we will always welcome any type of volunteers to. So those are some ways that they could engage with the literary library. That is, besides just donating a book if they want to go further in their journey of spreading literacy.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Let's talk about books. What book would each of you recommend that everyone read? Any book that comes to mind, or you talk about your favorite book, whatever.
I know you probably have so many, it's hard, but we'll start with the students first.
[00:28:50] Speaker E: I can go.
I read it a while ago, but I feel like it's like. It kind of like, really stuck with me. It was a Fahrenheit 451.
[00:28:58] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah.
[00:28:59] Speaker E: Which is.
It's like a dystopian novel almost about trying to get rid of books and how that really can affect education and really individuality almost. And that kind of just really stuck with me because there is some, like, suppression in news, and not even suppression, but exclusion almost in certain, like, news channels. And that's kind of leads into almost the whole idea of Fahrenheit 451 of not really spreading knowledge and wealth of knowledge.
[00:29:26] Speaker A: Yeah, great way To Escape. That's a good book. Exactly.
[00:29:29] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:29:30] Speaker E: Yeah. I mean, I have to have to read again because it's been a while, but again, that's the first one that came to my mind, and that's the one that's really stuck with me for. For years.
[00:29:37] Speaker A: That's good. Vicki Nicole, you got one.
[00:29:39] Speaker C: I would say that considering the audience of the Kendall campus, which is a predominantly Hispanic audience here in Kendall Campus, I will say that I would recommend the House of Mango street by Sandra Cisneros, since it really speaks about the experience of just the American dream and just being in a new country and trying to find yourself, trying to find where you belong. And a lot of people here are in community college because they want to stay closer at home. They want to. They want to be with their families they're scared of. Maybe they take it the next step for transfer institutions.
And because of that, I believe that the House of Mango street really touches upon the themes of living, belonging, and just where your place is in this vast earth.
[00:30:27] Speaker A: That's great, Sid.
Nicole, what do you got? Got one on top of your hand.
[00:30:31] Speaker D: I'll just say, like, I guess my favorite. My favorite books I have. Well, I don't have, like, what favorite book, but I have, like, favorite books. I've read, like, the Harry Potter series, and I love.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: I love choice.
[00:30:43] Speaker D: I love those books. I remember that I watched the movies and then I read the books, and it was like, completely different. I was like, where is this character? Why are they not in the movie?
[00:30:53] Speaker A: Exactly. There's so many they don't do. Yeah, I did the same thing with my son. Read those books, and it's a completely different experience. The movie versus the books.
[00:31:00] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. So I guess I would say maybe that those books.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:31:04] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: That's a great answer. Professor Sinden, you've got one you want to share with us?
[00:31:08] Speaker B: You're right. I have way so many choices, but I'm going to go with the one that I think it's really relevant for this, which is now that, you know A Journey towards Earth Literacy by macgregor Smith. And in that book, he's having a conversation with a middle schooler. And pretty much the middle schooler is realizing there's a lot of things that we need to fix in this world. And. And the boy asks Mac, why didn't you tell us about this? Why didn't you do anything about this? And Mac says, I didn't know. And the boy responds, well, now that you know, what are you going to do about it. So I would say, now that you know. All right, now that you know, what are you going to do about it?
[00:31:49] Speaker A: What are you going to do about it? And that's what I hope our audience is sitting there thinking, because we're now going to have two little free libraries on campus. We're connecting to the environmental center. Thank you all for being here today. This has been a great conversation. It's a great project. I look forward to December 3rd and that. And as we close our broadcast, we like to turn the microphone around to let you ask me a question. So who wants to go first?
[00:32:12] Speaker D: I have a question for you. Okay, I don't know if you said it. What's your favorite book?
Wow, good question.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: So I have to give you two what's most recently I've been reading is a book called Beartown. I don't know if you've heard of that. It's a three part book that I've been reading. But I love motivational books too. One of the very first books that I've probably given out about 1500 copies of is called Inside the Magic Kingdom, which is a book that talks about how actually I opened a campus in Texas with everybody I hired read that book. And so that would be, I would say, my favorite book. There's also a new book I read called the Ultimate Team Leader. It's kind of another version of that, but those are kind of more academic books. But Beartown is probably the most creative reading I've done lately, if that makes sense.
[00:32:55] Speaker C: So there is this whole polarized battle between humanities and STEM and oh, who does it better? And I feel that being a math teacher and just having really like a big background on mathematics, I just really wanted to ask on how you connect literature in your daily life and maybe in the way that you also teach. How does it change your way of thinking and how literature just relates to the work that you do and how STEM and humanities both interplay each other in really a beautiful and meaningful way.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: That's a really great question. First of all, that's one of the things that attracted me to the Kendall campus. You know, I was at the medical campus for quite a while and it has a niche. But at Kendall, we've got everything like you said, from STEM to literature to athletics to everything. And when I was in my undergraduate courses in math, of all things, one of the favorite courses I took was the history of math. And I still have this book. It's about 500 pages, the bindings coming off of it. But it was a literature book on math. It talked about Galileo and Aristotle and all these great mathematicians. To your point that a lot of the reason the mathematicians were so amazing was because they were literature based. And so to me, that's, you know, math. People talk about math and music being connected. And so I do think math kind of spans the literature and STEM world. And that's what's been great for me to be back here at Kendall is to see all kind of sides of it. Because at medical, I just kind of saw the workforce and the healthcare side. But we have such amazing, you know, being an honor student, that's what's so great about this campus, is I think we're very well rounded, and I think that's a great question. So I hope I answered it.
[00:34:36] Speaker C: You did. Thank you so much, Dr. Stewart.
[00:34:38] Speaker A: My pleasure, Max.
[00:34:39] Speaker E: Yeah. So I kind of want to turn this other question right back around you.
So what message would you like to share with the campus community as the environmental center launches this new literacy and sustainability resource for students and community?
[00:34:52] Speaker A: Yeah, when I first came about, it's been about 17 months now. One of the first things I did the first week was get in a golf cart and drive through the environmental center. And it made me sad to see how dilapidated is not the right word, but how it just. It didn't have any attention to it. You know, I'd heard we used to have animals there and there pavilions in there that are kind of in disrepair. And so internally at the college, we've used some of our funds to have maintenance people come through there. And you know, the volunteers, like you were saying earlier, Professor Sindon, are what has made it happen. But we've done what we can to help from our side to help bring it back, because it's a really important place.
One of the other things we're working very hard with is our Miami public school system to get them to bring students in there in community. And so we've done some programs to bring it to the principals so they can in turn bring it to their teachers. So I think you're going to see a lot of elementary and middle school students coming through the environmental center. So I hope. I hope we use it not only as a recruiting tool, but as a unique place that's really not available to everyone here in Miami.
[00:35:56] Speaker E: Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, that's great.
[00:35:58] Speaker A: Professor Sinon, you have a question. You got to give me a pass today.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: What should I ask?
[00:36:03] Speaker A: I knew you would give me a pass.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: Well, I actually wanted to ask you, how about inviting those students to our inauguration. That's one of the things that we would love. Can you help us making sure that we get some of those kids there? We're going to have a scavenger hunt right after the unveiling, and it would be so great to have the students from the Miami Dade College school system join us as well.
[00:36:26] Speaker C: And I think it's a beautiful way to also integrate them within our campus culture and seeing all the beautiful things that we do doing the Kendall campus.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: Yeah, there's one individual I've been working with at their district office. It's over all those. So if you'll send me an email, I can definitely forward that to him and invite him, and hopefully he can bring some students out of class into maybe some of our closer school districts. But I'd be happy to do that.
[00:36:46] Speaker B: That'd be great.
[00:36:47] Speaker A: All right, well, thank you for this amazing discussion today. This has been a great topic. Probably we're gonna have to have part two maybe several months from now as we see how it grows. But I want to thank you guys for being our guests today. I want to thank Christina Saenz, our head writer, Paul Klein, our executive, the producer, and Alex Bello, our producer. Thank you all for being here, and goodbye for now.
