My name is Alexa Pralle. I am from Hanover, KS, a small town about two hours northwest of Atchison and about nine miles from the Nebraska border. Growing up in Hanover, I love that community, everyone knows your name sort of feel. Therefore, I chose to attend Benedictine. I am currently a sophomore here where I am majoring in Business Administration with an emphasis in management and minoring in economics. With my major I hope to be able to eventually open a shoe store or a wedding planner shop. Although I have been in Atchison for almost two years, I honestly do not know much about the community. So, with this class I want to become more involved and learn more about the town.

The doors open and black flowing skirts with bright beaming faces would flock to the door saying, "Eleanor! Eleanor! It is so nice to see you!" Then the nuns would give my great-grandmother a hug and pinch the cheeks of my mother and aunt. When my mother and aunt attended St. John's Catholic School in Hanover, Kansas, they were primarily taught by nuns. At the time, the nuns were unable to drive. Therefore, my great-grandmother, sometimes accompanied by my mom and aunt, would take them back and forth from the school in Hanover to Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison. Ever since I was little, I have heard stories about those trips back and forth from Atchison. As a result, when I think of Atchison one of the first things that come to my mind is the Mount. My mother has great memories of those days spent in Atchison with her grandmother and passed those great memories down to me.

Another big part of Atchison is Benedictine College. When I was in sixth grade, I visited Atchison and Benedictine for the first time. My mother, brother, and I rode with the college students to Washington D.C. for the March for Life. After the march a cousin, who was attending Benedictine, walked us around the campus and I knew it was the college I wanted to attend. Both of these religious places brought me to Atchison, and they continue to bring my family.

Hello, My name is Kevin Myers. I was born and raised in St. Louis Missouri. I'm a freshman here at Benedictine College and am not exactly sure what my major will end up being. I've been able to become interested in just about every subject I have studied but no class has really stood out to me as something I want to pursue. I'm leaning towards either business management, psychology, or statistics. I enjoy playing soccer and playing guitar which is where most of my free time is dedicated to.

Atchison is a town that is divided between hard-working no-name businesses and everyday corporations that can be found in most cities in the country. As I explored the town of Atchison, It was apparent that the people who live here have jobs ranging from greeters at Walmart to hard working construction workers trying to better the town's appearance.

I choose the picture of Walmart because its arrival has helped in modernizing the town of Atchison. No matter what time a day you drive by Walmart, its parking lot is always almost full. Walmart contains all of the neccesities ranging from food to clothing to home decor. The people of Atchison have let the conviniences of Walmart into their lives to create a better quality of life for themselves.

I chose the picture of the traintracks because businesses like the grainery have been here for years and have always been a huge source of income for the city. Anyone who has taken a trip to the gas-station has had to deal with the endless trains coming in and out of Atchison. It seems that the town relies on the train transportion for all of its imports and exports, most likely because of Atchison's remote location.

Atchison has the potential to become one of the great cities in our country but seems to be stuck in its past. As long as coorporations cotinue to come into the city, it will eventually become the city that all of its townspeople know it can be.

My name is Frank Roberts and I am junior Business Management major at Benedictine College. I come from Columbus, Ohio and hope to pursue opportunities in the business field in order to find a career I enjoy. I've been playing football for a little over a decade now and love to watch and compete in the game. Football is part of the reason of why I came to Atchison. I am hoping to learn more about community involvment from this class. What opportunities there are to have my opinion heard and what i can do to aid communtiy development. Leadership, in my opinion, is the ability to do that which no one wants to do for others. A leader will take the step and inspire someone else to do what they do.

Atchison in my view is a town trying to form an identity. It seems to me that the town has a rich tradition and history, but is struggling to correlate that history to what the town is today. Some aspects show the tradition tha the town offers, like the photo of the Abbey church at Benedictine shows, and then others show a struggle adjusting to change, which to me is exemplified in the Wal-Mart in town. Wal-Mart is defintiely a new convienience in town, but I'm not entirely sure if Atchison was ready to change from local mom-and-pop shops to something like Wal-Mart.

Ben Gilmore- My Atchison

My name is Ben Gilmore. I was born in Austin, Texas but was raised in Highland, Kansas. I am majoring in Business Administration with an emphasis in Human Resources Management. I came to Benedictine College to play football, which I played for 2 years. Now, I work at a automobile service and repairs station in Wathena, Kansas. I'm looking forward to graduation and starting my career. I also love the outdoors and sports.

To me, Atchison is a community of great heritage and culture. It is also a community that fosters entrepreneurial spirit. The businesses of Atchison bring a lot of different attributes to this small, Kansas town. Benedictine College is also a major part of the community. Atchison is not without its issues, however, it shows great promise and potential. Tourism is also prevalent through haunted trolly rides and Nell Hills.

Atchison is a community that has great diversity for a small Kansas town. This should be embraced and seen as a fantastic opportunity. Community events that involve all are much more available in small towns such as Atchison.

My name is Jeremy Vondenkamp; I’m a senior at Benedictine College. I grew up in both Beatrice Nebraska, and Marion Kansas. I came to Atchison for college, because of the great business school they have here and to run track. I love being in the outdoors, hunting, fishing, and taking care of my horses. It really doesn’t matter what I’m doing as long as it involves being outdoors. I have lived in Atchison year around since my sophomore year in college. So I feel I have a good idea what the Atchison community brings. I have gained most of knowledge of Atchison from working with people during the summer months. I am hoping to take the knowledge I gain from this class and give back to the community I move to after college. I’m also hoping to learn how to be a better citizen to this community and give back to Atchison. To me leadership is the process of social influence in which a person is bettering themselves as well as others to complete a goal set by others, and working together to complete that goal.

Like I said I have lived year around in Atchison for a while now, I have learned a lot about this community. In my mind Atchison is a hard working vibrant community. I work at Blish Mize the past two summers, and it is apparent that the businesses in this community are what hold the people together. So to me the Atchison community is full of hardworking individuals trying to making a living for there families. And I know I don’t know a whole lot about this community but just observing for a few years. This town is hurting; it needs to bring the community together. I think the city of Atchison needs to continue to pull together during this recession. We can’t have more businesses closing down like BIC of Atchison. We need to continue the support of the businesses workers in this town.

The pictures of Blish Mize and MGP really show the support giving to these two businesses, these two businesses have with stood the test of time. Working first hand at Blish Mize I know for a fact just how important Blish Mize is to this community and its workers. We need to have continued support for these businesses as well as all other businesses in this town.In order for this town to prosper and grow as a community.

Rob Lang

My name is Rob Lang, senior at BC. I am currently on the baseball team(come out and see us play). I am majoring in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management and Marketing. Born and raised in St. Charles, MO. I hope to use my experience I gained last summer with the KC T-Bones Baseball Club to obtain another internship this summer outside of the Midwest.

After this class, I hope to be able to continue my involvement in the community with a particular organization around town. I hope to experience a lot of new things that I didn't know were a part of Atchison for the last 3 1/2 school years.

This picture is what Atchison was to me when I first arrived here in 2006. The BC baseball field signifies the main reason I thought I chose to come here. But after 3.5 years, I have realized that I picked an excellent college for better reasons other than baseball; the people and the education. Baseball is still a major part of my life and what I've learned through my time on the team is invaluable both on and off the field. The college and playing baseball seem to be the reasons why I came here, but I hope that this class experience gives me more.

Atchison Community

Jason Ochoa, born in St. Joseph, MO. Grew up in Huron, KS town of 60. Moved to Atchison and began working at 18. Spent 20 years as an electrician. Blessed with better opportunity at StressCrete approx 1 1/2 year ago. Married 18 years with 5 children (ages 19, 19, 18, 16, and 11) and one grandchild (4 months).

From this class, I hope to gain a better understanding of our community and ways that I can help improve it for my children, grandchildren, and all children.

Leadership to me is the ability to guide and direct people, or groups of people to accomplish a common goal.

BLOG CHALLENGE ONE - VISIONING ATCHISON (Assignment)

Again, Participants in our LEADERSHIP ATCHISON 2010 CLASS, WELCOME!

You Blog Challenge this week is:

1. Post a short bio of who you are. Include in your statement your name, a short history of your life including how and when you came to Atchison, what you are hoping to get out of this class, and what leadership means to you.

2. Visioning Atchison. What does "your Atchison" look like? Have you explored the entire town? Please drive around our community with you camera and take pictures of what you think defines Atchison as a community. Upload your snapshots to the blog along with an explanation of their significance. Bring copies to class.

Everyone should post at least two photos but you are welcome to post more! Please try to complete this challenge by Sunday evening (11:59 pm), January 31, 2010.

Be Excellent!
John Bunch

WORLD WIDE WEB LINKS

Here are some links to resources that our Leadership Atchison Program is based on. During the program students will read the book Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam and it follow up research report Better Together published by the Saguaro Seminar on Civic Leadership. We encourage everyone to learn more about building great communities by accessing and using these resources!

Kansas Leadership Center

• http://www.kansasleadershipcenter.org/
• http://kansasleadershipcenter.blogspot.com/

Kansas Health Foundation

• http://www.kansashealth.org/

Better Together

• http://www.bettertogether.org/

Bowling Alone

• http://www.bowlingalone.com/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone

Video Robert Putnam

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djyw3CIDDks

GRETTINGS and WELCOME TO LEADERSHIP ATCHISON 2010

This is the Blog for our LEADERSHIP ATCHISON 2010 Class. Leadership Atchison is a program co-sponsored by the Atchison County Chamber of Commerce and Benedictine College. It is a unique program because we bring together Benedictine College Students and Community Leaders to participate in our community leadership development program.

LEADERSHIP ATCHISON has been developing leaders in the Atchison community since the mid 1990s. In approximately 2004, the program was completely redesigned to incorporate the Kansas Health Foundation/Kansas Leadership Center model of Community Leadership Development. 2010 marks the second year of co-sponsorship with Benedictine College. Last year's (2009) blog can be found here: http://atch-leadership-2009.blogspot.com/

The Atchison Chamber of Commerce Leadership Council is very excited to be able to offer this program to the community for 2010. We want to Welcome everyone to this blog which will be a record of the class's activity during the Spring of 2010.