Chadron State College is hosting a pair of special speakers with free presentations today, one in the afternoon and one tonight.
Sport psychology and performance consultant Lennie Waite, a former Olympian, will give a virtual presentation at 1:00 in the Student Center while historian Jeff Barnes will speak in person at 6:30 in the Sandoz Center.
Waite’s presentation is on athletes and mental health. Chair for the Sport Psychology Subcommittee of USA Track, she connects Olympic athletes to sport psychology and provides them with mental health resources.
Waite was a NCAA All-American distance runner at Rice who went on to compete for Great Britain in the 2016 Summer Olympics and professionally in the 3,000-meter steeplechase for 9 years.
This is the second time in 5 months that Jeff Barnes has come to Chadron State to talk about the Plains Indian Wars, their connection to Nebraska, and the monuments in the state erected to mark that period of time.
His talk, titled Contact and Conflict: The Monumental Story of Nebraska and the Indian Wars, offers a chronological look at the meetings between Native American and whites in Nebraska, as commemorated in historical monuments and markers.
Barnes is a leading expert in the field. His newest book – Cut in Stone, Cast in Bronze: Nebraska’s Historical Markers and Monuments – is a guide to the nearly 300 monuments, statues, markers, and plaques across the state.
Barnes, a fifth-generation Nebraskan and former newspaperman, says “The interest and pride of Nebraskans in their history is shown through scores of these markers and monuments,” some familiar to many but in other places remote and seldom seen.”