OPUS 2025: a Trinity Academic Tradition
-Sharon Robbert, Ph.D., Professor of Mathematics Emerita
On Wednesday, April 16, Trinity celebrated its 26th campus-wide celebration of student scholarship: OPUS. The event included 48 academic presentations, 14 fine arts performances, 11 Art & Design senior thesis presentations, 7 featured displays in a Nursing Gallery of Wellness, two galleries including 28 academic research posters, awards for top presentations and performances, raffle prizes, and evening laser tag in the Huizenga Library.
Wait—laser tag? How does that fit? Trinity applies its quirky sense of celebration to every OPUS event. Prior OPUS events have included a parade led by bagpipes, balloons in a circus tent, gummy bears and cotton candy, professors dressed in superhero costumes, and “throwable” prizes at a closing ceremony where awards are announced. The OPUS 2025 Library Laser Tag is sponsored by the Student Government Association. This year, the library features an art installation modeling the distribution of 1,556 disciplinary presentations using colorful flags over the prior 25 years of events. Stop by the Huizenga Library to experience this display in person or view it here.
While these elements of quirkiness bring joy and a celebratory spirit, the event is designed to promote the Christian academic learning community at Trinity and showcase how Trinity lives out its mission. Dr. Clay Carlson (Biology) says the “huge breadth of good work at OPUS demonstrates how we are subjecting all cultural activities to the reign of God.” And, while dressed in an oversized red royal robe, a white feather boa, and a fake crown, 2024-25 Professor of the Year Dr. Tim Hendrikson (English) explains that OPUS “focuses on the public aspect of knowledge creation, something that undergraduate students may not at first recognize as an important component of scholarship.”
The event is planned by a committee of faculty, staff, and students every year. Library Director Kyle McCarrell, who serves as committee co-chair, says, “The committee leveraged Wellbeing Wednesdays to expand the OPUS schedule to the entire day. Our committee goal is to allow attendees to participate in as many OPUS components as possible without forcing them to choose between conflicting events.” Committee co-chair Professor Ryan Thompson (Art) affirms this as successful but also says “the best academic conferences always have overlapping sessions that force you to choose between excellent options.” The schedule this year includes poster presentations and fine arts performances in the morning and oral presentations in the afternoon.
OPUS 2025 Committee members are Prof. Toni Esker, Librarian Sarah Hoeksema, Prof. Abigail Holcombe, Library Director Kyle McCarrell (co-chair), Prof. Emma Schneider, Prof. Omar Sweiss, Prof. Ryan Thompson (co-chair), Prof. Jennifer Wedster, Prof. Syreetha Yokley, Katelynn Benitez (’26), and Selina AlHalaseh (’27). The OPUS 2025 student designer is Regan Steenwyk (’26).
OPUS 2025 first place competition winners:
Art & Design
- Best in Show: Karla Rosales – Often Devotional but Sometimes Merely Quirky
- Graphic/Digital Design: Lydia Rascher – Lupus Nephritis
- Sculpture/3D: Karla Rosales – The Everyday
- Drawing/Painting/Mixed: Ren Amador – 15 Years Old
- Print/Photo: Mikayla Araiza – The Past is Watching, Waiting
Creation Care: Paige Wallenberg (poster) – Renewable Pathways: Xylose Dehydration to Furfural
Literary Arts
- Fiction/Drama: Chase Hadley – Cops and Robbers
- Poetry: Njoki Mukuria – Disenchanted
Music
- Vocal Solo: Alyssa Fiacchino
- Vocal Ensemble:Audrey Yonkman and Anneka Baggech
- Instrumental Solo: Elyssa Peters
- Instrumental Ensemble: Elyssa Peters and Jared Peters
- Original Musical Composition: Audrey Yonkman – Heilig
Poster Presentation: Aala Al-Goare – A Game of Telephone: Unpacking the Intergenerational Taboos of Post-Partum Depression in the Arab Culture
Presentation Showdown: Hope McIntosh – At Last, Everydayness
