Trinity Celebrates Commencement 2015: Photogallery
“Fly we must,” said keynote speaker Kathy Nimmer ’91, as she addressed 241 traditional and Adult Studies graduates at Trinity’s 2015 Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 16.
Nimmer, Indiana’s 2015 Teacher of the Year and one of four finalists for the 2015 National Teacher of the Year Award, has been teaching English and creative writing at William Henry Harrison High School in Lafayette, Indiana, for more than 22 years. Nimmer, who is blind, realized her dream of teaching and inspires her own students to realize their dreams as well.
That message carried into her Commencement address, “Flight Lessons,” to Trinity graduates. Based on Psalms 36:5, “Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, extend to the skies, and Your faithfulness to the clouds,” Nimmer encouraged graduates to:
Survey your surroundings
Ready your wings
Look up
Believe that you can
Fly!
“How God will use your gifts, your abilities, your future, that answer is reachable only by flight. You can, you will, you must fly,” Nimmer said. “As you move into your future, You are in the presence of God. He goes before you.”
Commencement program
Commencement guests were greeted by Martin Ozinga III, chair of Trinity’s Board of Trustees. Brenda Vannette, mother of Rebecca Vannette of Peoria, Illinois, gave the invocation. The Commencement litany was delivered by Brenda Dillard of Plainfield, Illinois, and Kathryn Woodside of Kearney, Nebraska.
This year’s Professor of the Year award was presented to Dr. Dave Klanderman, professor of mathematics. The award recognizes the achievements of a distinguished professor who has shown excellence in teaching or scholarship. The faculty development committee chooses from nominations submitted by students, faculty, and staff.
All the graduates were welcomed to their new alumni status by Bill DeRuiter ’09, director of alumni relations. The benediction was offered by Roland Garcia, father of Student Association President Julian Garcia of Orland Park, Illinois.
Processing this year were 55 alumni from Trinity’s Heritage Class of 1965.
Members of the Trinity Honors Ensemble raised their beautiful voices in the Song of Response and the Song of Praise.
Four professors received emeritus status:
Nancy Kwasteniet, M.A., assistant professor of special education and director of the Office of Learning Services, received her master of arts from Saint Xavier University and has 17 years of service at Trinity.
Mary Webster Moore , Ph.D., associate professor of education, received her doctorate from Illinois State University and has 17 years of service at Trinity.
George Pierson, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy, received his doctorate from the Catholic University of America and has 28 years of service at Trinity.
Donald Woo, M.S., assistant professor of education and dean for ethnic diversity and multicultural programs, received his master of science from Purdue University-Calumet and has 11 years of service at Trinity.
About Kathy Nimmer ’91
Kathy Nimmer’s writing spans many genres, both published and unpublished, consisting of essays, anthologies, poetry, memoirs, and young adult novels. Nimmer is the author of Two Plus Four Equals One and Minutes in the Dark, Eternity in the Light.
Nimmer’s many awards and honors include the Tippecanoe School Corporation Teacher of the Year
2014; William Henry Harrison High School Teacher of the Year 2013/14; Lilly Distinguished Fellow
2009; First Place, the Golden Apple 2006; and Olympic Torch Bearer 1996.
She graduated high school valedictorian from the Indiana School for the Blind in 1987, earned a
Bachelor of Arts in English education from Trinity Christian College in 1991, and received a Master of Arts in English from Purdue University in 1992.
Kathy Nimmer
Commencement Address for Trinity Christian College
May 16, 2015
FLIGHT LESSONS
Psalms 36:5. Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, extend to the skies, and Your faithfulness to the clouds.
We must fly. God did not make us to be still for long, nor did He make us to have the soles of our feet in constant contact with this earth. That is why we can skip and leap and jump. That is why we can grab bars or branches and swing and flip through the air. We must fly. Like anything else in this world, we must approach flight as a lesson, learning little by little how to do what seems at first to be so foreign, so impossible. Yet flight is ours as children of God, so fly we must.
Survey your surroundings.
Look around you, what God has given you. Evidence of His gifts is everywhere. From those sitting in this room celebrating your success to those many others whose handprints are on your heart, the love, nurturing, and guidance from people in your life are gifts. Education is a gift too. Through an intricate interweaving of schools that helped you become who you are today, including Trinity Christian College that now prepares to send you onward, every learning institution is a flight school. You have training, knowledge, and experience, born of a committed journey of four-years-plus to prepare you. These gifts are as much a part of your surroundings as the walls of this room, the streets of this city, and the vastness of God’s earth. Listen to them say to you today, “We have made you ready to fly.”
Ready your wings.
But nothing in those surroundings can lift you to flight without the strength God has given you yourself. You must ready your wings, testing the resolve you have inside you to be strong and take courage. Flex those wings, ruffle your feathers, and even ruffle someone else’s feathers now and then! You have what it takes to fly; God has equipped you with so much. You have intelligence, ability, humility, resilience, faith, hope, and love. You must trust those qualities. Even through turbulent skies, our Father will use those qualities to keep you aloft, or help you fight against the wind, or sometimes soften your landing as you fall, then prepare you to start over. Hold them, love them, and cherish the knowledge that God has given you alone the exact qualities that you need for your own flight. Listen to those qualities say to you today, “We will help you to fly.”
Look up.
Besides heaven one day, where are you going? Not sure? Well, part of your answer as you prepare to fly must be that you are going up! The goal, the vision for a future that allows you to fulfill your God-given purpose … that is out there, up there. You will not reach that destination if you don’t look upward, seeking God’s direction for your life. Helen Keller said, “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.” That determination must be in your heart as you prepare to fly. Do not be bowed down by fear, worry, or despair. Look up for guidance, and as you tilt your head skyward, let the fears and worries and despair slide down your back and fall to the earth you are ready to leave behind. Listen to that panorama say to you today, “This is where you are going to fly.”
Believe that you can.
Now it gets harder, as the earthbound doubts that are much easier to understand can weigh you down. You may be too aware of your limitations, too eager to settle for “impossible.” Release that to God. Drop those doubts. Throw those doubts as far away from your precious, redeemed soul as you can. Doubt is like a weight, pulling you back to earth. You must believe, believe that you have been readied for such a moment as this, believe that there is a flight plan that you and only you can follow. See yourself spreading those wings. See yourself soaring. See yourself fulfilling what God has ready for you to do. Listen to that vision say to you today, “I believe you can fly.”
Fly!
What’s left? Not much, you may think. … Actually, everything. You must fly! You must fly! You must fly! There is nothing left but that one action. Make a choice: stay put or fly. Not really a choice, though, for no matter how battered or wounded or imperfect you are, your faith commands that you must fly. No matter how insecure or frightened or alone you feel, the knowledge that God is not done with you says that you must fly. There is nothing here for you if you stay because of fear, for it is all out there, up there. How God will use your gifts, your abilities, your future, that answer is reachable only by flight. You can, you will, you must fly. Now, listen to the still small voice as it whispers then says then shouts, “I believe I can fly.”
Isaiah 40:31. But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
It is time. You are ready. You are not alone. As you move into your future, You are in the presence of God. He goes before you. Hear Him as you spread your wings for flight.
“I have made you ready to fly.”
“I will help you to fly.”
“This is where you are going to fly.”
“I believe you can fly.”
Because of Him, you say, “I believe I can fly.”
And amazingly, beautifully, blessedly, you do.