Archives: News Stories

As part of a yearly tradition for Trinity’s Social Work Department, a group of students, faculty, and practitioners visited the state capitol in Springfield, Ill., for the National Association of Social Workers-IL Chapter Advocacy Day on April 3.

A dozen students, along with Dr. Cini Bretzlaff-Holstein, department chair and associate professor of social work; and Dr. Allison Tan, assistant professor of social work, attended the event.

The Trinity group spent the day with more than 1,000 fellow participants from around the state in educational sessions and advocacy activities.

Art therapy has been recognized as a powerful way to heal the mind and improve the spirit, and Trinity is proud to offer a B.A. in Art Therapy.

But we don’t just teach art therapy–we practice it, too.  With the end of the semester quickly approaching, Trinity’s Counseling Services recently offered an art therapy event for students, with all the materials provided.

The April 4 event was led by a graduate counseling intern, Sharina Porter, according to Dr. Stephanie Griswold, PsyD., Director of Counseling Services and Instructor of Psychology. “In the Counseling Center, we talk a lot about ways to support students through the ups and downs of college. We do this through one-on-one counseling all the time, but it’s also important to do this on a larger scale within the community.”

The Counseling Center identified two goals for the event: to provide a creative and intentionally relaxing space to support students who might be stressed; and to support those students who are managing their stress well but would could perhaps benefit from a new and creative way to express themselves.

“We were blown away by the response. Around 80 students came to the event. I even had to go run and get extra supplies!” said Griswold.

Trinity is pleased to welcome Kevin Walker ’04 to campus as part of the TBN Speaker Series.

The Trinity Business Network in collaboration with Fusion 59 is presenting this free year-long speaker series focused on entrepreneurship and innovation for students, alumni and friends of the College. The series focuses on Trinity alumni and friends who have flourishing companies and exhibit the entrepreneurial spirit woven into much of our business curriculum.

Walker has opened several El Famous Burrito locations in the Chicago area. Join him, students, alumni, and friends of the College for this free event on April 10 at 4 pm. Registration is required. Learn more and register here.

4 pm Networking and Food Sampling (El Famous Burrito)
4:30 pm Presentation

Walker was recently featured in Forbes: Click here to watch the video.

Thank you to our event sponsorsL
-Baird & Warner – Tom Lemmenes
-Edward Jones – Rick Powell
-Evenhouse & Co. P.C.
-P&L CPA
-Schepel Buick, GMC, Cadillac
-Service Sanitation

Trinity Christian College is pleased to announce the introduction of a new Master’s Degree program in Special Education—Diverse Learners. This Master of Arts degree leads to an ESL (English as a Second Language) and LBS I (Learning Behavior Specialist) grade range endorsement, which can be added to graduates’ Professional Educator’s License (PEL). The program, designed for teachers who currently have their licenses, can be completed in 18 months.

“We have done extensive outreach and realized there is a need for graduate programs that prepare teachers to work with diverse learners and individuals with higher behavioral needs,” said Dr. Sara Baillie, Ed.D., Associate Professor of Special Education and Director of the Graduate Programs in Special Education at Trinity. “We are excited to offer a degree that leads to both of these endorsements.”

The program can also be completed in 12 months for those seeking an ESL endorsement.

The new program joins two other MA Special Education programs that Trinity currently offers. Those include the MA in Special Education, which allows licensed teachers to add the LBS I to their PEL; and the MA in Special Education- Behavior Intervention Specialist, which allows students to sit for the Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) exam upon completion. For the already licensed special education teacher, the MA in Special Education-BIS program leads to the LBS II: Behavior Intervention Specialist as well.

“All of our MA programs meet one night per week with additional work completed online,” said Baillie. “This model allows for flexibility for our students, while still building lasting relationships with professors and colleagues in the field.”

For more information about the new Diverse Learner’s program, click here.

Congratulations to Sarah LeMahieu ’20, who recently presented at the Midwest Regional Conference on Faith and History (CFH) Student Research Conference.

LeMahieu presented her paper titled “The Aba Women’s Riots and their Causes” to the conference.  She wrote the paper for Prof. David Brodnax’s course on The History of Africa, and the paper is about protests in Nigeria in 1929.

Prof. of History John Fry, Ph.D., and several other Trinity students also attended the conference, which took place at Trinity International University. Students from four different colleges in Illinois and Indiana attended and presented papers.

The Regional CFH is a chapter of the National Conference on Faith and History, a “community of scholars exploring the relationship between Christian faith and history.”

Everyone has wrestled with fear.

“We have all been there,” Rev. Julius Medenblik ’82, president of Calvin Theological Seminary, told those gathered for a recent Chapel. “No matter where you are from, we have all experienced fear at one point or another.”

Medenblik recounted Numbers 13, where the Lord told Moses to send 12 men to explore the land of Canaan. While the Israelite spies found a land flowing with milk and honey, they also found strong people already there. Out of fear, 10 of the men reported that they would not be able to enter the Promised Land. Only Caleb and Joshua had faith that God would fulfill his promises. Hearing the negative report, the people wept and blamed Moses and Aaron for bringing them out of the Egypt only to die in the desert.

According to Medenblik, the Israelites forgot God’s faithfulness to them and became afraid. “Kingdom vision sees beyond the moment to the promises of God,” he said. “When we see and hear God clearly, we can see ourselves clearly and accept the grace, faith and love that equips us for life and living as God’s witnesses in the land that he gives us.”

To learn more about Medenblik, click here.

All are welcome to Chapel, which is held in Ozinga Chapel Auditorium on Wednesdays and Fridays at 10 am when classes are in session.

Whether pursuing an undergraduate degree in a psychology-related program or earning a Master of Arts in counseling psychology, students at Trinity learn to blend a liberal arts based approach to psychological science with the art of understanding the self and relating to the contemporary world in all its complexity.

And now, students who are working towards their B.A. in Art Therapy, Psychology, or Speech-Language Pathology at Trinity can begin taking graduate-level courses in their junior or senior year.

That means students can earn a psychology-related B.A. and an M.A. from Trinity in five and a half years, instead of six.

“Undergraduate students who take graduate coursework at Trinity can seamlessly transfer those courses into the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program upon finishing their Bachelor of Arts degree,” said Dr. Kara E. Wolff, Ph.D., Director of the Graduate Program in Counseling Psychology and Associate Professor of Psychology.

“This new opportunity is also ideal for undergraduate students who are interested in graduate school and would like to experience graduate coursework prior to beginning a full graduate program,” said Wolff.

With this new program, students may take up to three courses at the graduate level during their undergraduate experience, allowing for up to nine credits of graduate coursework that can be counted towards both an undergraduate and graduate degree.

Trinity is also welcoming our alumni back to their campus home for graduate school. Alumni who enter the Counseling Psychology graduate program for the fall of 2019 will receive a $250 tuition discount. The College is also offering a $500 scholarship, in the form of a tuition discount, for Trinity alumni who graduated with a 3.5 GPA or higher.

There are several requirements for undergraduate students looking to start graduate level coursework:

–3.0 cumulative GPA, junior or senior standing, previously completed four psychology courses with grades of B or higher: PSYC 121, 122, and two other psychology courses.

–Successful completion of an interview with the graduate program director.

Students interested in enrolling in the M.A. program after completing their Trinity bachelor’s degree will have their application fee waived. They will need to complete the following elements of the graduate application process:

1. Submit an application ($50 application fee is waived)
2. Submit two letters of recommendation through the online application portal
3. Complete an interview with program faculty
4. If accepted into the program, pay the non-refundable enrollment deposit of $250 and attend orientation

Learn more about Trinity’s B.A. psychology-related majors here. Click here to learn more about Trinity’s M.A. in Counseling Psychology.

Have you ever wondered why the moon looks different every night?  Well, then Trinity Theatre’s upcoming production, The Old Man and the Old Moon, is the perfect pastime for you!  This folktale musical integrates acting, live music, shadow puppetry, and more to create an immersive and exciting theatre experience.

Originally produced by New York-based Pigpen Theater Company, The Old Man and the Old Moon is the tale of how the moon acquired its phases.  As we are told by the character Matheson, “There was a time when the moon was always full. Not just once a month, mind you, but every single night. And how it came to be the way we know it now, well, that’s quite the story.”  It is quite a story, and the audience can expect comical bantering, intense sword fighting, and songs of both love and loss throughout its retelling.

According to actor Ben Friesen ’17, “This play is over-stimulating in the best way. It has everything you could hope for, nothing you could expect, and something for everyone. It feels like a five-act epic beautifully spun into a continuous fable and strung together with music, puppetry, and every form of storytelling you can imagine. It’s been a huge process to undertake this production, but it’s been so rewarding and exciting to work on the individual pieces and begin to combine them and form the full picture of the show.”

Fellow actor Morgan Limback ’19, says of Old Man, “I love all the creativity that is going into the production. We are getting to work with shadow puppets, and it is amazing what we are able to do with them. I also really love the music. Pigpen is my favorite band, and it is fun to see where my favorite songs fit in the context of a show.”

Trinity Theatre hopes that songs from The Old Man and the Old Moon will become some of your favorites, too.  Come out to see the show on April 5^th, 6^th, 11^th, 12^th, 13^th, or 14^th in the ArCC.

Tickets are available online here or by calling the Trinity Box Office at 708.293.4537.

–Emma Darcy ’19

“The rate of change is increasing, and today is the slowest day you will have for the rest of your life.”

That is the according to Betsy Ziegler, CEO of 1871, who spoke on March 13 at a TBN event at the Marg Kallemeyn Theatre. “The future is here,” she said. “And the most successful companies should be the ones most concerned about the future.”

Ziegler is the first female CEO of 1871, which was ranked as the number one university-affiliated tech incubator in the world in 2018. “1871 exists to inspire, equip, and support founders to create great businesses,” she said.

Previous to 1871, she was the chief innovation officer at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Prior to Kellogg, Ziegler served as a principal in McKinsey & Company’s Chicago office.

Located in the historic Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago, 1871 is the hub for Chicago’s thriving technology and entrepreneurial ecosystem and home to nearly 500 early-stage, high-growth digital startups. Trinity is the eighth institution of higher learning to form a university partnership with 1871, along with others such as the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Loyola University, University of Illinois, Illinois Institute of Technology, and DePaul University.

In her wide-ranging discussion, Ziegler touched on the high-tech environment in Chicago. “Something special is happening here,” she said. “And it’s our time to rise.”

She also spoke about the growth of technology and the intersection of higher ed, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

TBN, the Trinity Business Network, sponsored the event, along with Fusion 59, Trinity’s incubator. The event drew business leaders and members of Trinity’s community, who also participated in networking before Ziegler’s talk. Attendees of Ziegler’s talk included TBN Partner Rick Powell and Palos Heights Alderman Jeff Key, who expressed their excitement about the launch of Fusion 59 and the spirit of entrepreneurship that is flourishing on Trinity’s campus.

Located in the Jennie Huizenga Memorial Library, Fusion 59 is a place where Trinity and the Palos Heights community can come together to connect, collaborate, and create–all for a better tomorrow. Fusion 59 is open to business owners and others in the area who are looking to dream up their next venture or brainstorm on a project, according to Assistant Professor of Business and Department Chair John Wightkin. “It is designed so that everyone can use their creativity in utilizing this space,” he said. “The space is whatever people can imagine it to be.”