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As part of the Center for Pastor Theologians Conference, Trinity’s Counseling Center Director Stephanie Griswold, Psy.D., recently took part in a panel discussion on how the church in general and pastors in particular can help care for victims of trauma and abuse.
“The panel had a wide range of voices, from a person who was an academic theologian, a person who was a pastor and a psychologist, and myself,” said Griswold. “Overall, the conference was trying to equip and challenge pastors to bridge conversations about faith and the field of mental health.”
The panel also explored how the Gospel addresses and offers healing to the most victimized and vulnerable in human communities.
This year’s conference, “The Art and Science of Spiritual Formation,” took place from Oct. 22-24. The annual event is hosted at Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Ill., where Griswold attends. Next year’s conference, which will explore “A Christian Vision of Technology,” will take place from Oct. 14-16, 2019.
Trinity was excited to welcome nearly 100 high school students from four regional high schools to the inaugural Innovation Olympics on Oct. 18. Students from Chicago Christian, Timothy Christian, Naperville North, and Naperville Central competed in five events that were centered around innovation, creativity, and teamwork.
“This was a great experience for all of our students,” Bryan Peckhart, Instructional Coordinator of the CTE Department at Naperville North High School. “They were able to apply a variety of important life skills in a competition style setting at the collegiate level. The students problem solved, communicated, innovated, collaborated, and presented to business professionals in a team environment. These are all essential skills students must learn and be able to apply in order to be successful in any job in the future.”
Nearly two dozen Trinity students, faculty, and staff volunteered their morning to coach the high school students through the different events, which included an obstacle course, developing and pitching an idea for an app, building a structure made of paper, safely guiding a blindfolded partner, and creating a hypothetical product for a specific audience.
The students enjoyed the events and provided positive feedback, said John Wightkin, Assistant Professor of Business and Department Chair. “This also represented an opportunity to demonstrate how Trinity is inspiring innovation, creativity, and teamwork across our campus and through Fusion59, Trinity’s own newly opened innovation hub, and in Chicago through our University Partnership with 1871, the nation’s largest center for technology and entrepreneurship in downtown Chicago,” he said.
Following the event, the high school students toured different spaces on campus, including Fusion59, before heading back to their schools.
Wightkin was inspired to launch the High School Innovation Olympics after running similar events for several grade school entrepreneurial camps in Chicago and Aurora, Ill. He identified the four high schools from relationships he has developed in helping the high school’s entrepreneurial programs over the last year. Wightkin and the Business Department plan to host another Innovation Olympics next year.
Trinity was well-represented at the recent Conference on Faith and History, with presentations by Matt Koerner ’19 and Professor of History and Department Chair John Fry, Ph.D. The conference was held from Oct. 3-Oct. 6 at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Koerner, who is double majoring in History and Theology, presented as part of the Conference on Faith and History Biennial Undergraduate Conference. His paper, “The Templars: Wrongfully Condemned,” was part of a session on “Reconsidering the Religious Past: Historians, Knights, and Persecutors.”
As part of the 31st Biennial Meeting of the Conference on Faith & History, Fry took part in a roundtable discussion of “Biography and the Search for Meaning,” where he discussed “Biography, Meaning, Audience, and the Faith of Laura Ingalls Wilder.” He is currently working on a book about the author of the “Little House” books, as well as maintaining a blog about his research.
The Conference on Faith and History was chartered fifty years ago to uphold, study, and improve the complex relationship between Christian faith and the discipline of history. The organization explores how Christian faith in all its manifestations (Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox) plays a role in the lives of individuals as professionals, writers, teachers, and colleagues. This year’s conference theme was “History and the Search for Meaning.”
For high school students who love the arts, from visual arts to music to theater, Trinity is hosting a special weekend, where they can learn more about the College’s art, music, and theatre programs The Trinity Arts Experience will take place on Nov. 8-9.
High school students and their families will be able to meet with faculty and current students, and explore how our location in Palos Heights, offers nearly limitless opportunities in nearby Chicago.
High school seniors can also audition for scholarships during their visit.
Students can choose to follow a Theatre, Music, or Art track during their time on campus.
ART & DESIGN students will have the chance to:
- Meet with a visiting artist
- Visit studios and a design firm in downtown Chicago
- Tour the Art and Communications Center
- Submit a portfolio for scholarship review (seniors only)
MUSIC students will have the chance to:
- Attend a Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert
- Visit a music class
- Take in the Faculty Music Recital
- Audition for an instrumental or vocal music scholarship (seniors only)
THEATRE students will have the chance to:
- Take a backstage tour of a Chicago theatre company
- Attend the final dress rehearsal of a Trinity production
- Tour the Marg Kallemeyn Theatre
- Audition for an acting or technician/designer theatre scholarship (seniors only)
For more information, click here.
We all bear the image of God’s design, and we worship when we fulfill God’s purpose, this year’s Freshman Lecture speaker Blair Allen told Trinity first-year students, visiting high school students, and others in attendance in Ozinga Chapel Auditorium on Monday.
Allen, who is the senior producer and co-host of NASA Edge, a video podcast for NASA, discussed a range of topics during the lecture, including what it is like to be a Christian working for a science-based government agency like NASA, stories about the space agency’s current and past projects, and his experiences during the 2017 total eclipse.
“Two aspects of my job are informed by my Christian faith,” said Allen. “That is my role as a scientist, and my role as a producer.”
Reconciling faith and science can sometimes be challenging, he said. “As a government agency, NASA is agnostic—pun intended,” he said. “Sometimes, many people struggle with the theories and pre-suppositions involved in NASA’s work.” In his role as a producer of NASA Edge, he often has to make complex concepts and projects understandable to a general audience. “I have a responsibility to give NASA’s scientists and engineers the opportunities to tell their stories.”
Allen reminded the audience that we are explicitly created for work and discussed the similarities between the mission of NASA and the Creation story. According to the agency, its mission is to “[d]rive advances in science, technology, aeronautics, and space exploration to enhance knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality and stewardship of Earth.” The first chapter of Genesis describes God’s charge to Adam and Eve, including the 28th verse: “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” [NIV]
Allen was introduced by Professor of English Mark Jones, Ph.D., who has known Allen since they attended Covenant College as undergraduates.
Following the lecture, several groups of students visited Adler Planetarium in Chicago with Allen.
Trinity’s annual Freshman Lecture enriches the core experience for freshman students by engaging them in a challenging but enjoyable learning opportunity outside the classroom setting.
Trinity hosted the Restorative Justice and Practice in a Fragmented World conference on October 6, sponsored by the Criminal Justice Department and funded by the Andrew Elliott Rusticus Foundation.
It occurred at the end of a week of a high-profile trial and final verdict in Chicago involving Jason Van Dyke, a police officer who shot and killed a young suspect, Laquan McDonald, as a dashcam appeared to show McDonald walking away – a version challenged by the defense. A murder verdict on the officer came down Friday afternoon, hours before the conference. Three of the conference’s presenters were on duty, with leaves cancelled, including Cook County, Ill., Sheriff Tom Dart. According to one of the conference’s organizers, Brad Breems, an emeritus Trinity professor, it was still unclear on Friday evening if those presenters would be able to attend. This event sharpened the salience of restorative justice (RJ), an emerging community-based approach to treating lawbreaking, adjudicating, and sentencing, Breems noted.
Along with Dart, other speakers included Restorative Strategies CEO Robert Spicer; Al Ferreira, a lead Chicago Police Department (CPD) procedural justice trainer; and Professor John Marshall Law School’s Michael Seng.
“The conference brought influential people in the field to our campus,” said one organizer, Brad Breems, an emeritus Trinity professor, “and embodies the spirit of Andrew Rusticus ’03, who exemplified restorative justice practices as a police officer before he died in training for a new position.”
The conference began with a welcome by Trinity President Kurt Dykstra, and included remarks by Roland Rusticus for the Andrew Elliott Rusticus Foundation.
Dart’s keynote address, “Restorative Justice in Criminal Justice Diversion Programs,” captured the audience with his sharp critique and stark alternatives to unequal and ineffective incarceration practices. Dart challenged systems that merely pass people on to another facility or back into society, no better than when they came entered. He enlivened his speech with poignant first-person videos, followed by a lively Q & A. “The end of his part of the program came palpably too soon for the audience,” said Breems.
Participants then broke to hear and discuss topics like murder victim families’ encounters with restorative justice in separate workshops by Gail Rice and Bill Jenkins; new restorative police-community relations by CPD’s Vanessa Westley; and retired Judge Sheila Murphy’s recount of her judicial enlightenment through restorative lenses. An insightful panel moderated by Sara Balgoyen, Director of Illinois Balanced and Restorative Justice concluded the morning sessions.
After lunch, another round of concurrent sessions highlighted RJ in schools and in legislation to govern restorative justice courts that will replace traditional courts when appropriate. Ferreira, a leading CPD and U.S. Department of Justice tactical and implicit bias trainer, stimulated conferees and linked to the current climate of tense, sometimes tragic, law enforcement-and-community interactions.
In his closing address, “Aspirational Justice: A New Paradigm for Healing and Radical Justice in a Fragmented World” Spicer offered a careful study of three centuries of slavery and another century of repressive slave codes and Jim Crow laws. He contrasted that to his range of proposals based on the U.S. Constitution and other seminal U.S. laws and documents. In response to America’s misappropriation of African Americans, he challenged and charged our society to apply principles of restorative justice to the underlying problem of social inequality.
In his closing, Breems remarked, “Trinity Christian College and its criminal justice program assert that the restorative justice perspective is essential as a progressive approach to social norms, law enforcement, peace-making, and peace-keeping. This conference and Robert Spicer’s innovative model show a way to a more just and peaceful America.”
For social entrepreneurs, messaging and action need to be woven together, according to a new book by Dr. Craig Mattson, Professor of Communication Arts and Honors Program Director. Mattson’s book, Rethinking Communication in Social Business, was published in August of this year.
Mattson has been studying social entrepreneurship, or companies that take a business-focused approach to social problems, since 2007, when a student first asked about Product Red in a rhetorical criticism class. Subsequent faculty/student research on Bono’s campaign to harness the power of people and companies to fight AIDS in Africa led to Mattson’s own researching and writing articles on the topic of business-driven problem-solving.
But it was a big jump to go from writing individual essays to taking up a book project. He credits several colleagues with encouraging him to write a book about the topic, including Professor of English Michael Vander Weele and Professor of Philosophy Aron Reppmann. In October 2016, while preparing for his sabbatical, the prospective for his book was accepted by Lexington Press. He drafted much of the book while on sabbatical in the spring and summer of 2017. “I do feel like this was really a Trinity project,” says Mattson. “It came about from conversations with students and colleagues, and it represents the entrepreneurial spirit on campus.”
As part of his research for the book, he interviewed Chicagoland social entrepreneurs, including Laura Zumdahl ‘02, CEO of New Moms. “I wanted the project grounded in the experience of practitioners in the field,” he noted.
The book examines social entrepreneurial businesses of all sizes, from large companies like Warby Parker and TOMS, to smaller operations like Clean Slate and Zumdhal’s Bright Endeavors. According to the book, “These companies respond not only to a felt proliferation of humanitarian and environmental predicaments, but also to enormous shifts in in public feelings and technological sensibilities. These predicaments make social entrepreneurships urgently needed and remarkably complicated. But if social entrepreneurs deal with that complexity with a business-as-usual approach to making the world better—imitating, for example, corporate social responsibility initiatives by transnational companies—they will lose their vital distinctiveness and efficacy.”
In his book, Mattson attempts a transdisciplinary perspective, using close rhetorical analysis and qualitative interviews with social entrepreneurs, in order to argue that one good way to keep social business disruptive is to rethink how organizations model their communication. Most companies assume something like an information-systems model of communication, tidily organized around the relations of senders and receivers. But social entrepreneurship often enacts a performative model of communication that weaves effective messaging and affective investment.
Mattson said he enjoyed the book process so much he is crafting a proposal for another book—this one focused on the religious dimensions of social business.
Trinity is a proud member of Associated Colleges of Illinois, which supports its member colleges and universities by advancing independent liberal arts and sciences education and helping underserved students succeed in college, career, and life.
In its latest newsletter, ACI featured Rachel Rowlett ’20, a business finance major at Trinity. Rowlett said she has found many opportunities at Trinity. “I feel like I’ve grown so much in the two years I’ve been here,” Rowlett told “ACI Reporter. “Just spiritually and as a person, I’m thankful for how this Trinity community has shaped me as a person.”
Read more about her story here.
Trinity Christian College is pleased to announce the opening of Fusion 59, Trinity’s new on-campus innovation hub. Located in the Jennie Huizenga Memorial Library, Fusion 59 is a place where the Trinity community can come together to connect, collaborate, and create–all for a better tomorrow. The campus celebrated the grand opening on Oct. 1.
Though designed to accelerate entrepreneurship on campus, Fusion 59 is open to everyone in the Trinity community, 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. “Students can dream up their next venture here, or brainstorm and collaborate on a project. Professors can meet with students at Fusion 59, instead of their offices. Outside entrepreneurs will regularly show up at Fusion 59 to share their wisdom and mentor Trinity students. The space is whatever people can imagine it to be.”
Fusion 59 itself was born from a spirit of connection and collaboration. Trinity is one of only seven University Partners affiliated with 1871, the 140,000 square-foot hub for Chicago’s thriving technology and entrepreneurial ecosystem located in the famed Merchandise Mart building. Thanks to Trinity’s partnership at 1871, Trinity developed relationships with The Garage at Northwestern University and the international architectural firm, Gensler. With the assistance of these world-class organizations, Trinity developed the design and programming for Fusion 59. In many ways, what will happen at Fusion 59 is an on-campus extension of the work that Trinity is doing throughout Chicago by way of its partnership with 1871.
Fusion 59 features flexible spaces for collaboration and co-creation and is equipped with the same technology found in the top technology incubators across the country. But Fusion 59 is more than a physical space. Trinity appointed two entrepreneurs in residence, recent Trinity graduates with their own companies and organizations who serve as on-campus directors. Ryan Hesslau ’18 is the founder & executive director of foreverU, and founder of Above the Waves. Tom Iwema ’18 is owner & president of IKG Property Maintenance, Inc.
“Innovation, entrepreneurship, connection, collaboration, grit, perseverance, and partnership. That’s a pretty quick – and accurate – distillation of what we’re up to at Trinity,” said Trinity’s president, Kurt Dykstra.
Help raise funds for Trinity Christian College Scholarships and brighten the day of a student all at the same time!
The Trinity Women’s Organization (TWO) is offering Gourmet Taffy Apples as a special treat for students this October. Order deadline for this fall delight is October 15.
TWO also offers a variety of other care packages, including pizza parties, birthday cake, cupcakes, exam week packages, and more. To order gourmet apples and more, visit their website.
Trinity Women’s Organization is a volunteer organization of women dedicated to encouraging and uplifting students while raising funds for student scholarships.