Archives: News Stories
Just blocks from the Trinity campus, Lake Katherine Nature Center and Botanic Gardens offers 85 acres of woodlands, prairie, wetlands, gardens, and a 10-acre lake. And it’s not just a place where Trinity students can appreciate nature.
Under the mentorship of Associate Professor of Biology Abbie Schrotenboer, Ph.D., students regularly visit Lake Katherine to conduct research and do conservation work. That includes getting their hands dirty by removing invasive species during stewardship work days, as Mariah Neleson ’20 discussed in a post on Schrotenboer’s blog.
Students in several of her classes also participate in restoration projects by sampling for insects and other invertebrates to see what biodiversity currently exists and how it might change over time in response to the restoration efforts. Students have also monitored for milkweeds and monarch butterflies as part of an independent research project and done some surveying in Lake Katherine’s “Buzz ‘n Bloom Prairie,” which is dedicated to increasing pollination. These diversity surveys have been a part of Schrotenboer’s her Survey of Plants and Animals and Conservation Biology courses.
“Lake Katherine is a great fit for many of the goals I have as a professor and as someone concerned with the well-being of God’s creation,” Schrotenboer said. “It’s a place that is working to conserve and restore the plants and wildlife of our area, even amid all the suburban development around it. It’s also a place trying to help people connect with nature–if we don’t learn to love God’s world, we won’t be motivated to protect it.”
Trinity and Lake Katherine have a tradition of working together, which began with previous professors at the College. Schrotenboer first became involved at Lake Katherine through Gareth Blakesley, the operations manager there, whom she met when she first began working at Trinity. She also serves on Lake Katherine’s Natural Resources Management Council, a group that meets regularly to discuss environmental aspects of activities and developments and coordinate stewardship work.
Her work at Lake Katherine also ties into much of her research, which focuses on better understanding God’s creation and the ways that humans interact with the creation. “In my own work, much of this is at a very local scale. This has value for making management decisions here on campus and in the Chicago area, but it also helps the larger academic field engage with issues of the connection between humans and nature, especially in a suburban/urban context.” Her research interests include urban waterways; suburban wildlife diversity and habitat use, with a focus on coyote behavior; extent and repercussions of ash tree death due to emerald ash borer; ecological restoration and plant species diversity; and landcover change and its effects on local natural areas.
Click here to learn more about Lake Katherine.
For Avery (Kats) Van Holland ’19 and Ethan Van Holland ’19, Trinity is more than the place where they will earn their college degrees—it’s also the place they were married in May.
“After deciding on a more traditional wedding, it was easy for us to see that getting married at Trinity was the best option for us,” said Avery. “We wanted the place we were married at to be one that holds a special place in our heart, and Trinity certainly does!”
Not only did the wedding take place on campus, but Dr. Bill Van Groningen, Trinity’s chaplain and dean of spiritual formation, performed the ceremony. “Pastor Bill has been an important spiritual figure for us over these past few years, and we loved the idea of having an officiant that also sees Trinity as a special place,” she said. “Pastor Bill put a lot of thought and effort into this wedding for us.”
Before the wedding, Pastor Bill and his wife Connie, who is administrative coordinator for Trinity’s nursing department, went through marriage counseling with Ethan and Avery. “Pastor Bill also wrote personal vows for us to recite during the ceremony, and he put a lot of work into crafting the message into something that greatly touched our hearts,” said Ethan.
The wedding was originally planned for the amphitheater, but the threat of rain meant a quick relocation to the Grand Lobby of Ozinga Chapel. But that was one of the few bumps along the way, according to Avery. “The entire planning process went super smoothly. Brooke Simkins, conferences and events manager, and Mary Tambrini, catering manager, were fabulous to work with and made planning a breeze.”
The two met during Spanish class sophomore year at Western Christian High School in Hull, Iowa. “We became good friends but did not start dating until our senior year,” Avery said. The couple have one more year at Trinity. Ethan, who is majoring in finance, is working at a finance firm as a financial administrator and plans to become a financial advisor after graduation. Avery, who is double majoring in philosophy and psychology, is spending the summer interning at the City of Chicago Department of Law in the Prosecution division and plans to attend law school.
Students in the Trinity’s Master of Arts in Special Education: Behavior Intervention Specialist program presented to an audience of fellow students and community members during two June evening conference sessions on the Current Trends in Applied Behavior Analysis. During these presentations, the students were able to disseminate information about the field of behavior analysis and how it can be applied in a variety of areas.
Congratulations to the all students that presented at the conference!
“Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A Mindful Approach to Applied Behavior Analysis” presented by Kelly McGrail and Thomas Murphy
“Organization Behavior Management – A Helpful Knowledge Base for All BCBAs” presented by Troy Schemper
“Benefits of Teaching American Sign Language to Children at an Early Age” presented by Cheryl Wartan
“Are My Students Learning, or Are They Waiting for the Bell? Precision Teaching Measuring Student Growth” presented by Erin Collins
“Applied Behavior Analysis in the Treatment of Eating Disorders with an emphasis on Binge Eating Disorder” presented by Shannon Childs
“The Role of Applied Behavior Analysis in Promoting Adherence to Psychotropic Medication” presented by Megan Gitter
“Applying Applied Behavior Analysis to Pediatric Feeding Disorders” presented by Christine Hoekstra
“Targeting Executive Functioning Skills Using Applied Behavior Analysis” presented by Caitlin Buerger and Dana Laging
“Discrete Trial Teaching used in Applied Behavior Analysis” presented by Dana Weaver
As the Christian Reformed Church gathered for its annual synod in Grand Rapids, Mich., from June 7-14, Trinity’s Director of First Year Experience Emily Bosscher was there as an elder delegate from Hope Christian Reformed Church in Oak Forest, Ill.
“I loved being there, but it may have been the most exhausting week of my life!” said Bosscher. Safe church policies to help protect the vulnerable and prevent abuse of power in church communities; social justice issues; and the role of the church in political venues were among the topics discussed.
“We worshiped and prayed together, we cried together at times, we worked together to make wise decisions for the future of the Christian Reformed Church, and we learned from and with each other about the great diversity of God’s people,” she said “I am so impressed at the way that each year, a completely different group of church representatives can come together, but through church order and guidelines and a long history of established parliamentary procedure, we can find consistency through the ages and make decisions for the church of the future.”
Bosscher wasn’t the only person with a Trinity connection in attendance. She was joined as a representative from Classis Chicago South by Rev. Michael Kooy, an adjunct professor of philosophy at the College, and Rev. Tim Toeset, whose children attended the College.
Among other orders of business, the gathering also confirmed the candidacy of recent seminary graduates, including Trinity alum Chadd Huizenga ‘15.
While the experience was an intense one, Bosscher said she was happy to be part of it. “I have a whole new understanding of the organization and working of the denomination and how God works in organizations such as this to do His will year after year,” she said. “In the end, I was so blessed to be a part of this process.”
Click here to learn more about the decisions of Synod 2018.
Trinity Christian College is proud to announce its new membership as an official chapter of the Illinois Counseling Association (ICA). Trinity joins many other Illinois universities in offering students, alumni, and faculty the opportunity to develop, collaborate, and serve in the counseling field through membership to the Trinity chapter of the ICA.
“We are so excited in the counseling program here at Trinity to join the ICA in their good work in helping others,” said Dr. Deb Majewski, assistant professor of psychology and clinical placement coordinator for the Graduate Program. “Our chapter will provide training and other opportunities to help deepen community member’s awareness and understanding of mental health issues.”
Currently, the Trinity chapter has 30 members, most of whom are current students in our Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program. To become an official chapter, Trinity needed a minimum of 15 members with five of those being individual ICA members. Trinity then declared they wanted to become a chapter, created by-laws, elected officers, and were approved by the governing board of the ICA.
As a philanthropic organization, the members of the Trinity chapter have decided to utilize their skills as counselors to provide mental health training and in services to local teachers, police officers, and other organizations who might benefit from the information. They will also conduct an annual one-day retreat with a wellness aspect that would be available to the community and professionals. A topic for the retreat will be chosen, and the members would then design an event that includes activities such as lectures, workshops, discussions, reflections, and journaling.
The chapter has four scheduled meetings per year, with additional meetings periodically when needed. The chapter will also attend and collaborate with other institution chapters at the upcoming 70th Annual ICA Conference in November. The ICA was formed in 1948 with the mission “to enhance the quality of life in society by promoting the development of professional counselors, advancing the counseling profession, and using the profession and practice of counseling to promote respect for human dignity and diversity.”
From African-American education in 1800s Iowa to the hip-hop music of Big Boi, Dr. David Brodnax, professor of history, has been exploring a range of topics in his research and teaching.
In March, Brodnax presented a paper, “A Great Injustice Has Been Done to Our Children: African-American Education in Iowa, 1838-1900,” at the Ohio Academy of History’s 2018 meeting at the University of Dayton. His research explores the impact of segregation and desegregation in Iowa schools in the 19th century, including the state Supreme Court ruling that required integration nearly a century before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Brown v Board of Education.
Among other themes, Brodnax said he is interested in exploring how integration had negative consequences for black teachers at segregated schools, who lost their jobs to white teachers at newly integrated schools. “The irony for black kids who grew up in the Iowa school system is that they couldn’t teach in the Iowa schools,” he said.
His paper also explored how black communities in Iowa celebrated National Emancipation Day and used it to educate younger generations about the impact of slavery. His research also considered how black parents defined a quality education for their children, including one where they were safe from racist comments and actions from white classmates.
Brodnax is also currently at work on a biographical essay on Big Boi, half of the Grammy-winning duo OutKast, for the African American National Biography, which will be published by Oxford University Press. “OutKast is one of my all-time favorite rap groups going back to when I was in college, and I intend to contextualize Big Boi’s work in the broader shift in African American culture back towards the South since the Civil Rights Movement,” he said.
Brodnax is also attempting to photograph every building that architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed in Chicago’s west suburbs. “Frank Lloyd Wright is my favorite architect, even if his personal life was not something that Christians should champion or emulate,” said Brodnax, who currently lives in Oak Park, Ill., where Wright built his home and studio.
“These projects are definitely labors of love,” Brodnax said. “As someone who has strong southern roots and as an Oak Parker, I feel a geographic connection to both of these projects as well. I also expect that they will make their way into my African American History and History of Chicago courses in some way.”
Among his other activities, Brodnax was also recently elected as a representative of the Mid-America American Studies Association for a two-year term.
The Trinity community came together on June 2 for a great day of golfing for a good cause—raising money for the Alumni Excellence Scholarship. Fifty-six golfers, 39 of which were alumni, played a round of golf at Coyote Run Golf Course in Flossmoor, Ill.
The outing began with a shotgun start, included lunch on the course, and ended with an appetizer reception, where prizes for course games were handed out and the winning foursome was presented the trophy. Our winning foursome this year was Rich Tameling ’09, Ryan Wories ’09, Jamie Prins ’09, and Jeff Roon ’09.
This annual event raised $6,000 for the scholarship, which supports children of alumni who are attending Trinity. Each year up to four $1,500 renewable scholarships are awarded to students. One of the current recipients, Dan Vos ’21, attended the golf outing. Vos, a sophomore and member of Trinity’s golf team, spoke with each foursome and offered to hit a ball off the tee for each group.
The Alumni and Family Engagement office would like to thank the sponsors who helped make the event a success. The faithful support of these sponsors make it possible for the funds raised by the outing to go directly to the Alumni Excellence Scholarship fund.
This year’s sponsors included:
Event Sponsors: Evenhouse & Co., P.C., Homewood Disposal Service, Ozinga Bros, Inc., Proven IT, Providence Life Services, ProviNET Solutions
Hole Sponsors: Interiors for Business, Lambert Kamp, CPA, Media Resources, Inc., R Brand Homes. Inc., Schepel Auto Group, Silva International, Rick & Sue VanDyken, Vant Hoff Financial Service
Lunch Sponsor: Warehouse Direct
Hole-in-One Sponsor: Legacy Insurance Group
Golf Ball Sponsor: Clarence Davids & Company
Raffle Donors: Bettinardi Golf, Darwill, Homewood Disposal Service, Schaaf Window Corporation, Wentworth Tire
Serving both the mission of the College and the athletics department and following the spirit of the NAIA Champions of Character initiative, the athletics teams of Trinity Christian College found various ways to serve both local and distant communities.
Throughout the 2017-18 school year, teams took part in a variety of service projects, volunteer work, and mission trips. In these activities, Trinity’s teams and coaches were blessed, established new or renewed existing community relationships, and developed stronger team chemistry.
“We value service opportunities and encourage all of our teams to find some way to impact others in a positive way,” said Athletics Director Bill Schepel. “Again this year, each of our programs was able to reach out in a variety of projects to serve communities near and far.”
Here are some of the ways in which Trinity athletes and coaches served:
–During their trip to California in August, the women’s volleyball team took time to help out at Grove Community Church in Riverside. They worked on some landscaping projects for the church.
–The women’s soccer team was involved in a number of projects during the season. They continued their ongoing relationship with Elim Christian Services in Crestwood and worked alongside adults with disabilities to assemble Hope Packs. The team members volunteered at both the Children’s Hunger Fund and Feed My Starving Children. They were also helped out at the spring fundraising banquet for the Southside Pregnancy Center.
–The men’s soccer team connected with Cornerstone Community Outreach in Chicago and served at their homeless shelter. Team members helped prepare and serve a meal and clean and fix children’s play equipment, as well as help move a mother and her kids who were transitioning out of the shelter.
–Members of the women’s and men’s cross country teams once again volunteered at the Dutch Festival, a major community event sponsored by Elim Christian School. Team members helped out with a variety of activities and provided needed services throughout the day.
–For the second year in a row, the women’s and men’s golf team volunteered at the Restoration Ministries Golf Outing in September. The Trinity golfers helped on the course, greeted participants, unloaded golf bags, worked at prize holes, and ran other fundraising activities.
–The women’s basketball team joined with the Alsip Fire Station again and volunteered at their Open House. Team members helped out the various stations, such as snacks, an obstacle course, and temporary tattoos, which the fire house hosted for the community. The team also spent a day packing food at Feed My Starving Children.
–Reaching out to a distant community, members of the men’s volleyball team took a mission trip to the Dominican Republic in December. During the trip the team was able to serve the local community in various activities and spent time with the children in villages, at schools, and in orphanages. They also conducted a volleyball clinic for kids. The team played a few volleyball matches against local club teams and was able to share the gospel and their testimonies at those events.
–The track and field teams volunteered at the Palos Heights half-marathon in May. The athletes worked at the registration and information tents, at water stops, and as course marshals.
–During spring break trip, the softball team connected with a third grade class at an elementary school in Clermont, Fla. They visited the class, met the students, made posters, played games, and had a question and answer session where team members were able to share ways to achieve goals and talk about the qualities and values it takes to be a collegiate athlete.
–The baseball team maintained its work with Faith in Action and once again worked in splitting logs and stacking wood at a site that serves a local community.
–Three members of the Athletics Leadership Program for Students, all from different Trinity teams, conducted a leadership workshop for local high school student-leaders.
In addition to these events, many student-athletes were involved in on-going and weekly service projects on campus. They also interacted with other organizations on campus and in the community to show the love of Christ and develop as student leaders. All of the projects help to create, build, or strengthen relationships with those in the community, on campus, and on their teams.
Art can transcend language and cast a magical spell. And the artwork by Ryan Thompson, professor of art and design and department chair, is doing both at an exhibition in Barcelona.
The show, “An Exhibition as a Spell,” runs through July 14 at the Centre Civic Can Felipa. It includes pieces from Thompson’s “Bad Luck, Hot Rocks” project. Thompson’s project draws on photos of petrified “rocks” from the Petrified Forest in the Painted Desert of Northeast Arizona, and copies of some of the hundreds of “conscience letters” people have left over the years after returning the pieces of wood they had taken, a common practice but prohibited under national park regulations.
The exhibit is curated by Caterina Almirall. Along with Thompson, other featured artists include Alejandra Pombo, Batia Suter, Duncan Gibbs, Francisco Ruiz Abad, Ilana Halperin, the Muse, and Quim Packard.
According to the show’s organizers, “Magic is a form of relationship between the natural world and the cultural world, and conjures up the attempt to control what is unknown. Words, stories, are the way of ordering the world, and therefore being able to inhabit, control, understand. From artistic practice, in a transversal way, we can understand mechanisms of knowledge and structure of the world. In the form of a story, the exhibition is presented as an opportunity to think about the relationship between language and things, as the language gives shape to the world and the world forms things as we know them. An exhibition is also a ritual of which we decide to participate.
Whether spoken aloud or not specified, words are used to access and guide magic power. Magic involves the use of language. Even beyond human and linguistic capabilities, we can think of other beings, creatures, objects, materials that develop their powers and their spells. In this exhibition, we want to think about the relationship with the environment in a constitutive way. Each object is tailor made for other things, and we also tailor these objects (dogs, volcanoes, mushrooms, words, rocks …).”
The internet has changed the way aspiring musicians learn and share their works, and educators may be able to incorporate these informal approaches into the classroom, according to an article by alum Dr. Christopher Cayari ’03, which was recently published in the prestigious publication “Music Education Research.”
Cayari now serves as assistant professor of music education at Purdue University. Along with his undergraduate degree from Trinity, he holds master’s and doctorate degrees in music education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2015, Cayari received the outstanding dissertation award from the Council for Research in Music Education.