Raven Review 2017-2018 by Benedictine College

RAVEN REVIEW BENEDICTINE COLLEGE 2017-2018

RAVEN REVIEW

2017-2018 VOLUME 44

Letter from the President

NASA DREAM COME TRUE

LAUNCHING LEADERS

BEYOND THE CLASSROOM UNDERCOVER HIGH

Laurence Rossi ’16 G ’18

DOING A GOOD TURN

DESIGNERS & PHOTOGRAPHERS

35 36

GO PRO

ST. GREGORY’S STUDENTS FIND NEW LIFE AS RAVENS A SEASON TO REMEMBER

Senior Administrative Assistant

Benedictine College

BARDS BEHIND BARS

PLANTING A SEED IN THE WORLD OF BUSINESS

CAMPUS AUTHORS

EDITOR

Tom Hoopes G ’10

Vice-President of College Relations

Writers Steve Johnson G ’12

Director of Communications

Josh Pound ’12

Sports Information Director

Christa Rieger Graphic Designer

Amy Nell

Creative Director

Hayleigh Diebolt Graphic Designer

Christa Rieger Graphic Designer

Claire Peterson ’17 Graphic Designer

Kelly Elias ’85

Alumni Engagement Coordinator

COPY EDITORS Mary Asher ’80

Published by the Office of Marketing and Communications

COVER ILLUSTRATION By Christa Rieger This artwork is available on a postcard at The Raven Store or online: BenedictineRavenStore.com

160 years of Benedictine College.

Ben Bogner aims for the stars.

FOCUS: 20 years at Benedictine.

Discovery Day 2018.

Alumnus makes his TV debut.

Boy Scouts fill campus for Merit Badge Academy.

A Raven is drafted into the Majors.

Benedictine welcomes 22 transfers.

Women’s soccer plays in National Championship.

Professor Scott Cox takes his show on an unexpected road.

Alumna makes an impact as an entrepreneur.

Benedictine Faculty book notes.

a year in review

TRANSFORMING CULTURE

A Glance at Special Section, Pages 19-34

OF PEARLS & PAPER Raven artist’s big success.

FATHER LEMKE’S CHURCH

Rebuilding the cornerstone of a community.

A KANSAS ARTIST IN ITALY Alumna Kate Marin in Florence.

A JEWEL IN THE MOUNTAINS

Ravens were an answer to a Guatemala village’s prayer.

A SONG FOR THE POPE

Chamber Singers visit the Vatican.

WANTED: BENEDICTINE WEDDINGS

Did both you and your spouse graduate from Benedictine College, Mount St. Scholastica College or St. Benedict’s College? We want to feature your wedding picture on campus! Send your names, class years and a 5-by-7 or 8-by-10 inch framed photo to: Sue Durkin Benedictine College • 1020 North Second Street • Atchison, KS 66002 Or email to: sdurkin@benedictine.edu

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A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

hope you will enjoy this look back at all the exciting things that happened this year as we celebrate our 160th anniversary. And then, I hope you will join us in looking forward! We spent the year telling students that Benedictine College is “Where Greatness Begins.” That spirit comes from our vision statement, calling Ravens to be leaders in intellectual, personal and spiritual greatness, and from our visionary plan Benedictine 2020: A Vision for Greatness. Consider the ways our mission was “Where Greatness Begins” in this year alone: Community: • This year the new Murphy Student Recreation Center has become one of the most popular spots on campus — particularly in the cold winter months. • We were able to welcome nearly two dozen St. Gregory’s University students when our sister Benedictine institution in Oklahoma closed last semester. • We upgraded seating and game-day experience in the Ralph Nolan Gymnasium and Larry Wilcox Stadium, making Benedictine College a premier NAIA sports facility. Faith: •

Donations from Lené Westerman ’85 and the Westerman Foundation allowed us to build the St. George Chapel for students in Newman Hall, the third residence hall chapel we have added in the past five years.

•

This year we sent students on 20 mission trips to eight countries, and three continents. More than 1 in 3 students has gone on a Benedictine College mission trip.

•

The college welcomed a record number of participants to campus for our Seventh Annual Symposium on the New Evangelization in April.

Scholarship: •

With the help of visiting Vatican astronomers, we dedicated the Daglen Observatory west of campus.

•

When the new facility is completed, Benedictine College will have America’s finest small-college science and engineering building. Together, the observatory and STEM facility mean we have opened five new academic buildings in the past six years.

•

Benedictine College has gotten attention for significant academic honors this year. History chair Dr. John Romano was awarded the Rome Prize, which has been called “the Pulitzer Prize of the Humanities.” Hannah Voss, class of 2018, was a Rhodes Scholarship Finalist.

We will have much to celebrate when Benedictine 2020 wraps up two years from now. But to tell you the truth, we are already looking even further forward than that, asking: How can we launch, as our vision statement says, “Benedictine leaders who will transform the world”? That is where you come in. As we envision the great places Benedictine College can go, I want to hear from alumni and friends of the college who believe that the next 160 years will be even better than the last.

Stephen D. Minnis, ’82 President

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SOARING ON TO

GREATNESS

century; hundreds of others pursued vocations.

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DRE CO T R

en Bogner, a Benedictine senior majoring in Physics and Astronomy, is a self-confessed “space nerd,” so he loved his summer at NASA. With his feet firmly on the ground back in Atchison, Ben is now the main student supervisor in the college’s Daglen Observatory. That facility, dedicated last August the day before the total solar eclipse, is the latest upgrade to the college’s astronomy program, which is now an affiliate of the Vatican Observatory and a member of the Vatican Observatory Consortium. His goal upon graduation is to land a job at NASA, and he took a big step toward accomplishing that in

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the fall when he earned a semester-long internship at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. For four months, he lived the dream as part of a team of researchers working to develop a new optical element that will provide cheaper, more efficient, and higherquality scientific data about the Earth’s atmosphere and its impact on the environment. “The lens we were working on is called a photon sieve,” he said. “It works by diffracting, rather than refracting, incident light to a focal point.” If that sentence is not impressive enough to show his excitement for and knowledge of the project, he went

ASA

EAM ME U E

on to explain the process. He said the research consisted of printing a pattern of holes on a flexible substrate, allowing for construction of a large, flexible lens that is cheaper and easier to send into space on an atmospheric study mission. Ben served as a physicist on the team and worked to develop a computer code to model the light propagation through a photon sieve. This work was necessary in order to give the researchers an idea of what to expect in the lab. He then worked in the laser lab on actual fabricated photon sieves, comparing those results to his computer simulations.

Even as he works toward graduation, Ben still recalls the thrill of having the iconic NASA “meatball” logo next to his photo and name on his government ID. His time at NASA gave him a taste of real-world science and afforded him the opportunity to develop a rapport with numerous NASA researchers, scientists and project managers. “Overall, my experience at NASA has been amazing, incredibly difficult, lots of fun, and a great chance to grow my skills as a researcher,” he said. “I now have network connections inside the company where I want to work, and I can’t wait to get back to my dream job.”

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Launching Leaders

BENEDICTINE AND FOCUS FOUNDER CELEBRATE 20-YEAR PARTNERSHIP 10 | Raven Review 2017-2018

“Great things begin at Benedictine College,” Curtis Martin told 444 graduates of the school in Atchison, Kansas. “This place has developed a reputation here for launching leaders into every area of the culture.”

Martin was speaking not just of the students in front of him, but of his own family and life’s work. Not only has he sent five children to the college, but he founded the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, FOCUS, on campus here 20 years ago. It all started when his friend, Ted — Dr. Edward Sri — began his teaching career at Benedictine College. “We were going to host a leadership event inviting 24 college students to embrace Christlike leadership,” Martin said. “A couple months before it happened Ted called me and said ‘I don’t think we’re doing a conference. I think we’re launching the program.’ The rest is history.” Today, FOCUS has grown to more than 650 missionaries serving on 138 campuses nationwide. Curtis Martin knows how important it is to find your faith in college. When he launched FOCUS in 1998, Martin told students how that happened to him. Speaking in the thennew O’Malley-McAllister Auditorium on the Benedictine College campus, Martin told the story of his own college years in the early 1980s at Louisiana State University. He left the Church and even joined up with Campus Crusade for Christ — a nondenominational evangelization organization. But then his mother insisted he go on one last Catholic retreat. The retreat ended with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament — and forced Martin to make a decision. “If that’s God, then we should worship him,” he said. “And if it’s not, we’re idiots because we worship bread. There’s no middle ground. Either we’re right on this or we’re wrong. And I didn’t know the answer to that. And I sat

and I looked and I began to weep. I didn’t know where to go or what to do. I just began to pray.” Twenty years later, Martin was back on campus telling a new generation of students how his prayers were answered — for more than just him — when he founded FOCUS, which forms students through small-group Bible Studies led by trained missionaries. “The first four missionaries here has grown into over 1,100 missionaries who no longer serve and another 800 who currently serve — so almost 2,000 missionaries were launched here.” As of today, 128 Benedictine graduates have gone on to work for FOCUS. Another 7-10 will be added in 2018. Nearly 50 alumni of the college are currently employed by FOCUS. Many of these have been promoted to team directors, regional directors, or area coordinators within FOCUS, meaning Ravens have advanced into leadership positions, some near the highest levels, within the organization. One of the original FOCUS ministers was Joe Wurtz, who served as a FOCUS missionary at Benedictine College from 1999-2000 and at the University of Denver from 2000-2001. Today, Dr. Joseph Wurtz is Dean of Students at Benedictine and director of the Gregorian Fellows Leadership Program, and the presence of FOCUS on Benedictine College’s campus has grown exponentially. Today, nine FOCUS missionaries work on Benedictine College’s campus with 90 FOCUS student leaders running 70 student Bible studies. In addition, the FOCUS athletics arm, Varsity Catholic, has 18 Bible studies on 13 Raven athletic teams with 20% of the student athletes participating. Martin sees Benedictine College as a major player in the new evangelization. “Something unique is going on here that is not going on at very many other places worldwide,” he told students. “Your gifts and skills will have a huge impact, but only if you stay close to Jesus Christ.”

FOCUS through the years.

←Clockwise from top right: Father Brendan Rolling OSB, an early supporter of FOCUS on campus, served as chaplain at the college and now as a chaplain for FOCUS. An early FOCUS event. First FOCUS missionaries Dr. Joseph Wurtz ’99 (now Dean of Students at Benedictine) and Beth (Schleuter) Sri ’99. The second FOCUS training on campus in 1999. David Trotter, former Director of Mission and Ministry, is now with FOCUS. Benedictine’s team at summer FOCUS training.

Commencement 2018

Above: Curtis Martin, who founded FOCUS at Benedictine College 20 years ago, was the keynote speaker. Rocky joined graduates in his own gown and cap. At right, the smiles of students finishing college and commencing with the rest of their lives. Valedictorian Hannah Voss, an English major, was a Rhodes Scholarship Finalist. Sydney Wolf was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army upon completing her nursing degree. Archbishop Joseph Naumann at Baccalaureate Mass. Isaiah McBride at the Commencement Ceremony. Students marching together into the Ralph Nolan Gymnasium.

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BEYOND THE CLASSROOM Discovery Day at Benedictine College — a day set aside for original student research presentations — is always a science-heavy affair. For Discovery Day 2018, chemistry students presented on gene identification, nursing students presented on patient comfort, and Astronomy students studied Titan’s ionosphere, just to name a few. But Discovery projects come in every discipline. Below: 1) Monica Treacy and Isabelle Clark won an Engineering bot battle. 2) Maddy Stella demonstrated the art of casting.

3) Isaiah McBride presented on the effect of classroom techniques on the education of Pre-K students. 4) A new Discovery Day medal was designed and cast by the Art Department. 5) The choral piece Tam Trepidans Advenio, by Margaret Boone, debuted. 6) Naomi Muggli directed and presented on Agammenon by Aeschylus. 7) Students explored Civil-War era dance. 8) A student-created foundry displayed sand casting techniques. 9) Gabriel Ogle presented on preserving Mount Saint Scholastica’s Japanese prints.

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DISCOVERY DAY 2018 BY THE NUMBERS:

21 academic departments 82 presentations | 52 faculty & staff 188 student participants 7

UNDERCOVER HIGH

The groundbreaking A&E docuseries “Undercover High” embedded seven young adults, ranging in age from 21 to 26, for a semester at Highland Park High School in Topeka, Kan., to look at life as a high school teenager today. One assistant principal at the school, Daniel Ackerman, a 1995 graduate of Benedictine College, looked at it as another opportunity to learn. “A lot of people at the high school were hesitant to sign off on the project because nobody knew how they would be portrayed,” Ackerman said. “We don’t have cameras in the classrooms. Teachers don’t really want that … and now we’re talking about outside cameras coming into the classroom.” But Ackerman saw it as an 16 | Raven Review 2017-2018

opportunity to grow and help him better serve the students. “I looked at it as a way to learn. I saw the benefit of what it could be,” he said. “I deal with kids all day and, even though some are very forthcoming, they don’t tell me everything. Being on the show let kids know who I am and what I’m about, so it has definitely made it easier for kids to come and talk to me. It has worked out. I’m happy with it.” When it came to “Undercover High,” everyone in the school had the opportunity to participate or not. Parents signed waivers for their students. Many teachers chose not to be filmed. The project was couched as a “documentary” and students did not know that adults were pretending to be students.

Some of the issues Ackerman talks about on the show are cell phones, social media and school violence. He said both classroom teachers and school administrators have to adapt to the proliferation of cell phones and all that they can do now. They have to manage that technology. One thing that new technology allows to get into the school is social media. “So many things that would have been kept out of the school are now coming into the school, and quickly,” he said. “When that disrupts the school, it becomes my issue. So we’re tasked with dealing with all these outside issues now, because it manifests itself in the school. It really consumes a lot of my time and that hadn’t been the case in the past.” Ackerman graduated from Benedictine College in 1995 with a degree in History and a minor in Secondary Education. He had come to Atchison after his hometown college, St. Mary of the Plains, closed in 1992. With the closure, Coach Larry Wilcox went to Dodge City to work on getting some athletes to come to Benedictine. Though he had a degenerative disc in his back that forced him out of football after high school, Ackerman had a continuing interest in football and coaching. Wilcox agreed to bring him to Benedictine as a team manager. He gave him some scholarship money and had him work as the video coordinator for the Ravens football team for the next three years. “I was around the game and soaked up as much as I could,” he said. “I still try to maintain ties to Benedictine and I see Coach Gartenmayer and Coach Murphy from time to time.” After working as a substitute teacher for a while, he landed a job as a graduate assistant football coach at Washburn University, where he began work on a Master’s in Education Administration Degree. A marriage, child and teaching stint intervened, but he eventually completed his Master’s and moved into administration to his position at Highland Park High School.

“I do miss the teaching side of it,” he said. “When you get into education, you get into it because you like to teach. But sometimes you have to change gears, and you say ‘I’m going to be a teacher of teachers.’” The reality TV show did point up one of his main responsibilities at Highland Park: to try to connect with high-risk kids, potential dropouts. He said school administrators and teachers are now forced to deal with things that used to be in the parental realm. In his school, he sees many children who are not in traditional families. They are being raised in single-parent households or by their grandparents. He said that is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does change the way those children understand relationships. “The more ways I can reach anyone and everyone, the better off we are,” he said. “I have to find ways to find that kid who’s sitting alone and contemplating suicide … or other things. And I need to be able to reach that kid.” Being a Raven helped. “I absolutely appreciate what I learned at Benedictine,” he said. “There are so many things I use constantly. That’s what I appreciate about the Liberal Arts aspect of it. I find myself trying to have many different perspectives when looking at issues. That has really carried me through a lot and dictates how I relate to people and deal with people.” He related it all back to his chance to go to Benedictine College and the advice he got from his history professors, Dr. T. H. Baughman and Dr. Rupert Pate. “’You have to quit looking at life through a straw,’ they told me,” said Ackerman. “’The more lenses you can see things through the better off you’ll be.’” He has always tried to follow that advice. “I’m always trying to learn new things so I can continue to interact with students better,” he said. “I’m grabbing stuff whenever I can. That’s kind of Benedictine’s Liberal Arts guiding me.” 2017-2018 Raven Review| 17

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TRANSFORMING CULTURE Building Beauty Through Art and Architecture Welcome to the first in a series of Raven Review sections focusing on Transforming Culture, starting with a focus on two of the college’s unique majors: Architecture and Art. “Benedictine College is building one of the great Catholic colleges in America,” according to its vision statement. But then it explains why: “We dedicate ourselves to educating students to become leaders in the Benedictine tradition who will transform the world through their commitment to

intellectual, personal, and spiritual greatness.” How can Benedictine students “transform the world?” What unique contribution can Benedictine College make to the culture? Beauty, for a start. Benedictine College is the only NAIA school with both engineering and architecture, one of only four Catholic universities to have an architecture major, one of only a few competitors with an art major.

Westerman Hall’s new 40,000 square-foot addition.

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Angie Pickman ’02 always knew she would be an artist. She just had that feeling. She came from a creative family and was surrounded by art, music and literature. Being the daughter of Dr. Ruth Krusemark ’73, Kremmeter Professor and Chair of the Music Department at Benedictine College, that is not hard to imagine. “There was always art around, always music around, always artistic and musical people around and it created this great background to my life that kind of drives me,” Pickman said. But when she came to Benedictine College, there was no art major. “When I started at Benedictine College, the art major hadn’t been developed yet,” she said. “There was only an art minor available. I kind of always had the idea that I could do art, but I thought it wouldn’t be a career. It would be something I could do more for fun.” So she took advantage of the art minor and majored in business, looking at that as providing a good foundation for her moving forward. She would soon need that foundation. “After leaving Benedictine I ended up doing my Master’s Degree and then just kind of jumped off this cliff and opened a restaurant in New York City,” she laughed.

Angie painstakingly cuts with her favorite X-ACTO Knife.

Ultimately, that business didn’t work out. It was changed to a bakery, but that was still a challenge. Angie thinks of it as a huge learning experience. “Because of that, I wasn’t afraid to fail. I wasn’t afraid to dive into my art,” she said. “I thought ‘I can do this, I just need to work hard at it. And if it doesn’t work out, that’s okay, too.’” She had completed a Master’s Degree in Interactive Telecommunications at New York University and had been experimenting with computer animation and movement in art. She had seen the 1926 movie “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” in one of her classes. It was a stop-motion silhouette animation by Lotte Reiniger using intricately cut paper to create shadow puppets. “I had always been trying to find the art inside of me, what I really want to be doing, and when I saw that I thought, ‘this feels like what I want to be doing,’” she said. Pickman studied Reiniger’s style and method and ended up doing a thesis paper on her, which included her own animation. That was her first work in cut paper artistry. While still running the restaurant and later the bakery, she could not forget about the art and she began to cut out still figures, mostly just 2017-2018 Raven Review| 21

to relax. It was a process of coming up with an idea, sketching it on paper, then cutting it out with a precision hobby knife. Often she pastes several pieces onto a background to create a collage. Some can take a few hours, but the larger ones can take up to a month to complete. She started posting some of the pieces on MySpace, which was a popular social media platform at the time, and she got a very positive response. She began getting requests for posters and other work and the thought occurred to her that Angie works on a commissioned piece in her studio in Lawrence, Kansas. this might be a possible career after all. magazine, Midwest Living magazine and She had been using the Rural Pearl Food Network magazine, and received moniker to tie her work back to Kansas many awards for her art from regional nature and she was missing that in New art shows and fairs. She has done York City. So she created the Rural illustrations for books, but her latest Pearl Studio website at RuralPearl.Com venture is a book of her own. and moved back to Kansas, landing “A few years ago I had created a series in Lawrence. She began of images for a solo exhibit at the pursuing her art fulltime main branch of the Omaha Public and suddenly found Library,” she said. “I did this series herself busy doing her of 26 animals and objects that go own art and exhibiting along with the ABCs.” at galleries and art Over the years, she continued shows. She began to get to refine it and began to craft it commissions to create into a book, adding text. She put specific pieces and bands, together a prototype of the book craft fairs, and other and a friend passed it along to “Smoky Hill Sun Song” by Angie Pickman groups wanted posters a publisher, Ascend Books. The designed and printed. She publisher loved it and Merry usually in my sketch book so I have eventually opened a retail Menagerie: Animal Antics from these things all in one place. And I’ve space in the art district A to Z is already available for been able to check off a lot of goals… in Lawrence. pre-order on Amazon and will be things like do a band poster, have my To date, she has won an Independent in bookstores in July 2018. own retail space, publish a children’s Music Award for an album cover, “I feel really lucky to be able to do this book. It’s really cool to look at that and animated the PBS documentary for a living,” she said. “Not every artist know I actually did it. And it’s exciting “Daughters of the Forest,” has been can make a living off of their art. I’m a featured in Martha Stewart Living goal setter and I write down goals, to have new goals.”

Rural Pearl Studio is located in Lawrence, Kansas, at 8th St. and Delaware in the East Lawrence Warehouse Arts District. Angie is available by appointment at info@ruralpearl.com. 22 | Raven Review 2017-2018

On Oct. 30, 2016, in a moving ceremony remembering deceased students, the college enthroned the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a new statue by Kansas City sculptor E. Spencer Schubert was unveiled.

Father Lemkeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Church Students help renovate Doniphan landmark

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Rebuilding the Cornerstone of a Community

f you were to take a leisurely drive around the countryside north of Atchison, there’s a good chance you’d stumble across St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and Oratory near Doniphan, Kansas. At least, that’s how alumnus James Sowinski, ’17 found it back in 2016. After discovering the dilapidated old church, Sowinski, still an undergraduate at the time, went back to his Benedictine Spirituality class and asked Fr. Meinrad Miller OSB ’89 what he knew about the building. He got some surprising answers. The church, Fr. Meinrad told him, was known as St. John the Baptist Church and just so happened to be the church that Fr. Henry Lemke first built in 1857 after arriving on the bluffs above the Missouri River, before St. Benedict’s Abbey was built. Later, flooding and a shift in the Missouri River would turn Atchison into the prosperous river town the Doniphan had once been, and the monks followed their flock from Doniphan to Atchison. Regardless, St. John’s remained in service as the local parish church in Doniphan up until 1991, at which point it had fallen too far into disrepair and was closed. But Fr. Meinrad also revealed to Sowinski that Atchison local David Stecher had recently formed The Friends of St. John’s, a group with a mission to restore the old church. Sowinsksi had Fr. Meinrad put him in contact with the Friends and launched himself into the restoration project. Sowinski not only became involved in the physical labor of the project, but also quickly brought a cadre of other Benedictine students

on board with him. Many put in time helping with tasks, such as sanding, scraping, and plasterwork, while others took on parts of the restoration as Discovery Day projects. Miriam Walski, ’17, crafted a mosaic with a Latin inscription that reads “Ad dirigendos pedes nostros in viam pacis,” or “Guide our feet into the way of peace,” a reference to the Canticle of Zechariah. The mosaic is now inlaid in the threshold of the church. Artist Maddy Stella, ’18, flawlessly repainted and restored the centerpiece of the church’s altar, a statue of Jesus whose hands had been broken years ago. Overall, the restoration was a massive undertaking. The roof and ceiling were replaced, the floors were re-done, the walls were re-plastered, and damaged art was restored. But thanks to the work of the many local and student volunteers, as well as generous donations from around the country, the restoration project has largely been finished, with only finer details left to complete. A Mass and potluck were held at the church last school year to mark both the success of the project and the 160th anniversary of the church itself. Going forward, the church has been designated by the Archbishop as an oratory in connection with the Abbey, as it does not have the resources to offer the full services of a parish, but will remain as an important site for divine worship in Doniphan. With the new restoration and renewed dedication from the local community, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and Oratory will be lovingly used and maintained for generations to come.

A Kansas Artist in Italy RAVEN ALUM FINISHING PRESTIGIOUS SCULPTURE COURSE IN FLORENCE Meet Kate Marin, a 2012 alumna of Benedictine College who is a long way away from her hometown of St. Francis, Kansas. She is most of the way through a two-year sculpture course at the Sacred Art School in Florence, Italy. We asked her to catch us up on her life in this prestigious program. WHAT’S THE HARDEST THING TO ADJUST TO IN YOUR SCULPTURE STUDIES? Lack of time! A year and a half is not much time, and there are so few hours in a day and so many incredible things to give my time to. Sculpture takes a lot of time. Learning a new culture and language takes time. The time here has flown by but it has been so full and fulfilling. I’m trying to make the most of every moment — because my legal status runs out soon. WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND SURPRISINGLY EASY IN THE PROGRAM? Sculpture. This is my first time sculpting and it has come very naturally. Not to say that I haven’t had to work incredibly hard with it and that I don’t still

have tons to learn but I say it’s easy because it feels like it’s what I am meant to be doing. WHAT DO YOU MISS ABOUT KANSAS? Just the ease and comfort of everyday living situations. But we aren’t made for ease and comfort. Every day outside your own culture is a challenge, mostly in the little things, but I have grown so much because of it. WHAT WORK ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? I can’t choose one. I overcame a new challenge in each sculpture and learned different but equally valuable lessons with each one, so they are all near and dear to my heart. Every project helped me discover this new language of sculpture a little better and helped me to develop my voice a little better. It seems unfair to say I am most proud of my most recent sculptures just because the anatomy and forms are better when it was those first sculptures that taught me what I needed to know in order to make these last ones what they are.

Marin’s portrait study of a man named Abi.

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HOW WELL DID BENEDICTINE COLLEGE PREPARE YOU FOR WHAT YOU ARE DOING? My time spent at Benedictine in my undergrad and as an adjunct professor in the art department really helped me to enter this program at the right level. It allowed me to make pretty solid works from the start even though this program was a totally new academic method and sculpture was a medium that I had barely touched before. I am very grateful for the education I received prior to this one and I pray that Benedictine’s art department continues to grow and receive the necessary support. The Church needs artists and artists need a solid formation and place equipped to help them go deeper into their gift so that through it they can serve our world that is so starved for beauty.

“Samson’s Prayer at the Pillar” is a work in progress for Marin.

Kate Marin at work on “Mary Magdalene.”

HOW CAN WE FOLLOW YOUR PROGRESS? Anyone interested can visit my website, KateMarinArt.com to see what I am up to. I am really proud of all that I have accomplished in this short year and a half and look forward to much more work to come.

Ecce Homo by Kate Marin won the sacred art competition in the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan., in 2017.

Penitent St. Jerome in the Desert by Kate Marin.

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A Jewel in the

The people of Joya de los Cedros had a dream. They longed for a Students Answer Guatemalan Catholic church Village’s Prayer in their small village in the mountains of Guatemala. They prayed for help in creating something that would reflect the strong faith they already possessed. This is the story of how Benedictine College became a big part of that answer — raising tens of thousands of dollars, visiting the village to build and pray with the village and teach English to their children. Today, the people of Joya de los Cedros greet the students with firecrackers, welcome signs and children’s choirs. But it all started when their prayers were carried to the ears of a young priest from Guatemala City.

MOUNTAINS

Genesis

Father Marco Mendez rode the circuit from his parish in San Jose Pinula and helped serve 26 villages in the mountains outside Guatemala City, including Joya de los Cedros. Father Marco happened to be friends with a family in Florida with many relatives in Guatemala. One of those family members was Maria Hartley ’15, who met Father Marco when she was five years old and always checked in with Father Marco when she visited Guatemala. “My senior year at Benedictine, I asked Father Marco if his parish needed any help,” Maria said. “I told him I went to an amazing Catholic college with students who loved doing mission trips. He said ‘of course we always need help, and you are always welcome.’” The journey to Joya de los Cedros was about to begin.

“The first year our project was very simple, but very beautiful,” Maria said. She brought seven students with her to Guatemala. “We stayed in the rectory of the church in San Jose Pinula and we spent our days painting a classroom where they offered catechism classes. We landscaped and provided an area for families to meet on the church property and bought a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe for the church.” But Maria and the other Benedictine students also noticed the people who came from the mountain villages for Mass. “Father Marco said the people in a village on the mountain needed a Catholic church built and that it would be a dream come true for them,” she said. “So the next year, more Benedictine College students went on the mission trip and Father Marco took them to Joya de los Cedros.”

Building Begins

Construction started and the dream began to take shape. It was the beginning of a three-year labor of love for both the students and the people of the village. Lumber, cinder blocks, paint, nails and much more needed to be purchased and transported up into the mountains. That’s where Benedictine College students came in. The group began fundraising, talking to family and friends, writing letters, and giving talks at

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their parish churches. There were a dozen students on the first trip to Joya de los Cedros and each one contributed $1,000 to the project, in addition to funding their travel, room and board for the trip. One student, Natalie Gallatin ’16, gave a talk at her home parish and an anonymous donor stepped forward with a $30,000 donation. “That really got us started on the Joya de los Cedros church and even gave us the funds to set aside for another project,” said Michael Duchesne ’16, who led the next mission trip and started the church construction. “Building materials go a long way in Guatemala. You don’t need the insulation or as sophisticated of structures like we have here,” he said. “The whole structure is cinder block and rebar with just basic wiring and a metal roof. But the villagers want to make it beautiful. They want to paint it and decorate it very well.” Many students returned to Joya de los Cedros on additional mission trips and on their own. “When I got there in 2016, there was an empty open field and they had a bulldozer to level the ground,” he said. “The next year when I went back with the mission trip, they had the walls partially up. When we go down each year, we excavate or move cinder blocks around for a few hours each day. The people of Joya de los Cedros have actually done the bulk of the work.” In addition to working toward the goal of providing a church for the village, the students have come to love the villagers. “When I go down to Joya de los Cedros, I feel like I’m home with my family,” said Lucy Defilippis ’18, who participated in the Guatemala mission trip her junior year and returned as the mission leader her senior year. “The people there greet you with such incredible smiles and encounter you in such a familial way that you feel like you’re going to a family reunion.” She has enjoyed getting to know the people and their culture and customs. The students have come to know the villagers on a more personal level now, building lasting relationships. According to Defilippis and Duchesne, the response from the villagers has been one of overwhelming gratitude.

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“The people in Joya de los Cedros live very differently than we do,” Defilippis said. “They live simply. They live slowly. They are inefficient in their ways, but for some reason they are more in contact with humanity.” “I found that when you go down there, you really disconnect from all the distractions our modern world has,” said Duchesne. “You realize what’s important in life; friendship, conversation, being present. You put aside the little distractions that take time and waste time and you live simply … and rediscover your faith. It’s been beautiful.” The trip is much more than a week at the beach like many college Spring Break trips. “To be able to go with your friends and fellow students and do service for your Spring Break is a testament to the students at Benedictine, and to this desire to give to something greater than yourself,” said Defilippis.

The Future

The construction plan calls for the church to be completed in fall 2018. Excitement is building both in the village and among the students who have participated in the mission trips over the years. Many are planning to return for the celebration of the first Mass in the new church. “I think the biggest moment I’m excited for is to experience Mass in the church for the first time,” Defilippis said. “To watch the priest up on the altar in a place where we leveled ground, where we painted and worked on projects. To be able to see people being able to use that space for worship will be incredible.” And then? A nearby village called El Cedrito also needs a church. So far the group has raised $18,000 for the next project — the next prayer to be answered.

MEET KEVIN BROWN

Director of Benedictine College Ministry Kevin P. Brown, who just completed his first year as Director of College Ministry at Benedictine College, knows missionary work. “Kevin brings a wealth of international missionary experience and parish ministry to the team,” said Dr. Joseph Wurtz, Dean of Students. “It was evident to us that he has a servant’s heart and a docility to the Holy Spirit’s promptings in his life. Kevin will be a tremendous asset to the team and a wonderful witness for our students.” Brown grew up in Oregon, where he learned to love outdoor activities of all kinds. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management with a minor in Theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville. After working for a few years in retail management, he and his wife, Andrea, heeded the call to serve others and became lay Catholic foreign missionaries with Family Missions Company. Under the direction of the local bishops, they lived and worked among the poor in both Mexico and Peru, evangelizing and catechizing in the community as they worked to serve residents’ earthly needs. Several years and several children later, they returned to the United States. Prior to coming to Benedictine, Brown served as the Coordinator of Confirmation and Youth Ministry at St. John Catholic Church, a large and vibrant parish in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He loves the missionary heart he sees in Benedictine College students. “I was profoundly struck by the culture of faith and service that I encountered here, and my wife and six children share my excitement to being a part of the Benedictine family.”

Papal Mass coverage on EWTN.

Invitation to sing for Papal Mass.

What were your New Year’s plans this past winter? Did they include traveling around Italy, singing in four Papal Basilicas, or meeting Pope Francis? If you were a member of the Benedictine College Chamber Singers last academic year, that was all part of your New Year’s celebration! The Chamber Singers went on a tour of Italy from Dec. 27 to Jan. 3, stopping in Venice, Florence, Assisi, Rome and Vatican City. On New Year’s Day, they served as the coro guido, or lead chorus, for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, Papal Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. “Having the opportunity to sing in four of the Papal Basilicas and also a stunning church in Santa Trinitas was life-changing for our students,” said Timothy Tharaldson, Director of Choral Activities at Benedictine College. While in Rome, the group toured the catacombs and were even invited to sing in the Catacombs of Callixtus where the remains of St. Cecilia, the patroness of musicians, were once interred. They also sang in the Sunday High Mass at the Basilica di San Paolo Furiori le Mura and attended

Choir on a boat to Venice.

the blessing of the Vatican Crèche, where Pope Francis greeted them as he passed by. “The Chamber Singers represented Benedictine with class everywhere they went,” Tharaldson said. “They received tremendous praise from Maestro Moriconne, the Director of Music at St. Peter’s Basilica. They sang incredibly well and shared their gifts with everyone they met during the entire tour. They were simply amazing.” Tharaldson has also been praised for his composition, O Sacrum Convivium. The piece was originally composed for the first Raven Reunion Alumni Choir, which sang during the Mass in the Abbey last June. The Chamber Singers used it as part of their repertoire during the Italian tour and performed it in all four basilicas. The piece was also sung during Communion for the Messa Conventuale Pontificale on Holy Thursday this year at the Basilica Papale di S. Paolo Fuori le Mura (The Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls) in Rome, with Cardinal James M. Henry, presiding. Tharaldson is currently preparing the composition for another Mass in Rome, to be performed by one of the choirs of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Photos left (back and front): Timothy Tharaldson directs a concert at Chiesa di Sant’Ignazio di Loyola in Rome. Choir poses for a group photo after performing for Mass in the Basilica Papale di San Paulo fuori le Mura.

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ARCHITECTURE: LEARNING BEAUTY Above, Benedictine College Architecture students on this year’s Italy trip. The college’s pre-professional Bachelor program in Architecture provides an education in traditional disciplinary methods and is grounded in a survey of the great achievements of Western architecture and complemented by

an emphasis on Classical articulation and its theories, fundamentals, and practices. Benedictine College is now the only NAIA school with both Engineering and Architecture. The combination gives the college’s degree a strong technical dimension.

DOING A GOOD TURN Eager Boy Scouts Fill Campus for Merit Badge Academy

More than 130 Boy Scouts from as far away as Illinois and Texas traveled to Benedictine College in February in pursuit of their next rank. Students from Enactus, a college organization with a mission to make the world a better place through entrepreneurial acts, called on faculty and staff of the college to teach at the Merit Badge Academy. In all, 24 merit badges were offered on campus in a single Saturday. “I think we presented a very polished event,” said Dr. Ryan Maderak ’03, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the faculty advisor for the project. The day started with President Minnis addressing uniformed kids in the O’Malley-McAllister Auditorium, and then students fanned out over campus to take their courses. The campus looked like a typical busy day at Benedictine — only the people filling Raven Crossing were about 10 years younger than the normal college student. One group of scouts gathered at the new Daglen Observatory. The Astronomy Badge “requires a visit to an observatory and most academies can’t offer that,” said Maderak. “On our campus, scouts completed that badge in a half-day session this year.” In Westerman Hall, scouts crouched in a science lab beside beakers and instruments as associate Chemistry professor Dr. Gail Blaustein helped them earn their Chemistry Badge. The scouts explored electrochemistry — learning how an iron nail reacts with

Photo courtesy of Arts in Prison Photos left to right: Scouts earn the Family Life Badge in Ferrell (above) and the Graphic Arts Badge in Fink (top). Nolan McCall ’18 (right) brought the Merit Badge Academy to campus.

a sulfate solution causing pure copper to coat the nail. They also learned about the behavior of gases by building a Cartesian Diver out of a large plastic water bottle and a dropper with a rubber bulb. Last, said Blaustein, “they learned a little about the chemistry of cooking by observing the change in taste of an onion as it carmelizes.” Math professor Nickolas Hein gave two groups of students a crash course for the Chess Badge, including beginning, middle and endgame strategy and basic rules. “Some of the scouts already knew how to play chess pretty well,” said Hein, but he saw his greatest success with one student who had no experience at all and was all alone in the group. Hein’s student helper “quickly steered that scout away from despair by playing against him, commenting on the progression of the game, suggesting strategy, and focusing on the fun/lowstakes nature of the game. That scout, in the end, had a blast.” The scout even ran into Hein later on

and, jumping next to him like a chess piece, declared “Check!” Parents were grateful. “Great speaker to start the Merit Badge Academy,” said Skip Doty of Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Facebook as the day began. “I like how they are starting this. [President Minnis] is talking about leadership, character, competence, trust, and commitment to greatness.” “Thanks for this great opportunity!” Stacy Stewart, a scouting mom from Texas, posted. “Troop 389 had a blast! Can’t wait for next year.” The day was the brainchild of Nolan McCall ’18. “It was really amazing to see hundreds of hours of work and preparation come to life,” he said. “And it was a great honor at the end of the day knowing that 136 Boy Scouts got closer to achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.” 2017-2018 Raven Review| 35

GO DETROIT TIGERS DRAFT RAVEN BASEBALL STAR

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On the final day of the 2018 MLB Amateur Draft, former Raven Baseball All-American Matthew Jarecki heard his named called as the Detroit Tigers selected him in the 37th round with the 1,095 overall pick. “I was at my house listening to the draft tracker all day hoping for some good news,” said Jarecki. “I was getting a little discouraged.” But then, at around 3:30 pm, “One of the scouts who had been looking at me called me and he’s like, ‘Are you ready to ride baseball off into the sunset for as long as you can?’” Jarecki said, “Yeah, I want to do this. I really do.” He said, “Alright, be listening.” Jarecki turned on the audio of the draft tracker at his parents’ home and waited. When he heard his name, “My mom and my sister were there and they started crying. I was just kind of like in shock.” First, he called his father. Then he called his girlfriend. Jarecki joins a short list of Ravens to hear their names called during the MLB Draft as he became just the fifth player to be drafted. It was a long time coming. “I’ve been playing baseball since I was 5,” he said. He advanced from t-ball, through coach pitch, kid pitch, competitive leagues and on into high school, where he got off to a slow start. “I was disappointed my junior year, and that really set a fire in me,” he said. “I thought I should have made varsity but I didn’t.” After great success in his senior year, he started thinking about the major leagues. “In high school it’s every kid’s dream to play pro ball, but I wasn’t highly recruited for any college, so I just focused on, ‘I want to play college baseball first, that’s the first step.’” Benedictine gave him his chance. “On the visit I fell in love with Benedictine and the coaches really liked me,” he said. He got a scholarship and “There wasn’t any competition. I love Benedictine. I love the Catholic view that it has. I love the culture, the community

… It felt really good,” he said. The fans loved him too. Jarecki was a four-time first-team All-Heart selection during his time at Benedictine. He was named the Heart Player of the Year in 2017 while also earning first-team NAIA All-American honors. He was also named a 2018 NAIA Preseason All-American heading into his senior year. In addition to first-team all-conference honors this past season, Jarecki was also named a 2018 Heart Baseball Rawlings Gold Glove winner. Jarecki leaves Benedictine ranked first in career at-bats (686), single-season runs scored (72), career runs scored (204), career hits (276), career RBIs (173) career doubles (62), single-season home runs (21), single-season hit-by-pitch (22) and career hit-by-pitch (52). His .402 career batting average and his 202 career games played ranks second. “Detroit is getting an outstanding young man,” said Doc Beeman, who recruited Jarecki to Benedictine and served as head coach during his first season as a Raven. “I could not be more proud of the work Matt put in to earn this opportunity. I look forward to following his progress on this journey.” Jarecki appreciates everything Benedictine did for him. He called Benedictine College “a small school that felt like a big school, with all the buildings as beautiful as they are. It was a small school that was spread out. It was a community within a college.” The whole experience touched him. “I grew in my faith immensely at the college,” he said. “The community and the

culture there are not pushing you necessarily toward the faith, but it is there if you want it. I would go to confession at least once a month. I would try to go to daily Masses.” He also grew as a scholar, graduating cum laude in Biology with the goal of medical school. “I loved all the professors,” he said. “They really helped shape me as a student and encouraged me to go beyond the classroom and textbook and try to figure out things on my own.” How far will he go in the majors? Jarecki doesn’t know. “I don’t want to measure my success in baseball as how far I make it. I want to measure my success in how I have grown as a person,” he said. Whether it is 15 years from now or next year, he said, “I want to walk off the field with no regrets. … Someday with my kids I can tell them that success isn’t based in how far you’ve been in life, it’s what you’ve done with the opportunities that you’ve had in life.” 2017-2018 Raven Review| 37

St. Gregory’s students find new life as

RAVENS

he sad news spread like a dark cloud: St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Okla. — a sister Benedictine school — was closing.

In an article for the Cardinal Newman Society, Mary Grace Dostalik described how the news hit on campus. “On Nov. 8, 2017, I sat on the floor of St. Gregory’s Abbey surrounded by some of my closest friends,” she wrote. “We had just learned that our school, St. Gregory’s University, would be ‘suspending operations’ at the end of the fall semester. After hearing the news, we went to the church to pray and ask God for guidance as our futures seemed unknown. The news broke my heart.” Two months later, the Plano, Texas, sophomore was continuing her story in Atchison, Kansas, as an Evangelization and Catechesis major, minoring in Dance and Journalism. She was one of 22 transfers from St. Gregory’s the college welcomed in Spring 2018. “Benedictine College was the first — and really only — school that I thought of when I heard that St. Gregory's was closing,” Dostalik said. “The college did a wonderful job in helping me figure out financial aid, scholarships, and housing during this uncertain time. The school was very understanding and generous.” Benedictine College had started reaching out to students as soon as the news broke that the school of 656 students would close. “We would like to extend our assistance and support in helping St. Gregory’s University students successfully complete their degrees on time,” John Krebsbach, Benedictine College’s Director of Transfer Enrollment, said in a letter to students. “We will accept all of your St. Gregory’s University classes. If you transferred in any classes to St. Gregory’s, we will transfer in all of those classes to Benedictine College, too.” Teresa Ambuul, a sophomore from Colorado Springs, Colo., was grateful for another effort Benedictine made: A bump in the college’s nursing enrollment.

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ST. GREGORY'S UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

Nursing director Bill Buron not only had the Kansas State Board of Nursing approve an increase in the total number of nursing students at Benedictine by nearly 50 percent, but the state had approved a “temporary swell” to accommodate St. Gregory’s transfers. That made Benedictine an option for Ambuul, who intends to be a nurse. “When Benedictine College came they made it clear that they would work with us, for school, financial aid, and sports,” she said. “It was very comforting to have people from Benedictine that were not just in the sea of representatives at the transfer fair.” Integrating into a new community was not as straightforward. “Transferring is always difficult aside from special circumstances,” said Dostalik. “Since I didn't actually choose to transfer, it has not been easy. However, I recognize the incredible experiences that Benedictine offers.” She said the biggest hurdle was transferring in the spring, when activities and groups have already been set for the year.

“Benedictine College was the first — and really only — school that I thought of when I heard that St. Gregory’s was closing.” Linda Henry ’81, Vice President of Residence Life, has been working to help overcome this hurdle. “We have our transfer orientation but we met with the St. Greg’s students separately,” she said. The Benedictine monks and sisters also reached out to St. Gregory transfers — the monks invited them to dinner and the sisters welcomed them into the Prayer Partners program. “These students are an impressive group,” said Henry. “They are student leaders, great students that really contributed to our community. I could see their appreciation and our appreciation melding. We were glad they were here and they were glad, too.” Ambuul, a track athlete, said that transfers are slowly but surely finding their home on campus. “I am grateful for the amazing Catholic life and how it is intertwined with the campus life. I can see the efforts that the school is making to form great students,” she said. She is especially grateful to her suitemates. “Living with seven other girls forces you to make some friends and it was so fun when they popped into my room to say Hi,” she said. “When I would hear them goofing off in the lounge I felt way more at home.” BENEDICTINE COLLEGE CAMPUS

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A SEASON TO REMEMBER

A A O O O O OO

Ravens made history, playing in the NAIA Women’s Soccer Championship game for the first time history … but first came a roller-coaster season.

Expectations were high for the 2017 Women’s Soccer Team. But after climbing as high as No. 3 in the NAIA Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, the Ravens’ ranking fell as low as No. 19 before bouncing back. “This season was so special and memorable for countless reasons,” said senior midfielder Rosie McShane. “I think what I will remember most is how we came together and how our season brought so many other people together. It was incredible to feel the support of Raven Nation and connect with alumni, parents, family, friends, 40 | Raven Review 2017-2018

and even strangers through the beautiful game.” After starting the season with five straight wins, the Ravens closed out September with an overall record of 8-1-1 and 3-1-1 in Heart of America Athletic Conference play. After beginning October at 0-1-1, the season took a turn that would spark the program into a historical run. “About halfway through the season we had a tough loss and were experiencing a lot of adversity; it was really a make-or-break time,” McShane said. “It was frustrating because it felt like we were so close to being great but kept falling short. We had a players’ meeting about how a conference championship, let alone a national tournament appearance, were not going to be possible unless we changed our mentality. The way the team

responded with patient determination was incredible. After that, everyone gave a little more and we took the season one game at a time.” The team closed out the regular season outscoring their opponents 29-0 and stretched that shutout streak into the Heart Postseason Tournament finally giving up a goal in the opening round after holding their opponents scoreless for over 536 minutes. The team earned an opening-round win and earned two more shutout victories to propel them to their fourth straight Heart Postseason Championship and an automatic berth into the NAIA National Tournament. Despite the late-season success and a convincing opening round win to send the program back to Orange Beach, Ala., for the fourth straight season, the Ravens were still viewed as the outsiders headed into play in Orange Beach. “This year’s tournament was different than from of our previous trips because the teams at this tournament did not

L L L L A A AA believe that we should be there,” said senior defender Madison Sanders. “We heard about several coaches telling their teams that this game would be easy and that they have it in the bag. This fueled the fire for us and we were determined to prove just how much we were meant to be there. From the moment we stepped foot on the bus in Atchison to the moment we stepped off the field in the championship game, every single player, coach, and fan was all in.” Before they played for the program’s first national title, they had to knock down some pretty steep hurdles. The first hurdle was against tournament host, the University of Mobile, which resulted in a 1-0 win for the Ravens. The second hurdle came against Martin Methodist, the top-ranked team in the country heading into the tournament, which resulted in a Shootout victory. The third hurdle came in the national semifinals where they took on William Carey and resulted in another 1-0 win for Benedictine. Mobile, Martin Methodist, and

William Carey shared the Southern States Athletic Conference championship and the Ravens stepped up to answer the call knocking the trio off in three straight matches to send the program into their first-ever title match. In addition, Martin Methodist and William Carey spent a combined nine weeks at No. 1 in the NAIA Top 25 Coaches’ Poll. While the historical run ended short of the NAIA Championship, that fact did not ruin the experience of what the program accomplished. “To me, the whole season was memorable,” Sanders said. “All of the practices, games, team dinners, and the laughs we shared played a role in this memorable season. To pick one part is impossible because every aspect of this team and of this season played a role. [Our team] is not your normal team; we definitely know how to have fun and we have a pretty great coach that will join in with us. “So many parents, friends, and administration from the school came to support us as we continued to

climb in the tournament. The support that we were given from the students and professors at the school and other Benedictine College teams is something that we will all cherish for the rest of our lives. The experiences that we encountered at the tournament this year were unbelievable and no words could ever describe how we felt in that moment but to share it with this group of girls is something pretty special.” “Having so much support at Orange Beach was incredible,” McShane said. “There were so many parents and family members there from the start. Making it to the national championship was a complete team effort. We experienced a lot of challenges this year but the team's unity, belief, and grit was unlike it had ever been before.” In the end, the team finished with an overall record of 19-3-3 and the highest ranking in program history. The senior class finishes their careers with an overall record of 80-11-5 to go along with three Heart Championships, four Heart Postseason Championships, and four straight NAIA National Championship appearances. 2017-2018 Raven Review| 41

Bards Behind Bar Dr. Scott Cox is no stranger to directing diverse groups of actors, but his thespian troupe comprised solely of inmates might be the most Unexpected. system. “My father was in prison from the Cox has served as the Chair of the Benedictine College Department of Theatre and Dance since 2012. Typically, you find him teaching in St. Benedict Hall, but on Monday evenings you will find him rehearsing under lock-and-key with the Living Shakespeare program at Lansing Correctional Facility in Lansing, Kansas. Living Shakespeare is one of many programs offered by Arts in Prison, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1998 for the purpose of using “the arts to inspire positive change in the incarcerated, to reduce recidivism, and to reconnect ex-offenders with their communities.” Each year, Living Shakespeare produces one full-length show. “I call it Living Shakespeare because [the prisoners] are learning to live new lives through his words and his characters,” says Cox. Inspiration for the program came to Cox in graduate school after viewing the documentary Shakespeare Behind Bars. The film follows an unlikely cast of inmates at the Luther Luckett Correctional Facility in Louisville, Kentucky, as they band together to produce The Tempest. The impact of the film was instant. “I was arrested by it. I was moved … it was a pretty clarion call to mission for me,” recalls Cox. This calling was personal, rooted in his family’s past experience with the prison 42 | Raven Review 2017-2018

time I was 11 until I was 25 years old. He had taken advantage of many educational opportunities in prison. He ended up completing a degree in Theology and taught himself Greek and Aramaic. He bettered himself.” Initially, Cox contacted the Missouri Department of Corrections seeking permission to begin a new Shakespeare program in the Kansas City area. His calls were met with a year of silence, prompting Cox to begin exploring program options in Kansas. That’s when he stumbled upon the Arts in Prison program led by Leah Lynch. Her answer was “I call it Living Shakespeare an instant “yes.” because [the prisoners] are Unbeknownst to Cox, the prisoners learning to live new lives through had requested his words and his characters,” a Shakespeare program a few months prior. “It was predestined,” says Lynch. Within a month, Cox walked through the doors of the Lansing Correctional Facility, script in hand. It was fall 2011. A small ensemble came together for his inaugural show, Macbeth. During the rehearsal process the men left labels at the door to collaborate to interpret the text together. Their goal is to make the more than 400-year-old words come to life in

Inmate actors (names changed in story). Photo courtesy of Arts in

a new way, their way. This is the same process a Benedictine College student would use in rehearsal. “It’s about communicative skills, problem-solving skills,” says Cox. “It’s the skills that naturally come from Theatre.” As the play develops, deeper lessons seep to the surface of Shakespeare’s words. Some inmates find a new fictional ally when a character parallels their life journey. Others are faced with a palpable lesson in empathy as they reenact a crime from the victim’s point of view. These lessons, coupled with the collaborative nature of the program, have planted seeds of positive change into the lives of the inmates. Cox has a collection of stories about the men who’ve been impacted by the program, but a few

stories stand out from the rest. “The best thing that ever happened was Nick my first year,” says Cox. “[He] came into rehearsal one day… he was a scary lookin’ white dude.” With hesitancy, he read a section of the script and blew Cox away. “And then I couldn’t help it. I just said, ‘Well, you are remarkable,’” Cox says, “because he was. And the look on his face, it made my heart soar because he just smiled at me like a man that probably hadn’t smiled in four years. He just lit up.” Nick landed the part of Malcolm in Macbeth. The rehearsal process revealed Nick’s own character. “He was a self-confessed former white supremacist—with the tattoos to prove it,” recalls Cox. The

show required him to work closely with black cast mates. By opening night, Cox witnessed something radical; Nick embracing his fellow actors. In a postseason survey Nick wrote, “I just spent the best part of a year with a great group of guys that would not normally be in my circle of friends. That in itself made the experience outstanding.” The Living Shakespeare program brought change to his previously held views. The transcendence of theatre, even amid the confinement of prison, gives the men a new sense of dignity. Cox remembers when Chris, a young black man slated to be released in one year, first tried on his costume for Macbeth. “He wasn’t talking to me. He was rubbing the pants …the silk… the nice 2017-2018 Raven Review| 43

pants that he got to wear. Like a real man’s pants. A free man’s pants. And I heard him say under his breath, ‘When I put these pants on I feel free.’” Chris, along with the company, lined the stage for bows after the show. The applause from the mixed audience of inmates and civilians still rings in Cox’s memory. “Every single person in that room just leapt to their feet, the applause was egregious. And he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘no one has ever applauded for me before.’” There have been five productions since Macbeth, each with a standing ovation. Dr. Terry Malloy, Chair of the Biology Department, experienced a similar applause when he saw The Tempest in 2013. He was surprised how well the inmates performed. “They were good. They were good at it and enjoying it,” says Malloy. “The value was undeniable … [the show] gave these guys confidence. It was helping them identify with something else. And giving them direction.” After each show the cast hosts a meet and greet with the audience. Malloy remembers it well. “I’m shaking the hands of people I don’t know who’ve done what. I’m thanking them and congratulating them. They are happy and have done a great job…and then I got to leave, and they don’t.” Struck by his experience, Malloy returned as a volunteer biology professor in the prison’s associate degree program. Today, Living Shakespeare the group looks a bit different due to the impending construction of a brand new Lansing Correctional Facility. Many members of the original casts were relocated to other prisons. “We had a core group… now we are starting from ground zero,” says recent graduate Angela Lorang, ’16, who became involved with the program her senior year. She volunteers weekly alongside her responsibilities in the Teach for 44 | Raven Review 2017-2018

Inmate actors. Photo courtesy of Arts in Prison

America program as a Speech and make an impact. “I’m not a politician Debate Teacher for Raytown Middle or lobbyist. I’m an actor.” states School. Lorang. “This is how I can make a “This program perfectly fits my difference.” personal mission,” says Lorang. A difference Leah Lynch, director of A mission that fuses her love for the Arts in Prison, can already see. “Lives performing arts and her have been changed for sure,” Catholic faith. “Art in “The people who says Lynch. Living Shakespeare corporal works of mercy “is a great representation of need mercy the is very important.” why we need more programs in most are the ones prison.” She acknowledges the Instead of a fulllength show, Cox and program might be controversial who deserve it Lorang chose to focus on to some; however, that doesn’t language development the least.” negate the fact that more and blocking for a selection of scenes than 10,000 prisoners are released and monologues this season. “Scott’s from prisons each week. “Many brilliant at this. He understands of these men become members of Shakespeare and people. It’s like communities, maybe even your having an encyclopedia available,” neighbor. That’s why the skills they says Lorang. develop [through Living Shakespeare] Like Cox, she too has found matter." personal growth through interacting For Cox, the philosophy of the with the inmates. “I need the Living Shakespeare program can be Shakespeare program…I get a lot of summed up in a quote from Leonard life out of the program,” says Lorang. Ford, an inmate featured in the She also feels she’s witnessed injustices documentary Shakespeare Behind within the prison and the broader Bars. “The people who need mercy justice system. By working with the the most are the ones who deserve it men face-to-face Lorang hopes to the least.”

Order your Raven Wine Today! All proceeds go to Student Scholarships: Benedictine.edu/wine

n 2015, Katie Wagner graduated from Benedictine College with a degree in Business Management. Just three years and one Benedictine MBA degree later, she opened her own business, a coffee shop in Atchison called The Sunflower Coffee Shop. Wagner is a native Atchisonian whose mother owns Jerry’s Again restaurant in town. At 10, she washed dishes in soccer cleats after games. At 15, she began waiting tables. She knew from personal experience how restaurants ran — but at Benedictine she learned how to run a restaurant. “You kind of develop your own style as a business person through hands-on learning,” she said. “But the college education really helped me with the accounting and finance part of the business. I was not big on that and I needed to learn.” She used that background and the help of another Benedictine alumnus, Justin Pregont ’09, Atchison assistant city manager, to acquire a business start-up loan through

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Atchison’s E-Community Program. With additional financing through personal investment and other business loans, she was ready to get started. The next challenge was in designing the space. She said construction was tricky because she was dealing with a completely open area. That meant she had to decide on everything from where walls would go to where outlets should be placed. “There was an old barn being torn down in Lancaster, so I have authentic barnwood on the walls,” she said. “My mom was key in the overall layout. She said you’ll need a sink here, health inspections-wise you need to have this, and things like that. It was really nice to have her there.” One Atchisonian well-wisher gave her an authentic photo of Amelia Earhart by the aviator’s personal photographer, tying the shop to the city’s history. The next step was hiring the staff. Although she

planting a

Seed in the world of business

has hired a couple of high school students to work at the shop, the majority of Wagner’s staff comes from Benedictine College. “They’ve taken a lot of ownership in the place,” she said. “Since we’re so new, they feel like they’ve grown with it. It just seems like they’re really happy and proud to be here, and that makes a big difference.” Katie Minicky, a senior at Benedictine College, started work at The Sunflower just before the opening in January. “Katie is really personable,” Minicky said. “It’s very easy to feel relaxed around her. She’s a great boss.” What’s next? Wagner says catering, maybe — or perhaps teaching other Benedictine entrepreneurs at her alma mater. The Sunflower Coffee Shop, at 115 N. 5th St. in Atchison, is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

2017-2018 Raven Review| 47

Recent books by Benedictine College professors show the wide scope of scholarship on campus.

Implementing the Expressive Therapies Continuum: A Clinical Practice Guide by Sandra Graves and Christa Kagin, Benedictine College Art chair. This art therapy book provides a number of activities that a therapist can use to benefit students or clients. “Graves and Kagin have provided clinicians with a carefully sequenced, powerful, and elegant method that will deepen clients’ expressive capacities and personal exploration,” wrote Yale professor David Read Johnson. Positively Medieval by Dr. Jamie Blosser, Theology. Dr. Blosser takes on common misperceptions about Medieval Christianity, which he says were not made up of “superstitious peasants and relic-hawking clergy” but were years filled with dynamic Catholic leaders and thinkers grappling with times uncannily like our own. “Their energetic response to very dark times will inspire you to meet today's challenges,” says the publisher. Dan England and the Noonday Devil and The Bump on Brannigan’s Head by Myles Connolly; introduction and notes by Stephen Mirarchi PhD, English. Dr. Mirarchi has been named series editor by Cluny press, finding and reprinting classic Catholic literature with up-to-date scholarly introductions and annotations. This has included works by author and Hollywood screenwriter/producer Myles Connolly, whose novels are offbeat examinations of the struggle for sanctity. Jesus Interpreted: Benedict XVI, Bart Ehrman, and the Historical Truth of the Gospels by Dr. Matthew Ramage, Theology. This book addresses perplexing Biblical passages from Christ’s divinity to the Resurrection, from the Magi visiting the crib to the Good Friday earthquake. Using a wide variety of scholarly work as evidence, Ramage makes the case that the Biblical proclamation of the faith may not be historical in precisely the way critics like Bart Ehrman wants it to be, but that it is reliable and accurate all the same.

From Theology to Therapy, From the Devil to the Dominican Republic Campus Authors Cover It All

Christian Moral Life: Directions for the Journey to Happiness, by Dr. John Rziha, Theology. “Dr. Rziha’s book satisfies the long-awaited hope for a suitable textbook for students and professors of moral theology that is both robustly Catholic and rigorously academic from cover to cover,” writes Michael G. Sirella at Franciscan University of Steubenville. The book starts from the premise that to take a journey, even a moral one, travelers must know where they are, where they are going, and how to get there.

The Modern Bachateros: 27 Interviews by Dr. Julie Sellers, Spanish. Associate Professor of World and Classical Languages Dr. Sellers is a specialist in Latin American popular culture and identity. In this book, 27 artists share their personal and collective insights into how modern bachata music provides an intimate representation of what it means to be Dominican, Latino, multicultural, and bilingual in a transnational setting.

Spiritual Survival in the Modern World: Insights from C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters by Dr. Andrew Dean Swafford, Theology. In this book, Dr. Swafford looks at C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters and applies its lessons to daily Christian struggles. The book’s life began as a discussion with students. His work is perfect for those who have been fascinated by the clever “letters from the devil” that Lewis wrote, and eager to explore how to live their lessons in the 21st century.

2016 Raven Review| 49

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