STILLPOINT Spring 2019

SPRING 2019

THE MAGAZINE OF GORDON COLLEGE

STILLPOINT

A Vision for Vocation—Reorienting Our Lives to God’s Redemptive Purpose PAGE 18

Also Also in This in Issue This Issue 15 Greg 7 Keller: New Board Arcticof Initiative Trustees Fulbright Chair 8Scholar Celebrating 36 Economics Roger Green and 37 Business 16,000Dept.

Stories Turns 50

GOING THE EXTRA MILE

FOR STUDENT-ATHLETES Thanks to the generosity of a couple of key supporters, the College invested in a much-needed rehabilitation of the Brigham track and turf, which now features prominent Gordon Athletics blue branding. The upgrade to a 300-level series makes the track one of only 20 in New England that meet a high standard of collegiate quality. The multilayer construction is designed to give Gordon’s nearly 200 varsity athletes a better training, conditioning and team-building experience with a lower potential risk of repetitive stress injuries.

EQUIP Weeklong faith

ELEVATE A weeklong

formation for high school

leadership lab for high school

sophomores and juniors

juniors and seniors

A Summer Well Spent Gordon isn’t just for college students. Campus comes to life during the long summer days with programs that foster character and spiritual development for elementary through high school aged students.

gordon.edu/summers

LA VIDA ADVENTURE CAMP An adventure-packed

ATHLETIC CAMPS Fun

week for 10- to 15-year-olds

sports and age groups

COMPASS High school leadership development

LA VIDA ADIRONDACK LEADERSHIP PROGRAM

through wilderness, theology

A 10-day wilderness experience

and ministry

for 15- to 18-year olds

programming for dozens of

CONTENTS FEATURE

IN EACH ISSUE Up Front with 6 President Lindsay On Purpose

Inspiration 7

Ingrid Orellana ’15 International Student Office Manager

Student Spotlight 8 Anthony Katoto ’19

10 On the Grapevine

Campus news and happenings

14 Faculty Work

Sabbaticals, Fulbright Scholarship and two-year Oxford fellowship

PAGE 18

38 Class Notes

Alumni news and stories

VOCATION: FINDING OUR PLACE IN GOD’S STORY

by Jennifer Brink, Sharon Ketcham and Corey McLellan VOCATION AS How vocation shakes out in the lives of Gordon faculty, staff and alumni

ARTICLES Reading 34 Revolutionizing in Liberia After Ebola sidelined her plans, Ollie White ’18 completed her degree and launched a school.

“I believe what we do says a lot about who we are. As a Christian my hope for my vocation is to always empower others.”

Jacques Erasmus ’19, international business and psychology double major, technical specialist at Apple

36 ECB@50

Celebrating five decades of the Economics and Business Department.

IT’S YOUR TURN TO WRITE! We want to hear from you—please take a moment to complete the readership survey on page 47 (or visit www.gordon.edu/stillpointreadership to take the survey online). Your feedback is important and helps us continue to improve STILLPOINT.

Scan to go to our online survey

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UP FRONT with President Lindsay

On Purpose “Pull quote goes here. Num veleseq uismodignim zzriuscil doluptat. Cum nos duis nulput digna con volenim ent augait wis nit aut aliqui blan.”

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” —Frederick Buechner As a faculty member at Rice University some years ago, I investigated the country’s most effective leadership development program for young people.

After researching major universities, leading private-sector firms and government entities at the local and federal levels, I discovered the White House Fellowship. It has produced more senior leaders for American society than any other program in the last 50 years.

The strength of the program lies in the interconnectedness of its key elements: personal mentorship by a top official, substantive work projects, regular opportunities to interact with senior leaders in different sectors and a tightly-knit cohort experience. The White House Fellowship program not only gives young people a seat at the table, but it also equips them to set the table in their industry.

When I came to Gordon in 2011, I began looking for opportunities to emulate the benefits of the White House Fellowship in a similarly effective leadership development program for

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college students. It was during that time that I met Ken Hallenbeck ’12.

Ken was president of the Gordon College Student Association during my inaugural year as College president, so our paths often crossed.

A double major in philosophy and biology, Ken researched spotted salamanders with Dr. Dorothy Boorse (biology) and served on the board of directors for the American Chemical Society student chapter. He completed a biochemistry and molecularpharmacology internship in Boston (which laid the groundwork for his National Science Foundation-funded Ph.D. work). And as a student-athlete, he impressively broke a five-minute mile during his first race on the Gordon track team.

I recruited Ken to work in my office in an intense mentorship program that included substantive work experience.

He was, in effect, a prototype for what would become the Gordon Presidential Fellows program.

president@gordon.edu

Since then, Gordon has welcomed seven cohorts of Presidential Fellows, each consisting of 8 to 10 top students with exceptional potential. And while we often hear anecdotes about the program’s impact on its alumni’s work, community and home life, this year the benefits became even clearer.

In the fall we released findings from a three-year study on the Gordon Presidential Fellows program—currently the only college-based leadership program modeled on the esteemed White House Fellowship. Funded by the John Templeton Foundation and conducted by sociologist Pat Hastings of Colorado State University, the study found that Gordon Fellows develop a greater sense of purpose, a deeper understanding of what makes life meaningful, an increased spirit of altruism and heightened social support from friends.

Over the course of the one-year program, Fellows report an increase in levels of optimism about their likelihood of finding personal and

www.gordon.edu/president

Twitter: @GordonPres

IN EACH ISSUE

INSPIRATION professional fulfillment, and about the professional opportunities available to them. They are better able to articulate a clear career trajectory and a plan to achieve their long-term goals in life; more inclined to volunteer, engage in family activities and help others; less likely to describe themselves as rebellious; and more likely to be described as respectful. You can read more about the Templeton study at www.gordon.edu/ fellowsresearch.

I am proud of this program and its transformative effect on students. It’s one of many reasons why Gordon stands apart as a place where students are better prepared for a greater purpose—one that transcends a first job out of college and encompasses all of life.

With the official launch of the new Career and Connection Institute (CCI), these types of experiences are expanding in scope and availability here at Gordon. CCI’s holistic approach to personal and professional development is a campuswide effort— bridging curricular and co-curricular, faculty and staff, classroom learning and real-world experience—for the purpose of helping students discern and lean into their callings.

And it’s prompting us to take a hard look at the topic of vocation together. On page 18, you’ll get insight into these conversations, as several faculty, staff and alumni share their take. It is truly a blessing—to us and to the world—to see the widely varied gifts and passions of our students manifested in their equally varied callings.

Sister, Encourager, Prayer Warrior Ingrid Orellana ’15, International Student Office Manager When Ingrid Orellana came to Gordon in 2011, she was one of a couple dozen incoming international students, and the only Latin American in her cohort. She was ready to study business administration, graduate and then return to her home in El Salvador to take over the family business.

Orellana’s natural leadership and charisma led her to develop the International Student Organization, International Orientation program and an international mentorship program at Gordon. And in the process, she discovered a love for her fellow international students and a desire to shepherd new cohorts through the process of acclimating to the United States and to Gordon.

Granted an additional year by the government to remain and work in the U.S. following graduation, Orellana wanted to give back to the College. After her original plans to work at Gordon fell through, she got another call. With International Orientation set to begin in two weeks and the International Student Office manager position suddenly open, Orellana’s expertise was needed. “I think that the Lord was teaching me to just trust and let go of my plan, and give him room to give me the perfect thing,” she says.

Now in her third year on the job, Orellana is a sister, encourager and prayer warrior, overseeing care for international students and helping them ease into a new culture. Over the summer, that means she’s organizing a drive for student bedding, and in the winter for warm outerwear. As classes begin, she’s helping set up bank accounts.

Every fall, of course, she’s introducing students to the New England tradition of apple picking. And once a year she’s hosting a banquet to celebrate each student’s culture.

No matter the day or the task, though, Orellana delights daily in Gordon’s multicultural mosaic.

D. Michael Lindsay is the eighth president of Gordon College and professor of sociology. He and his current Fellows—Davis Metzger ’19 and Michael Tucker ’20—regularly enjoy Saturday lunches at Chipotle and talking about everything from Boston sports teams to American politics.

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SPOTLIGHT

Anthony Katoto ’19 PLACES FOR TRUTH TELLING THERE ARE SOME PLACES BETTER LEFT PRIVATE. A DOCTOR’S OFFICE, A JURY ROOM, A PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCE, A MARRIAGE COUNSELING SESSION: IF THESE PLACES BECAME PUBLIC, THEY WOULD NO LONGER FEEL SAFE. WHEN THERE’S LITTLE PROTECTION, LITTLE IS SAID. THIS IS A STORY OF HOW SAFE PLACES GET MADE. Anthony Katoto ’19 was born and raised in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the capital city, Kinshasa—a city known for its music scene, its star NBA athlete Mutombo Dikembe and being the second largest French-speaking city in the world.

There, Anthony grew up eating “real Belgian waffles,” he says, enjoying his big family, and occasionally starring in music videos for musicians like Gaël and Mike Kalambay. Because Anthony’s father worked as a Christian music producer with KIN-EXPRESS Productions, artists would film music videos at his house and they always needed extras. Each summer his father’s job took Anthony and the entire family to Belgium, so Anthony spent much of his life betwixt these two countries.

As Anthony recounts his own story, he includes the DRC’s history, from its early kingdoms to independence, ultimately homing in on a critical moment in the middle—the rise of the Atlantic slave trade and Belgian occupation.

“Belgium and my country share a history,” Anthony begins. “Just before the Scramble for Africa—a time when European countries each took a different part of Africa—King Leopold II of Belgium took my country.”

As the rubber trade boomed, so began decades of slavery, exploitation and

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exposure to fatal diseases. Half of the population of the Congo Free State (now the DRC)—roughly 10 million people— was killed under King Leopold II. But on the other side of the Atlantic, there were people who would not stand idly by while one of history’s greatest crimes unfolded.

A few years into Belgian rule, the first generations of Gordon students were preparing to go and serve in the Congo Free State—as part of College founder A. J. Gordon’s vision.

Anthony tells of King Leopold II’s crimes because he’s profoundly aware of how these historical events play out in the present, and how they not only managed to drive whites and blacks apart but also blacks and blacks apart.

After graduating from high school in the DRC, Anthony moved to U.S. for a year to learn English at the University of Chicago’s English Language Institute.

He lived in a dorm so he could get more exposure to American culture and, coincidentally, African American culture through his roommate, Jalen. In living with Jalen, Anthony confronted some of his own media-fueled stereotypes as well as a notion he’d inherited from his parents’ generation that still asserted African Americans had lost their cultural identity after years of slavery in America.

“People don’t realize that outside of black versus white issues, there are issues within the black community,” says Anthony. “There is a lot of animosity and division between African Americans, Africans and people from the Caribbean.

The roots of those issues go straight back to the Atlantic slave trade.”

When Anthony came to Gordon, he wanted to take part in bringing together the greater black community, so he and his friend Emmanuel Appiah-Mensah ’18 cofounded a student club at Gordon called A.F.R.O. Hamwe. Hamwe is a Kinyarwandan word that translates to “unity,” and A.F.R.O stands for “All For Reclaiming Our.” Together, they are “all for reclaiming our unity.”

“We are creating a safe space,” he says, “where students of African descent can share their experiences and views on social, political, historical and religious topics. We needed a space where we could be unapologetically black.

Healing is found in letting the part of us that has been repressed come out.”

In a time of trying to make space for everyone at the table, Anthony is carving out the corners of the room for more private conversations that must take place first—so that all feel welcome.

IN EACH ISSUE

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NEWS: ON THE GRAPEVINE

CAMPUS NEWS AND HAPPENINGS

PROGRAM

Graduate Leadership to Launch Atlanta Cohort in Summer 2019 Due to the number of students enrolling from the Southeast, Gordon will launch an Atlanta-based cohort this summer for students enrolled in the graduate leadership program.

“Given that the Atlanta metro-area has the highest concentration of Christian schools anywhere in the United States, it makes strategic and missional sense for Gordon’s graduate leadership program to expand its reach to this area of the country,” said Dr. David Tilley, senior advisor to the program.

Career and Calling Conference features Bethany Jenkins

RESEARCH

Templeton Study Reflects Favorably on Gordon Presidential Fellows The results of a three-year study on the Gordon Presidential Fellows program and its impact on increasing the sense of purpose in college students were presented during the 2018 Homecoming and Family Weekend. The study, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and conducted by sociologist Pat Hastings of Colorado State University, found that over the course of the program, Fellows enhance not only their professional skills but personal virtues as well. Through substantive work alongside the President’s Cabinet, cohort discussions and educational experiences, Fellows develop an increased sense of purpose, responsibility, wisdom and relational aptitude. The Gordon Presidential Fellows program is the only college-based leadership program modeled after the esteemed White House Fellowship.

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Throughout a day of networking, résumé workshops, mock interviews and honest conversation about common post-college struggles, 100 Gordon students gained professional insights from over 30 professionals from companies including Spotify, Harvard Medical School and Goldman Sachs as part of the third Calling and Career Conference. During the keynote address, Bethany Jenkins of the Veritas Forum and The Gospel Coalition encouraged students to think about their calling more broadly—as that which lends itself to the service of others. “What can I do to serve my neighbor in the work I’m called to do?” Jenkins challenged.

ON THE GRAPEVINE

You don’t need to wait until STILLPOINT arrives to get the latest on Gordon. News and stories are published all year long on the College blog, The Bell (named for the iconic structure that sits just outside the A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel). stories.gordon.edu

A Focus on the Future Work Ahead: Ready for 2030 is a new initiative, under the leadership of former trustee chair Kurt Keilhacker, designed to prepare students for the future of work.

First-year students will be 30 years old in 2030, and by some estimates, more than two-thirds of them will work in careers and roles that don’t exist today. Leveraging the expertise of faculty and senior advisors— including Pat Gelsinger of VMWare; Starbucks Chairman Mike Ullman; Heather Templeton Dill of the John Templeton Foundation; Rosa Whitaker, founder and president of The Whitaker Group; author and pastor Sam Rodriguez; and others—the Work Ahead initiative is laying the groundwork for the College’s next strategic plan, offering direction as to what knowledge, skills and aptitudes are needed in order for these students to thrive in future workplaces. A series of TED Talkstyle events featuring thought leaders will offer insight into the initiative’s research and findings.

Milestone Years for Art, Theatre, Clarendon and JAF Thanks to program pioneers Bruce Herman, Norm Jones, Nick Rowe and Tal Howard, Gordon had many anniversaries to celebrate. This academic year, the Department of Theatre Arts and the Department of Art turned 30, and the Jerusalem and Athens Forum and Clarendon Scholars program turned 15.

To commemorate the occasion, several programs hosted alumni reunions during Homecoming and Family Weekend.

REMEMBERING A LEGACY

Gordon College Mourns the Loss of Sixth President Richard F. Gross Dr. Richard F. Gross, who served Gordon College for 25 years, including 16 as the College’s sixth president, passed away in November, 2018, at the age of 87. From 1967 to 1992, in his roles as dean, vice president and president, he guided the College through its centennial anniversary and to the cusp of the 21st century. Gross ushered in a new era of national recognition and respect for the institution, kindled by his commitment to faculty development and to improving the quality of Gordon’s academic programs.

Gross had an expansive view of Christian vocation and promoted a thoughtful Christian perspective on contemporary cultural issues. It was his desire to fully embrace the liberal arts and include each discipline in Christ’s injunction to “go into all the world.” For Gross, making a distinction between “secular” and “religious” work was not helpful nor scriptural. “At Gordon all of the liberal arts are at the service of Christ,” he wrote.

Since his passing, Gross’s indelible legacy continues to live on in the spirit of the College and in programs named in his honor, including the Richard F. Gross Fellows (a one-year program focused on justice in urban environments), the Dick and Jody Gross Servant-Leader Award for individuals who have demonstrated commitment to servant-leadership, and the Richard F. Gross Distinguished Lecture Series, which features prominent public officials, scholars and leaders representing a diversity of contemporary perspectives.

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Elaine Phillips and Sarita Kwok Installed as Endowed Chairs Gordon College honored Elaine Phillips (biblical studies) and Sarita Kwok (music) with prominent academic appointments in their respective departments. During 2018 Homecoming and Family Weekend, Phillips was installed as the second holder of the Ockenga Professorship in Biblical and Theological Studies. In November, Kwok became the inaugural holder of the new Adams Endowed Chair in Music, which was established this year through a generous donation by Stephen and Denise Adams.

SPEAKER

Bob Goff Brings Wisdom and Whimsy to Gordon Bob Goff, New York Times best-selling author of Love Does and Everybody, Always gave the keynote lecture at the 2018 Homecoming Awards: A Celebration of Faithful Leadership on September 28. From helping to build a school for girls in Afghanistan to arranging a parade for his neighborhood mailman, Goff’s stories illustrated many ways to “Just love people!”

Christmas at Gordon Maintaining much of last year’s charm and fanfare, Christmas at Gordon drew over 1,000 guests for the Christmas Gala and a full weekend of festivities— complete with a lighting festival, live nativity, wreath-making and performances from Hamilton Wenham School of Dance and Gordon’s Gospel Choir. For the first time, Christmas at Gordon invited local crafters to showcase and sell their original wares at the Christmas Market, where attendees could purchase handmade goods like knitted winter accessories and quilted items.

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ON THE GRAPEVINE

Gordon Launches Nursing Program with Curry College In partnership with Curry College, Gordon will offer a new dual-degree nursing program, beginning in the fall of 2019. Students will earn a Bachelor of Science in biology or kinesiology through a three-year curriculum at Gordon, and then complete a 16-month curriculum at Curry to earn their Bachelor of Science with a nursing major. Curry offers nursing students access to some of the world’s best academic medical facilities—including Boston Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Tufts Medical Center.

John Truschel Named New CFO Succeeding Mike Ahearn and interim CFO Gordon Hall, John Truschel assumed the role of vice president for finance and business development in December. Truschel now serves as a key member of the President’s Cabinet as the College’s chief financial officer.

He joins the College’s senior leadership after a distinguished career in the investment community, most recently serving as principal and portfolio manager at Mercer Investment Management.

Paul Turbiak ’05 Returns to Play C.S. Lewis in Freud’s Last Session In September, Los Angeles-based actor Paul Turbiak returned to campus to play C.S. Lewis in an off-Broadway production that imagined what would have happened were C.S. Lewis and Dr. Sigmund Freud to meet in September of 1939 as London prepared for the German airstrikes. Lewis and Freud (played by Paul Edwards, senior vice president for advancement) debated God’s existence and other controversial questions, reminding the audience that respectful dialogue can take place between people who hold vastly different opinions.

Renovations and Upgrades in Brigham, Jenks and Lane Extensive updates were made to the Brigham Athletic Complex, Jenks Library and Lane Student Center. Thanks to the generosity of several key supporters, the College invested in a much-needed rehabilitation of the Brigham track and turf (see page 2). The Career and Connection Institute is now housed in a prominent and newly configured space in Jenks Library, officially launching a new phase of personal and professional development for Gordon students (see page 22). And the food court area in Lane underwent a complete renovation to support the transition to new, all-inclusive dining plans.

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FACULTY WORK Oxford Fellowship

Last July, Evangeline Cornwell (second row, far right) and Andrew Logemann (back row, fourth from left) spent the first of two summers in Oxford conducting research on the relationship between science and faith. The fellowship includes 24 professors from the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

Science and Faith in Oxford Biotechnology and English literature may seem to be worlds apart, but Evangeline Cornwell (biology) and Andrew Logemann (English language and literature) are bridge-builders. They’re pooling their expertise as part of a larger endeavor to address the perceived divide between science and religion.

The professors are two of 24 scholars from schools in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities participating in a two-year fellowship hosted by Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford, with funding from the Templeton Religion Trust and the Blankemeyer Foundation.

Cornwell, Logemann and their peers spent July of 2018 in England for part one of the Oxford Interdisciplinary Seminars in Science and Religion: Bridging the Two Cultures of Science and the Humanities II, 2017–19.

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Over the course of two years, each participating professor is researching a particular angle within the overarching theme, with a holistic goal to better foster academic teachings and cultural conversations on the conference topic.

Cornwell explores the bioethics of gene editing, while Logemann considers the stories that literature, religion and science tell about the Earth in an age of climate change.

The fellowship includes two monthlong gatherings in Oxford (July of 2018 and 2019). With a focus on science and faith from a humanities perspective, the 2018 gathering emphasized the history, philosophies and trajectory of science, and its relationship with religion. The second gathering in July of 2019 will delve into the more technical scientific aspects.

The 2018 meeting was an intensive dive into research, with lectures and workshops

by guest experts—including theologian, scientist and intellectual historian Alister McGrath—as well as individual meetings with tutors and mentors.

In between the two summers, participating scholars are engaging their respective schools in the topic through lectures and events. With funding to support a lighter course load, Cornwell and Logemann are continuing their research with the help of students— Jonathan Chandra ’19 alongside Logemann, Kristiina Boettiger ’18 and Liza Antonelli ’21 alongside Cornwell.

Following the final gathering in July, Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford will host a conference for the presidents of each participating school to reflect upon and discuss how the topic plays out on their campuses.

FACULTY WORK

Fulbright Scholarship Chasing Wildlife in the Arctic For a time, an old cemetery in the heart of Reykjavik, Iceland, was Professor of Biology Greg Keller’s unexpected workplace. Despite relentless wind and rain, his (treacherous) study of redwings took him and a team up trees in search of nests—much to the confusion of locals and resentment of nesting birds.

“Everyone wanted to know what we were up to,” he says, “and they were excited to hear that their family’s gravesite was a good spot for nesting birds!”

Over a harsh winter and an equally cold spring and summer, Keller took his ornithology expertise across tundra and up cliffs in pursuit of eagles, puffins, songbirds and foxes. On a Fulbright Scholarship for the Arctic Initiative—a collaborative effort among researchers from North American and European Arctic nations to connect public policy and scientific research—Keller researched the effects of urbanization and habitat conversion on native woodland birds.

Due to the need for firewood and livestock fodder, woodlands in Iceland have been reduced from 25 to only 1 percent of the landscape. As a result, birds that use the native birch woods have declined significantly.

And because the stunted birches create pathways for damaging winds, the Icelandic government and local landowners are attempting to reduce erosion by planting thick coniferous forests, as well as parks and gardens that mimic forests.

Keller completed 150 surveys and conducted vegetation analyses to better understand these new habitats and their impact on avian communities and nesting success.

His research successfully led to a number of findings on species’ associations with habitats, and four out of eight species showing strong responses to urbanization.

While abroad on a Fulbright Scholarship with the Arctic Initiative, Keller volunteered with the Natural History Institute of Iceland to conduct surveys on rock ptarmigans and arctic foxes in the tundra, northern fulmars on rocky cliffs and white-tailed eagle chicks on isolated rocky islands. He also taught a conservation biology course at the University of Iceland and collaborated with a university colleague to study the effects of migratory patterns on parasite load of redwings.

“The Eurasian blackbird was more commonly found in urban areas,” he says, while “the meadow pipit was almost entirely found in rural environments, particularly when urbanization affected more than 60 percent of the landscape.”

“The sights, sounds and smells were unforgettable,” he says.

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Fall Semester Sabbaticals

Jeff Miller

Professor of Theatre Arts

Traveled to: Minnesota and Australia Directed three shows, including Freud’s Last Session at Gordon.

Opened Life Goes On, a new musical that grapples with death and grief.

Helped launch Joining the Dots Theatre Company in Australia by directing its debut play, W;t.

Led a read-through of Beneath the Heavens, a script-in-process about a Mongolian girl who, against odds, becomes the village wrestling champion.

The key to directing: Collaboration.

“You get fine artists and you try to bring out the best in everybody. Then you step back and let them do it.”

David Wick Professor of History

Area of expertise: Urban history Traveled to: Greece Wrote an article series on an attempt at religious revival in pre-Christian Rome, only 15 years before Christ. “You never expect to find that outside of Christianity, and it’s curiously close to Christ’s birth, like the desire for moral revival was in the air.”

Helped run the 2018 Conference on the Arts and Humanities, put on by the Athens Institute for Education as Research.

An interesting discovery: Ancient Athenian social media (though without modern technology) played a similar role in politics as it does today.

Tim Sherratt

Professor of Political Science

Area of expertise: American politics Researched the natures of gubernatorial and senatorial offices and their respective implications on campaigning for presidency.

An example: Was Governor Bill Clinton better prepared for the presidency than Senator Barack Obama?

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Considered presidents’ manner of pursuing policy goals; making appointments; taking advice; relating to Congress, party leaders and the public; and offering leadership.

The long-term goal: To compile his findings in a second book.

FACULTY WORK

Mindy Eichhorn

Mike Paul

Ian DeWeese-Boyd

Assistant Professor of Education

Associate Professor of Chemistry

Researched at the Boston Children’s Hospital Learning Disabilities Program.

Specialization: Computational chemistry

Professor of Philosophy and Education

The project: Using the Mathematics Diagnostic Prescriptive Inventory to evaluate the mathematical achievement and performance of students who have a suspected learning disability.

Conducted research at the University of Georgia.

Examined 150 student reports to identify the main source(s) of their learning challenges.

The outcome: Tailored interventions in mathematics.

Presented at the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, and the state and annual conferences of the Council for Exceptional Children.

Submitted a chapter to a book for middle and high school math teachers.

Worked alongside Henry Schaefer, an award-winning chemist with 1,600 peer reviewed papers and over 67,000 citations to his name.

Primary objective: To make progress developing small-scale fuel cells (selfsustaining batteries with the potential to transform the environmental impact of energy production). “In terms of climate change it would be really important to make these fuel cells work efficiently.”

Also analyzed ways to produce synthetic gas, which can be used to synthesize products including many pharmaceuticals.

Sybil Coleman

Explored: the problem of evil Case study: Julian of Norwich, a 14th-century Christian mystic. “Julian’s texts function to provide a place for those suffering to encounter Jesus as a suffering Savior in whom they can find consolation, if not explanation, for their wounds.”

Subject matter: Julian’s The Revelations of Divine Love and A Vision Showed to a Devout Young Woman.

Goal: Contribute to a holistic Christian perspective on the philosophy of suffering.

Also worked on the final phase of a grant to study dialogic pedagogy and intellectual humility.

Professor of Social Work

Researched the potential changes in the brain that are associated with electronic and digital device usage by children under the age of 10.

The goal: Inform and equip parents to help manage their child’s use of technology.

An interesting (and alarming) takeaway: “Giving your child a smart

phone is like giving them a gram of cocaine . . . Time spent messaging friends on Snapchat and Instagram can be just as dangerously addictive as drugs and alcohol, and should be treated as such.”

(Rachel Pells. The Independent, 2017.)

Claim to fame: In 2008, she became the first in her field to research this topic.

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recalibra te reCALIBRATE A Vision for Vocation—Reorienting Our Lives to God’s Redemptive Purpose

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A VISION FOR VOCATION

20 Vocation: FINDING OUR

PLACE IN GOD’S STORY

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24

Vocation as:

SAYING YES

LIVING INTO UNCERTAINTY

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FULLNESS

WORSHIP

RESILIENCE

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OBEDIENCE

31

ROOTEDNESS

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30

AN INVESTMENT

FREEDOM

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33

MESSINESS AND MOXIE

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VO vocation: C AT I O N : “What’s God’s plan for my life?” It’s a daunting question, and it never gets old. We ask it not only in college, but again and again as we move through changes and chapters in our lives. Along the way, it can take many different forms: The unsuspecting child who is asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The anxious college student who hears, “What’s your major?” or “What’s next after graduation?” Later in life, in our careers and raising families, we might ask whether we’re called to a certain place or to particular work.

All these important questions ultimately beg a foundational one: How do we discern our vocation or “calling”?

The Hebrew word avodah emphasizes the inseparability of our work, our worship and our service. This may be found in our paid employment, our career. For many of us, participating in God’s work unfolds not so much in career but in the places we find ourselves in our churches, families and communities, living in obedience to God throughout our lives.

Our understanding of ourselves and our vocation, then, stems from knowing God and seeing our own story within the larger biblical narrative.

CREATOR AND REDEEMER We stand on the shoulders of the early churches who declared God to be Creator in their creeds (“maker of heaven and earth”). They sought to establish God’s supremacy in a polytheistic world and maintain God (divine) as distinct from creation (created).

Creator God is without origin (Genesis 1:1), and all originates from God. God reigns over all, and, by implication, all belongs to God. This declaration establishes our identity. We are creatures. We are derived. God is the ground of our existence: “For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

God is eternal (Psalm 90:2), and we are finite, vulnerable and dependent.

These can feel like unwelcome claims in our context as we seek to discover our place in the world. Yet like the early churches, this is our hope: We are not our own. God declares creation “good” and we belong to our Creator (Revelation 4:11).

Creator God is also Redeemer. Creation is a beginning with both a trajectory and a telos. If Creator establishes God distinct from creation, Redeemer maintains that God is personally involved with creation (Genesis 12:2–3). Christ enters humanity and does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. On the cross, God pronounces judgement against sin, removes

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A VISION FOR VOCATION

FINDING OUR PLACE IN GOD’S STORY our guilt and liberates us from sin’s power. Today, Redeemer God continues to actively move through Christ and by the Spirit to bring all things to completion.

We are en route, and our lives find purpose within the redeeming purposes of God. Our vocational journey involves learning to march to the beat of Christ’s ongoing redemptive drum. Salvation is never from creation but for what God is redeeming in creation—you, me, the entire world.

(RE)ORIENTING Our God is one who creates and one who redeems—and likewise, we image-bearers and Christ-followers will consistently find ourselves responding to the call to do the same. Our broader vocation involves orienting our lives toward God and God’s redemptive purposes in the world.

We’re called to participate in God’s creative work: tending a garden, composing music, raising children, launching a new venture.

We’re also invited into God’s redeeming work by learning to embody love for God, one another and creation: welcoming the stranger, researching the complexity of immune function, pulling invasive plants from a saltmarsh. Living out this understanding of God’s call on our lives requires the whole of our lives.

Knowing that God loves and cares for every square inch of this world enables us to face an uncertain future with confidence. The world as we understand it now will change. In the future, many of us will have jobs that have yet to be conceived, new geopolitical challenges may emerge and, surely, we may face insurmountable personal challenges.

We “face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2) in our journey of obedience. Indeed, we know that the Christian life includes suffering in this world and at the same time there are signs of the in-breaking Kingdom all around. God, our Creator-Redeemer, is our hope and the one who sustains us. We respond in our lives.

LEARNING OUR CALLING In the light of this hope, our discernment process takes on new meaning. How do we know what we’re called to do? First of all, we learn to discern God’s movement in the world. Like any kind of practice, we get better at this over time. In everyday life, this requires responding to our Creator-Redeemer by being faithful where we are and in the places we find ourselves.

Be a neighbor, read the news, pray for others, do your work well, and be open to the Spirit’s leading.

As theologian Tod Bolsinger (father of Ali Bolsinger ’19) describes, vocation is formed, not found. We discern calling through the unfolding of life as we orient our lives to our Creator-Redeemer. This is what Eugene Peterson describes as the long and faithful obedience in the same direction.

Secondly, we work this out in community.

We weren’t created to be alone (Genesis 2:18). In fact, God is assembling a reoriented people just as God is forming us personally (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:22–23). The Spirit moves among us in this process.

We can offer one another encouragement, correction, partnership and guidance as we face opportunities, decisions and

By Jennifer Brink, Sharon Galgay Ketcham and Corey McLellan

trials. God uses the community of faith to remind and teach us ways in which we might discern God’s purposes.

Maybe instead of “What is God’s plan for my life?” a better question is “What is God doing, and how might I participate with others?” By reframing the question, we root our calling in a profession of faith: God is Creator-Redeemer.

AS THEOLOGIAN TOD BOLSINGER DESCRIBES, VOCATION IS FORMED, NOT FOUND. WE DISCERN CALLING THROUGH THE UNFOLDING OF LIFE AS WE (RE)ORIENT OUR LIVES TO OUR CREATOR-REDEEMER. Our focus shifts away from ourselves, and we reorient to the hard work of learning to love God, one another and God’s world.

It takes commitment and community to discern what God is doing in the world.

Our God invites us into this creative and redemptive work of all of creation for God’s glory.

Jennifer Brink is director of academic advising, helping students explore their calling and academic path.

Sharon Galgay Ketcham, Ph.D., is professor of theology and Christian ministries and author of Reciprocal Church: Becoming a community where faith flourishes after high school.

Corey McLellan is executive director of the Career and Connection Institute at Gordon, overseeing vision and strategy for personal and professional development.

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VO vocation C AT I O N A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION How do we move toward (re)orienting ourselves to God and God’s redemptive purposes in the world?

In the lives of Gordon faculty, staff and alumni, vocation looks as diverse as the people themselves. They’re farmers, leaders, parents, advocates and athletes. They live as nearby as Beverly, Massachusetts, and as far as Kathmandu, Nepal. Some are transient;

Gordon’s new Career and Connection Institute (CCI) is a resource for students and alumni along their vocational journeys. It blends personal, spiritual, professional and practical elements —all grounded in the support of a committed Christian community.

1. Connect with CCI Contact cci@gordon.edu or book an appointment online through Handshake (an industry-leading networking tool). Talk through your own vocational journey or discover how you can help students and alumni navigate theirs. CCI staff members offer video calls or in-person visits in the new office space on the second floor of Jenks Library.

2. Join Handshake The Handshake platform allows professionals to help and be helped. Set up an individual account to access a host of resources for your own job search. And make sure your company is active on the platform in order to connect with potential employees from the Gordon community.

3. Tune In Hear from experts through CCI’s new podcast Honest Work at podcast.gordon.edu.

Learn more at www.gordon.edu/CCI

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some rooted. But all are on a journey of understanding their place in the bigger picture.

Read the expanded version of each alumni story on The Bell at stories.gordon.edu/tag/VocationAs

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A as: S:

FACULTY PERSPECTIVES AND ALUMNI STORIES

Left to right, back row: Jake, Sam, Lily, Sky, Jonah and Lauren; front row: Kate and Cam

“Your presence in community is absolutely a defining aspect of calling, vocation, purpose and work. The concepts reflected in Corinthians about the many parts contributing to the full function of the body apply here, as would simple shifts in how you conceive of yourself as you encounter others. If you limit ‘vocation’ to only the daily work that you do, you might miss, for instance, that you are also ‘called’ to be a parent, a spouse, a son or daughter, a neighbor or a citizen.

What would living fully in the vocation of citizenship look like, or the vocation of a parent?”

—Chris Carlson ’87 Dean of Student Success

Vocation as

SAYING YES

Jake ’04 and Lauren x’08 Kreyling were at Best Buy with their children—Lily, Jonah and Kate—passing time before their dinner reservation when they noticed something unnerving: in the parking lot, a toddler was weaving through moving cars, unaccompanied.

Jake scooped up the two-year-old and waited with him until the mother showed up two hours later, high on drugs and asking for her baby. He held Hayden until the policeman showed up.

The encounter put a pause back into play. “Adoption was always in the back of our minds,” says Lauren. “But, that really opened our eyes, and we felt like God was saying ‘Okay, now’s the time.’”

They requested information from the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF), started adoption

classes and completed a home study. All they had left to do was some work on the house to get it ready for more kids.

But the same day Jake cut the electricity wires, their social worker, Kali Martin ’04, emailed them about Sam, a 12-day-old baby boy who needed a home immediately.

“We had nothing. We weren’t ready to have kids come yet,” says Lauren. “But we said yes. We didn’t really have a reason not to.”

The next big yes came a year later, when DCF called again about two siblings who also needed a home immediately, after their adoptive placement fell through. The Kreylings didn’t know if they could take on two kids with severe trauma issues, but they opened their home anyway—and formally adopted Sky and Cam a year later.

“It’s not been without severe heartache,” says Jake. “But the heartache over whether or not we were going to lose Sam in that first year prepared us to say yes to Sky and Cam. First you exercise your faith and then see why.”

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“We tend to refer to career and vocation interchangeably, and that is understandable in our highly goal-oriented view of our place in the world. But the English vocation, of course, is rooted in the Latin vocatio. A divine summons to a particular state.

A state of perpetual gratitude.

This transcends any references to ‘career’ as a highly localized destination where we feel called to do only one thing. A posture of gratitude will, through God’s grace, lead us to all sorts of spaces where we can heed the summons.”

—Ivy George Professor of Sociology

Ryan, Maya, Eden and Daphne Fowler

Vocation as

LIVING INTO UNCERTAINTY

As civilization continues to encroach on Nepal’s wild spaces, the Chepang, a formerly semi-nomadic group in the Lesser Himalaya, have been forced out of the forests onto the steep, rocky and nearly unfarmable slopes of the central hills. Because many Chepang are illiterate and among the lower castes of Nepal’s illegal yet culturally pervasive caste system, they have little power to change their situation.

“The caste system in Nepal limits peoples’ access to resources,” says Daphne Hollinger Fowler ’03, a country

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representative for Nepal with the Mennonite Central Committee. “Because they’re considered a very low caste some Chepang are not able to have a land title— to be able to grow vegetables or raise animals on their own land.”

an illustration of how she understands vocation. That she, like the Chepang, is at the mercy of something much bigger.

Her own situation in Nepal is far more comfortable than that of the Chepang’s, but it’s equally delicate.

In Kathmandu, Fowler works to change this by making it possible for local Nepali NGOs to help the Chepang and other communities generate income, improve crop production, obtain land titles or lease agreements with local farmers, and raise livestock.

“Our life had a predictability to it. It was easy to live comfortably, despite our best intentions to live in more radical ways that aligned with our values. My husband and I decided we didn’t want to be too comfortable,” says Fowler.

Although she admires the Chepang for their resourcefulness—for their ability to weather the mountain climate and forage for food—she’s seen how they are truly at the mercy of those who have more power and influence. In many ways, it’s

Again, and again, God has called Fowler into wildly uncertain conditions, which keeps her connected to him. “Vocation requires a lot of constant reassessing.

It’s where I want to be. I don’t want to feel disconnected to the things God has called me to.”

A VISION FOR VOCATION

Vocation as

FULLNESS

In October, two days before the first frost, Abby ’10 and Johnny ’08 Ytzen-Handel are clearing out their vegetable garden. As they pull up the kale and calendula, their toddler Evee sits down next to a pile of garden greens twice her size, makes the kind of noise you’d expect from a baby dinosaur, and chews happily on a chard leaf—the chlorophyll turning her drool a brilliant green.

“When we engage by growing food wherever we are,” says Abby, “and foraging in wild places, we are able to see the abundance that is all around us.”

As parents, permaculturists and founders of Modern Homestead—an ecological landscaping and design company based out of their home in Essex, Massachusetts— Abby and Johnny have their hands full.

They have given up some personal freedom to live this way. Traveling is hard

because they have animals and plants to look after. Buying things at the store is often second to making things at home from scratch.

“There are restrictions, but that’s not a bad thing,” says Abby. “In Christianity, we’re giving up something when we give ourselves to Christ, but we’re entering into something that’s more full. I feel like that with our life. We are giving up some things, but I think it’s fuller.”

A kitchen table laden with squash, a backyard full of more than 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables, and a pantry stocked with homemade gooseberry jam and tomato sauce—it’s easy to see that the Ytzen-Handel homestead is the very picture of hard-won abundance and the faithful stewardship of it.

“People talk about shrinking our footprint,” says Johnny. “But, what if instead of doing less bad, humans do more good? Help make this world thrive. When impact becomes positive, our footprint becomes something we want to leave.”

“In Acts 9:36–43, we learn of Tabitha, also called Dorcas, a woman ‘devoted to good works and acts of charity.’ We discover that she has recently died and is surrounded by mourning widows when the apostle Peter arrives.

It is fascinating to me that ‘All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Tabitha had made while she was with them.’ They present Tabitha’s fine workmanship before the apostle, and perhaps this work may also be connected to her charity mentioned earlier. These garments that Tabitha made are, in a sense, her portfolio, her oeuvre. We go on to read of her miraculous healing (being raised from the dead) and might we assume that God still intended for Tabitha to carry on with her craft, as well as her charity, even as she gave testimony of a miraculous healing? Might we also assume that God’s redemptive purposes for the world were fulfilled in both ways (her craft and her charity)?”

—Jim Zingarelli, Professor of Art

SPRING 2019 | STILLPOINT 25 Johnny, Evee, Anna and Abby Ytzen-Handel

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“I agree with the Christian author and social critic Os Guinness, who is also the great grandson of Henry Grattan Guinness, the London pastor who gave A. J. Gordon the idea to start Gordon College in 1889. Os Guinness in his book The Call states that all Christians have a ‘primary call’ and a ‘secondary call.’ The primary call is exactly the same for all followers of Christ: to love God and love others. This is the greatest command given by Jesus in Matthew 22:36–40.

Our secondary call is the unique way we live out this primary call in the world for God’s glory. I believe this allows us the freedom as followers of Christ to serve as a minister of the gospel wherever God places us.”

—Tom Haugen, Chaplain

Vocation as WORSHIP On a mission trip to an impoverished area in her home country of Guatemala, Florecita (Carías) Mejía ’08 made a life-changing observation: Those with the least are often the most eager to share.

“A group of us got invited to have lunch at the home of one of the families,” she remembers. “They barely had electricity in their home, yet they made us the best meal and even had gifts for us to bring back home.”

Suddenly, the sophomore’s pursuit of a finance career seemed vain.

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“God, there is so much need in this world, but I’m going into a career that is not focused on the poor,” she prayed, convicted. “Is business and accounting really where you want me, or do you want me in missions?”

But the words of Mejía’s pastor, Gordon trustee member Rev. Dr. Roberto Miranda, quelled her fears and transformed her vision. “You may think that there’s no need in the business world for you,” he told her, “but I can tell you that there is . . . You minister to people not just by going on a mission trip or by being a pastor—but by how you lead your life in the business world.”

An empowered Mejía began working at Bank of New York (BNY) Mellon, where she is now a vice president. On a daily basis she ministers to her team by working alongside them instead of commanding them, hosting regular one-on-one meetings and sharing the gospel with employees facing difficult personal circumstances.

“You don’t have to go around and declare yourself a Christian to every person you meet,” she says. “It’s just by the way you carry yourself that you often impact people, and having the mindset of doing everything for God as an act of worship.”

A VISION FOR VOCATION

Wally King, right, and former Barrington College Men’s Basketball Coach Jack Augustine, left

vocation as

RESILIENCE

In the treacherous jungles of Central and South America, “I saw depravity at its worst at a young age,” says Wallace “Wally” King ’71B. A member of the basketball ministry Venture For Victory during the summer of 1970, King returned to his final year at Barrington College with resolve: “I knew right then and there that it would be important for me to be involved and work in communities.”

And that’s just what he did. Over the course of 44 years in a series of roles ranging from teacher and coach at St. Andrew’s School in Barrington, Rhode Island, to program director at the YMCA in his hometown of Roxbury, Massachusetts, to police officer for the City of Baltimore, King’s widely varied jobs are tied by a common thread: service to others.

At the University of Maryland he investigated sexual assault cases and led assault prevention training. He was also a parole officer at the Roxbury halfway house, Project Overcome, where a majority of his cases were from the

maximum security prison at Walpole State Prison. There, King helped inmates who were incarcerated for violent crimes transition back into their communities through a pre-release center (“I had some hair-raising adventures doing that work,” he notes).

“Nothing that I have ever done, and nothing that anyone will ever do is going to be easy,” King says. “You just have to be persistent, be obedient to God and to yourself, and have that ‘don’t give up’ attitude. It’s the only way.”

To stay on track, he begins each morning by writing in his journal and praying.

Reading about Christ’s service to others, King says, provides him with fulfillment and direction.

“We cannot live in this world without each other regardless of ethnicity, geographical location, how we feel or what we think,” King says. “We are not an island unto ourselves. Nothing gets accomplished until we help one another.”

“I used to think God had one perfect plan for my life and it was up to me to discover it, as if God was hiding the map for my life and I had to find it before I knew the way I should go. God is not simply waiting for me to arrive at my destination—he is walking alongside me with each step of the journey. I like the idea of ‘wayfinding’ that Bill Burnett and Dave Evans use in their book Designing Your Life. Wayfinding is what explorers did before there was a map for a new territory. It’s how you figure out where to go when you don’t know exactly where you are going. Wayfinders need a compass, not a map. Psalm 119:105 says, ‘Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.’ God, through his Word, shines just enough light for us to take the next step on our journey. That light, like a compass, gives us a sense of direction and requires us to trust and obey the One guiding us.”

—Christine Gardner, Associate Professor of Communication Arts

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vocation as

OBEDIENCE

“When you live in the neonatal intensive care unit, you move to a different rhythm from the rest of the world,” says Hilary (Sherratt) Yancey ’12.

As a Ph.D. student at Baylor University in 2015, Yancey gave birth to Jack, a spunky boy with a number of disabilities. Needing to care for Jack shifted her personal and academic priorities.

“Spiritually,” says Yancey, “this pressed me to both reexamine everything I had thought I understood about who God is and what God wants for us, and to also let a lot go undone.”

This meant living by surgical schedules instead of course schedules, attending doctors’ appointments instead of conferences. “There was a grappling of how to make sense of what it meant for me to become a philosopher and the person I was becoming as Jack’s mom,” Yancey says.

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ALUMNI

Providentially, she had long been drawn to the philosophy of disabilities. Studying disability and its interaction with the ideas and ethics of the human person took on a new light when Jack was born.

Yancey’s dissertation considers our common understanding of natural and artificial body parts, and our resulting views of disability: How does disability intersect with our ideas about what it means to live a flourishing life? How does it intersect with discrimination and social justice? But the questions were no longer just theoretical. “How was I going to talk to Jack about his body, and his life?” she asks. “How was I going to teach others to see him?”

“I had been interested in ethics for a long time, but there is a difference between something you find interesting and something that confronts you, that you can’t walk away from,” Yancey says. “You wrestle with the angel that comes for you, and this is mine.”

“Having gone through my own seasons of struggle and failure in my vocational journey, I’ve finally come to embrace something my dad, who has spent his whole adult life working with a nonprofit mission organization, always told me: ‘What we call the process, God calls the end’ (based on a quote in Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest, July 28, ‘God’s purpose or mine?’).

I used to groan when he said that. Now I believe that God is foremost interested in drawing us closer to God’s self. It’s not so much about where we end up vocationally; it’s more about how we move through the process and whether we invite and ultimately engage with God in the process. Setbacks and disappointment are intimate meeting places where we encounter God’s divine presence and experience God’s heart.”

—Susan Bobb Associate Professor of Psychology

A VISION FOR VOCATION

Vocation as AN

INVESTMENT

life insurance, his commitment to special needs planning is a personal one—inspired by his brother-in-law, who has Down’s Syndrome, and a former co-worker’s son, who is autistic.

Most parents plan to provide financially for their children up to a certain point—when they turn 18, perhaps, or graduate from college. But, says, Caleb Harty ’10, CFP, “If the child has some kind of intellectual or physical disability, the parents might have to provide financially for their entire lives in some shape or another.”

Before he opened Harty Financial in Middleton, Massachusetts, Harty was enrolled in an economics graduate program in Montreal, Canada. But he quickly found it to be a lackluster endeavor and decided to follow advice from a family friend: “You should consider financial services,” he said, “because it’s a people business.”

And that’s where he comes in. Harty is one of few financial planners in the Boston area specializing in this niche. He helps families who have a child with special needs navigate public benefits and use their own resources to plan well for their child’s future and for their own.

So, Harty began investing in people—and has seen great returns. “I see it as a high calling to serve clients, to put their interests ahead of my own,” he says.

“Parents need to know how much money to leave their children, and what it’s going to cost to provide for them,” he says.

While Harty also provides aspects of financial planning like retirement and

“Brother Lawrence peeled potatoes and washed the scullery; St. Francis preached to birds; and Nouwen worked with those who had intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Martin Luther wrote, ‘God himself milks the cow through the vocation of the milkmaid,’ which is mundane but necessary, redemptive Kingdom work.

Augustine confessed, ‘Thou hast made us for Thyself and our heart is restless till it rests in Thee.’ How do you know where you’re aligning with God and his redemptive purpose for the world? Find rest in him. Pursue your chief end—to glorify him and enjoy him forever—and you’ll find that the work you do aligns with God’s redemptive purpose for the world.”

—Carter Shaw, Head Women’s Basketball Coach

A lack of public resources and information on the topic of special needs planning compels Harty to go beyond individual work with clients to use his expertise generously—offering workshops and writing for national publications.

“I feel like I’m adding value to people’s lives by using my background and skills to serve people.”

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“Vocation is how we live out the image of God through work, express our worship to him through our labor and serve his purposes on the Earth. Our personal goals can be born of earthly and fleshly desires, and therefore, they are not always reliable. Many of our personal goals are swayed by the emotions, trials and experiences we encounter daily. However, through the Word of God as expressed in the Bible we can discern whether it's God or just our desires.”

—Charlene Mutamba Director of Multicultural Initiatives

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Vocation as FREEDOM “What does the Lord ask of us?” Alice (Anderson) Bohn ’12, J.D., contemplated in between her time studying abroad in Denmark and working in India with International Justice Mission.

“We are called to fully revel in the love of Christ and to love the people around us,” she concluded. “That’s a super broad calling and in that, I found great freedom.”

Deeply empowered by her spiritual freedom, Bohn committed to the work of advocating for physical freedom for bonded labor victims in India—“a country where public justice systems are broken, where wealth has a parallel relationship with security.”

These systemic injustices rocked Bohn and shed light on the power of law. In the United States, “things like people stopping at stop signs and sticking to speeding limits shows that something is working,”

she says. “The power of the legal system to effect change lines up really well with our mandate to love people and live lives of service.”

Bohn sees the importance of infrastructure at a meta level and also in the mundane, everyday things. When she lived abroad, she marveled at the challenge of figuring out where to buy bananas or how to get her mail. But Bohn chose to be in those places—what about the people who didn’t? “I cannot begin to identify with how difficult it is for people to uproot their lives and resettle in new places,” she says.

Now she’s a contract attorney for an immigration law firm, taking Spanish courses on the side and volunteering in a conversational English class—to help people feel settled and welcomed, whether they planned to be here or not.

“Especially in light of the movement of refugees,” she says, “it’s really important that we continue to figure out how to live well together.”

A VISION FOR VOCATION

Vocation as

ROOTEDNESS For lifelong Hingham, Massachusetts, resident Tim Ells ’78 there’s value in staying put and stepping up.

An elder at South Shore Baptist Church and an engineering manager at General Dynamics, a global aerospace and defense company, Ells says, “God has given me leadership abilities and opportunities that I never looked for, and I can choose to be available or I can neglect those things God has given me.”

While many things in Ells’ life have remained constant for decades—including his home and work addresses—others have changed rapidly.

As a software and systems engineer, he’s been on the front lines of major technology changes. From mini computers to personal computers to powerful work stations and servers, “I’ve been amazed at the consistent and significant growth of computer power and software sophistication, and what you can accomplish through technology.”

But Ells is also aware that the massive advances in technology have left some people in the dark, so he’s leveraging his 40 years in the industry to help them.

On his own time, he refurbishes retired computers donated by his company, upgrades the operating systems, and gets them ready for a new life. “Over the years I’ve developed relationships with missionaries, Plymouth County House of Correction, refugee folks in Boston”—providing much-needed technology at no cost.

For Ells, rootedness is awareness. It’s asking, “What can I do to use what I’ve got now to support what God is doing now?” That means seeing—and meeting— needs in his community, church and workplace. Sometimes it’s technologyrelated, and other times it’s simply noticing people. “Call people by name,” he says. “Remember what they said the last time you talked to them.”

“This is exactly where God wants me to be,” he says. “And I am going to use my skills to be a godly leader where I’m planted.”

“We can be in awe of this idea of ‘vocation,’ as though it were one big calling to devote the rest of our lives to. This leaves us discouraged when no obvious such calling emerges. Are we simply not searching diligently enough? Have we totally missed the opportunity to pursue our true vocation? Does God even have a purpose for our lives?

Perhaps this unsettledness comes from forgetting that we are already called to many profound things for the ordinary days of our lives. We are called to trust and follow Jesus. We are called to share the good news of the cross with the whole world.

We are called to honor our parents. We are called to reflect the extravagant love of God in every small thing we do. The list goes on.”

—Tout Wang, Assistant Professor of Physics

SPRING 2019 | STILLPOINT 31 Janet and Tim Ells

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“Well-established in my elementary public school teaching career, I was taken by surprise when approached by a Christian school board member asking me to consider serving as their principal. As a firm believer that we should open doors of opportunity and let God close them, I decided to inquire and bathed each step in prayer. From the world’s point of view, there was little reason for me to leave the security of my public school position. I prayed—a lot. I sought out wise counsel from my mentor, my family, my colleagues, my pastor and my friends.

Yes, God called me to the Christian school. I was able to use my vocational skills to honor him and serve his precious children and their families.”

—Priscilla Nelson, Associate Professor of Education

Vocation as MESSINESS

AND MOXIE

“This is a story of how you never should burn a bridge.”

Karl Simon’s journey to being a middle school assistant principal began when he was, in fact, in middle school.

Simon ’01 and his middle school camp counselor ended up crossing paths several times over the years. The former counselor led Boston Trinity Academy’s accreditation process while Simon was serving as one of the school’s first teachers and athletic director. And he eventually recruited Simon to join the administration at Charlotte Christian School in North Carolina.

But a career in education is not what Simon originally had in mind.

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A communication arts major at Gordon, he planned to go into advertising. “I felt like there wouldn’t be anything more special than to drive down Route 1 or 128 and see a billboard that had a tagline that I thought up on there,” he says. Toward that goal, he participated in the Westmont Urban Semester, where his pursuit of a high-stakes marketing internship led to some soul-searching. “Maybe the corporate world isn’t for me,” he realized.

“Maybe working with kids is.”

“I just get kids—because I still sort of am one,” he says. “Being able to connect my comfort zone into a place that a lot of people would be afraid to go. That’s my vocation.”

Being in the trenches with middle schoolers takes moxie. And like a good batch of brownies, the payoff comes at the end of a messy process. “If you pull them out with 15 minutes left on the oven, they’re all gooey and gross,” Simon explains. That’s eighth grade. “Let them cook for four more years and they are contributing members of society.”

A VISION FOR VOCATION

Vocation as BRIDGE

BUILDING

A crisis is occurring in immigrant churches, and Karim “Kika” Ghobrial ’16 wants to find the solution.

His family moved to the United States from Cairo, Egypt, 16 years ago, and he now serves as a youth pastor at the Arabic Evangelical Baptist Church of West Roxbury, Massachusetts.

“An immigrant church usually has its main service in its mother tongue, so you’ll see all of the kids in the worship service having no idea what’s going on,” says Ghobrial. “Once the kids graduate from high school, they feel like there is nothing here for them, and they’ll end up not coming back to church.”

The phenomenon is one he’s seen firsthand repeatedly, often from his own mentors. “Almost all of the youth leaders who came before me are no longer in the church because that’s just the reality of immigrant churches,” he says.

churches across the country to start working toward an answer. This year, he plans to launch a service in English (the mother tongue of many Arab youth in the Boston area) to foster a deeper sense of connectedness.

Instead of idly observing the exodus of immigrant youth, Ghobrial, a Master of Divinity student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, asks, “How do we stop this from happening? How do we build a sustainable place for young adults in our church?”

And eventually, he hopes to apply what he’s learning back home in Egypt, bringing lessons from an Arabic church into an Arab context. He says, “I feel blessed to have the opportunity to do exactly what I want to do with exactly the passions and the gifts and the things that God has given me.”

He’s teamed up with the Emmanuel Gospel Center in Boston and with similar

“The problem with the question, ‘What is God’s will for my life?’ is that the focus is in the wrong place. The focus for hearing God’s call should be God, not me and my life. C.S. Lewis put it this way: ‘The more we get what we now call ‘ourselves’ out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become.’ It all starts with really letting God take us over. Everything we are and have is his. Whether we acknowledge this or not, it’s as sure a fact of reality as gravity. We are merely stewards and servants. Good stewards and servants spend much less time thinking about themselves than they do about the one they serve. The more we get to know God and submit ourselves to him, the more clearly we’ll hear his voice.

Conversely, we can’t expect to hear the Master’s voice if our attention is elsewhere.”

—Kent Seibert, Professor of Economics and Business

SPRING 2019 | STILLPOINT 33

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ALUMNI

Liberian teachers conduct action research

In Harbel, Margibi County, Liberia—a community once shattered by two civil wars that propagated the use of child soldiers—Ollie White ’18 is building Beautiful Beginnings.

The Christian elementary school was founded in 2007 in a government building that had been destroyed by rebel forces just a few years earlier. Beautiful Beginnings is advancing education among Liberian youth and working to eradicate pervasive illiteracy through a unique reading curriculum that Ollie introduced to her country.

“Only in very recent years has literacy in Liberia increased with a notably steep trajectory,” says Priscilla Nelson (education). “One can’t help but think that

34 STILLPOINT | SPRING 2019

Oral reading fluency assessment

Ollie White is a significant contributor to increasing literacy in Liberia.”

FROM UNREST TO OPPORTUNITY

education,” says Ollie, who had earned a bachelor’s in religious education from the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary just after being named Miss Liberia in 1988.

In 2003, Ollie and her then five-year-old daughter, Joy, fled Liberia due to civil unrest and stayed with Ollie’s mother in Lynn, Massachusetts. Joy attended first grade at North Shore Christian School, and Ollie followed along as Joy learned to read using the multisensory Wilson Language Fundations® reading program.

Ollie enrolled in the Master of Arts in Educational Ministries at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. For elective credit, she took a Principles of Reading course at Gordon, where Ollie encountered the same Fundations® program that Joy (and she) had been learning.

As she learned this new method of reading, Ollie also took the opportunity to advance her own education. “I didn’t know how long it was going to take for the war to end. Instead of just sitting and waiting indefinitely, I decided to continue my

The comprehensive, research-based approach to reading was wildly different from the traditional approach Ollie had experienced back home. “The teachers in Liberia never knew how to teach reading,” she says. “It was mostly memorization, and that’s the culture.”

ARTICLES

Story Firstname Lastname ’10

A typical Beautiful Beginnings classroom

LEARNER, READER, LEADER

In 2007, with a fresh master’s degree and a new approach to teaching reading, Ollie returned home to launch Beautiful Beginnings, the educational branch of her already-established Foundation to Activate Children’s Empowerment and Spirituality (FACES) mission program. Forty-five students enrolled in the first year. One hundred and fifty the second year. “Just because of the reading program,” she says. “Once you teach them the skills, the children can begin to decode words and read. The parents started to see that. The community started to see that. And the numbers just increased.”

Others outside of her community took notice, too. Ollie was quickly recruited by the Research Triangle Institute, headquartered in North Carolina, to provide training for Liberian government teachers under the Early Grade Reading program. She hired a staff to help run her fledgling school and began working with government teachers to improve reading instructional delivery in public schools through training and curriculum development.

Ollie (left) and her mother at the 2018 Commencement at Gordon

In 2013, six years after her return to Liberia, Ollie realized, “Just one course from Gordon College has done so much.

What would it be like if I did a full program in education?”

She played a lead role in developing an activity called Read Liberia, which is being implemented in 640 public schools for the purpose of training teachers and district educational officers.

And then the West Africa Ebola crisis happened. “That threw all my plans back.

We had to close the school.” Ollie and a team of young researchers converted curricula from Beautiful Beginnings and the Liberian public schools into a homestudy program so that students could continue learning.

At the same time, she made good on her plans and officially enrolled in the graduate education program at Gordon.

The five-hour time difference between Wenham and Harbel meant logging on for class late at night. And the spotty Internet meant that sometimes she’d be at her school, sometimes at home, sometimes at a friend’s house—wherever the connection was strongest. But true to form, Ollie persisted. She graduated in May of 2018 with an Education Specialist in Leadership degree.

“It was a horrific nine months,” she says.

But thanks to the home-study program, 300 students were able to complete their curriculum and move to the next grade when school re-opened. “They were not victims of the gap year suffered by other students of other institutions” as a result of the outbreak.

PERSISTENCE AND PAY-OFF

As the Ebola crisis subsided and life returned to normal, Ollie was offered a position designing reading programs as an education specialist with USAID.

Today, Beautiful Beginnings has 470 students and 35 staff. Its activity-based learning center was funded by the German Embassy under the leadership of Ambassador Ralph Timmerman and his wife, Renata. Ollie has been recognized by the Liberia Ministry of Education and the Office of the President of Liberia, under Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. 

SPRING 2019 | STILLPOINT 35

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ECB50/

ALUMNI

CELEBRATING FIVE DECADES OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS

Founding Director John Mason

1994

ECB MILESTONES

International affairs is

1968

1985

1977 A few years after completing

John Mason begins to

his Ph.D. from Clark University,

teach economics after

Bruce Webb begins teaching

completing his Ph.D. in

economics.

economics at Michigan State University. His hiring

1982

Department (ECB).

is shared by ECB and

Accounting is added as a

the Department of

major by Ted Wood. For

Political Science.

the first time in Gordon’s history, ECB has the most students of any

2002

other department, finally

Niles Logue begins to

overtaking the number

teach finance courses

Bruce Webb starts the

of English students and

and takes a lead role

Association of Christian

psychology students.

marks the founding of the Economics and Business

added as a major, and

Economists (ACE) with other founding members.

in designing and establishing the finance major, which is officially added in 2005.

36 STILLPOINT | SPRING 2019

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Story Firstname Lastname ’10

THE GOOD MANAGER In the decade leading up to the separation of Gordon Divinity School from Gordon College in 1970, the College made a conscious decision to pursue the liberal arts—and hired John Mason to round out the social sciences by starting an economics program.

What he invented was one of the first economics programs to factor in poverty—to take notice of the poor. Because Mason’s students would influence how money and resources were used within society, he wanted them to be aware of the economic systems that created obstacles to human flourishing.

At Gordon, Mason equipped students to serve the poor through the practice of just economic principles, long before courses like Economics of Poverty and Development Economics were offered as part of a normal collegiate curriculum.

“From the start,” says Economics and Business (ECB) Department Chair Kent Seibert, “John Mason elevated economics and business in a way that students understood they could legitimately be called by God to serve him and people by doing work in the marketplace.”

Today, ECB has expanded its understanding of just economic principles to include both environmental stewardship and international contexts. Fifty years later, they are still carrying out Mason’s big-hearted vision, raising up generations of good managers, just like the ones found in Jesus’ parables. “‘Steward’ is an old-fashioned word for ‘manager,’” says Seibert. “In the New Testament, the faithful steward or manager is commended when his master returns and finds that the things the steward was responsible for are now flourishing.” 

50

students have participated in the Hong Kong Seminar

1,712 total ECB graduates

MOST POPULAR INDUSTRIES OF ECB GRADS •

Insurance

•

Wealth/asset management

•

Financial advisory services

• Auditing •

Consulting

MOST POPULAR EMPLOYERS OF ECB GRADS •

State Street Bank and Corporation

•

360 Federal Credit Union

• Apple Inc.

2005 Students charter the Economics and Business Organization through the Gordon College Student Association.

Alice Tsang launches the Hong Kong Seminar, a

three Fortune 200 firms as he begins teaching management and other business courses.

•

Brown Brothers Harriman

MOST POPULAR PLACES FOR ECB GRADS TO LIVE

unique opportunity for

•

students to study and

• Atlanta

2008 corporate experience from

Bank of America

2014

intern abroad.

Kent Seibert brings

•

Boston

•

New York City

•

Melbourne, Australia

Global opportunities for

•

Washington, D.C.

ECB students expand to

•

Philadelphia

•

Chicago

•

San Francisco

include programs at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the Australia Studies Centre.

SPRING 2019 | STILLPOINT 37

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LEARN MORE: Contact Attorney Brad Phillips at 978.867.4681 or brad.phillips@gordon.edu or visit www.gordon.edu/plannedgiving Please let us know if you have already included Gordon in your plans.