creates a mental health curriculum for first responders.
The Official Magazine of John Brown University
PREPARING STUDENTS FOR TOMORROW’S JOBS
Spanish Immersion
JBU’s Spanish program prepares students for global engagement.
Norwood ’24
The Brown Bulletin is published by University Marketing & Communications for alumni and friends of JBU. For more information, visit www.jbu.edu/bulletin
PRESIDENT
Dr. Charles Pollard III
VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT
Dr. Jim Krall
CHIEF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
Julie Gumm ’95 (B.S.) ’20 (M.S.)
MANAGING EDITOR/ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Jay Nickel
DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION
Kelly Saunders ’12
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Lois Flowers ’92, Julie Gumm ’95, Carter Henson ’17 (B.S.) ’19 (MBA), Traci Manos ’01, Jay Nickel, Nicholas Robinson, Cherissa Roebuck ’02, Carlson Wakefield ’20
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Carter Henson ’17 (B.S.) ’19 (MBA), Juliana Jones ’27, Kelsey Moore ’26, Corey Nolan Photography, Faith Roy ’26, Kelly Saunders ’12, Anna Simpson ’25
SUPPORT
Sherry Miller ’75
COPY EDITING
Johanna Musgrave ’12
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Students donned their glasses and gathered on the quad to watch the April 2024 solar eclipse reach 98% totality.
In May 1936, the poet T.S. Eliot went to St. John’s church in Little Gidding, about 30 miles north of Cambridge. He had just read a play about King Charles the First escaping to Little Gidding in 1646 during the English Civil War. The king was protected by the Ferrar family, who had established a Christian community in Little Gidding in 1625. Nicholas Ferrar, ordained deacon for St. John’s church, created regular patterns of prayer, Bible reading and worship in the church, and the community was known for its faithfulness.
Five years later, amid the Blitz of London, Eliot wrote the last of his Four Quartets, “Little Gidding,” and described his visit. He wrote that you should not come to this church as a tourist “to verify, / Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity / Or carry report” but rather as a participant in worship: “You are here to kneel / Where prayer has been valid.” For 400 years, prayer had been valid at St. John’s, and the faithful witness of so many generations had infused the church with the Holy Spirit’s presence. As Eliot writes, “the communication / Of the dead is tongued with the fire beyond the language of living. / Here, the intersection of the timeless moment.”
JBU’s Cathedral of the Ozarks is a similar holy place for our community. We broke ground in 1945 at the end of World War II and spent much of the next 12 years worshipping in the basement of the eventual sanctuary, which was finally completed in 1957. For almost 80 years, the prayers of JBU faculty, staff and students have been valid in that place on our campus. Moreover, God’s word has been faithfully preached, and his name has been enthusiastically praised in that space. God has used those regular patterns of worship to intersect and transform the lives of the JBU community. Students have come to faith, wrestled with doubt, rededicated their lives to Christ, found lifelong Christian friends and heard God’s call on their lives in worship in the Cathedral. Carey and I have also personally experienced those blessings and are deeply grateful to have participated in that worship for the last 20 years.
This summer, we are restoring the interior of the Cathedral to its original beauty so it might continue to be a holy place for future JBU generations. I invite you to follow the progress of this project and support this important work at jbu.edu/cathedral. I also invite you to join us next fall for the Homecoming chapel on Oct. 4, when we will rededicate the renovated Cathedral to the glory of God. May the JBU community continue to worship our triune God in the Cathedral of the Ozarks.
16
Tech Evolution
From mainframes to smartphones and now artificial intelligence, JBU continues to evolve to prepare students for tomorrow’s jobs.
22
Blazing a Trail
For her senior capstone, Rachel Norwood ’24 developed a mental health curriculum for firefighters, which she now implements as an EMT and firefighter with the Siloam Springs Fire Department.
26
Pursuing a Vision
Dimitri Clark ’23 is transforming a classroom idea into a startup, developing an image-based web browser for people with motor and visual disabilities.
32
Spanish Immersion
JBU’s Spanish program combines rigorous coursework, supportive faculty, and study abroad opportunities to prepare students for global engagement. Table
TOHME NAMED VP FOR STUDENT DEVELOPMENT
Anne Tohme began her role as JBU’s vice president for student development on July 1. Tohme, an alumna of JBU, succeeded Steve Beers, Ed.D., who retired after serving as VPSD since 1998. Tohme will lead JBU’s Residence Life program, the Student Counseling Center, Health Services, Career Development, the Office of Christian Formation, Student Events & Activities and Campus Safety.
Tohme has been vice president for student life at Warner University in Lake Wales, Florida, since 2020. Before that, she served for 17 years in various student development roles at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. She holds a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School with a concentration in educational ministries and a bachelor’s in business administration from JBU.
EMPLOYEE AWARDS RECOGNIZE EXCELLENCE
Based on nominations from colleagues and students, JBU’s 2024 Faculty Excellence Award winners are Daniel Bennett, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, and Kim Cornett, instructor of electrical engineering. Nominations for Bennett highlighted his dedication to mentoring students and helping them discover their calling, think critically, conduct thorough research, and write effectively. Nominations for Cornett mentioned the innovative and engaging ways she facilitates learning, her role in making the Society of Women Engineers into a robust, active club and her investment in students through dinners in her home.
Melinda Douglass, finance, administration and human resource specialist, received the Golden Eagle Excellence in Service Award for exceptional service to students and the campus. Nominating comments emphasized Douglass’ calm and steady presence, her willingness to take on new responsibilities, her care for colleagues and her contagious joy.
The Faculty Affairs Committee named Denise Farine, administrative assistant for student development, as the recipient of the Faculty Appreciation Award. During her 23 years at JBU, Farine has served an indispensable role in empowering and resourcing both students and faculty to be successful at JBU.
SPRIN G B REAKMissions
Each year students participate in a variety of mission trips offered through Student Ministries.
SAMARITAN’S PURSE DISASTER RESPONSE
A team of students partnered with Samaritan’s Purse in Mayfield, Kentucky, to help the community continue to rebuild after a disastrous tornado swept through the area in December 2021.
CHICAGO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ENCOUNTER
Students visited the historic Westlawn neighborhood in Chicago, where they served the community and were led by Bridge Builders in conversations about the intersection of the Gospel with issues of race and poverty in America.
DALLAS REFUGEE ENCOUNTER
JBU students partnered with For the Nations Refugee Outreach to work alongside and learn from refugees and the staff working to settle, care for and minister to refugees in the Dallas area.
EL PASO BORDER ENCOUNTER
Partnering with Abara, a team of students traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to learn from Christian communities seeking to be salt and light at the border. The team also spent time ministering to those waiting, those serving and those patrolling at the border.
Retirements
Steve Beers, Ed.D., retires from his role as vice president for student development, facilities and athletics, where he has served since 1998. In the ranging responsibilities Beers held in his position, he consistently demonstrated wisdom, stability, care and a talent for timely humor. More than 11,000 undergraduate students have benefited from Beers’ devotion to creating lifelong learners and followers of Christ.
Tim Dinger, Ed.D., began at JBU in 2001 and served 17 years as the director of the Student Counseling Center and associate dean of students, where he helped integrate student mental health care into JBU’s student development program. For the past six years, Dinger taught in the graduate counseling program and was the executive clinic director at the Community Counseling Clinic, where he transformed the program’s approach to clinical training.
Joel Funk, Ph.D., came to JBU in 2009 with numerous awards and fellowships and quickly became an Arkansas INBRE Project leader. He helped JBU receive over $500,000 in external research funding and involved students in many research projects. Over the past 15 years as a professor of biology, Funk has helped hundreds of JBU students explore the beautiful and complex intersection of faith and science.
Carey Lampton, Ph.D., joined JBU in 2001 to work with Gary Oliver, Ph.D., in the Center for Healthy Relationships and joined the graduate counseling faculty in 2005. In addition to teaching, he has regularly served others in the Northwest Arkansas community through counseling and psychological evaluations.
Peter Pohle joined JBU’s visual arts program in its early days. After leaving for a two-year stint teaching at Savannah College of Art and Design, Neal Holland asked Pohle to return to JBU to champion the growing digital modeling and animation major. Pohle returned because he missed the Christian atmosphere and student relationships nurtured at JBU.
Rickey Reding closed out 27 years at JBU as the university electrician. Reding has participated in more than 17 major construction and renovation projects during his tenure. His intimate knowledge of JBU’s campus and his troubleshooting skills have consistently enabled the campus to get back online quickly.
Coach Jeff Soderquist arrived at JBU as a freshman in 1988 and never left. In his 36 years, he was a student assistant for head men’s basketball coach John Sheehy, head tennis coach, sports information director and then named the head women’s basketball coach in 1997. He recorded 424 wins in his 27 years as head coach and was named Sooner Athletic Conference Coach of the Year twice.
PROFESSOR RELEASES SECOND SHERLOCK NOVEL
Miguel Rivera, J.D., assistant professor of criminal justice, released his second novel “Sherlock Holmes and the Abominable Worm of Fleet Street” on June 11 in the MX Publishing, London series.
This second novel continues the development of his character, Rebecca St. John, a wicked Victorian woman who dreams of being the next Professor Moriarty. Holmes and Watson are on the trail of seemingly unrelated deaths preceded by sudden unexplained madness as they work to solve the case of the abominable worm.
“Only the brilliance and tenacity of Holmes can match
GRADUATE COUNSELING PROGRAM RECEIVES
CACREP ACCREDITATION
JBU’s graduate counseling program received accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. CACREP accreditation gives JBU graduates a smoother and simpler pathway to achieving professional counseling licensure in most U.S. states. It includes retroactive recognition for program graduates back to Jan. 13, 2022.
CYBERSECURITY PROGRAM
ACCELERATED BY $6.5M GRANT
A $6.5 million grant from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation will help JBU develop talent to meet workforce needs and accelerate the growth of its cybersecurity program. The grant will establish an endowment with $3 million designated to fund student scholarships, $2 million for technology and $1.5 million for a full-time program faculty.
JBU’s Bachelor of Science in cybersecurity is available on campus or in a fully online format designed for working adults.
JBU also offers MBA and M.S. programs in cybersecurity, which students can start during undergraduate studies and complete in one additional year through JBU’s accelerated master’s program.
By
MACKENZIE WEISS
Picking Up Pencils and Paintbrushes Across the Pond
JBU senior Mackenzie Weiss’ dream of studying abroad in Northern Ireland came true last fall with JBU’s Irish Studies Program when she had the opportunity to put her artistic talents to the test — as a business-degree student.
When she took Irish Arts and Culture, a course taught by esteemed Northern Irish artist Ross Wilson, she learned just how much passion she has for the arts.
“Every class period, we piled our sketchpads on the table, and Ross went through each one and showed our sketches to the class,” Weiss said. “For the first class, we drew Aslan, the lion from C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.’ Ross opened my sketchpad to my drawing and said, ‘Wow.’”
As a double major in management and entrepreneurship, Weiss hadn’t taken art classes at JBU. But in Northern Ireland, under Ross’s instruction, she says she began to fall in love with the beauty and process of art.
“As much as I enjoyed art in high school, I never entertained the idea of studying it in college. Ross challenged me to pick up my pencils and paintbrushes again and let my imagination take over.”
At the end of the semester, Ross brought a souvenir to class to remind students of their time together. To Weiss’ surprise, Ross had taken pictures of two of her sketches and had prints made for each student in the class.
After returning to the U.S. with new confidence, Weiss registered for two JBU art classes.
“Ireland is full of breathtaking scenery and rich history, but the gem of the country was the amazing people I met there,” says Weiss. “When people ask me what my favorite part was, I tell them about my class with Ross Wilson.”
<< “Odd Man Out” by Mackenzie Weiss, 2023
APP CONNECTS HIKERS
Students collaborate with alumni, community on development
By Kelly Saunders ’12
Shantee Enitencio Quinn ’24 and Daniel Aguayo ’24 noticed a problem: finding someone to hike with was hard. If a hiker is single, doesn’t have outdoorsy family or friends, is looking for a challenge or is just starting the hobby, it can be difficult to connect with fellow hikers. Thus began the idea for TrekAR (pronounced trekker), a mobile app to bring hikers together.
With the app, users can find and filter trails by distance, difficulty, rating, etc. Once they’ve chosen a desired trail, the user enters a date, time, age and gender preferences, and the app matches them with other hikers who have passed a required background check.
TrekAR began in JBU’s Innovation Launch Lab class but was not Enitencio and Aguayo’s first product idea. They pivoted twice before landing on TrekAR and later added Llewellyn Gentle ’24 to the team to handle financials.
JBU’s business program takes a innovative approach to entrepreneurship, requiring every student to prepare both a business plan and a lean canvas, which obliges students to test their product early and often before worrying about securing significant financing.
Enitencio, Aguayo and Gentle turned to the JBU and Northwest Arkansas community for input and found open arms. JBU alumna Lea Hart ’21, an outdoor influencer who organizes hikes for women, gathered feedback from her followers. JBU graphic design students designed TrekAR graphics, and English students proofread proposals. The team also collaborated with Startup Junkie, a business management consultant in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and the Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program (GORP), an incubator program in NWA for outdoor startups. Business professors Eva Fast, D.B.A., and Randall Waldron, Ph.D., and engineering professor Chaz Miller, Ph.D., provided feedback along the way.
“It’s amazing how the JBU network works. People are just willing to help you,” said Enitencio.
The team had to pivot once again on the way to the 2024 Governor’s Cup Business Plan competition, scrapping their presentation the day before it was due when they decided it wasn’t good enough. The team pulled a near all-nighter to redo their presentation from scratch.
“We finished our presentation about an hour before it was due, but we were much more pleased with how it turned out after restarting it,” said Gentle, “If you had told us a week before that we’d have to do that, we’d be like, ‘There’s no way. No way that’s possible.’ But we did it.”
Though they did not advance, judges selected TrekAR as one of the top six Growth and Technology Division finalists.
“The competition was hard this year,” said Enitencio, “but I’m very proud of the way we represented JBU, the final product and the presentation we gave to the judges.”
“I’m really proud of this team in particular,” said Fast, who taught the Innovation Launch Lab class.
“They had to pivot in a very significant way. They were so resilient; their team spirit and confidence carried them through.”
The next step for the TrekAR team is to compete at the ACBSP School of Thought Entrepreneurial Competition in late June. Winning the competition would be more than a resume builder, as the prize money could provide the funding needed for TrekAR’s development.
While many class projects come to a close when the year ends, Aguayo and the team know they have something worthwhile and continue looking for funding opportunities.
“Everybody we talked to about the project and the app says, ‘This sounds amazing, how can I get my hands on something like this?’ said Aguayo. “That’s just further validation that this is a good idea, and it is something that would be successful.”
CAREY APPOINTED DEAN OF RESIDENCE LIFE
Corey Carey started as the dean of residence life on July 1. Most recently, Carey has served as a graduate and online admissions counselor at JBU after he and his wife, Tiffany, were JBU’s missionaries in residence during the 202223 academic year. Before that, he worked as a missionary at Rift Valley Academy Boarding School in Kijabe, Kenya, for 10 years as the residence life coordinator and dorm parent.
As dean, Carey will manage all aspects of traditional undergraduate campus residence life, including supervising residence hall staff, hall programming, facilities management, housing processes and community expectations.
Where We Come From Lunch series invites JBU
community to learn from each other’s unique perspectives
By Julie Gumm ’95
In September 2022, the Office of Intercultural Engagement launched a luncheon series, “Where I Come From.” The brainchild of chief intercultural engagement officer Ted Song, Ph.D., the events were designed to help the JBU community learn about people’s stories and understand how their background might influence their perspective on life and Christian faith.
Over the past two years, across 18 luncheons, attendees have been exposed to a diverse array of speakers, including men and women of various ages, cultural backgrounds, and life experiences. Attendees have gained insight into a range of experiences, encompassing Irish, Native American, and Latino heritage, adoption, disability, immigration to the United States, and life in a military family.
“Through the speakers, I try to show the diversity of God’s kingdom reflected in our community,” said Song.
Song also invites external speakers, including a former refugee now serving refugees in Northwest Arkansas, a Northwest Arkansas Latino church pastor and the president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.
“Listening to my co-workers share about their different experiences is really powerful,” said Carlson Wakefield ’20. “Hearing different perspectives makes me appreciate my life and have a greater appreciation for the people around me and the lives they’ve lived.”
The Office of Intercultural Engagement sponsors lunch for the 50-100 attendees who have the time to connect with one another before the speaker starts.
Song said his goal next year is to add more student speakers to help the community better understand this generation’s perspective on life and Christian faith.
Life After JBU
Recent JBU grads find jobs and pursue advanced degrees
Will Franken Security engineer at Netsmart handling alerts, firewall segmentation, vulnerability management, etc.
Bianca Singelstad
Accepted to grad school at Queen’s University Belfast to study international relations.
Matthew Will
Accepted to Duke University to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry
Claire Sheppard
Accepted to the Univ. of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to pursue a doctorate in physical therapy.
Colton Bruza Software engineer at Garmin developing software for aviation automation controls.
Aaliyah Buckner
Client services associate assisting Morgan Stanley financial advisers and clients.
Jake Hagood
Substation engineer at Kiewit developing specs and design substation equipment for clients.
Morgen Cloud
Accepted to grad school at the Univ. of Oklahoma to study Native American literature.
Brighton Accord
Labor and delivery nurse at Willow Creek Women’s Hospital supporting patients and cross-training in the NICU.
Faculty Profile
Seung-Won Cho New Beginnings for Choral Program
By Lois Flowers ’92
When Seung-Won Cho, Ph.D., was growing up in Seoul, South Korea, his first career goal was to become an engineer. Then, while singing with his church and high school choirs, he fell in love with choral music and, at age 17, decided to pursue a conservatory education instead.
He later earned a master’s and a doctorate in choral conducting. He spent 27 years serving in traditional music
activities and assistant professor of music. “My family and I love this beautiful community. Particularly, we love green nature compared to West Texas.”
Like many other performing arts organizations, JBU’s choral and music program suffered due to strict rehearsal and performance restrictions during the pandemic.
Before COVID, the university’s iconic Cathedral Choir ranged from 60 to 80 members, year to year. Today, it has 30.
ministries with various Protestant churches while performing professionally as a conductor and organist. In 2023, he took on a new role – that of a college professor – when he and his family moved to Siloam Springs from Lubbock, Texas.
“Timing, transition and process, it was all [a] God thing to be at JBU,” Cho said, now JBU director of choral
But Cho is working to rebuild.
With current students, he emphasizes “excellence, inspiration and having fun.” In his first year, not only was the choir able to develop a strong spiritual community by participating in the traditional Candlelight Service, choir retreat and tour, but the group also learned and memorized more than 50 songs of increasing difficulty over two semesters.
To attract future JBU students, Cho has offered choral workshops at area high schools and met with local choir directors. JBU’s music program also began hosting All-Region prep clinics for high school choirs in Northwest Arkansas, drawing nearly 200 students last fall.
Through it all, Cho is grateful for the opportunity to integrate faith in learning and make music that glorifies God.
“I have found my strength and joy in ministering and inspiring people through music with the Holy Spirit’s help,” he said. “Music is indeed powerful to touch people’s hearts and transform people’s lives.”
Collaborative
Interdisciplinary Class Turns Ideas Into Products DESIGN
Two hundred and fifty dollars, an idea, a semester of hard work and a final presentation to a panel of Shark Tank-like judges – this is how a collection of students breaks traditional classroom barriers annually at JBU.
Enter: Collaborative Design Lab, a strategic, innovative, interdisciplinary class that leverages expertise from business, graphic design, engineering and computer science students. Crafting a fully functional product, app, brand and business plan is not something every college student can say they have done, but now these students can.
“This is a really unique thing that we do at JBU that sets us apart from large universities,” said Kim Cornett, instructor of electrical engineering.
At the start of the semester, students from the different disciplines are split into teams and tasked with creating a consumer product that leverages electrical and mechanical engineering and software. While the engineering and computer science students work to build a functional prototype, the business and graphic design students create the branding, craft a marketing plan and calculate the financials for their company and its products.
Armed with $250 and cross-functional teams, they get to work ideating and creating their prototypes. This year, the teams developed products including a bike incident detector, a self-watering plant pot, a refrigerated medicine bag, an automated chicken watering device, a modular theft-resistant backpack and a rewards-based chore chest for young kids. Cornett said a lot of work is put into the initial design phase to reward the teams with success later in the term.
By Carter Henson ’17 (B.S.) ’19 (MBA)
“Sometimes students feel like the initial design phase is a waste of time, but if you don’t do good initial design work, that can hurt your company in the long run,” she said.
Doing strong work on the front end and collaborating with other departments were a few of the outcomes that computer science junior Hunter Keys said made the semester impactful.
“It was nice to interact and work with the engineers. While we’re in the same building, we don’t have that many classes to work together on projects like this,” said Keys, a member of Khiron, the team that created a bike crash detection system named Solo.
“We definitely learned how to adapt. We had a plan with the engineers on our app, but the plan didn’t work, so we had to come up with something else,” Keys said.
Computer science students not only collaborated with engineers but also regularly engaged with business and graphic design students fostering a dynamic interdisciplinary exchange.
“Working with students in other majors was a lot easier than expected. It was great to be able to communicate with them on what we needed and what they needed from us,” said Keys.
After a semester of hard work, students pitched to a “Shark Tank” panel of local professionals, with Khiron and Solo claiming the top spot.
Cornett said this is the type of project students get asked about in interviews after graduation.
“The experience is priceless,” she said.
HUDSON DICK NAMED FIRST MEN’S TENNIS ALL-AMERICAN IN PROGRAM HISTORY
Behind an incredible senior season that featured 15 wins and a .938 win percentage in the top singles flight for the Golden Eagles, senior Hudson Dick was named the program’s first-ever NAIA All-American and finished his career on the third team – among the nation’s top 48 student-athletes.
Beyond achieving a 15-1 record in his final season and a 31-3 (.912) mark as an upperclassman, the four-time All-Conference selection rewrote the men’s tennis record books, becoming the first in program history to reach 50 wins and amassed a career win percentage of .806, easily the program’s best win percentage with at least 50 career appearances.
COACHES Q&A
Read reflections from departing coaches Mackenzie May, Scott Schochler and Jeff Soderquist, and get to know new coaches Samuel Estrada, Peter Cunningham and Sydni Salvato, at jbu.edu/coaches.
STEPHENS RETURNS TO ALL-AMERICA STATUS
For the second consecutive season, the reigning Sooner Athletic Player of the Year, Tarrah Stephens, was named to the NAIA All-America second team after being selected by league head coaches as an SAC first-teamer for the second time in her career. She was also picked as an All-America honorable mention by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.
Stephens led the Golden Eagles to the program’s first-ever Sooner Athletic regular season and tournament championships and a single-season program record win total of 29, averaging 16.4 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. The Wyandotte, Oklahoma, native shot 45% (181-of401) from the floor and 79% (122-of-154) from the free-throw line. The program’s all-time leading scorer, Stephens led the JBU offense in scoring in 15 games and reached the 20-point mark 10 times.
SCHERMER CAPS OFF OUTDOOR TRACK SEASON WITH STEEPLECHASE FINALS SHOWING
In just his first season competing in the event, sophomore Chase Schermer turned in a program-record time in the 3,000-meter steeplechase preliminaries and flirted with an All-America finish in the finals at the NAIA National Outdoor Track & Field Championships. He entered the steeplechase with the nation’s 30th best time (9:24.51) and hit the preliminaries finish line at 9:18.07, improving his seed time by more than six seconds. Schermer’s effort stood as the last qualifying time for the finals, elevating him 16 slots to 14th overall in the 39-competitor event. In the finals, Schermer finished just 6.24 seconds off an All-America finish, ultimately improving 20 places from the beginning of the national championships to finish 10th in the nation.
Freshman Cera Eckenroth also competed in the women’s 1,500-meter event, while senior Jean-Benoit Merte joined Schermer in the steeplechase in Marion, Indiana.
ESPORTS WINS LEAGUE OF LEGENDS DIVISION
The JBU League of Legends roster consisting of Jake Eckenroth, Roberto Aguero, Amos Adeyemo, Aaron Sluyter, Daehee Lee and Will Franken claimed the program’s first National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC) championship by winning the Emergents – East division. The team defeated Lander University, Southern Virginia University and Huntingdon College in the playoffs en route to the title, qualifying them for a 16-team national tournament featuring teams of a similar rank.
IN SODERQUIST’S FINAL SEASON, WOMEN’S BASKETBALL FINISHES WITH STORYBOOK CAMPAIGN
Despite the Golden Eagle season ending in the second round of the NAIA Women’s Basketball Championships for a second-straight season, the 2023-24 Golden Eagles pieced together a record-setting effort. JBU captured the program’s first Sooner Athletic regular season (22-0) and tournament titles, secured a 27-game winning streak, and automatically qualified for the program’s seventh appearance in the NAIA championships and fourth in 10 seasons.
ECKENROTH EARNS SECOND ALL-AMERICA FINISH OF FRESHMAN SEASON
Freshman Cera Eckenroth capped off the second All-America performance of her freshman season by finishing the 5,000 meters in eighth place at the NAIA National Indoor Track & Field Championships. After posting a program-record time in the preliminaries to qualify for the finals, she crossed the tape in 17:42.24.
Pictured Left to Right: Amos Adeyemo, Jake Eckenroth, Aaron Sluyter, Roberto Aguero, Will Franken and Daehee Lee.
Sophomore Chase Schermer
A SEASON TO REMEMBER
By Jay Nickel
The record-breaking 2023-24 women’s basketball season will be forever etched in Golden Eagle fans’ memories. After starting the season 2-3, JBU ended with a 29-4 record and a perfect 22-0 conference mark after riding a program-record 27-game winning streak. During the run, the Golden Eagles battled to its first-ever Sooner Athletic tournament title, winning three straight games to claim the league’s postseason championship. With its banner season, the NAIA chose JBU as one of 16 institutions to host the first and second rounds of the NAIA Women’s Basketball Championship at Bill George Arena for the first time.
Head Coach Jeff Soderquist and Golden Eagle student-athletes Bella Irlenborn, Graci Harris, Natalie Smith and Tarrah Stephens share what motivated them to generate the most wins and highest winning percentage in a single season in JBU women’s basketball history.
Q: How does being part of the first JBU women’s basketball team to go undefeated in the SAC Conference feel?
A: (Tarrah) It’s a remarkable achievement to be part of such a historic team, and I feel beyond blessed. The dedication, hard work and teamwork that went into achieving this season was immense. Being forever associated with that accomplishment is something I will always cherish. I think it’s really a testament to the determination and unity of the team and is something that will forever be a source of pride for all of us.
Q: What was it like experiencing the 27-game winning streak?
A: (Natalie) It was surreal, to say the least. It is difficult to put into words how incredible that experience truly was. It was a peak that we never wanted to stop; each win just fed into the next. The joy we had after each team win just gave us motivation to keep going.
Q: What factors contributed to the team’s 27-game winning streak? As a fan, it seemed you all had good team chemistry and played to each player’s strengths.
A: (Bella) I think a big part of our success was that we were all friends and wanted each other to succeed. Every game, someone new stepped up. As a team, when you can celebrate your teammates, it builds a connection that is seen on and off the court. I think this has a lot to do with the girls that Coach Soderquist has recruited. We all have unique characteristics, but we can come together to be a unified team.
Q: What were your thoughts when the team started 2-3? What was the team’s mindset at that point?
A: (Coach Soderquist) I was concerned, but I knew we had a talented group. We started the season with some key injuries, and I just kept coaching them and looking at it one game at a time. It was the second half of our game in Florida against Southeastern that we really looked, both offensively and defensively, the way I thought this team would look. That game started our 27-game win streak.
Q: What was your reaction to being named SAC Player of the Year as well as being selected to the NAIA All-America Second Team?
A: (Tarrah) Being named SAC Player of the Year and selected to the NAIA All-America Second Team was an incredibly gratifying and humbling experience for me. Receiving those honors was a personal achievement and a reflection of the support and encouragement from my teammates, coaches and supporters. I know that I could not have accomplished anything without the help of my teammates, coaches, athletic trainers, family and most importantly, God.
REMEMBER
Q: How have JBU and Coach Soderquist prepared you for life after college?
A: (Graci) Coach Soda was hard on us at times because he expected a lot from us. He knew that we were capable; we just had to believe it ourselves. Going to practices or games, so tired or stressed out for exams, has made us all more than ready to go out and experience life after college.
Q: Do you have any final thoughts about your 36 years at JBU?
A: (Coach Soderquist) JBU is a very special place. I had the chance to go other places, but I really thought that this was home. I bleed gold and blue, and I always will. I wouldn’t have changed anything about my time here.
From top left to bottom right: Emily Sanders, Graci Harris, Jeff Soderquist, Bella Irlenborn, Natalie Smith, Tarrah Stephens
To read more of the Q&A, visit jbu.edu/news/articles
TECHNOLOGY, EDUCATION AND EXPANDING ON THE FOUNDER’S VISION
By Cherissa Roebuck ’01
Just how rapidly is technology advancing? When the first electric programmable computer, the Colossus, was developed in 1943 to help Allied code breakers read encrypted German messages in WWII, it was the size of a living room and weighed more than five tons.
People who were alive in 1943 to witness the use of the Colossus now carry in their pockets a smartphone computer that can instantly access information from all over the world. It is 400,000 times smaller and has 1.6 million times more computing power than the 1943 Colossus — mind-blowing.
John Brown University’s founder, John E. Brown Sr., was a trailblazer in using technology to spread the gospel via broadcast radio early in the 20th century.
Following the founder’s vision, JBU has embraced new technology-based academic programs, like the new artificial intelligence major. The university also uses technology to enhance existing programs, like its hightech nursing sim lab, and leverages many technologies to make Christian higher education accessible to students everywhere.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The Computer Science Skills of Tomorrow
Next fall, JBU will launch a new degree program in artificial intelligence. JBU is the only Christian university in the United States to offer this major and one of only about a dozen programs nationwide.
Justus Selwyn, Ph.D., chair of the computer science department, is leading the charge.
“After ChatGPT came into the picture, I was leading the AI task force at JBU, and I had the opportunity to work alongside professors from many departments. They had many stories about AI use at JBU,” Selwyn said. “Some were good, some were bad, some were funny, some were sensitive. Students were using ChatGPT to create content for their assignments. Is that good or bad? That is a long debate. AI is a great invention and a great gift for mankind, but students are also able to realize what is good and what is not good for their learning curve.”
Selwyn said JBU designed the new AI major to help students learn and use all the emerging AI technologies and mentor students through understanding the ethical use of artificial intelligence. This focus on ethics sets JBU’s AI program apart from programs at other universities.
“The students are learning the ways that they should not rely on technology — that we should not allow technology to rule us,” Selwyn said. “We can ask the question: ‘As believers, how will we think?’ We will think as both a Christian and a computer scientist.”
The artificial intelligence program joins a rapidly growing program lineup in JBU’s computer science department, launched at JBU in 2022. It also includes computer science, game design and cybersecurity programs.
Selwyn said that all the computer science department programs use a “C to C” (Classroom to Corporate) model. In addition to learning and using the software and technology currently used in industry jobs, all
computer science juniors have a collaborative project with a real company, during which they spend three semesters working with a company to solve real-time problems.
“We are bridging the gap from academia to industry,” said Selwyn. “Industry leaders are so happy that JBU students are already using their technology and software and know how to work in a team.”
HIGH-FIDELITY SIMULATION LABS
Hands-on, High-Tech Nursing Education
A short walk across campus from the computer science department, JBU nursing students also utilize cutting-edge technology to maximize their nursing education.
Nursing students use high-fidelity human simulators to practice all the skills required for effective nursing. These simulators are incredibly life-like, with rising and falling chest motions and pulses. From the control room of the sim lab, nursing faculty can speak for the sim patient so that nursing students can mimic real-life interactions with the patient in real time.
“We have simulations for the entire life span,” said JBU Nursing Director Natasha Trotter. “We have newborns, pediatric sims, a sim man — with whom we practice code scenarios, a geriatric sim and even a sim mom who can deliver a baby. We can practice all nursing skills using this sim technology, including placing catheters, NG tubes, IVs, etc.”
In addition to the program support that equips the JBU nursing sim lab with the latest sim technology, Trotter’s specific credentials are another element that sets the nursing program apart. Trotter is certified by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare as a CHSE (Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator). As of 2023, only 2,264 people worldwide hold the CHSE certification, and Trotter is currently working on the advanced certification, held by only 90 people worldwide.
“This CHSE certification gives our program a different status and allows us to know we are doing simulation well,” Trotter said.
Students who use the high-fidelity sim labs can earn two-for-one clinical hours toward their degree requirements because the time spent in the sim lab is all active interaction, compared to more passive interaction required when working in hospital settings where nursing students must defer to the registered nurses who are working on human patients.
In addition to the high-fidelity nursing sim labs, students use virtual reality headsets and the Ubi Sim program to engage with many medical scenarios. Students also use PYXIS, a medication dispensing administration system, and EHR, a medical records and charting program.
“Technology helps us prepare students to practice medicine using the same systems and processes they will use when they practice in real-life hospitals,” said Trotter. “We try to mimic exactly what hospitals in our areas use.”
A whole-student approach to nursing education is another distinctive of the JBU nursing school experience.
“We know that simulation is stressful; so for every simulation, we focus on the mental health of our students,” she said. “We require our students to log 30 minutes of healthy coping time through physical activity and 30 minutes in personal devotion time to decompress from stressful medical situations. This requirement is unique to JBU nursing – I don’t know another program that does that.”
TECHNOLOGY FOR ALL
From English majors to electrical engineering majors, history majors to artificial intelligence majors, all students utilize technology to deepen and enhance their JBU education.
“Name a technology, and our students are using it,” Selwyn said.
“INDUSTRY LEADERS ARE SO HAPPY THAT JBU STUDENTS ARE ALREADY USING THEIR TECHNOLOGY AND SOFTWARE AND KNOW HOW TO WORK IN A TEAM.”
Ted Song, Ph.D., professor of electrical engineering and chief innovation officer, said JBU has worked to stay current with new and emerging technologies over the past decade. JBU purchased the first 3D printer for campus 12 years ago. It was extremely expensive, costing tens of thousands of dollars, and it was the size of a refrigerator. Printing took many hours, often overnight.
Today, JBU has many 3D printers, and they are small, less expensive and much faster. The campus now has a carbon printer and a printed circuit board mill for creating circuits. Printing is embedded in the engineering curriculum — every student prints.
“If you think about JBU engineering, it started in the 30s, when students did machining. Now we have students printing,” Song said. “[Even just a few years ago] JBU used to be where students would learn to print for the first time. These days, students come to JBU having already printed before.”
Whether using AI software like Grayscope to aid in faster grading so faculty can spend more time mentoring students or utilizing Zoom video conferencing to do face-to-face advising for online graduate students, Song said that technology continues to enhance the mission and vision that John E. Brown Sr. laid as JBU’s foundation 105 years ago.
“What JBU is aiming to do is help students become wiser with technology. To do so, faculty and staff need to model how we can be wise,” Song said. “When God gives you a tool, how can you be wise with that tool?” Song asked. “Any tool can be used for God’s kingdom or not.”
1978
Every room in Mayfield has two private phones
1980
1982
The first mainframe on campus (IBM System/34) is purchased, along with the TEAMS Administrative software system.
1981
1996
1996
JBU’s first website is created by Ray West, Cal Piston and Carlos Avrad ’96.
Admissions sends prospective students the first interactive CD-ROM with 360° panoramas of campus.
California Dorm gets phone lines.
J. Alvin gets telephone booths in lobby. A year later, J. Alvin gets phones in each suite.
The internet comes to JBU. Students can access the internet through dial-up phone connections in their dorms. 1994
2000
2000
Rick Froman teaches the first online course, Intro to Psychology.
JBU adopts Blackboard for its first formal learning management system.
Wi-Fi comes to the residence halls. 2000
2002
2008
Chapel attendance switches to an ID scanning system.
JBU becomes Facebook official.
2013
2011 JBU joins Instagram.
Music & Theatre moves to digital ticketing to help manage the increased audience capacity of the Berry Performing Arts Center.
2009
Eaglenet debuts and has since gone through two major iterations.
2009
Golden Eagle Productions broadcasts the first livestream of an athletic game from Murray Sells Gym.
2010
JBU begins implementing a new enterprise planning system still used today.
2015
2020
Golden Eagle Athletics begins regularly livestreaming events. 2013
JBU starts using a digital asset management system (DAM), to store archival photos and documents.
OWL cameras are added to classrooms to help with remote learning during COVID.
2023
Bynum Theatre is renovated to create esports arena.
BLAZING A TRAIL
Norwood Champions Mental Health of First Responders
By Cherissa Roebuck ’01
Rachel Norwood wears many hats. Literally.
Her hats include an EMT cap, a firefighter’s helmet and, most recently, a tasseled cap at JBU’s Spring 2024 Commencement. Norwood graduated in three years with a Bachelor of Science in family and human services (FHS) and a minor in Spanish while working as a Siloam Springs Fire Department (SSFD) firefighter. Her required senior seminar capstone project educated her fellow SSFD firefighters about the importance of mental health among first responders.
Norwood dreamed of being a firefighter since she was in the 7th grade. She applied and was hired for a part-time position with the fire department during her second year at JBU. As a senior, the SSFD brought Norwood on fulltime while she continued full-time studies. In June, she celebrated two years with the SSFD.
Norwood continues to serve fulltime with the Siloam Springs Fire Department, some days riding the ambulance as an EMT and some days riding the ladder truck as a firefighter on emergency response calls.
When selecting her senior seminar capstone project for her FHS major, Norwood knew immediately that her project would combine her desire to help others with her passion for firefighting.
Geoffrey Reddick, Ph.D., chair of the FHS program, explained that during the yearlong senior seminar sequence and capstone project, students research, plan, create and present an educational curriculum to help a specific population.
Students embark on the senior seminar sequence during their junior year, beginning with researching a community problem or need. After a literature review on their selected topic, they conduct qualitative interviews with community members experiencing this problem and professionals engaging in this need. During their senior year, students create a five-course curriculum complete with a facilitator’s manual, a participant workbook and a slide presentation. In Decem -
ber of their senior year, students present their work to faculty, fellow students and community leaders.
“FHS students can do this capstone project in groups or individually,” Reddick said. “Rachel chose to do hers completely solo, which is not something we usually recommend because of how labor-intensive the project is, but that didn’t stop Rachel.”
Norwood had a vision to use what she had learned in her studies to help her fire department colleagues. She focused her capstone project on developing an educational program to help support the mental health of firefighters.
“The reason I care so much about the mental health of firefighters is that I’ve seen how working as a firefighter had not only affected my mental health but also the mental health of my co-workers,” said Norwood. “As I talked with my co-workers and heard how they would experience a traumatic call, I saw how the trauma was negatively affecting them. They needed more support from the department.”
Norwood developed a curriculum for the fire department in three sessions: Session one identifies common mental health struggles and how to recognize the signs and symptoms in first responders. Session two helps firefighters overcome barriers to mental health and shares resources available to help. Session three explores how the fire department can take the next steps to improve mental health among firefighters.
project presentations give glowing comments.
“When nonprofits come to the presentations, we have consistent feedback that ‘We need this! Please don’t let this just be a school project. We need this curriculum in the community,’” Ellenburg said.
Through the senior seminar field experience course, Norwood became the first FHS major to fully implement and facilitate her curriculum in the community for independent study credit.
“Rachel wouldn’t call herself a trailblazer, but she is,” said Reddick. “She is the best of us and exemplifies all our department ideals. She’s extremely humble and never wants to take the credit. She’s quick to highlight others but is a standout student.”
Norwood’s program was well-received at the SSFD, and it is already affecting change.
“It’s been really encouraging to see that our department is taking steps,” Norwood said. “We didn’t have peer support teams prior to this program, and now we do. Through this training, the need was seen, and we implemented the teams. It’s been great to see the leadership support that.”
“I’ve seen how working as a firefighter not only affected my mental health but also the mental health of my co-workers.”
On the night Norwood was scheduled to present her project on campus, the SSFD showed up in force to support her.
“That night, someone looked outside and said, ‘Is something going on? There are multiple fire trucks here,”’ said Meaghan Ellenburg, instructor of family and human services. “Twenty firefighters, in uniform, showed up for this college student’s class presentation, and it’s because they respect her and are proud to see the work she’s doing.”
Ellenburg said community leaders who attend the
The SSFD leadership wholeheartedly supports Norwood’s initiative within the SSFD.
“We all benefited from the information she shared. The classes were extremely well-received, and our members took the program very seriously,” said Dustin Kindell, interim fire chief at the SSFD. “Rachel is very respected as her work ethic speaks for itself, as does her caring and compassionate attitude toward her team and the fire department as a whole.”
While Norwood’s professors, colleagues and employers are singing her praises, she is quietly wearing all her hats, dreaming about what may be next (medic school for her paramedic’s license and grad school for a master’s degree in social work) and continuing to express gratitude for the opportunities she’s embraced at both JBU and the SSFD.
“It’s not me; God opened the right doors, and SSFD and JBU supported me,” Norwood said. “What I’ve done is because of who God put in my life, and I’m grateful.”
Art and More Art: Amy Keever
Amy Keever ’05 was once told that whatever you did at age eight tells you what you love. “I was living in the panhandle of West Texas, sketching everything I could get my hands on,” she said. “I absolutely loved art.”
Keever was raised predominantly in East Texas but frequented Siloam Springs to visit her grandparents who, along with her parents, were big fans of JBU.
Keever’s journey took her from Tyler Junior College to JBU in 1990, then elsewhere. Years later, as a mother of two, she returned to JBU and completed her business degree through the online program. Today, she is a full-time artist and gallery owner living in Bentonville, Arkansas, and her artistic journey began as a child.
As a young mother, Keever dabbled in different mediums before landing on her favorite.
“The first mosaic I ever tried, my son was four months old, and my daughter was five. I just decided, ‘I’ll make a table out of glass.’ So, I took my great-aunt’s wooden table and didn’t know what I was doing,” she said. “I went to Lowe’s and got a tile cutter, which is not what you use. I got glass at Hobby Lobby and was determined to make it work. That project became my dining room table for the next 16 years. It was the medium that stuck with me. I started making two-dimensional mosaics.”
Keever’s art was inspired when visiting a Cathedral in Italy where she first saw a material called Smalti in the Cathedral’s mosaics. Smalti is handmade, handpoured glass with a vibrant, rough surface that captures and reflects light in dynamic ways. She fell in love with the material and started implementing it into her wild pony and girl sculptures.
Recently, she has been plotting large-scale sculptures and added welding to her skill set to make them possible.
Many days, Keever is at her gallery on South Main Street in Bentonville, but she is frequently on the move.
Last July, she was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in September, she will be in Cincinnati, Ohio, at shows featuring her artwork. She also has a month-long residency lined up in Ireland in 2025.
“That’s all I do is think about art. Art and more art,” she said.
By Lois Flowers ’92
PURSUING A VISION
Clark took advantage of every opportunity to network and share his vision.
When Dimitri Clark ’23 wrote down an idea in a moleskin notebook for a class assignment his first year at JBU, he never imagined that he would be working to launch it as a startup company a few years later.
The class was Tools and Methods for Innovation, and the assignment was to carry the notebook around and make regular entries for new business ventures.
“The goal of the class is to develop observation skills and empathy for people experiencing problems in the world,” said Eva Fast, former associate professor of entrepreneurship, innovation and marketing, and former associate dean of the Soderquist College of Business.
Clark’s idea for “Abily,” an image-based web browser for people with motor and visual disabilities, came one evening when he watched his younger brother Leks use his cell phone in their family’s kitchen. Both brothers, who were adopted from Ukraine in 2002, have cerebral palsy. Now 23 years old, Leks is neurodiverse and reads at a second- or third-grade level.
“I thought, ‘What if I took an augmentative and alternative communication device, which displays pictures and projects sound for nonverbal people and applied it to the internet?’” Clark said.
As he envisioned it, the application would allow users to navigate the internet on their own rather than depend on others for assistance. It would also help them
learn and process new information beyond their perceived ability.
Clark jotted the idea down in his notebook and didn’t think much more about it until the following semester when JBU’s Ignite (formerly known as Enactus) program hosted an idea-pitch contest.
“I returned to the notebook and decided to pitch the idea for Abily,” Clark said, noting that his family’s personal experiences helped him understand the problem Abily could address, and his parents’ professional background in computer programming gave him insight into possible solutions.
Clark didn’t win the contest, but Fast said the judges appreciated the importance of his idea and the story behind it. They encouraged him to move forward with it as a capstone project for his degree in entrepreneurship & innovation.
“We developed a potential business model, learned more about the technical feasibility of the product and entered the idea into some collegiate, business-model competitions,” Clark said.
He took advantage of every opportunity to network and share his vision for Abily, including drawing from the wisdom of the business advisory board that entrepreneurship students are required to build their
a venture capital organization called Builders + Backers. In November, he pitched at The Heartland Summit, earning a $25,000 grant and a spot in the yearlong Stepping Stones cohort, an initiative powered by Builders + Backers and Heartland Forward that began in January.
Working with his biological brother, Sergey, a web developer in Ukraine with whom he connected more than 15 years ago, Clark hopes to start beta testing Abily this summer in the therapy clinic he went to as a child.
The following semester, Clark took a class called Market Discovery & Validation. In it, he and a partner conducted dozens of interviews to determine whether there was a need for this type of product and who the target market might be. They concluded that it was worth pursuing and that special-needs classrooms were the best target-market entry point.
The interviews continued in Innovation Launch Lab, the senior capstone class for entrepreneurship majors.
final year.
“Entrepreneurs often have a hard time letting go of their original concept the way it lived in their mind at the beginning,” Fast said. “Dimitri sought honest feedback from experts and customers, allowing his idea to evolve. He’s open-minded but also grounded in his values.”
After graduation, Clark and Fast discussed transitioning Abily from a college project to a business. He applied and was accepted to a summer-idea accelerator program with
“Our goal is to have pediatric clinics be our first customers, as I have talked to multiple therapists who have expressed interest in this type of application for their patients,” he said.
As is often the case with entrepreneurs, Clark’s life experiences led to the creation of Abily. But he also is grateful for his education’s role in the app’s development.
“Often how things come about is not simply because the person sat down and came up with an idea,” Clark said. “It is because a person goes through life collecting multiple experiences, and those experiences collectively lead to an idea. Attending JBU provided me with the tools to structure my ideas, put them into action and have the support of the JBU community around me.”
Shared triumph
By Carlson Wakefield ’20
When Krystal Minatta found out she was pregnant with her daughter Starla at age 19, many of the people closest to her encouraged her to consider ending the pregnancy.
“I wanted to be a doctor my whole life, and I had people saying, ‘you’ll never go to school’ and ‘this pregnancy is going to ruin your life,’” said Minatta. “I said, ‘Absolutely not.’”
On May 4, over two decades later, Minatta walked across the commencement stage in JBU’s Bill George Arena to receive her nursing program diploma. Her daughter, Starla Lawrence, wasn’t sitting in the audience. Instead, she was on the edge of the stage, waiting to hear her name called to claim her nursing diploma.
Minatta started her college journey as a full-time mom and a full-time employee.
“I got accepted into Grand Canyon University’s College of Nursing and did my prerequisites in a very short period of time,” she said. “I was taking 20 credit hours, working 60 hours a week and trying to be a parent to three daughters. It was nuts.”
put her education on hold. After separating from her then-husband and getting remarried, Minatta became a stay-at-home mom.
“I knew I wanted to go back to school, and my husband supported that, but I kept finding reasons not to do it,” she said.
In 2018, Lawrence decided to pursue a nursing degree at a school in Arizona while Minatta’s husband started working with Sam’s Club’s Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas and The family moved from Chicago to Arkansas.
I had people saying “this pregnancy is going to ruin your life.” I said, “Absolutely not.”
However, due to issues at home, Minatta had to
“After my first semester, I was away from my family and not doing well mentally, and my mom’s like, ‘Oh, we’re moving to Arkansas,’ and I said, ‘Oh no we’re not, that’s funny,’” Lawrence said. “But during my Thanksgiving break, I helped my mom move from Chicago to NWA and fell in love with it.”
Lawrence moved to Arkansas with Minatta and the rest of the family and took a semester off to reacclimate and center herself. Then, she enrolled in Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) to complete her nursing prerequisites.
Minatta also applied to NWACC but was denied. “I got my first decline, and it crushed me,” she said. “I just kept pushing forward and applied for the second time, but I got declined again. I thought maybe God didn’t want me to go into medicine.”
In an unexplainable turn of events, at five o’clock that same evening, Minatta got a call from an admissions counselor at JBU inquiring if she was interested in attending.
“I can only attribute it to being a God thing because I said, ‘There’s no way I can afford it,’” she said. “But the counselor asked me what my grades were like. I said I was a straight-A student and that my education meant a lot. By the end of the day, everything was in place.”
But her daughter’s decision to attend JBU wasn’t as easy as Lawrence had been working through tough questions regarding her faith.
“I wasn’t questioning it necessarily, but just trying to understand it,” she said. But thanks to Minatta pushing her to try JBU, Lawrence finally agreed.
Lawrence and Minatta graduated in the same cohort, spending countless hours together studying and being college friends while maintaining their relationship as mother and daughter.
“One of the greatest things that we learned was how to be students together,” Minatta said.
Lawrence and Minatta will also start their careers together at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale, Arkansas.
“It wasn’t even a conscious thing,” Lawrence said, laughing. “She [Minatta] wanted to be at a different hospital, and I wanted to be in a different department, but it’s all God’s plan, and I need to follow him.”
The same child that Minatta was told would ruin her life ended up graduating from university with her, and now they both want to serve others with the gift and education God gave them.
“Not only was my life not ruined, but neither was hers,” Minatta said. “Here she is, thriving and succeeding, and I couldn’t be prouder of both of us. The glory is entirely God’s. After everything he has done for us and given to us, we seek to glorify him as we serve him in our communities by serving those who need the skills he blessed us with.”
STUDENTS SERVE AT LOCAL ONCOLOGY FACILITY
Students in the Ministry to Families class with Lou Cha, Ph.D., associate professor of Christian ministry and formation, fulfilled their service-learning hours at Highlands Oncology in Springdale, Arkansas, where they worked as spiritual care interns with Chaplain and Spiritual Care Director Pattie Latta.
This was the second year of the “Making a Difference” partnership between JBU’s Christian ministry and formation program and Highlands Oncology.
JBU students provided a compassionate presence to patients and caregivers – listening, conversing, and offering comfort and encouragement.
Pictured (from left to right): Celeste Licona, Patti Latta, Ph.D., Bianca Singelstad, Russell Cash, Jessica Barber, Keaton Leinbach, Breanna Sandoval, Lou Y. Cha, Syliva Haley
Engineering Students Leverage Alumni Connections for a High-Tech Texas Experience
Instructor of Electrical Engineering Kim Cornett teaches a class called Introduction to Integrated Circuits - which are the miniature circuits that make compact technology, like smart phones, possible. This past spring, thanks to JBU’s robust alumni network, six engineering students who took Cornett’s class got to experience integrated circuits in a way the classroom simply couldn’t facilitate.
Cornett connected with JBU alumni in the Dallas, Texas, area and planned a class trip that included a tour of Texas Instruments, a visit to a high-tech Walmart fulfillment center and even a blustery sailing excursion on Grapevine Lake.
By Cherissa Roebuck ’01
One of the many companies manufacturing the type of circuits her Intro to Integrated Circuit class explores is TI, which has a circuit fabrication facility in the Dallas area.
Audrey Dearien ’16, Javier Valle ’03 and Daniel Norwood ’21, three JBU engineering alumni who work for TI, helped coordinate a unique visit for JBU students. Norwood showed the students around his laboratory, and Dearien and Valle arranged a facility tour. Through one of their contacts, JBU students were even able to gain access to a TI clean room to see the circuits being made on a silicon wafer.
“Our alumni told me, ‘We don’t even get to do this as TI employees,’” Cornett said. “I worked at TI as a systems engineer working on integrated circuits, and I knew all the different job opportunities that a place like TI can offer. When working through an engineering degree, you don’t always understand the range of its applications. It was great for our students to see how many different career options were available even within this one company.”
Dearien used her position as business lead in TI’s High Voltage Power business unit to help facilitate the JBU student visit.
“I think the most beneficial part of their experience at TI was to see what a real day-in-thelife as an engineer could look like and to connect what they are learning at JBU to real-life industry,” said Dearien, “Hopefully, it also gave them insight about where they want to see their future careers, and how fun it can be to solve real-life problems using their engineering skills at a company like TI.”
“[The students] were able to see the full end-toend operations, starting with our right-sized box maker by Packsize, our automated storage and retrieval system by Knapp and how those two systems connect at a Knapp picking station prior to being taped up and sent out to our customers,” Stewart said. “It gave the students a great peek behind the curtains for what really happens when you buy something online.”
“It gave the students a great peek behind the curtains for what really happens when you buy something online.”
Stewart, who serves on JBU’s Engineering Advisory Board along with Dearien, said he hopes to establish a workforce pipeline between Walmart and JBU engineering.
To finish the Texas trip, the group sailed on Grapevine Lake with JBU alumna Cynthia Faires Griffith ’07.
Cornett said she hopes the engineering trip to Dallas will inspire JBU alumni in other industries to pursue ways of engaging current JBU students with their unique industry connections.
After visiting TI, the group toured Walmart’s high-tech automated fulfillment center, thanks to a connection from JBU alumni Sam Stewart ’09, a senior automation engineer for Walmart.
Engineering students pictured include Daehee Lee, Michael Daubenmeir, Peter Ray, KJ Clark, Francisco Chavez and Robbie Keys.
Spanish Major Expands Career Options
By Lois Flowers ’92
Study abroad semester contributes to language skills
Lilly Flowers ’24 almost quit JBU’s Spanish program her freshman year.
Despite four years of Spanish in high school, Flowers wasn’t prepared for the speed and depth of her first few college language classes. Plus, it was 2020 – the year of COVID restrictions – and wearing a mask made trying to learn a different language even more difficult.
An encouraging phone call from her mother helped. But what mostly made Flowers persevere was how Ivan Iglesias, Ph.D., professor of Spanish and department chair of language studies, went “above and beyond what is expected of a professor” to show he cared. He even sent another student after her once when she left class crying.
Iglesias, originally from Colombia, may not have been so sensitive to a distraught student when he joined JBU’s faculty in 2009. His teaching style has grown and changed along with the program he directs as Professor of Spanish. He said
he also now gives priority to his students’ mental health issues as part of their overall academic performance.
“I have gone from the authoritative figure common in the Colombian way of education to the approachable figure inspired by JBU’s Christian environment,” Iglesias said.
The fact that students call him “Profe,” a term of more familiarity than traditional titles like “doctor” or “professor,” is evidence of Iglesias’ approachability.
Building on the structure for Spanish majors and minors created by his predecessor, Warren Roby, Ph.D., Iglesias revamped the curriculum and added hands-on courses such as Conversation in Spanish and Professional Spanish, which help students connect Spanish vocabulary to individual disciplines such as nursing, business and education.
The speaking requirements were challenging for Averee (Gumm) Deck ’21, Spanish program alumnus, but they also provided an opportunity for personal growth.
“I wanted to reach second-language perfection before I felt comfortable speaking, and that was an unrealistic goal,” Deck said. “Mistakes are inevitable, but the key to building fluency for a perfectionist like me is to keep practicing despite mistakes. The classes were a safe place to do the necessary work of correcting mistakes without creating embarrassment or shame for learning.”
“I’ve learned the importance of being open and willing to try and experience new things. It has been one of the most valuable skills in my life.”
Now, Deck uses her Spanish skills almost daily as a human resources specialist at JBU.
“I have gone from the authoritative figure... to the approachable figure inspired by JBU’s Christian environment.”
“Something about having someone who understands and speaks your first language never fails to make a difficult or stressful situation easier,” she said.
While Spanish can be a stand-alone major at JBU, most students in the program choose to pair it with another discipline to expand their career options.
While the number of Spanish majors has grown slightly since Iglesias came to JBU - averaging 15-18 students each academic year - the Spanish minor has grown to be one of JBU’s top four minors for the three years.
A key difference between the Spanish major and minor – a distinction Iglesias says might account for the slower growth of the major program – is that students majoring in Spanish must devote an entire semester to studying abroad, either in Seville, Spain, or Quito, Ecuador. Iglesias said this step allows them to achieve an advanced or near-native Spanish proficiency level.
“It’s great because you’re put in an environment where you must use the language to survive,” Flowers said of her semester in Spain. “You have no other option, and when you have no other option, you realize how much you really know.”
Like many students, Deck loved the cultural immersion aspect of the study abroad program.
“I lived with Spanish families, visited Spanish cultural sites and was able to learn the differences in lifestyles through both classroom and casual conversations,” she said. “While I had moments early on when the culture shock was overwhelming, by the end of the trip, I was grateful for the experiences that contributed to my growth as a person and my language skills.”
Studying abroad was a dream come true for Gabrielle Eitutis ’22, who majored in both Spanish and film.
“The semester in Spain program challenged me to fully embrace living, thinking and existing in Spanish,” she said.
She embraced it so much that she spent the last year working as a content creator and ESL instructor in Antigua, Guatemala. Her Spanish vocabulary has grown, along with her intercultural communication skills.
“I have learned a lot, made plenty of mistakes and had so many wonderful experiences,” Eitutis said. “I have learned the importance of being open and willing to try and experience new things. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has been one of the most valuable skills in my life.”
Flowers is also enormously grateful she didn’t give up on her Spanish education her freshman year. In her first post-graduation position, she now serves as coordinator of recruitment and marketing for Semester in Spain, the program, sponsored by Trinity Christian College, that serves students from faith-based universities across the United States, including JBU.
Mabee Awards Challenge Grant for LRC Renovation
Scheduled to start in May 2025, the $9 million project will reinvent the Learning Resource Center as a modern and integrated Academic Success Center and collaborative learning hub. The Mabee Foundation, which also supported the construction of the LRC in 1980, has awarded JBU a $2.5 million challenge grant. To receive the funds, JBU must raise a little over $2.7 million from donors by Jan. 9, 2025. Would you consider being part of this project that will impact future generations of JBU students? To learn more and give, visit jbu.edu/lrc.
Cathedral Renovations
As soon as the last chapel was over in April, work began to renovate the interior of the iconic Cathedral of the Ozarks. Crews have refinished the pews, restoring them to their original luster, and are doing the same to the interior woodwork. The Cathedral is a hub of activity with people painting, replacing roof tiles and carpet, upgrading technology, and giving the lobby and lobby restrooms a new look. Generous donors have pledged or given over $1.1 million of the $1.5 million project cost. To see how you can get involved, visit jbu.edu/cathedral.
WAYS TO GIVE TO JBU
Cash Gifts
Your gift via eCheck or credit card can immediately benefit the area of your choice. Visit jbu.edu/givenow
Estate Bequest
Through PhilanthroCorp, JBU offers no-cost, no-obligation estate planning. Learn more at philanthrocorp.com or call (800) 876-7958.
Other Ways to Give
• Appreciated Securities
• Real Estate
• Retained Life Estate
• IRA
• Donor Advised Fund
• Life Income Gifts
• Charitable Remainder
Unitrust
• Charitable Gift Annuity
• IRA Charitable Gift Annuity
For information on any of these giving methods, email jkrall@jbu.edu.
While JBU has a rich history of student ministry leadership programs including worship leaders and the Student Ministry Leadership Team (SMLT), Campus Chaplain Keith Jagger, Ph.D., noticed areas of the JBU community that the Office of Christian Formation wasn’t able to reach readily.
“It has always been a dream of mine to develop a group of students to pour into more closely, who then commit to living life out more intentionally in their natural friendship groups,” Jagger said. “Given the time investment required for worship leaders and SMLT, we needed something in our office that could reach out a little further into areas of campus that we just weren’t reaching.”
Jagger said that Jesus’ model of discipleship and a desire for a broader impact on campus gave birth to the idea of the Chaplain Interns program, which is now entering its third year. The Office of Christian Formation selects JBU students to be chaplain interns each year, and these students commit to a year of deepening their spiritual maturity and serving as spiritual leaders on campus.
Jagger said this branch of student leadership is a little more behind the scenes. Chaplain interns meet weekly with Jagger and seek out mentorship. They also identify someone on campus they can mentor throughout the year.
During the 2023-2024 school year, eight chaplain interns took turns praying over chapel services, praying at the Sunday night Gathering service, leading six tes-
timony nights, and sharing devotions with the Parent’s Council, Alumni Council, Admissions, and at Advancement events and resident assistant in-service training. They helped host JBU’s external chapel speakers and took seminars on prayer and other personal and spiritual disciplines. At the end of their program year, chaplain interns help interview prospective interns for the next year to learn how to interview and hire prayerfully.
JBU junior education major Esther Place said the Chaplain Intern program has been an excellent and stretching experience for her.
“Being [a chaplain intern] has given me such a broad vision and understanding of JBU, its mission (especially on a spiritual level), staff/faculty and students,” Place said. “Overall, this program has opened my eyes to the deeper parts of JBU and the community that make it what it is. It has helped grow my love for this place and increased my desire to see God move in it.”
Jagger said he has loved watching the chaplain interns lead in their sports teams and other campus leadership roles, and he sees how they have grown in learning how to bring up Jesus in their daily conversations.
“It’s a joy to be in the trenches with the next generation, enjoying them poking fun at a member of an older generation (me) and also watching them wrestle through some really tough stuff up close,” said Jagger. “It’s hard to see them graduate and move on, but I hope these are lifelong relationships that help build the kingdom of God in our time.”
In Memoriam
Ralph Carr ’75, age 71, died March 17. (Biblical Studies) 01
Robert Cornelius ’51, age 96, died Dec. 10, 2023. (Bible and Religious Education) 02
Bettye Stout Davey ’46, age 98, died Dec. 12, 2023. (English) 03
David DeVries ’66, age 82, died July 5, 2023. (Electrical Engineering) 04
Steven Ford ’77, age 69, died March 18. (Physical Education & Health) 05
Michael Lee Gold ’70, age 76, died Nov. 2, 2023. (Physical Ed & Health)
Rory Griffin ’11, age 65, died March 25. (Organizational Management)
William Harte ’68, age 65, died Jan. 5. (General Science)
Rob Hayes ’98, age 53, died Dec. 29, 2023. (Biblical Studies)
Claylene Hays-Wyskup ’77, age 70, died April 18. (Business Administration) 06
Daniel “Big Dan” Hentschel ’73, age 72, died March 30. (Broadcasting)
Leslie “Les” Hromas ’51, age 93, died Feb. 10, 2023. (Aeronautical Engineering) 07
Patricia Myers Johnson ’51, age 93, died Feb. 23. (Social Studies)
Kyle Keeton ’96, age 49, died Feb. 7. (Business Administration) 08
Robin Lanette Kier ’04, age 61, died March 5. (Leadership and Ethics)
Christoper “Jake” Lambert ’96, age 49, died April 5. (Business Administration)
Hazel “Kay” Lewis Levering ’64, age 82, died Feb.8. (Music) 09
Cheryl Luedke ’82, age 63, died Dec. 24, 2023. (Business Administration)
Alan Maxey ’03, age 52, died Feb. 20. (Business Information Systems) 10
Myo Aung McKinney ’88, age 59, died Feb. 21. (Business Administration) 11
Jonathan “Jon” Miller ’70, age 78, died Feb. 28. (Building Construction & Design)
Kenneth Miller ’60, age 86, died April 27. (Engineering) 12
David Milner ’71, age 78, died March 14. (English)
Steven Molnar ’67, age 81, died Dec. 14, 2023. (Radio Production) 13
Kenneth Nelson ’50, age 95, died Jan. 12. (Mechanical Concentration)
Kimberly Nelson Moore ’94, age 54, died Dec. 30, 2023. (Corporate Wellness) 14
Charles “Chuck” Palm ’54, age 92, died Nov. 4. (Agriculture) 15
Donna Macek Pickle ’98, age 73, died Feb. 6. (Organizational Management)
Martha Blythe Puett ’42, age 103, died Feb. 1. (Home Economics) 16
Ralph “Gene” Rickman ’95, age 52, died Jan. 13. (Broadcasting)
Robert “Bob” Sheridan ’54, age 92, died Jan. 15. (Construction Management) 17
John Wilson ’55, age 98, died Nov. 10. (Social Studies)
Philip Worthington ’60, age 87, died Dec. 20, 2023. (Bldg. Construction & Design) 18
Sharon “Sherry” Simpson Wright ’72, age 73, died Dec. 13, 2023. (Elementary Ed.)
LeVern Young ’48, age 98, died March 22. (General Science)
