STATUS Challenging the Status Quo
2019 October/November | Issue 2
Dino Museum
College Crisis
You Got This!
Table of Contents 02 03 05 06 07 08 09
Status
October/November 2019 Status is the student-run magazine of the Student Association at Southwestern Adventist University. Any opinions expressed are the opinions of the writers and do not reflect the opinions of the editor nor the university.
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Status Magazine
Editor’s Letter Dinosaur Museum College in Crisis Top 3 Tech for Students Are You in the Right Major? It Is Well With My Soul You Got This!
PHOTO CREDITS Cover Photos: Jakob Owens on Unsplash Cing Nuan Singbawi Sing Page 1 Student photo SWAU Flickr Page 2 Editor’s photo Cing Nuan Page 4 Knights Store Ad Singbawi Sing Nathan Ward
Page 4 Background photo Adam Muise on Unsplash Page 5 Background photo Singbawi Sing Page 6 Background photo Hugo Barbosa on Unsplash Page 8 Background photo Andea Ferrario on Unsplash Page 9 Background photo Ben White on Unsplash *All other non credited photos are provided by the writers .
Editor’s Letter EDITOR Singbawi Sing WRITERS Marlee Williamson Clara Jimmerson Sierra Chadwick Ricky Van Why Franklin Allen CONTRIBUTORS Dr. Michael England EMAIL swaustatus@gmail.com WEBSITE www.swaustatus.com
Have you ever felt like you’re not in control of your life? Like you’re a puppet of society? It is hard to be an individual in an age where everything is mainstreamed and everyone indoctrinated to the values of the popular few. What does that have to do with you? Your life? Not all “A” students are smart students, nor does it mean that “D” students are dumb. True humanity is not something you can decide on paper. Look beyond the obvious, see behind the masks. Do heroes ever feel helpless? Yes, they do. When that happens what did they do about it? True, great heroes in movies always make a comeback when the end is inevitable. They worked hard when they succeed and harder when they fail. Are they in charge of the story? No. But they work hard and did their best. They left the rest to the producers to find a way for the hero to make an epic comeback and win. Life is like a movie. There’s an intro to characters, a crisis, the hero’s resolution, an epic comeback capped with a happy ending. You can’t influence how the story will end, but in time of crisis you can resolve to keep going and make an epic comeback. God is the producer of our life story. No matter how crazy our life may turn out to be, as long as you resolve to make an epic comeback. God can then give you a happy ending. If it’s not a happy ending, it’s not the end yet. Trust God and keep going!
Singbawi Sing Status Editor, SA
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Dinosaur Museum The hangar-shuddering chant outside was enough to strike terror into anyone, but especially me – the person who would, in a moment, be huddling those hordes of Pathfinders into some semblance of order. SWAU classes began in a week, but I was over a thousand miles away from Keene and any chance of organizing my life before school began. 10! 9! 8! Dr. Wood, Dr. Chadwick, and David Stair, Chief Preparator for the Dinosaur Science Museum, had already disappeared into their classrooms, as Artie, our giant T. rex on display outside, pulled more fearsome, dino-crazy kids into the mob. 7! 6! 5! 4! Disappearing, also, were my introverted hopes of smoothly queuing the Pathfinders into their proper honor. 3! 2! 1! EEEEEEEKKKKK!!!! There was screaming. There was running. The floodgates had opened, and what seemed like a good chunk of the 56,000 Pathfinders present at the 2019 Oshkosh International Pathfinder Camporee came rushing towards one of Southwestern’s greatest projects – the Dinosaur Science Museum. 3
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I’ve worked with the Dinosaur Science Museum for two years, from unpaid intern to student curator, including two field seasons in Wyoming. SWAU has the best collection of Lance Formation fossils and Edmontosaurus bones, the largest Pachycephalosaurus skull and Edmontosaurus femur, the second Nanotyrannus ever found, the world’s best fossil database, and a unique GPS mapping system, but it hasn’t always been the lodestone for tens of thousands. I’ve watched its public status change from
the “museum in the basement”, as it was called in a National Geographic documentary, to the star of Oshkosh and a new television series, all the while overwhelming its facilities both in the field and here at SWAU with visitors. The team and I eventually managed to instill a semblance of order into the thousands of kids filing through the Museum-on-Tour. In fact, in the process of murdering my inner introvert, I managed to find joy in their awestruck faces. I know that look; it’s on my face every day as I clean the ages off the bronze of magnificent bones. Our display was centered by a strikingly massive Allosaurus tackling a Ceratosaurus, behind which stood an Edmontosaurus display, an Oviraptor, Nanotyrannus, an Ankylosaur, Dromaeosaur, and part of a Triceratops. Their roars (Allan Quear somehow managed a sound system and hordes of children) weren’t our only attraction. We also ran a virtual reality center through which Pathfinders could “visit” our dig, and our 3D printer, churning out Dromaeosaur skulls and Edmontosaurus vertebrae. We handed out fossil fragments and explained what we knew about the mysteries of dinosaurs. We wore out our shoes, our voices, and our immune systems. But the Pathfinders, in their tens of thousands, looked, touched, listened, and learned. I highly suspect Southwestern Adventist University, in a few years, will be overrun by that same mob of learning-hungry youngsters that terrified me my first day at Oshkosh. I’ll be safely out of here. But the museum? That’s here to stay. Maybe it will be one of those Pathfinders, with my job, who opens a new, bigger building, or discovers our first articulated theropod in the field. But y’know what? It could also be you. Explore the Dinosaur Science Museum for yourself on the lower floor of Scales Hall (You simply can’t miss the T. rex!) to view our repository for yourself, and to find out more about our 2020 Dig and the accompanying lab science class. We’re open 10 AM – 4 PM weekdays, and 1 – 4 PM Sundays. Interested in volunteering? Contact Dr. Jared Wood or Dr. Art Chadwick. Sierra Chadwick is a biology major with an English major soul. She likes dragons well enough, despises dinosaurs, and hopes to one day earn a PhD in Ethnobotany.
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College in Crisis Student loan debt has been increasing over the past decade and is now the highest it has ever been. In the U.S., there is 1.56 trillion dollars in student loan debt owed by 44 million borrowers according to Forbes.com (Friedman, 2019). The article in Forbes states, “75% of borrowers who graduated from
of debt that can take their entire lives to pay back. It can cripple their financial health for decades. This trillion dollar crisis affects a large and growing number of Americans. The majority of student loan debt is on borrowers from private colleges and universities, like SWAU. Southwestern Adventist
scholarships help students receive additional funds for increasing their grades, and starting after their freshman year, they have the opportunity to move up the ladder,meaning more money for tuition. Beyond these scholarships, Southwestern offers percentage
private non-profit colleges have on average, $32,300 of student loan debt.” Clearly, students are struggling to pay for college, but for some students, there is added stress around being accepted. The news of a man who was helping wealthy clients bribe their child’s way into elite colleges took over the news cycle back in March, mostly because of the high profile clients like Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman. Lori Loughlin is best known as “Aunt Becky” in Fuller House and numerous Hallmark movies and TV shows. Felicity Huffman is famous for her role in Desperate Housewives. Many people are rightfully upset that the college application system was manipulated by the wealthy in this way, but in truth our college system in America has been failing its students for years. Students face a crushing amount
University tuition is not cheap. That is very clear by the panicfilled faces that fill Findley during registration at the beginning of every semester. SWAU students are not alone in the struggle of how to pay for college. Southwestern has its imperfections, but we are offered unique scholarships to relieve students’ loan debt. Need based scholarships like SU Grants (students out of state) that are equivalent to the Tuition Equalization Grant (TEG) from FAFSA help offset the price. Other general scholarships that help are the Family Discount (3 students = 10% off and 2 students 5% off), the Student Missionary/ Task Force ($1200 after service year), the Leadership Scholarship ($1000 for a leadership position), and the Institutional Education Loan ( with 0% interest). Additionally, scholarships are awarded by donors throughout the school year. Merit
matching scholarships to any student that canvasses or works at summer camp over the summer. There is also the 3-way Match Scholarship so every contribution can be amplified. To avoid more debt, Pell Grants from the government and loan forgiveness programs can help. At Southwestern, we have a university that is diverse and filled with faculty and staff that cares about the individual student. This is shown by the efforts to assist students financially and as a whole person. Here, every student is given an equal opportunity to do well. We are united by our pursuit of knowledge, faith, and a mission of service.
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Status Magazine
Clara Jimerson, Business Major
Top
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Tech for Students
https://www.wunderlist.com/ [Android & IOS] When you first download the app, you’ll have to create your own ‘lists,’ which can be personal or for work or school. Once you add the tasks to the list and you complete them, you can check a box so the task goes into an archive and no longer distracts from the other chores you need to get done. One of the coolest features about this app is its ability to print the lists of your choice. In case you forget your planner at home, you’ll have a spare copy of the to-do list on your phone. This app will help any busy college student manage, organize or outsource group tasks effectively Alarmy https://alar.my/ [Android & IOS] Alarmy (Sleep If U Can) is the innovative solution for those who just can’t seem to get up on time, even with an alarm clock. This app has been cleverly designed to force you to get out of bed. You set it up by registering a photo of an area or room in your house. Then once the alarm is set, the ONLY way to make it stop ringing is to get out of bed and go take a photo of the registered area. Alarmy supports multiple methods of turning off the alarm including the regular way of turning it off with a tap on the button. Apart from taking a picture, you may also configure specific alarms to be turned off by shaking the phone or solving math problems. BibMe http://www.bibme.org/ [Android & IOS] BibMe is a one-stop source for all kinds of bibliography needs. It is a great online tool for bibliographies--and more. It even has a function for those students who don’t remember all the information for the source you cited. BibMe allows you to search from a database of millions of entries to find your source and autofill in the information. BibMe also offers resources to help you cite your work properly in the ‘Citation Guide’ section. It offers examples in MLA, APA, and Chicago formatting, making it useful for a wide variety of schools. Set up a free account for yourself so you can “save” bibliographies.
Submitted by: Dr. Michael England, Professor in Education/Psychology Dept.
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Are you in the
Right Major? Chase McCafferty is an Ecology major here at SWAU. Ecology is the study of plants, animals, and the environment, and how they all interact with each other. “I am in Ecology because I really love animals and plants, and I want to learn how to conserve them for the future and learn about them in general. I’ve always been into animals and stuff so I thought it
It actually helps the environment by cleaning out mice and other sorts of pests. That is just one thing, there is a lot of other stuff that goes into it.” Chase goes on to say that there is no such thing as a bad snake, even if they are venomous or poisonous. They are still an integral part of the environment. Instead of doing away with it, Chase emphasizes the importance of
would be fun to do it as a career, do something you love, that sort of thing. I think I want to become a wildlife biologist as well as an animal educator. So I’ll probably be working with Texas Parks and Wildlife, and on the side I’d be raising animals and taking them to different kinds of shows and teaching people about them.” For those who may not know, an animal educator is someone that takes care of animals that are part of local or exotic environments as well as teaching others about these animals.
animal control relocating the animal. “It is a part of the ecosystem, and if you take it out, you are damaging the ecosystem. My job would be to protect the ecosystem and educate people about it so that others can protect it, too. People often think about stuff on the larger scale, like saving the rainforest and stuff, but it really starts with you and your immediate surroundings. If there is a tree in your yard and you want to tear it up and take it out of your yard, you are affecting the ecosystem. There may be a bird that roosts there or a bug that only lives on that type of tree.”
Chase gives an example, “For instance, if there is a snake and people were saying ‘Oh this snake is dangerous and I don’t want it near my house, Im gonna kill it.’ My job would be to show that person that the snake is harmless. 7
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Chase wants to encourage people to think about the surroundings they live in, “Not many people think about it, and that isn’t necessarily their fault, it’s just because there’s not enough people talking about it. There is so much happening that even with things going on, like the Amazon Rainforest, a lot of people are misinformed about what is actually happening. There is a lot of false information being spread. I want people to know about it on a personal level so that they can make their own decisions about these things instead of having to rely on media outsource.”
Continued on P. 9
It is well with my soul As Christians we are called to praise
One thing that I can say is that it is
God in the good times as well as the
well with my soul. Besides the set-
bad, but that is sometimes easier said
backs I learned to find joy in the sim-
than done. Many times life does not
ple things of life and to be satisfied
go the way we expect it to and many
with where I am at in life regardless
times our plans are not carried out
of my current situation. It made me
the way we wished. In today’s modern
realize how thankful I was to be alive
society we are often longing for or
and how awesome it is to be alive. I
waiting for something in the future
am now more motivated and inspired
whether it’s the weekend or the end of
than ever to be the best that I can be
class. We are always looking forward
in life. The life that God gives us is
to something while we are unsatisfied
precious and we were given it for a
with the present. What if we just took
reason. Not all of you will get injured
a moment and enjoyed the present.
in gymnastics but all of you will have
What if we were simply satisfied with
to deal with setbacks, probably this
our lives? What if we could just say it
semester. When they come don’t run
is well with my soul?
and hide, instead face them with courage and determination knowing
Last semester I had an unexpected
that God made you to conquer. Strive
injury in a sport I love and still love
for whatever you are inspired to do
today. The injury caused a few set-
and most importantly believe that
backs in my schooling and quite a few
you can it. Even in the bad times we
setbacks physically. I also learned a
can say, it is well with my soul.
lot from this injury. I didn’t and still don’t know how or even if this injury was a part of God’s plan in my life.
Ricky Van Why
www.swaustatus.com
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You’ve Got This You are here for a reason. You may have heard this before, but do you really believe it? You’ve made many little choices along the way that have shaped your life and here you are. At times it may seem difficult to believe that your free will is a part of God’s perfect plan. At the end of the day I am exhausted. My cell phone is calling my name. I want to do anything I can to stop thinking. I find myself daydreaming, “Maybe I can beat my high score; I wonder what she thinks about my post; I wonder what he’s up to; I’ll just clear my notifications.” Before I know it, homework is piling up and studying for my exam is a favorite past time. When life becomes overwhelming, I ask myself, “Which direction is the rope?” When I play tug of war against the world, the world always wins. Blisters and rope burn are my reward. But when the rope is being lowered from heaven, I begin swinging carefree. I know God is stronger than me, but I still struggle to trust in Him.
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Status Magazine
God reached into my life and saved me. After making a little decision to trust completely in God, I found myself in the middle of Asia on a self-funded mission trip. As I stood on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, in a country which I did not speak the local language, I began to question everything. I had no idea where I would sleep that night. My translator had stopped working. The military had stopped me from going the only way forward. I looked up to heaven with tears in my eyes, “God, I’m yours.” Just then, I turned to find an abandoned path into the mountains. I lived there for three weeks where God granted me a divine appointment with a woman who was an English translator. We are still friends to this day. God has brought you here to S.W.A.U. for a reason. We are all here together at this exact moment in time because God cares. Maybe you have grown up inside the church and you’re tired
Continued from P.7 “As a kid I was always into dinosaurs, as all kids were, so I wanted to be a paleontologist for a long time, but then I kind of grew into realizing that money exists... and paleontologists don’t make a lot of money... I have always loved animals, so I just thought, ‘Hey! Why not work with living animals instead of dead ones? I would work on keeping them alive instead of going extinct.’ I can’t say for certain when I knew I loved animals, but I know the zoo and the aquarium were always
of it. Maybe something horrible has changed your life forever. You wonder, “How could God do this?” Death, suffering and pain are waiting at every turn. Maybe you’ve taken the bull by the horns. No matter what, you’ve decided, “I will succeed!” Maybe this path has left you alone. Whatever it may be that’s causing you to hold back, God has sent the ultimate apology letter through the man, Jesus Christ. Even though it wasn’t His fault, He wants to comfort you. He’s given you a promise that He will be your strength. Every person must
somewhere I would go as a kid. The only problem I have now is figuring out exactly what I want to do after I’ve graduated. A lot of people my age have issues with deciding what they want to do, but I’m pretty set on doing this and I’m happy about that.”
Marlee Williamson, Psychology
humble their heart before God and say, “I’m sorry, too.” His Spirit is promised in abundant supply to all those who love Him and keep His commandments. (John 14:15) In God’s eyes you are beautiful.
Franklin Allen, Theology Major
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