Senior Issue 2018

PULSE

M ay 4 , 2 0 1 8 • I s s u e 8 • Vo l u m e 5 • t h e s a u p u l s e . c o m

THE

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senior Issue PHOTO FROM SAU Flickr

PREVIEW

TABL E OF

CONTENTS HOW TO SURVIVE YOUR FIRST YEAR OUT OF COLLEGE PAGE 4

4 YEARS OF MEMORIES

THANKS FOR LIVING WITH ME

PAGES 8-9

AFTER THE DIPLOMA: FUTURE PLANS

Best friends and roommates PAGES 6-7

PHOTO BY Caitlin J. Stout

PAGES 10-11

SLAPPIN’ SENIOR SONGS PAGE 12

FLATLINE PAGE 13

BEST PROF ACCOMPLICE

Who’s helping you steal the Mona Lisa?

PAGE 14

FROM A SENIOR TO UNDERCLASSMEN PAGES 15

RETIREES

PAGE 16

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thesaupulse.com • May 4, 2018

The Pulse | Seniors

Kayla Williamson “Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.” I’ve often thought about my legacy at SAU— both what I hope it will be and what I’ve done to accomplish it.

Forget the shiny paper.

Forget the 40 member staff.

Forget the cool designs.

Those will be forgotten in a year. I want the stories and the people who were vulnerable enough and strong enough to share their experiences to be remembered —from research on governmental anarchy to the fight against human trafficking.

Your story defines who you are. It’s a snapshot into a person’s soul. It’s the essence of human experience.

By listening to other people’s stories, you can start to understand what shapes their opinions and thought processes. This is the basis of empathy.

Our goal as a community of learners is to be the voices of sanity in a world of fluff and miscommunication. Our goal as a staff is to expand the community’s worldview, provide a platform for discussion and give voice to our peers.

I trust them. But I also trust you, Spring Arbor University. It’s you, Spring Arbor, who we do this for. It’s your stories, experiences, feelings and opportunities that we share because you deserve to have your story told.

So thank you for letting me be the liaison between your stories and the rest of the community. Thank you for letting The Pulse grow into the reputable story-sharing news source it has become. Thank you for being vulnerable with us so someone out there will feel a little less alone.

‘Til next time, Kayla Andri Hill I was volun-told to join the Pulse by my roommate. And here I am three years later.

Heather Clark If senior me could travel back in time and tell freshman me everything that was going to happen to her in college, freshman me probably would have run away screaming.

From joining The Pulse with plans to be only a copy editor but somehow finding my way into writing one or maybe two articles an issue, to learning sign language and becoming the service interpreter at my church, to writing a 150,000 word novel while taking two Brent Cline classes (there is a good reason I had to petition to take more than one), I’ve done a lot of things in the past four years I never thought I was capable of.

But I think my proudest achievement is the friends I’ve made over these four years. My wonderful roommate of four years who hasn’t killed me yet even when I knock over all our pots and pans at 4 a.m., my Core 100 (yes I still call it that) friend who eventually became my third roommate, the Communications department (I’m really going to miss you, Dr. Patton, thanks for all the great memories and “soul stirrings”), Campus Safety and all those sleep deprived 4 a.m. shifts, SAU Hearts Drama, and the wonderful staff of The Pulse. I’ve been so blessed to be surrounded by people who care about me, love me and support me. Thank you for being my second family.

EDITORIAL

Senior Notes

The Pulse Staff 2018-2019 Editor-in-Chief Elise Emmert

Video Team Manager Ryan Sisk

Associate Editor Celeste Fendt

Sales Manager Kaelyn Hale

Features Editor Caralyn Geyer

Design Editor Makana Geppert

A&E Editor Nathan Salsbury

Designers Emily Norton

Sports Editor Alex Anhalt

Staff Writers Collin Caroland Heather Clark Connor Williams

Sales Representatives Kelsey Brannon Mitchell Hodson Cole McEldowney Caytie Sprague Marketing Coordinators Aaliyah Winters Kaleigh Bone Vincent Nowak Alexandria Fulton Alyssa Pluta

May 4, 2018 • thesaupulse.com

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All I Need to Know is What I Learned in Kindergarten Mary Sramek | Guest Writer The last year of my life can be described by a portion of my Twitter bio: “Voted least likely to teach kindergarten. I teach kindergarten.

God is laughing.” Life is nothing like I planned.

My first year post graduation was one of fear. I feared that my life would lack meaning if I didn’t spend hours looking for the right thesis statement, developing pithy comments on blackboard posts or pretending I know anything about “Moby Dick”.

I feared living and working. I accepted a job for which I was unprepared. I opened a 403B (don’t ask me what that means), bought a car, got an apartment, made appointments and worked a full-time job. While it all sounds super impressive, my life was just a pile of paperwork and lesson plans. I was just gliding through life and hoping someone would eventually hand me some guidelines or instructions.

The joke’s on me: there is no syllabus for adulthood. There was nothing to prepare me for life and I spiraled out of control. Work consumed me––I was stressed to the point of waking my roommate up screaming “No,

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[student], I will not tie your shoes!

ANYWAY, they’re LOAFERS. LOAFERS.” I found myself skipping church, I stopped texting my friends and allowed myself to fall into the trap of excuses about how I was unhappy because life was consuming me.

It wasn’t, though. I was letting life chew me up and spit me out onto the pavement.

I didn’t fully understand how dangerous my seclusion had become until January. A six year old asked me, “Miss Sramek, what do you do when you aren’t teaching me?” I remembered what I used to do––act, sing, write, bike––but I didn’t have an answer for what I did now. A six year old, a kindergartener, made me take ownership of my personhood again.

Before, I was unhappy, bitter and envious of my peers. I had to learn to be more than my major, my job and my academics. I had to learn to be an emotionally healthy person.

If you knew me while I was at Spring Arbor, you knew I had a plan for my life. The life I said I would have,

thesaupulse.com • May 4, 2018

PHOTO BY Charlene Rucker

it’s nowhere near happening. Before, I was deluded enough to think my postgraduation life would be like college with different (and more enjoyable) guidelines. Sure, that was all true, but in college your friends are right there, your hobbies are right there and (generally) you care about what you’re learning. After you leave Spring Arbor, you learn how to really manage what’s important and make time for it all.

It took me a year, but I have finally learned that being happy and fulfilled is about embracing community, finding a place to love something you do (even if it isn’t your job!) and embracing the possibility of the uncertain.

Post-graduation shouldn’t be about making money or just making it. Find a place, even if you don’t love your job.

You don’t have to love your job, but you should love yourself.

The best part about graduation, though? I can use an Oxford Comma and no one fights with me about it.

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May 4, 2018 • thesaupulse.com

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Roommate Success Stories Heather Clark | Staff Writer Katie Lewis and Tori Bowman Morgan Miller and Caitlin Stout Tori and I met our senior years of high school at one of the overnight stays at Spring Arbor University (SAU).

On freshman move-in day we found out we were randomly put on the same floor right across the hall from each other.

Since we already knew each other, we just kept talking and eventually became best friends and decided to room with each other the next year. Now we’re both seniors, and we’ve roomed with each other for 3 of our 4 years here at SAU, and in our freshman year, I practically lived on the carpet in her room! We make sure we try and see

each other over summers and we go to each other’s houses as often as we can.

Some girls come to SAU to find their husbands and to get that ring by spring, but I came and found one of my best friends. I think we both are glad that we talked at the Senior expedition, and we were blessed to end up on the same floor together 4 years ago.

-Katie Lewis

PHOTO PROVIDED BY Katie Lewis

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thesaupulse.com • May 4, 2018

PHOTO PROVIDED BY Morgan Miller

[Caitlin and I] met freshman year.

She lived across the hall from me and my roommate and I were good friends with Caitlin and her roommate.

After sophomore year, my roommate left Spring Arbor and hers left for a semester abroad, so naturally we decided to live together. At first, I was really nervous because we’re definitely very different in a lot of ways, but it ended up being the most beautiful experience, and I am always thankful that I had the opportunity to live with her and get to know her on that level.

I think my favorite memories with her will always be breakfasts. A lot has happened over the past four years, but breakfast with Caitlin has been a constant. We used breakfast to celebrate great accomplishments, as a balm for our pain, as a ground on which to gather and rally our queer advocacy and sometimes it was just used for a friendly and healing silence with one another.

I never have a good breakfast without wishing Caitlin was with me.

-Morgan Miller Andri Hill and Kayla Williamson Kayla and I both came in blind. I was terrified that I was going to be stuck with the crazy, serial-killer roommate, or at the very least that we would not get along. When we got our roommate assignments she messaged me first and we chatted about random things. I believe we actually played 20 Questions.

Funnily enough, we had a lot of things in common. We both loved theater and musicals and were both going into the communications department.

The similarities did not stop there.

When we moved in, we discovered that

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY Andri Hill

we had the same toothbrush, hairbrush and makeup bag. Kayla had to label her things with orange duct tape so we would not get them confused. Oh, did I mention that our favorite colors are complementary? Blue and orange.

Quickly, we realized that it was a match made in heaven. We kind of are the perfect team. I am the dramatic one and she is the logical one. If I am lying on the floor lamenting about #CuteGuy (don’t worry about it), she is the one reminding me that I am being a ridiculous human and have more important things to think about. If she is spending too much time working, I am the one forcing her to drive to Lime Lake to watch the susnet (FYI, make sure you give yourself enough time, otherwise you will get to Lime Lake, miss the sunset, it will be dark and you will be scared by a deer and possibly get kidnapped, but that is a story for another time).

I have Kayla to thank for a lot of who I am today. If it were not for her, I might still be that super anxious, selfdoubting human who refuses to get involved...wait, ok, so, I am still a super anxious, self-doubting human BUT I am a lot more involved then I ever believed

Move in Day- 2014

I would be. Thanks to Kayla, I got back into acting and renewed my passion for storytelling and people. If it were not for Kayla forcing me to audition for things or forcing me to get involved in The Pulse (Yes, this is true), I would not have grown into the person I am today.

After graduation, Kayla will move away to The Big Apple to pursue her dreams, and I’ll go back home and flounder my way through life, but wherever we end up, I know I can always count on Kayla to encourage me and be my friend. We have shared four years together and now it is time to part ways. It is bittersweet.

I will miss our passive aggressive arguments, our late night talks, our weekly broadway musical jam sesh and just doing life with you. Thank you for who you are and thank you for putting up with me.

-Andri Hill

Honors Chapel- 2018

May 4, 2018 • thesaupulse.com

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do you remember Kayla Williamson | Editor-in-Chief

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The legacy of the missing silverware will live on, even if this graduating class is the last one to actually suffer trying to cut salsbury steak with a plastic fork.

Womens soccer won the national championship in Orange Beach, Ala. They defeated defending champs Lindsey Wilson 3 to 0.

Underclassmen will nev finding a parking spot be and tennis courts. Who s parking advantages now?

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Similar to another thing this semester, this more widespread reply all will go down in the books as one for the ages. Also as the bane of Information Services’ existence.

SAU welcomes its first bowling teams. Props to all the students who bowl without bumpers, unlike us peasants.

How he got there, we don Spring Arbor’s fire truck he’s still MIA).

gag me with a... wait

236 notifications later...

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thesaupulse.com • May 4, 2018

we are the champions

scoring 300

goodbye village

the elephant on t

how it all began...

parking

ver know the joy of etween the Post Villages says upperclassmen have ?

the roof

n’t know, but we needed k to get him down (and

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Who runs the field? Girls. Our womens soccer team did it again - 2017 NAIA National Champs.

It’s the end of an era with O and M closing for renovation evaluation. Only time will tell if we’ll ever hear from the Ormston kazoo choir again.

(Also, where does Bill Murray go now?)

all we do is win

PHOTOS BY Nate Bortz, Olivia Landis, Chris Bauman, Kayla Williamson & SAU Flickr

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what about porchfest?

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pass the chapel mic Ron passed the chapel mic to Brian Kono this spring, and while Ron’s not far, Kono is now the one who tells us to “go in peace” every Monday and Wednesday.

May 4, 2018 • thesaupulse.com

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Oh! the places They’ll go Alex Anhalt | Sports Editor Caralyn Geyer | Staff Writer

Health and Exercise Science: Ruben French

Health and Exercise Science major Ruben French will graduate this May with the hope of one day working in the realm of sports. His goal for this athletic work is to “help athletes reach their greatest potential” in whatever ways he can.

To start, French said he would like to work directly with patients doing intake work as well as working alongside a physical therapist. His hope is to impact others in how he teaches patients to become their healthiest selves by reaching the goals they set for themselves.

He said he feels prepared to get competitive in his field because of Spring Arbor University’s (SAU) professors and the opportunities they have given him.

“I feel that I have been given a quality education that allows me to compete with anyone in my field,” he said.

French is grateful for their influence not just academically, but spiritually and personally as well.

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Communications and Media: Hannah Shimanek

History/ Geography/ Politics: Breanne VanderHill

Hannah Shimanek will receive her diploma this May with a degree in Communications and her individualized minor of global services and urban missions. She said in the future, she wants to work for a nonprofit organization that deals with refugee services or be a coordinator for camps and after-school programs.

This summer, Shimanek is working at St. Vincent’s Catholic Charities in Lansing, Michigan. Her position will deal with the organization’s children’s home where she will be working as a youth advocate for ages six through twelve.

Shimanek said she is “ready to do everyday life outside the SAU bubble and be the critical participant the school is always talking about.”

“I want to serve those who feel disrespected, disregarded or misplaced by society and help them discover their self-worth and purpose where they are, for who they are,” she said.

Breanne VanderHill will be graduating with a major in Social Studies and a minor in biology for secondary education.

VanderHill said she has many future job options to consider. Her dream job would be teaching sixth grade geography, seventh grade ancient civilization or any kind of middle school life science. At the same time, she would like to continue the outdoor education career she started at Camp Michindoh four years ago as a reptile and amphibian instructor and a history re-enactor. She said she would love to open her own outdoor education school in the future.

“I really do think God has given me His love, joy and patience to work with young people,” VanderHill said. “I want every person I interact with to feel loved and valued.”

thesaupulse.com • May 4, 2018

PHOTOS FROM Facebook

English: Molly Falkner

Molly Falkner will graduate this May with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

To finish out the semester, Falkner is currently working two jobs and planning her wedding, which will become her top priority after graduating. Though she has no job lined up directly after receiving her diploma, she is perfectly fine with figuring it out as it goes. In the future, she can see herself being a travel writer and also exploring the fields of editing and publishing.

Falkner said her goal through writing is to “shine a light into the darkest places and inspire beauty where there is none.”

She said she may work at a coffee shop or as a florist for a few months for fun while other, bigger plans come together.

“Once I’ve had my fill of that, the end ‘dream’ is to open up my own book store and tea shop in the city somewhere.

But that comes much later,” she said.

Sociology: Kelsey Olivo

When Kelsey Olivo graduates in May, she’ll be handed a degree in Sociology.

She will be sticking around though, a heart for the urban youth population, living in Spring Arbor apartments as she so I hope to use those skills there.” searches for non-profit organizations to intern at or work for in the coming year.

She’s not too worried, though. Theology: Andy Bridgeman Olivo said SAU has helped set her up with organizations she could work with through Student Success and Calling Advisors. The Senior Seminar also helped ease her entrance into the professional world by showing her how to set up resumes, cover letters, a reference list and application responses.

“SAU has helped me explore my passions and hobbies to best seek a career and volunteer opportunities in the future,” she said.

Psychology: Cecilia Said

School does not stop with a diploma for psychology for Cecilia Said. After SAU, she plans to pursue a Masters in School Counseling at Oakland University. Someday, she wants to work in at a school in an urban setting with at-risk youth. Further down the road, she might pursue a doctorate so she can become a professor.

The psychology faculty, she said, has had the most meaningful impact of Said’s undergraduate career here at SAU. “They have poured into me, and I feel prepared to now go pour into others,” she said.

“The classes have given me guidance, and through my internship at Rise Above I have been able to gain a lot of practical experience,” she said. “I have

After he steps off SAU’s campus, Andy Bridgeman is heading to Princeton Theological Seminary for their Masters in Divinity program.

After Princeton, Bridgeman will likely either head into full time ministry or chase after a doctorate. Wherever he goes, Bridgeman knows he wants “to further [his] passion for speaking and learning in any capacity.”

He believes professors and mentors here at SAU have helped him be ready to do that.

“They’ve given me the tools academically, relationally, and spiritually to take on such a rigorous academic climate,” he said. “I am most thankful for the wide variety of ideas that I have been exposed to and grappled with.”

May 4, 2018 • thesaupulse.com

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Don’t Cry For Me, Brian Kono A Senior Playlist Liz Pence | A&E Editor

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“Home Again” - Michael Kiwanuka “Lost again, lost again/One day I know our paths will cross again/ Smile again, smile again/One day I hope to make you smile again” Hey, make sure you come back and visit us every once in a while, yeah?

“Tomorrow Is My Turn” - Nina Simone “Now the summer is gone, there’s another to come/You can’t stop years from drifting by even if you want to try/Though time may help you forget all that has happened before/But honey it’s too late to regret what is gone will be no more” “Hang On” For the optimist who believes - X Ambassadors in fortune no matter what the “Like Indiana Jones, you got to hang on, hang on/Put your circumstance, no matter what whole five fingers on, you got to hang on.” obstacle is in the way.

Adjusting to life outside of campus might come “Don’t Rain on My Parade” Today might not with some obstacles, like giant rolling rocks of - Barbra Streisand have been your day, death and rickety old bridges over rivers full “I’m gonna live and live now/Get but tomorrow is of crocodiles. Just remember to prioritize what I want--I know how/One your turn. what’s important, like your signature hat. roll for the whole shebang/One throw, that bell will go clang/Eye on the target--and wham--/One shot, one gun shot, and bam!”

BONUS TRACK: It’s like they say: Behind every “Famous” successful woman is an iconic - Mason Ramsey Barbra Streisand anthem. And by “You can bet when I “every successful woman” I mean hear, ‘Congratulations’/ Kayla Williamson. Here’s looking Want it to be because at you, kid. we made it/Another

ersonally, I think the only song you need for any situation ever is “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba, but the powers that be told me I had to write more than just that, so here are some songs we’ll be playing as you ride off into the Unknown.

five years/Best thing I got is right here.”

One day, you’re singing in the home aisle at your local Walmart. Another day, you’re singing for thousands at the biggest music festival of the year.

Things change. Life gets crazy. It be like that sometimes.

“Landslide” - Fleetwood Mac “I took my love and I took it down/I climbed a mountain and I turned around/And I saw my reflection in the snowcovered hills/Till the landslide brought me down.”

It’s likely that you’ll never sled down – or bicycle or slip-n-slide or wheelchair down – Mt. Beebe again, but that has nothing to do with this song. It’s just a fun little reminder. Also, please call your mom. This song is all she’s been listening to for the last couple of days, and I’m getting a little worried.

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thesaupulse.com • May 4, 2018

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Conner Williams | Staff Writer

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group of Spring Arbor University (SAU) students has prepared a memorial service for all graduating seniors who are not married or engaged by May 12th. According to tradition, everyone who graduates single will simply vanish. One student has already called a local cremation business to ask if they offer funeral services, and her friend is hard at work on a banner that reads: “We warned you time and time again but then you went and played yourself. That’ll teach you to trifle with the forces of Ring by Spring.”

The student working on the banner reports that the memorial service will take place on May 14th.

“The warnings really were all around them,” she said. They had so much time to tie the knot, but now the end is approaching, and if they don’t make up for lost time quick, they’ll just vanish into thin air. It was their own mistakes that brought them here, but we still feel bad that they’re going to spontaneously disintegrate in a matter of weeks, so we’re holding this service to honor them. It’s our own special way to say: ‘Oops! That’s too bad.’”

Several seniors have objected that there is no evidence to support the

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ays r in g w l a g st n i w pr

existence of mystical force of Ring

by Spring. They claim that seniors have never disappeared without a trace just because they did not get married before they graduated. The student who is communicating with the cremation business said they could not be more wrong.

“This is a time-honored tradition,” the student said. “The void consumes all graduating seniors who are not, as the ancient tomes say, ‘boo’d up.’ We understand some seniors may be skeptical, but the unmarried graduates they think they know are merely an illusion. A trick of the light. A divine mockery of the human senses. We’ll keep trying to get them to come around, but there’s only so much we can do. For all of our friends who will disintegrate in a few short weeks, we grieve for you.”

We invite readers to decide for themselves what to believe about the conspiracy theory of the vanishing unmarried seniors. It may be that the recent controversy is all just rumor, and it may be that the memorial will be a mournful occasion indeed.

For now, all we know is that spring is upon us, and if the memorial service is any indication, it has already rung twice.

May 4, 2018 • thesaupulse.com

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Random Questions with Random Answers Courtesy of your Professors Ellie Brugger | Staff Writer If you were to attempt to steal the Mona Lisa from The Louvre, which three professors would you enlist to assist you in the heist?

Jen Letherer: Dorie Shelby, Dorie Shelby and Dorie Shelby, or if she was busy (HA!); Jonathan Rinck for his insider knowledge, Alan Knight as the distraction and Lori McVay because duh.

Mark Correll: Hmmm... this requires co-conspirators to be clever, sneaky, unscrupulous, audacious and daring. Do I need anybody besides Dr. Buratovich?

Lori McVay: Jen and snark), Paul competence and making) and Eric for our souls.)

Letherer (disguises Nemecek (cultural general mischiefMagnusson (to pray

Brian Kono: Matt Hill because he could explain to us how the security measures metaphysically don’t exist, Dr. Ouoba because he can speak French and could tell the police that we are just on a cross cultural experience and Brent Cline because if we do get caught, I’m pretty sure I can run faster than him and it will give me a chance to escape.

If you had to come up with a new color, what would it be called and why?

Jen Letherer: You know that color that’s blue and not blue but kind of purple but

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not purple? I still call it purple.

Mark Correll: Blue. I’m tired of calling the color of the seas wine red.

Lori McVay: Glrain - the color of the smell of fresh-cut grass after rain Brian Kono: Caffeine Yellow, the aftereffects of coffee on the body.

ALL THE PRATCHETT - ALL THE TIMES! Brian Kono: I would change the book to Jack Baker and Jeff Bilbro’s book: “Wendell Berry and Higher Education: Cultivating Virtues of Place,” hoping I could educate myself on how to better serve this poor ‘abandoned’ island.

Tater tots or french fries?

If you were stranded on an abandoned island and the only thing you could have for entertainment was a book/textbook you use in your class; would you change your curriculum to include a better book?

Which book would you include?

Jen Letherer: I wrote one of my textbooks. If stranded on a deserted island with it I would spiral into an abyss of second-guessing, re-editing and existential crisis.

Mark Correll: Over the past two years, I’ve taught 11 different courses that included 43 different books. Many of them are the best books I can think of, so I don’t think I would change anything.

If I had to narrow it down to just one I’d probably choose between G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, Augustine’s Confessions or Martin Malia’s Soviet Tragedy.

Lori McVay: If I could figure out a way to include Terry Pratchett’s entire Discworld series in all of my classes, we would read nothing but Terry Pratchett.

thesaupulse.com • July 31, 2017

Jen Letherer: SWEET POTATO TOTS. Mark Correll: I simply cannot answer such a personal question in just a few sentences.

Lori McVay: Tots all the way.

Brian Kono: Tater tots because you can eat them with every meal…no one eats french fries for breakfast, silly.

PHOTO FROM Wikipedia.com

A Not To Do List:

Upcoming Senior Edition

Hannah Shimanek | Staff Writer

Dear Juniors, Congratulations! You’re almost there, you are wrapping up your junior year and are about to embark on your final year of college! To help ensure that you take full advantage of the time you have left and to avoid some common senior faux pas, I bring you: a “Not to Do List” for senior year: •

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• • • • • •

Don’t avoid making new friends because you’re leaving. It may be your first instinct to avoid pouring yourself into new relationships with graduation around the corner, but allow yourself to meet new people. You never know when you will meet your next ride or die.

Don’t let that locked-in GPA make you a bad student second semester. Don’t be lazy! Those grades will still show up on your transcript.

Don’t stop going to events and doing campus activities. Make college memories while you still have the chance. Plus, most of the time, they’re free.

Don’t let senioritis get the best of you. It can be easy to focus on the future, but embrace the now and make the most of it.

Don’t let K-house living and a smaller meal plan keep you from socializing. While it may take more intentionality, don’t let Netflix and a personal kitchen keep you from seeing and being around people.

But also, don’t be that annoying senior who is constantly asking for swipes into the DC. You should not be a consistent name and face on the Facebook page.

Don’t put off your graduate school applications until the last minute. You may have perfected the art of procrastination, but these take more work than your average 10-page paper.

Don’t use more than your allotted chapel skips just because you can. While there may be no probation after you graduate, chapel is a time for worship and being together as a student body.

Don’t let the pressure of what you are going to do after college distract you from your time here now. People will ask you your post grad plans. Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know, and don’t stress out about it. I’m sure your mom and dad have a lovely basement.

Don’t take on too much for your final semesters and exhaust yourself. At least leave in some space for a nap.

Don’t forget that professors are also great advocates. We all have a favorite professor or two. Don’t forget them when you’re filling out references for jobs.

Don’t stick to what you’ve always done just because it’s what you’ve always done. Try something new: participate in intramurals, try out for a play, eat from the salad bar.

Don’t forget JESUS. Make time for the one who’s gotten you though this whole mess.

Don’t be afraid to cry. This may be an emotional time, so cry it out, boo!

Don’t blink. This last year is going to fly by, and before you know it you will be a college graduate. Take in every moment, live every experience and make this year one for the textbooks.

Hope this helps,

A Graduating Senior

May 4, 2018 • thesaupulse.com

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Advice from retiring faculty and staff

Celeste Fendt | Features Editor

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Paul Patton, Professor of Communication Be generous with authentic praise. Confirm with generosity of spirit what is good, true, and beautiful. And know the difference between a compliment and flattery; flattery is an exaggeration and, however inadvertently, an instrument of manipulation.

Regularly ask yourself, “What’s worth remembering?” And practice remembering it.

Desiring to be someone else, somewhere else, is a disservice to the moment you’re in.

Judy Cooley, Secretary of the Department of Theology ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ Phil 4:6-7.

Make sure you enjoy the journey, not just the outcome.

Damon Seacott, Chief of Staff Each day, live out the fruits of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control. Learn from each person you encounter.

Terri McClintic, Assistant Registrar for Graduate Records When you are feeling unsure about your faith, check your sightlines. Make sure your eyes are on Christ and not on people. No matter how upstanding and well-meaning people may be, they likely will disappoint you. Jesus Christ will never disappoint.

Cheryl Lauber, Assistant Professor of Nursing One of my favorite verses is I Peter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...” (ESV). My concern is that we recognize that who we are and hope to be is based on the Lord’s design, and that we are assured of His presence always; He goes before us. What a promise!

David Rawson, Professor of Political Economy My advice would be the same my parents gave me in college. My dad said, “Go to church, hit the books hard at the beginning.” My mother’s advice was to, “Keep looking up,” or to trust in God’s care and provision.

Retiring Faculty and Staff: Bruce Brown, Professor of Music; Harold Chambers, Professor of Physics; David Hamilton, Professor of Education; Cheryl Lauber, Assistant Professor of Nursing; Peter Lauber, Associate Professor of Social Work; David Rawson, Professor of Political Economy; Betty Buss, Academic Advisor, Graduate Programs; Judy Cooley, Secretary, Department of Theology; Bruce Heaton, Maintenance Technician, Physical Plan; Carolyn Lindley, Coordinator of Academic Assessment/Institutional Research; Terri McClintic, Assistant Registrar for Gradate Records; Damon Seacott, Chief of Staff, President’s Office

thesaupulse.com • May 4, 2018