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Like most senior education majors, Hannah Schaap ’13 of Mahomet, Illinois, is spending her final semester student teaching. That experience has been unique. While most of her fellow student teachers were gaining their field experience in local schools, Schaap was teaching in Nairobi, Kenya, for the first seven weeks of the semester.

As part of Trinity’s new Semester in Kenya program, Schaap fulfilled half of her student teaching requirement at the Mulandi Primary School while living at the Daystar Academy with other Semester in Kenya students.

On her blog, Schaap describes this transition period between being student and becoming a teacher, and the challenges that came along with teaching a third grade class who “seemed terrified” of her.  As the weeks passed, Schaap developed a relationship with those students and wrote, “A lot of them were really sad and kept asking why I had to go home.”

After returning to Illinois recently, Schaap said, “The most meaningful and exciting part of teaching in Africa was getting to see how other children learned. It was incredibly different than how American students learn, but amazing to see how each one of them is a child of God and deserves to be educated.”

Schaap has been completing her student teaching at a 5^th grade classroom in Hoover Elementary School in Calumet City as she prepares for graduation and her future as a teacher.  

This summer, Schaap, who ran on the track and cross-country teams and continued to run during her time in Kenya, will be participating in Bike the U.S. for MS. The transcontinental route will take Schaap from Yorktown, Virginia, to San Francisco, California: 70 miles per day for 60 days.

“Life is an adventure we are meant to be awake for and engaged in.”

Cini Bretzlaff-Holstein, assistant professor of social work, follows her own advice. The Social Worker of the Year award for the Calumet District from the National Association of Social Workers Illinois Chapter (NASW Illinois) reflects the purposeful life she leads.

Every year, the NASW celebrates exceptional social workers who promote social justice and change for the clients they serve. The award goes to an individual who helps improve the social fabric, takes risks, and gains public support for improved human services.

Bretzlaff-Holstein’s award comes after eight active years in various fields of social work including child welfare, residential youth services, community development, and program development. While also teaching courses at Trinity, she has been involved in exploring sustainable food systems and the impact of nutritional food on youth and their communities.

Bretzlaff-Holstein’s interest in sustainable food systems and youth nutrition began with reading about and researching the social impact of the current food system in the United States. After making lifestyle decisions to become a vegan and to support local growers as much as possible, Bretzlaff-Holstein began sharing her passion for a more socially responsible way of feeding America.

Two years ago, Bretzlaff-Holstein and a fellow colleague brought an Interim group to Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia. Koinonia practices permaculture growing and is the birth place of Habitat for Humanity. The “demonstration plot for the kingdom of God” inspired Bretzlaff-Holstein to help Trinity become part of the movement that seeks to evaluate and improve stewardship practices.  

At Trinity, Bretzlaff-Holstein is part of the Campus Ecological Stewardship Advisory Group (CESAG), which recently supported the development of an aquaponics system in Trinity’s greenhouse.  The idea for the system arose from students who attended Bretzlaff-Holstein’s ’13 Interim class called Food Justice. 

Several other roles Bretzlaff-Holstein fills at Trinity include serving as faculty advisor to the student-led Social Justice Chapter and the Social Work Student Organization. Both groups seek out volunteer work and complete many projects throughout the year.

This spring, Bretzlaff-Holstein hosted a four part screening of HBO’s “The Weight of the Nation” documentary. Also new this spring was the Troll Fit Club, a weekly group workout session she planned.

“What I try to instill in my students, as was instilled in me, boils down to a well-known quote by Frederick Buechner: ‘The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.’”

Bretzlaff-Holstein’s deep appreciation for locally grown, healthy food, met with Kankakee, Illinois’ deep need for food reform. For the past year she has been a part of the combination community garden and free health clinic that works to improve the health and lives of the people of Kankakee.

The New Life Pentecostal Community Church runs the garden and is committed to growing fruit and vegetables to provide fresh produce to some of the food pantries and soup kitchens that provide food to the hungry in Kankakee. Bretzlaff-Holstein loves the local supply, healthy options, and educational aspects of this community garden.

This fall Bretzlaff-Holstein plans to present her scholarship on the food justice issues at several workshops and conferences including the Christian Community Development Association Conference, the North American Association of Christians in Social Work Convention, and the National Association of Social Workers-Illinois Chapter Conference.

As a professor, Bretzlaff-Holstein hopes to help her students find their place in the world and to realize that their ability to impact the world should be used as undergrads.

“We each have gifts to bring to the table that are meant to be shared no matter how far along they are developed, or what stage in life we find ourselves in,” she said. “Ask questions, think critically, be open minded, participate, make a difference, realize your worth, and believe that even though the vision for your life is not going to be clear cut, dream big and get out there and do what makes your heart come alive.”

Trinity’s business professors see alumni as one of their best teaching resources. Last week, students in the Personal Selling Class, taught by Assistant Professor of Business Kyle Harkema, learned about life after Trinity from alumnus Jeff Weidenaar ’96.

Tracing his career trajectory from Trinity grad to sales manager at Silva International, Weidenaar described his experiences in the business world. Silva International is a company providing dehydrated vegetable, herb, and select fruit ingredients to the food industry.

Weidenaar sees networking as an important step in landing a great job out of college. He encouraged students to network while they are undergrads. In regard to his experience as a sales manager, Weidenaar emphasized that while price is important in sales, having high standards of value will do more to help a company succeed in the long run.

Harkema said this presentation was beneficial to soon-to-be-graduates in several ways.

“First, the presentation helped them get over the ‘salesperson stigma’ that most of them have. Second, Weidenaar showed the students that you can have a successful and fulfilling career as a Christian salesperson. Third, he reinforced a lot of what we cover in class with true to life scenarios and experience, which really resonate with the students.”

Throughout the month of March, some of Trinity’s most academically ambitious students prepared their applications for the Maurice Vander Velde Junior Scholarship Awards. The scholarship supports outstanding junior or senior students in collaborative research with a Trinity professor in their chosen disciplines. 

The Honors Committee deliberated on which projects to choose and announced the winners on May 2.

• Calob Lostutter ’13, who with Dr. Tom Roose will be studying metabolic speciation in an aquaponic system.

• Kiera Dunaway ’14, who with Dr. Clay Carlson will research the effects of bisphenol A on arabidopsis thaliana.

• Alexa Dokter ’15, who with Dr. Dave Klandermann will explore “Higher Dimensionality in Literature Interpreted through Geometry.”

• Ethan Holmes ’16, who with Dr. Michael VanderWeele, will be studying the interaction of the sonnet form and social experience on our campus.

• Chadd Huizenga ’15, who with Professor Emily Thomassen will be studying the relation between the worship of Yahweh and other deities of the ancient Near East.

The winners will work with their professors as colleagues, rather than assistants, with the expectation of producing a professional level presentation or publication.

Every year Trinity students and faculty take time out of their busy spring schedules to take care of Palos Heights. On Saturday, May 4, the 11^th annual “Love Palos” event took place, bringing the Trinity community together for a day of volunteer work.

Groups of workers split up to cover many tasks. From cleaning up the Trinity Trail and the Palos Heights pool, to picking up trash across the neighborhood and clearing the Cal-Sag Trail. Teams worked hard the entire morning and enjoyed their time of service and fellowship.

This year, the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge group joined the Love Palos initiative. The group is comprised of Trinity Christian College students and local Arab-American students attending a variety of Chicago colleges and universities. The clean-up day created an opportunity for students to work side by side toward a common goal. On Saturday, their goal was to begin expanding the shoulder along what will soon become the Cal-Sag Trail. 

Other groups involved with Love Palos were the Navajo Hills Neighborhood Association, Circle Urban Ministries, and Restoration Ministries.

Trinity students recently participated in a 30-hour “famine” planned by Trinity’s Service Committee. Students fasted and let their hunger serve as a reminder to pray for those who are starving around the world.

The Service Committee held this famine to be part of World Vision’s larger “30 Hour Famine” movement. World Vision, a Christian humanitarian group, seeks to help children, families, and communities worldwide by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.

Trinity’s group hoped to raise awareness on Trinity’s campus of the problem of global hunger and spent time praying for those affected by hunger.

Kimberly Malinowski ’15 of Peoria, Arizona, helped plan the event and described her 30 hours.

“Although 30 hours doesn’t equate to someone truly suffering from starvation, the hunger makes you contemplate the lives of those who are starving all across the world, reminding you to pray for those people. We truly are blessed, and sometimes we take food and other things for granted.”

To learn more about the movement or organization, visit the website.

Joni Weidenaar is part of a collaborative team conducting research on severe mental illness and diabetes. She works alongside nurse practitioners in two clinics providing appropriate diabetes, nutrition, and exercise education; setting self-management goals; and conducting motivational interviews. She also helps coordinate specialized medical care and community support. Weidenaar tracks the participants’ medical outcomes and wellness progress and reports to the research team.  

Trinity’s preparation for the career: “Statistics. Statistics. Statistics class. The federal government and other research entities fund the studies I am helping conduct and the results inform the government how to fund mental health policy. Further preparation came from the Chicago Semester where my internship became my current job.”

Trinity’s preparation for life: “College prepared me personally by teaching me humility. We do research in psychology to have a positive effect on the populations we study, but I am studying a population to which I do not belong. How can I educate who I do not understand? First, I must listen and admit what I cannot change. Second, I pursue what I can change. Humility has a positive effect on my job performance.”

Integrating faith in the classroom: “Almost all my interactions outside of class with professors had a mentoring quality. They fielded my difficult questions and helped me make sense of my illogical mumblings. These discussions helped clarify my academic understanding and most importantly started to build the integration of faith and work.”  

As the Trinity community looks toward summer break, students and professors make plans to make the most of it. This summer, two members of the Trinity community will participate in part of a nine-week cross-country bike ride called the Sea to Sea Bike Tour.

The 3,900-mile bike ride serves to raise awareness and funds for those living in poverty around the world. Hosted by the Reformed Church in America, Partners Worldwide, and World Renew, the ride enables individuals, groups, and congregations to actively serve the poor in a new and interesting way.

The ride begins June 22 in Los Angeles and ends August 24 in New York City. Riders have the option to join for certain weeks.

Each entrant must fundraise from their friends, family and churches, with a goal based on how many weeks they will be riding. Donations help both local initiatives in the areas of business and community development and global attempts to provide people around the world access to clean water, immunizations, and other vital medical services.>

Dr. Michael Vander Weele, professor of English, and Kyle Wigboldy, a Trinity financial officer, both plan to take part in this event for a portion of the race.

Vander Weele and his wife Mary will join the race for the last three weeks; their route begins in Grand Rapids, Michigan, goes through Hamilton, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec, and ends in New York City.  Along with their regular training, they plan to do several smaller rides throughout the summer to prepare for the three-week trek.

“I encouraged Trinity alumnus Aaron Carpenter to participate in this fund-raiser four years ago, when he did the whole ride,” said Vander Weele, “and I wouldn’t be doing the ride this time without his strong encouragement. I also have for a long time loved the work of World Renew.”

Wigboldy will ride for one week, covering ground from Iowa City, Iowa, to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He said, “Doing this ride is good way for me to be an advocate for change, to educate others on the effects of poverty and its scope, and to help others participate in contributing to the needs of people around the world.”

Wigboldy averages between 5,000-8,000 miles of riding each year and hopes to continue that pattern to be physically prepared for the ride.

“I also need to be financially prepared as there is a fundraising expectation. This has been more difficult for me, but I have been making steady progress,” he said. “Learning how to ask for support, and helping others see my passion for World Renew has been a great experience.”

Both riders appreciate the sense of Christian community that surrounds this event.

Vander Weele said, “I love that the ride includes both Canadian and U.S. parts of the church and both the CRC and the RCA denominations. Even better, one-third of the funds will go to local initiatives in towns we will be visiting, and we will meet many of the people working in these programs and be able to encourage them. This seemed like an obvious way to put our passion for biking toward a good end that we really believe in.” 

How do you hold the attention of more than 218 elementary school students at the annual Young Author’s Festival?

You put artist Ben Hatke in front of them.

Hatke, the creator of Zita the Spacegirl, was the guest speaker at this year’s Trinity event, which welcomed aspiring writers and illustrators from 14 area Christian schools. While sharing his three “secrets” for making great comics, Hatke drew pictures, acted, and involved the children in interactive activities.

The morning opened with a time of worship in the Ozinga Chapel, led by alumnus Vinnie Adams ’10. Afterward, the children, accompanied by Trinity students, were divided into groups and attended three sessions, including the presentation by Hatke, small group discussions, and improv performances by Trinity students.

The annual festival is sponsored by Trinity’s education department. This year, 39 Trinity students led 34 groups of visiting students.

Education majors benefit greatly from the experience of interacting with the children.

Allison Karlock ’14 of Momence, Illinois, was a group leader for six third grade students. “I gained the ability to get to know students quickly and to help them get to know their peers,” said Karlock. “I saw how important it is to give students the opportunity to put their work on display and to be recognized.”

“Ben Hatke did a great job of emphasizing that it takes a lot of time, thought, and practice to write and draw well,” said Rebecca Verhage ’13 of Moses Lake, Washington. “An author doesn’t come up with the perfect picture or the perfect drawing the first time, and it was good for students and for me to be reminded to not get discouraged when our own work doesn’t turn out stellar the first time.”

This event made me more excited to have my own classroom in the near future.
– Nate Hendrikse ’14

Special education and elementary education major Nate Hendrikse ’14 of Oostburg, Wisconsin, led a group for the first time. “Young Authors is such a great experience, not only for the visiting students, but also for the Trinity students,” he said. “This event made me more excited to have my own classroom in the near future and to know more awesome kids like the kids I met today.”

While many of the student leaders are education majors, leaders from other majors also used their gifts to contribute to the event.

This is the third year that communication arts major Brooke Wigboldy ’14 of Tinley Park, Illinois, has participated as a member of Trinity’s FTW improv team, which acts out the children’s original stories. “I look forward to this event each year, because there’s just something special about making kids laugh,” said Wigboldy.

Also part of the improv team, graphic design student Jess Timmermans ’14 of Palos Heights, Illinois, said the event is a great time for all involved. “The kids get to see college students looking silly, a few kids get to see their work come to life, and we get to experience a kind of improv that we only do once a year.”

There’s just something special about making kids laugh,
– Brooke Wigboldy ’14

For music and theology major Garret Ohashi ’16 of Minot, North Dakota, it was his first time helping with the festival improv team. “It was so much fun to see all the creativity the kids came up with,” Ohashi said. “I definitely learned about how to make kids laugh and what they love to do. Truly a rewarding experience!” 

About the artist

Ben Hatke is an artist, writer, and comics creator. He is the creator of the Zita the Spacegirl graphic novels and a contributor to the Flight Anthologies. Ben learned painting through studying the Italian Masters and by training at the Charles Cecil Studios in Florence. He lives and works in Virginia with his wife and family.

Learn more about Ben Hatke on his blog Let Fly the Cannons.

Thanks to the Young Authors Committee

The Maurice Vander Velde Junior Scholarship Award supports outstanding junior or senior students in collaborative research with a Trinity professor. The scholarship was established in memory of Maurice Vander Velde, one of the founders of the College. 

Serving as a colleague, each Junior Scholar is expected to produce a scholarly product for publication at an appropriate level at the end of the school year, usually in the form of a paper or presentation. Each year students compete for scholarships in either the exact sciences (mathematics, chemistry, biology, and computer science) or in social science and the humanities.

Four students were awarded the 2012-2013 Maurice Vander Velde Scholarship Award: Andrew Blok ’13,

Joohee Kim ’12, Jacob Maatman ’14, and Hannah Van Beek ’13.

Andrew Blok ’13 and Dr. Bill Boerman-Cornell

Andrew Blok ’13 of Lynden, Washington, spent the year collaborating with Dr. Bill Boerman-Cornell, assistant professor of education, as they studied Blok’s topic of choice “Entering the World in Adolescent Fiction: Discovering the Magic in Adolescent Novels.”

Blok said of the process: “Working with Dr. B-C has exposed me to a realm of research that has been engaging and enjoyable. It reaffirmed the importance of this kind of literature and research.”

Blok also valued the knowledge he gained from Boerman-Cornell’s scholarly work. “As someone who has researched, spent years with students reading similar books, and spent a lot of time thinking about what goes into a ‘successful’ book at this level, he has been able to stretch my understanding of these books in many ways.”

Joohee Kim ’12 and Dr. Bob Boomsma ’77

Joohee Kim ’12 of Orland Park, Illinois, worked with Dr. Bob Boomsma, professor of biology, over the past year on a project focusing on studying the behavior of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), which have been used to help repair hearts damaged by heart attack.

“I’ve been monitoring the way MSC produce secretions that might help other tissue around them regrow and function better,” said Kim. “My time as a scholar made me knowledgeable about lab equipment and more confident in my researching skills.”

Jacob Maatman ’14 and Dr. Sharon Robbert

Junior Jacob Maatman of Lynwood, Illinois, along with his mentor Dr. Sharon Robbert, professor of mathematics, researched “The Lost Art of Calculus.”

Maatman said of his research, “This project strengthens my ability to communicate complex ideas to a diverse audience who might be unfamiliar with some of the concepts and methods involved in the projects.”

Hannah Van Beek ’13 and Dr. Clay Carlson

Senior Hannah Van Beek of Pella, Iowa, studied “The Anti-Proliferative Effects of Vitamin D on Breast Cancer Cells” with Dr. Clay Carlson, assistant professor of biology. Van Beek described the way her skills for life beyond Trinity are fostered in this environment.

“While my work is fairly independent, I collaborate with Dr. Carlson to analyze my data, interpret results, plan the next steps in the project, and troubleshoot experiments that do not go as planned,” said Van Beek. “He often ends our meetings by saying, ‘Go and do!’”