Archives: News Stories

–Aubrey Weedman ’20  

Less than a year after COVID-19 swept across the globe, Trinity welcomed many students back to campus and the classroom for the Spring 2021 semester. With the hard work and dedication of the entire community, including professors, students, and the COVID Care Team, classes are buzzing with students learning in-person and via Zoom, DeVos is hosting athletic competitions again, and the Dining Hall is serving up favorites for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! 

Return to In-Person Learning 

For the Spring Semester, students had the option of either attending class in person or continuing to learn remotely. More than half of the undergraduate students are now attending class in person, with the rest tuning in via Zoom! 

According to Professor of Communication Arts Craig Mattson, the logistics of managing both in-person and online students are interesting, even if they are occasionally daunting.  

“I really enjoy, in some ways, the complexity of having students online and having students in person,” he said. “There’s always an adaptation that one is having to do. I do confess that sometimes I feel like a butler, running around the room. But it’s a lot of fun.” 

For Matthew Huizenga ‘24, this semester marks the first time he has been in a physical classroom since being in high school last year. “It’s been an interesting experience,” said the graphic design major. During the all-remote first semester, some of his classes maintained a more traditional format, so the transition to in-person learning has been more subtle. For his art-related classes, though, being in-person has made a substantial difference.  

And while he enjoyed the opportunity to connect online with classmates during remote learning, Huizenga appreciates the new sense of in-person togetherness. “My favorite part of the semester so far has been the people,” he said. “Social interactions and gatherings happen naturally now.” 

No matter the format, though, Trinity remains committed to being In It Together, and Huizenga said he has seen how Trinity groups and organizations are working hard to be accessible to all students, whether they are on campus or remote. “There has been a deliberate effort to include everyone, and they are very conscious about how to mix those who are in-person and virtual. 

The entire community has approached the start of the semester with a spirit of willingness and togetherness, according to Provost Aaron Kuecker. “It has been exciting to step into these early weeks of the semester and to see so many people working together and with such flexibility as we have had opportunity to fine tune some of our practices and processes,” he said.

The COVID Care Team 

 the COVID Care Team continues to play a critical role in ensuring the safety and well-being of the entire community. 

Trinity first assembled the COVID Care Team over the summer to meet the various needs of students, faculty, and staff amidst the pandemic. And this interdisciplinary team has continued to work diligently each day to make sure the health of Trinity’s community members is continuously ensured.  

Members of this team include professors and staff from Athletics, Event Services, Counseling Services, Student Life, and more. Each member plays a carefully crafted role on the team in addition to their other positions and responsibilities at Trinity.  

Stephanie Griswold, Psy.D., Psychology Instructor and Director of Trinity’s Counseling Center, has served on the COVID Care Team in several capacities. “One of my main roles currently is hiring another medical professional to join our COVID Care Team,” she said. “I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking through how best to organize our team and data flow, in addition to communicating all the important things to our campus community.” 

But one of Griswold’s favorite roles has been attending to the wellness of students in quarantine or isolation. “We’ve actually just received donations to send care packages to our quarantined students that will include prayer cards and connections to people on campus,” she said. “This is exciting and helps bring light in a dark time!”  

The COVID Care Team is also charged with monitoring Trinity’s #CampusClear system. Every student, professor, and staff member who comes to campus agrees to complete a daily health survey in the #CampusClear app. Only those who are receive a green screen can show those screens when participating in in-person classes, Outcry, and other activities on camps. Those who receive a red screen must not leave their dorm rooms or come to campus until they have spoken with a member of the COVID Care Team.  

Brooke Simkins, member of the COVID Care Team and Director of Event Services, helps manage all this data. “I identify users who have received a red screen, and if they haven’t done it yet, I prompt them to fill out a red form.” said Simkins. “Once this is done, I add their red form data into a secure data table so the rest of the team can respond appropriately.” Then, other members of the team, such as the healthcare coordinator, review the data and follow up with each person to determine their next steps. 

According to Simkins, it’s important for every member of the campus community to use #CampusClear every day they are on campus. “We have people screen each day so we can identify symptoms and exposures as early as possible,” she said. “The earlier we know about illness, the more effective we can be in preventing spread.” 

Those are the logistical reasons why Trinity asks everyone to complete the #CampusClear app every day. But according to Simkins, “The big answer to the question of ‘why?’ is because we genuinely care about our students, staff, and faculty, and we want to create and maintain an environment that allows them to thrive and learn,” she said. “Additionally, we are doing these things because they work. When people engage with the processes and adhere to Trinity’s Covenant of Care, we see fewer illnesses.” 

Eric Salley, men’s soccer head coach, is another member of the COVID Care Team and serves as an Athletic Liaison. “I help relay information from Athletics to the COVID Care Team and help support coaches and players who are ‘staying put,’ in quarantine, or in isolation,” he said. 

According to Salley, each member of the team contributes a unique expertise and perspective. “That is vital every time we help members of our community navigate the challenges of COVID.”  

Trinity and the COVID Care Team have been guided by its deep desire to see the community flourish. “This has meant tackling unique problems with creativity, perseverance, and love for the community,” he said. 

Click here to learn more about Trinity’s COVID Care Team.  

The Black History Month Lecture is an annual tradition at Trinity, and on Feb. 15, the History Department hosted the lecture as a virtual roundtable discussion.

According to Professor of History David Brodnax, Sr., Ph.D., new problems present new opportunities. “In lieu of our normal practice of having one person come to campus to speak, we have the chance to bring in five phenomenal people joining us via Zoom to have a roundtable discussion,” he said.

The presenters focused on different aspects of the “Current and Future State of Black History Scholarship.”

Brodnax moderated the event, which featured:

— Mr. Dwain Coleman, University of Iowa

— Dr. Tobin Miller Shearer, University of Montana

— Dr. Emmett G. Price III, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

— Dr. Silvana Siddali, Saint Louis University

— Dr. Dana Weiner, Wilfrid Laurier University

The lecture is available on Trinity’s YouTube Channel.

After an exhaustive, multi-year process of preparation and evaluation, Trinity Christian College has learned that it has been reaccredited for another 10 years by the Higher Learning Commission. This is the best result that any college or university can achieve from an accrediting body like the HLC.

Accreditation serves as an indicator of quality assurance for current and future students.  Higher education is a highly-regulated industry, subject to institutional regulation, as well as program-specific review, from the  federal and state governments. The most comprehensive accreditation occurs from the HLC, one of seven regional accrediting bodies authorized by the United States Department of Education to implement federal quality assurance standards. As a more practical matter, a college or university must be accredited in order for it to participate in most federal funding programs, including student financial aid.

“This reaccreditation news from the HLC is a wonderful re-affirmation of the good work that happens at Trinity semester after semester, year after year,” said President Kurt D. Dykstra. “So many across campus had a role in this comprehensive, years-long project, all of which makes this news that we all can celebrate.”

An internal team at Trinity spent nearly two years gathering information in order to write a lengthy and comprehensive Assurance Argument responsive to the HLC’s five Criteria for Accreditation. This argument and documentation were then submitted to the HLC for review and evaluation by a group of peer reviewers selected from other institutions, who then spent two days in October 2020 virtually visiting campus and meeting with a wide cross-section of the Trinity community. The peer reviewers thereafter submitted their written recommendations to the HLC, which ultimately resulted in the reaccreditation decision.

“The fact that this work happened in the midst of a pandemic is truly remarkable,” said Provost Aaron Kuecker, Ph.D. “The criterion committee chairs, Prof. Cini Bretzlaff-Holstein, Prof. Bill Boerman-Cornell, and Prof. Mike Bosscher – with the skillful overall leadership of Prof. Sharon Robbert – carried significant workloads and writing tasks on behalf of the College.”

According to Kuecker, their work was supported by five Criterion Committees and the HLC Advisory Team. “These additional 35 or so people were closely connected to the writing and review process. That work was supported by many, many people who helped collect the nearly one thousand evidentiary documents, who proofread Trinity’s assurance argument, and who helped ensure that we were accurately telling the story of Trinity’s mission, its strengths, and its opportunities for growth,” said Kuecker. “This is a significant institutional accomplishment and it is reflective of the work of the whole institution.”

The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship is an interdisciplinary study and ministry center located at Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary that partners with congregations, organizations, and publishers.  

Its work includes the Annual Calvin Symposium on Worship, which took place virtually from Jan. 6-26. This year’s event brought together 7,000 registrants, and all kinds of participant-learners: students, faculty, artists, musicians, pastors, preachers, scholars, teachers, worship leaders and planners, and worshipers around the world. 

Trinity’s Nicole Saint-Victor ‘12, Affiliated Faculty, Director of Gospel Choir and Director of Multicultural Engagement, co-led one of the recent sessions: “Why Church? A Session for College and University Students.” 

Along with Joanna Wigboldy, program manager with the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Saint-Victor hosted the interactive session, which was designed for college and university students and invited young leaders to voice the role of church in today’s context, and then to explore how their leadership in the church is essential. 

“For me, leadership development and spiritual formation are one in the same,” said Saint-Victor, who recently earned her Master’s of Divinity degree from Western Theological Seminary.  

This is not the first time Saint-Victor has participated in the Calvin Symposium on Worship. In 2019, she took part in a session on “Mentoring Young Worship Leaders in the Church.” 

What makes a great resume? As part of Fusion 59’s Fusion Fridays, Rachel (Vander Pol) Raymond ’05, the award-winning owner of RVP Career Services, recently talked with Trinity students and other members of the community about how to get noticed by potential employers.

“You want to be able to capture the attention of the reader quickly and not just have a list of responsibilities or a job description, but what you actually did,” she said.

Raymond gave valuable tips geared specifically towards new and recent graduates about the elements of a strong resume, tips on cover letters, and suggestions on how to leverage LinkedIn.

That included focusing on accomplishments, rather than responsibilities, in order to tell stories. Raymond shared her C-A-R approach: Challenge; Action; Result. “Think about the things you did, and how did you leave your company a better place,” she said.

Since it’s easy to forget details of projects and accomplishments over time, she suggested that regularly taking stock of successes at work and creating C-A-R stories. “That’s my number-one pro tip,” Raymond said. “If you learn anything from this presentation, just keep track of what you do, because it will be invaluable.”

Raymond, a business communication major at Trinity, also shared some of her experience working in the corporate world after graduation. “Ultimately, I kind of got sick of it,” she said with a laugh. She then traveled and lived in Ireland for more than three years. Currently a resident of San Diego, she launched RVP Career Services in 2014.

Fusion Fridays are held regularly and allow the Trinity community to hear from a variety of experts via Zoom. The next Fusion Friday, scheduled for Feb. 12, will feature James Green ‘20, VP Innovator and Intrapreneur, who currently resides in London working at Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 18, Trinity’s Black Student Union hosted its annual celebration of the great civil rights leader, focusing on the theme “Justice Like a River.”  

This year’s event, which was conducted virtually, featured songs, prayers, and poems from Trinity students, professors, and staff.  

Bolu Jegede ’23 took part in the celebration and read the poem “Equality,” by Maya Angelou. When asked what she hopes the Trinity community takes away from the event, Jegede said she honestly hopes the Trinity community understands that the fight for justice is not over.

“Justice will flow like a river over all the impoverished, all the weak, all the disenfranchised,” said Jegede, a philosophy major and executive with Trinity’s African Student Union. “Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed, but not all his dreams have been accomplished. We must continue to rise up and fight, and that can only be done by giving a voice to the Black community, while lifting their concerns up.”

As part of the event, Professor of History David Brodnax, Sr., Ph.D., offered a reflection on the verse from Amos 5:24: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”, a scripture that has been associated with King since the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1954. 

Brodnax described the similarities between the times of Amos, King, and the present day.  “Like Dr. King, and us, Amos lived in a time when some enjoyed great wealth and privilege, while others were denied economic and medical justice,” he said. “Amos also confronted the political corruption that was familiar to Dr. King, and us.” 

Following the siege of the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, Brodnax urged the Trinity community to not let celebrations of King become meaningless, or even worse, used to push back against the justice that King fought and died for. “We at Trinity, who learn and work at an institution that claims for itself the goal of reforming the world for Christ, cannot follow others in making King Day celebrations empty celebrations, any more than we can ignore or embrace lies, corruption, bigotry, and violence,” he said. “We cannot condemn what happened in Washington, D.C., while saying nothing of the poisonous words that instigated that violence, or making false equivalencies between that violence and social justice protests. This is not the justice that Amos wanted, the justice that Dr. King wanted, the justice that we still do not have.  

“Justice is like a river, because it sometimes moves slowly. And sometimes people try to block it. But it is inevitable. Amos did not live to see it. Dr. King did not live to see it. But it is up to us and those who come after us, if we will live to see it,” he said. 

The entire celebration is available for viewing on Trinity’s YouTube Channel.  

Welcome to our first ever virtual SALT season!

Trinity’s SALT (Seasoned Adults Learning at Trinity) program is a membership program for those 55 and over who are interested in ongoing education and lifelong learning. The SALT Advisory Board and SALT Program Coordinator Andrea Dieleman are pleased to offer 3 virtual course options in the Spring 2021—all very relevant for today’s changing world.

Please join us and discover all that SALT has to offer!

For the first time, we are also inviting non-members to take part in our program! If you’ve been wanting to check out the SALT program but aren’t yet ready to commit to a membership, now is your opportunity!

To learn more about the SALT program and to see all the benefits that come with membership or to become a member please visit us at trnty.edu/SALT or contact Andrea directly at 708.239.4798 or andrea.dieleman@trnty.edu.

SPRING 2021 CLASS OFFERINGS

THE EVOLUTION OF POLICE DRAMA ON TELEVISION: 1950s AND BEYOND |

3-SESSION COURSE

Dr. Dennis Connelly, Professor of Criminal Justice

Ever wonder what cop shows cops watch? Here is the opportunity to learn about the television heroes of yesterday, such as Lee Marvin in M Squad and Sergeant “Just the facts, ma’am Friday” from Dragnet, to later shows, such as Hill Street Blues. This class will discuss the television shows that accurately attempt to depict policing, such as Police Story, to those that are not as accurate. We will view and discus scenes from the selected shows while discovering how the shows were developed, discussing technical advisors, and learning interesting facts about television and the police force. This course will take place online via Zoom. A link and complete instructions will be sent out by email a few days prior to the event.

Wednesdays, February 24 & March 3, 10, 3-4:15 PM

$30 for SALT Members; $45 for Non-Members

Please register via email or phone by February 15

PANDEMICS OF THE PAST: THE BLACK DEATH | 2-SESSION COURSE

Dr. Kyle Dieleman, Professor of History

Living in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic is unique but, despite our frequent use of the term, not unprecedented. In these two sessions we will learn about the deadliest pandemic in recorded history—the Black Death, also known simply as The Plague. We will explore the causes, spread, symptoms, treatments, and preventions related to the Black Death in Europe during the 1300s and beyond. In particular, we will read and discuss Christian understandings of and approaches to the Black Death pandemic. Our learning will also allow us to reflect on commonalities and differences between the Black Death and our own pandemic and, by doing so, allow us to consider what it is to be human and to live together as a society. This course will take place online via Zoom. A link and complete instructions will be sent out by email a few days prior to the event.

Thursdays, March 18, 25, 1-2:15 PM

$20 for SALT Members; $30 for Non-Members

Please register via email or phone by March 10

THE WATER DANCER BY TA-NEHISI COATES | BOOK DISCUSSION

Dr. David Brodnax, Professor of History

History Professor Dr. David Brodnax will lead a discussion on Ta-Nehisi Coates’ novel, The Water Dancer. A Los Angeles Times’ book review describes The Water Dancer as “a spellbinding look at the impact of slavery that uses meticulously researched history and hard-won magic to further illuminate this country’s original sin” in which “Coates envisions the transcendent potential in acknowledging and retelling stories of trauma from the past as a means out of darkness.” The book and discussion are relevant for the historical issues of race and slavery but also for the contemporary practice and lasting effects of racial discrimination today. This discussion will take place online via Microsoft Teams. A link and complete instructions will be sent out by email a few days prior to the event.

Monday, May 10, 1-2:15 PM

$10 for SALT Members; $15 for Non-Members

Please register via email or phone by May 1

Since 2000, Colleges of Distinction has recognized colleges based on four key areas: engaged students; great teaching; vibrant communities; and successful outcomes.

And Colleges of Distinction has again recognized Trinity in multiple categories for the 2020-21 academic year, including among  Christian colleges and Illinois colleges. Other areas recognized by the organization include:

—Business Programs

—Nursing Programs

—Education Programs

—Career Development

“Trinity Christian College has been changing students’ lives since 1959,” Colleges of Distinction noted, citing the individualized attention students receive, along with our extensive network throughout Chicago and dedicated faculty. “Through a Biblically informed liberal arts education, the College community endeavors to provide an environment of Christian integrity and love, enhancing and supporting the entire learning experience.”

In honoring Trinity’s academic programs, the organization noted the stability, practical experience, and dedicated advising and counseling Trinity students receive.

Trinity’s career development work was also praised for its integrated career exploration and preparation; accessible programs and training; and career-centered staff.