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Congratulations to Prof. of Education Bill Boerman-Cornell, Ph.D., on the publication of his new book, Using Graphic Novels in the English Language Arts Classroom. 

The book, co-written with Jung Kim, fills a gap about how graphic novels can be effectively used in junior high school classrooms. Drawing on research, surveys and classroom observations, it offers teachers ways to effectively incorporate graphic novels in their classrooms. 

According to Boerman-Cornell, graphic novels can be used in teaching English for more than just getting students’ attention and interest. “They can be used to helps students identify themes in literature (drawing on images as well as text), to analyze story structure (especially in contrast with regular text books. ) They can be used to learn literary interpretation. Contrasting a graphic novel’s adaptation of a book like To Kill a Mockingbird or King Lear can help students learn of the affordances and constraints of different formats,” he said. “And, learning to read graphic novels prepares students effectively for learning to get information form internet sources that communicate multimodally – using both images and text and the interplay between the two of them. Also, they are fun to read.”

Boerman-Cornell’s new book highlights two different studies already that show that graphic novels do not discourage students from reading regular text books. “Actually graphic novel readers tend to show increased interest in reading regular text books,” he said. “Our book doesn’t suggest that graphic novels should replace regular books, but they are worth being considered alongside them.”

For Boerman-Cornell, his love of reading graphic novels goes back to his childhood, when he discovered his cousin’s stash of comic books. “I read through them thoroughly – some old Marvel superhero books, Carl Barks’ run on Donald Duck, and a bunch of Classic Comics – Moby Dick, Ivanhoe, that sort of thing. My aunt noticed and for my birthday took me to a comic book store and gave me a $20 bill to spend as I wanted.”

Over the years, his love of reading comics expanded to include a love of reading anything. After majoring in English in college and working as an editor and writer, he went back to school and found himself teaching high school English. “I loved doing that, but noticed that some of the most intense conversations about reading that I heard were not in my classroom, but in the hallways, with kids talking about connections between Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

When he began his Ph.D., Art Spiegelman’s Maus had recently won the Pulitzer prize. “A lot of creators were using the graphic novel format to tell all sorts of stories: memoirs, non-fiction, realistic and fantasy novels, and a lot of graphic novels for kids. So, I ended up focusing my Ph.D. on ways to use graphic novels to effectively teach high school history. I have been researching how to use graphic novels in the classroom ever since.”

This is the second book Boerman-Cornell and Kim have collaborated on. In 2017, he, Kim and another graduate school colleague Michael Manderino wrote Graphic Novels in High School and Middle School Classrooms: A Disciplinary Literacies Approach. “That book was published by Rowman and Littlefield, a small academic publisher. It partly targeted an audience of researchers and argued that graphic novels offered a useful tool for reaching learning goals within each of the academic disciplines,” he said. “In history class, for example, it is important to get students to learn to recognize bias and perspective in primary source documents. Traditional textbooks, because they are printed with solid columns of Times New Roman Type and black and white documentary photographs, often seem like they are a purely objective summary of a particular historical event. Students are often reluctant to critique or question such a impressive looking book. A graphic novel like the award winning biography of U.S. Representative John Lewis, March, because it is presented in a format that appears less formal, is easier for students to question and interrogate.”

That book did reasonably well, he said. “But when my co-authors and I were speaking at conferences, we kept getting requests from English teachers for something that was directed specifically toward their subject area.” Manderino had just left Northern Illinois University to take a job as assistant superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction for Leyden High School. “But Dr. Jung Kim, a professor of literacy at Lewis University and I did some brainstorming and submitted a proposal to Bloomsbury and they accepted it. 

“Then it just took a year or so of writing, timed with a wonderful sabbatical from Trinity for me, and we were able to pull it together,” he said. 

Trinity Athletics is excited to announce that it will induct a new class to its Hall of Fame during the 2021-22 academic year. The Athletics Hall of Fame was established in 2007 and has inducted a total of five classes, with the latest honor in 2018.

The Athletics Department is currently accepting nominations of former Trinity athletes, coaches, teams, or significant contributors for this upcoming class.

Nominee Criteria
Nominees must be persons of high quality and moral character, be held in esteem by their colleagues, former coaches, and teammates, and must continue to demonstrate strong Christian character in their lives.

For an athlete:
-must have been out of Trinity for at least five years
-must have earned a minimum of two varsity letters at Trinity
-must have exemplified strong Christian character and strong leadership
-must have earned recognition at the conference, region, and national level

For a coach:
-must have been out of Trinity for at least five years (or be at Trinity for 10 years if a current, active coach)
-must exemplify Christian character
-must have had a profound impact on the athletic program
-must have accomplishments in recognition received, championship team(s), outstanding records, and/or other statistical information

For a team of distinction:
-must be out of Trinity for at least 10 years
-must have achieved exceptional accomplishment at the national level or note-worthy season accomplishments
-must have exemplified strong Christian character and been positive contributors to the Trinity community

For a significant contributor (non-athlete/support personnel):
-must have at least five years of meritorious contributions
-must display a strong faith conviction and Christian character
-must have displayed outstanding service to Trinity athletics through personal time, effort, and commitment

More information is available here. All nominations must be submitted by May 30, 2021.

As a community, Trinity Christian College believes racism is an evil that remains a real problem in our world. During 2020, the College has been taking on the work of understanding how we personally and corporately have not lived fully into our own commitments to unity and diversity and addressing those issues. 

Along with other actions throughout Trinity, the Alumni Board has taken several steps as part of our commitment to live up to our beliefs that all people are created equally in the image of God. According to Director of Alumni and Family Engagement Jeremy Klyn ‘02, those steps include recently hosting an equity and inclusion town hall, which was streamed live on Facebook. 

“We felt it was important to invite our alumni of color to speak to their experiences,” said Klyn.  

The town hall was moderated by Alumni Board President Christian Perry ’16. As he told viewers and panelists in his introductory remarks, “We’re going to have a conversation about race, identity, and belonging at our beloved Trinity Christian College.” 

Participants in the panel included: 

— Dymica Brown ’94
— Myron Graham ’04
— Marlin Exton ’07
— Crystal Allen ’11
— Justin James ’12
— Dominique McGee ’14
— Noel Huddleston ’17
— Josiah Rosario ’18 

Over the course of 90 minutes, they discussed a range of questions and issues, including:  

What was your experience and how did you find yourself becoming a leader at Trinity around issues pertaining to race and identify? 

What does it mean to find belonging, and what does it mean to belong at Trinity? 

What concrete things can Trinity do to improve equity and inclusion?  

As Perry said at the end of the town hall, “I believe deep down in my bones that this place is going to be the model, the example for a country that so direly needs an example of what it means to be in community together.”

For those who missed the town hall or would like to revisit it, a recording is available on Facebook, and as a two-part “Troll Talks” podcast series.  

Said Klyn, “This event isn’t meant to be a one-time statement or referendum. It’s a beginning of dialogue and engaging with alumni on something that we’ve never been able to do yet as a Board and as an Alumni Office. I’m excited to see what other opportunities arise for the College out of this conversation, and excited to think about other topics and conversations we can continue to have as alumni within the Trinity community. 

“The Alumni Board exists to be a representation of the Trinity alumni association and meets regularly to engage with Trinity’s campus to be able to help propel the College’s mission and also provide needed feedback to the College and administration from our alumni,” said Klyn. 

Klyn encourages all of Trinity’s alumni to stay in touch and stay involved. If you don’t receive communications from Trinity’s Alumni Office, you can update your information here. You can also join Trinity’s TrollNation Network and take part in our comprehensive effort to mobilize volunteers from the Trinity family to advance the mission, vision and reach of the College. 

For the national Giving Tuesday event on Dec. 1, Trinity set out to find 100 people who would give $100 to help our most vulnerable students during the holiday season though our In It Together Fund. Thanks to incredible people, we exceeded our goal and were blessed with 150 donors who helped us raise over $20,000 for our students.

Every dollar of these gifts has gone directly to our In It Together Fund so that a team of faculty and staff can distribute these dollars to students and help with needs like housing and meals during Christmas break, tuition assistance, living essentials, and emergency funding.

To learn more about the In It Together Fund and why it is so important to our students, watch this video featuring Dean of Student Engagement Troy Schemper.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of a group of current and emeriti professors, Trinity has received a grant from the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) that spans several different initiatives at the College and connects to Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood. Trinity was one of only six recipients of the 30 colleges and universities that sought this grant.

According to Professor Emeritus Michael Vander Weele, who served as primary grant writer and campus contact, the grant supports and connects Trinity’s new Foundations Curriculum and its Chicago Connect courses; The Calvin and Ines Seerveld Art in Society (SAIS) Initiative; Roseland Christian Ministries (RCM); and the work of Professor of Art & Design John Bakker.

Vander Weele was supported in the grant writing by Professor Emeritus Brad Breems and Associate Professor of Sociology Lenore Knight Johnson, who serves as faculty director of the Chicago Connect aspect of the Foundations curriculum.

Though he retired in May 2019, Vander Weele remains active in Trinity’s life. “I saw the opportunity for this grant and contacted [Provost] Aaron Kuecker, who told me to go for it. So, I gave it a shot,” he said.

In pursuing the grant, Vander Weele pointed to the work of Trinity’s Seerveld Gallery, as well as the College’s deep and wide connections to the Roseland community and RCM.

The grant also encompasses Bakker’s Roseland Portrait Project. For this project, Bakker is already working on the installation, a large-scale portable mural consisting of portraits of Roseland residents painted onto movable boxes. Bakker’s previous works have included large-scale projects for the City of Chicago’s Office of Public Art for the 6th District Police Station in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood; and the Galesburg Project, his first movable mural, which encompassed a wide variety of the citizens of a small town in western Illinois. Part of the CCCU grant will be used to support Bakker’s work on another 40 box portraits, with the goal of having 10 of those feature immigrant members of the community. It will also include a portrait of a 16-year-old Roseland boy, Andre’ Taylor, who was the victim of gun violence.

According to Vander Weele, the project will also involve the youth ministry at RCM and Trinity students. The youth ministry will help to gather photographic portraits of the community and assist with the project. Trinity art students can help process images, transfer them to the boxes, and participate in transcribing text to panels. Writing students can write short profiles for the side panels of the portrait boxes, creating a public recognition of each person’s life. The project also involves members of Fusion 59, Trinity’s entrepreneurial hub on campus, where students can provide social media and other communications support.

The grant is part of a larger, national initiative. CCCU was selected by the American Immigration Council (AIC) as one of several non-profit entities working with a coalition of eight non-profits in a project AIC calls the Inclusion Innovation Collaborative.  That project is part of the national “Belonging Begins with Us” campaign that will be launched early this December.

According to Breems, the Trinity faculty member whom Cal Seerveld asked to lead the Seerveld Art in Society Initiative, alongside colleagues Vander Weele and Bakker, the grant enables Bakker to continue work on SAIS’s Roseland Portrait Project while pulling it deeper into Trinity’s educational program and connecting it to the national “Belonging Begins with US” campaign. The SAIS Initiative was established eight years ago by Cal Seerveld, one of Trinity’s founding faculty members and his wife Ines. Its purpose is to sponsor art projects that build bridges between the college community and Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods, showing art’s vital place in everyday Christian life and in building a more just society.

Breems said the grant is an affirmation of Seerveld’s vision for SAIS: “This art should have a gentle Christian spirit, vigorous educational outreach, and an attitude of humble service. It should also show a bold, caring, and cosmic vision of a hopeful world that demonstrates the compassion of Jesus Christ.”

COVID-19 continues to shape the 2020 school year in ways unlike the ones before it. Every year, Trinity has international students and student-athletes who need to reside on campus during the traditional break, because of their team commitments or lack of funding to fly home for the holidays. This year the combined Thanksgiving and Christmas break, along with a later start to the second semester, will mean some students will require additional food and lodging for over 50 days.

Staying on campus during this time will present those students and the College with some additional expenses. Rent will be paid by the students, and since campus is closed for the holidays students will have to purchase meals from off campus. We are looking for partners like you who can help offset some of those holiday housing and food costs on the national Giving Tuesday 2020, Dec. 1.

$35 will provide food and lodging for 1 student for 1 day

$245 will ensure lodging and food for 1 student for an entire week

To support our most vulnerable students, Trinity Christian College has established the “In It Together Fund” to help meet the greatest needs of our current students. We would love to find 100 donors to give $100 each this Giving Tuesday.  $100 will cover the lodging and food cost for 1 student for nearly 3 days. Any additional funds raised will be used to provide tuition assistance, living essentials, and emergency funding for books, food, and travel expenses to students in need. We do not want to lose even one student to this crisis because of this unexpected financial stress.

Will you be In It Together with our students this Giving Tuesday? Will you be 1 of the 100? To learn more and donate, click here.

While we were physically separated this Fall Semester, the Trinity community was able to connect through a series of virtual events, hosted by President Kurt and Leah Dykstra.

Each event celebrated a unique aspect of our campus. And if you were unable to participate in those events when they happened live—or if you would like to revisit them—they are available for viewing on Trinity’s YouTube channel!

November 10: In It Together: Stories from the Trinity Community

Since March, the world has been turned upside down with COVID-19. Through it all, Trinity’s students, employees, and community have remained “In It Together.” As part of our initiatives, Trinity established a fund to help support our most vulnerable students throughout this pandemic. During this event, President and Mrs. Dykstra presented some of the stories from students, staff, and alumni who have rallied together to make sure no student missed out on their Trinity education this semester.

October 27: An Evening at the BBC: Celebrating our Faithful Future

President and Mrs. Dykstra hosted the introduction and showcase of the new renovations that have transformed the Bootsma Bookstore Café, made possible by generous donations during Trinity’s 60^th Anniversary Gala in 2019. They were joined for this event by Board of Trustees members Jamie Stephenson ’00 and Cal Tameling ’72. Trinity students also shared what they love about the space.

October 13: Newly Renovated, Continued Excellence: A Celebration of Trinity’s Nursing

President and Mrs. Dykstra offered an unveiling and tour of Trinity’s newly renovated nursing facilities. These new state-of-the-art facilities expand upon the long-standing tradition of excellence, care, and compassion in our top-ranked nursing program. During this event, viewers had the opportunity to hear from some of the faculty, students, and donors that helped make this new space a reality.

By Aubrey Weedman ’20

Rachel Holden ‘17, who is currently working for Northwestern Mutual in Recruiting and Development, recently spoke to Trinity students about employment searching, training, and professional development for the third Fusion Friday of the semester. Holden encouraged young professionals to take networking seriously and to be intentional about connecting with peers while job hunting and training.

Sharing from her own experience, Holden advised young professionals looking for positions to not discredit themselves. Holden herself was a Social Work major at Trinity, which made her journey to Northwestern Mutual unorthodox, but was able to score the position because of how she presented herself. Mia Salas ’23 found this particularly inspiring because “the job [Holden] felt no way suited to get is the job she landed due to her other qualities that stood out to the company.” Being professional from the get-go gives individuals the power to define themselves as a serious candidate to potential employers; “give yourself the opportunity to be successful,” Holden said.

As a recruiter, Holden had no shortage of useful advice for how students can best use their LinkedIn profile to score a position or internship. LinkedIn is a social media platform aimed at professionals to help aid in networking. Additionally, recruiters use the site to identify new talent for their companies. Holden emphasized the importance of a user’s bio on LinkedIn and advised employment seekers to use three words they feel best define themselves as an employee to capture a recruiter’s attention

Once you find a position, Holden warned that your networking should not stop there. Instead, new employees should make an effort to create positive relationships with coworkers. This allows for new employees to better understand the culture of the company they now work for, which also leads to a deeper desire to be there and do the best  they can. Holden emphasized that she “sees so much value in making those connections with people, especially in the workplace.”

Overall, Holden’s Fusion Friday presentation highlighted the benefits of networking and connection as a young professional. Fusion59 Innovation Center Coordinator Haley Heeg ’20 stated that “Fusion59 is excited to be able to host business professionals such as Rachel Holden, to share about their professions, industry, and give advice for students as they prepare to enter the workforce post-graduation.” Fusion Friday is held virtually throughout the Fall 2020 semester.

By Aubrey Weedman ‘20

The 24-Hour Theatre Project has been a tradition for Trinity’s Theatre program since 2016. This year—though modified—was no exception. As the name suggests, participants have 24 hours to write, rehearse, and perform several different productions. These plays are inspired by a picture assigned to each group at the beginning of the challenge; Trinity’s videographer Tyler Minnesma provided this year’s inspiration (pictured above) for writers to base their plays on. Much of the 24 hours is also spent costuming, collecting props, staging lights, and building sets. At the end of the day, the productions are traditionally performed in front of a live audience. The tradition of this busy day lived on, thanks to Zoom.

On the last Saturday of September, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and others gathered virtually to tackle five different plays in a single day’s time. Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Director of Theatre John Sebestyen, Ph.D., emphasized the importance of making the event happen this year specifically, even though it looked so different from years past. In a year otherwise marked by isolation, Trinity’s theatre company was determined to promote community in a safe and healthy way. Sebestyen said, “In the midst of an extended period of social distancing, [people] are longing for some sense of shared and embodied communal work.” Hosting this event allowed for participants from all over the nation to participate in ways they would not have been able to otherwise. Members of the Trinity community joined from states like Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois—even a married couple of alumni from Tennessee!

Matthew Huizenga ’24—who served as a writer for the event—believed the event was a great success, adding that the playwrights “wrote our plays specifically for Zoom, which I think created some really fun, unique art that wouldn’t otherwise exist.” Using the virtual platform, participants were able to play into the quirks of their characters in special, unique ways. For example, Huizenga had actor Tony Reppmann ’23 mute his mic and act out a role-playing game for five minutes while the production went on—giving audiences a neat “Easter egg” to pick out from the production. Adriana Klein ’24 added that, as an actress, she still experienced pre-show nerves, which was a comforting, familiar feeling that made her grateful for the sense of normalcy.

This year’s 24-Hour Theatre Project managed to bring the magic of the theatre to participants and audience alike. It served as a connection point for students, faculty, and alumni alike to sow into their passions while working alongside one another in innovative ways. A recording of this year’s event is available to anyone wishing to watch the Zoom Theatre magic unfold. While nobody can definitively know what next year’s event might look like, it is encouraging to see Trinity’s community rise to the challenge regardless of circumstance.