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SEPTEMBER SUN
It’s a new semester, and Biochemistry major Haleigh Brooks (right and cover), a junior from Martinsburg, West Virginia, enjoys the warm glow of late summer between classes at the T.W. Phillips Memorial Library.
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B E THANY MAGA Z I N E | FALL 2 017
Rev. Dr. Tamara Nichols Rodenberg President Sven de Jong ’95 Senior Vice President Dr. Joe Lane Provost and Dean of Faculty Robert J. Oltmanns Editor Director of Communications Hannah McNerney, ’16 Director of Alumni Relations Contributing Lynne Glover Michael Hynes, Ed.D., ’94 Gary Kappel, Ph.D., ’74 Joe Lane, Ph.D. Kelly Leihy Megan McKenzie Andrew Woodley Design Jim Bolander Photography Todd Jones ’85 Megan McKenzie Jeff Swenson Andrew Theodorakis Senior Administration Rev. Dr. Tamara Nichols Rodenberg President Sven de Jong ’95 Senior Vice President Dr. Joseph Lane Provost and Dean of Faculty Professor of Political Science Deidra Parr, CPA ‘06 Interim Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mollie Cecere Vice President for Enrollment Management Gerald E. Stebbins Vice President and Dean of Students John Lipinski ’81 Vice President of Operations William R. Kiefer General Counsel Brian Rose ‘98 Director of Athletics and Recreation Stephanie Gordon Assistant to the President 4 | W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • B E T H A N Y M AG A Z I N E
“The older I get, the more I rely on those traditional liberal arts values…” PAG E 24
BETHANY MAGAZINE | WINTER 2017
IN THIS ISSUE
8
Bethany College & the Liberal Arts
IN EVERY ISSUE President’s Letter 6 Briefs 12 Voices: Heard on Campus 18 Alumni Game Changer 38
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Students to Watch 36, 54 FacultyWorks 20, 44
Homecoming 2017
Alumni Spotlight 43, 48 Sound Off 28 Bison Athletics 50 Class Notes 56
30 COVER STORY
A Liberal Arts Education in a Data-Driven World
Bethany Magazine is a biannual publication of Bethany College. For additional copies of this publication, or more information, call 304-829-7411.
46 Bethany College Honors Program
Issue Date: Fall 2017 Printed in the U.S.A. © Bethany College 2017 And get all the latest events, sports, updates, and much more at www.bethanywv.edu.
49 Chambers General Store at 100
Would you like to receive alumni news event notices via email? Please be sure to update your contact information with the Office of Alumni at 304-829-7411 or via e-mail at alumni@bethanywv.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the editor. Bethany admits students of any race, color, sex, handicap and national or ethnic origin.
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It is the intersection of the exposure to broad ideas that protects us, in the words of our founder Alexander Campbell, from “vulgar prejudice” and “ injustice.”
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FROM THE PRESIDENT
The Liberal Arts in a Digital World Dear Alumni:
T
he modern college must take seriously the market through the lens of philosophy, art, history, language, and demand for graduates who are data-driven, highly sociology, for example, is considered a waste of time and money motivated, and demonstrably productive individuals. in the current college marketplace. Graduates who are capable of initiating what has Yet, as we drive full speed into the future of efficiency, there been termed “disruptive” change. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of is ample evidence that predictive technology fails to understand Facebook, suggests that the goal of algorithmic and data-driven the unpredictable “human factor.” Economists and business leaders predictive modeling is ultimately to make reasonable assumpwill be the first to say that they are seeking individuals who can tions on human behavior. Projections, in turn, drive not only synthesize both the data and the “thick description” of social the consumer market but also the information highway. realities. Leaders who have the skills to engage the contextual Amazon, Apple, and Google continue to demonstrate how realities that inform human behavior – the religious motivation, algorithmic and data-driven predictive modeling can change the the palpable social and cultural “taste of life,” the political history, way we shop, communicate, and learn. Think also of the emerging the “on-the-ground reality,” and, yes, the personal story that field of artificial intelligence with makes up humanity. The modern the advent of responsive machines graduate will need more, not less, AS WE DRIVE FULL SPEED designed to assist us in mitigating exposure to all the skill sets of our I N TO T H E F U T U R E O F human error. artists, sociologists, philosophers, E F F I C I E N C Y, T H E R E I S A M P L E Most of us do not begin our theologians, political scientists, E V I D E N C E T H AT P R E D I C T I V E day without checking in on our historians, scientists, linguists, and T E C H N O LO GY FA I L S TO smartphones – our email, messages, more. It is the intersection of the U N D E R S TA N D T H E U N P R E D I C TA B L E games, news choices, and myriad other exposure to broad ideas that protects us, “ H U M A N FAC TO R . ” applications. Once more, our “checkin the words of our founder Alexander in” is tailored-made for us based on the Campbell, from “vulgar prejudice” and sites we frequent and the news we read. Our news “injustice” or, in the words of sociologist Clifford Geertz, merely is filtered for us, protecting us from exposure to news we choose “thin descriptions” of humanity. not to read or wish not to be confronted with on a daily basis. While we celebrate new programs in technology and sciZuckerberg, among his peer leaders in technology, might be ence, at Bethany College, we do so in the well-rounded context frighteningly correct if we simply accept the way data-driven of the liberal arts. This, we maintain, will develop leaders who predictive modeling influences our lives without questioning the will not only participate in the predictive modeling, disruption, increasingly tailored information we are consuming or without and innovation of the marketplace, but leaders who will asking, What about the human being? In the midst of thrilling carefully weigh impactful decisions based upon a “thick” advances in technology, what might we be missing from reading of culture and context. predictive technology? There is no doubt that we are experiencing a seismic shift Sincerely, from the disciplines of the humanities to those of science and technology. In Sensemaking: The Power of Humanities in the Age of Algorithm, author Christian Madsbjerg maintains that while algorithms are becoming more sophisticated, our skills Rev. Dr. Tamara Nichols Rodenberg and ability to proficiently “read” humanity is rapidly declining. President The ability to delve deeply into the “why” of human behavior B E T H A N Y M AG A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 | 7
A N E D U C AT I O N W O R T H Y O F F R E E M E N A N D W O M E N
Bethany College
the Liberal Arts
BY DR. GARY K APPEL & DR. JOE LANE
They are called liberal arts and sciences, not merely because they free the human mind from vulgar prejudices, ignorance, and error which they certainly do: but because they are general in their character and applications, and open to us an extensive acquaintance with literature, science, and art; and thus furnish us with the means of extending our acquaintance with nature, society, and the Bible, to any extent commensurate with the wants of our nature and the limits of our existence. — Alexander Campbell, 1849
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Dr. Gary Kappel Bethany College, Class of 1974 Perry E. and Aleece C. Gresham Chair in Humanities Professor of History Member of the Faculty since 1983
Dr. Joe Lane Provost and Dean of Faculty Professor of Political Science Member of the Faculty since July 1, 2017
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Bethany College & the Liberal Arts
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et there be no mistake: Throughout its 177-year history, Bethany College has been committed to providing an education guided by the basic principles of its founder, Alexander Campbell. Campbell embraced the “liberal arts and sciences” not out of some devotion to a “pure” education stripped of all contemporary relevance or vocational purpose. Indeed, he celebrated these studies for their ability to prepare graduates for a life of worth, fulfillment, and accomplishment. This commitment is repeatedly stated in the official publications of the institution dating back to the middle of the 19th century. The phrases “liberal education” and “the liberal arts” appear again and again, both in describing the general educational curriculum of the institution and in the various discipline-specific programs, however arranged. As Mr. Campbell’s words at the outset of this article attests, it is the liberating character of this kind of education that makes it liberal, that is, liberating for the individual. As such, it harkens back to the ancient Latin phrase artes liberales and the concept that these arts were necessary for and worthy of a free person. A mere cursory examination of college publications from the 19th through the 21st centuries reveals a constant return to this core belief. Even in the darkest days of World War II, when the college was essentially taken over by the Navy Department to prepare engineering officers for the great struggle facing the country, this passage from the 1942–43 Bethanian confirms the college’s commitment to the continuing centrality of the liberal arts curriculum:
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To students who feared an academic revolution would occur when V-12 [Navy personnel] students arrived on campus July 1, came heartening news from Washington. Navy Department finally released its ‘Catalogue’; announced curricula schedules, course descriptions. When reviewers boiled down a bewildering mass of symbolic designations and technical terms for simple subjects, one factor was apparent: V-12 Program is simply a liberal arts curricula with a science major, the identical education Bethany has been offering her B.S. candidates for the last 74 years. Or, looking back to the days before American entry into World War I, we find in the 1915 Bethany College Bulletin that individual departments proclaimed the importance of placing their disciplines in the context of a liberal education. For example, in the Aims Statement of the Department of Chemistry: “The aim of the courses in this department is to furnish students with such a training in the essential principles of chemistry as should be a part of a liberal education and to form a foundation for specialization along these lines.” (p. 59) Or, from the Department of Music: “A liberal, all-embracing education having been the aim of Bethany College from its very inception, music has for years been given its proper place in its curriculum.” (p. 85) The current Bethany Plan, like the plans that have come before it, represents an ever-evolving attempt to clarify, contextualize, and realize an unchanging vision. Campbell proclaimed that a Bethany graduate would be distinguished by having received “an education of great usefulness.” Our current curriculum prepares Bethany graduates to exercise thoughtful leadership in
Our founders set for the college a fine tradition of liberal scholarship and standards of excellence in accomplishment and personal living that still animate the curriculum today.
business, in public affairs, in the learned professions, and in the academy and the church, and as we embark this year on the work of crafting a new and improved “Bethany Plan” for the future, we will continue to keep those lofty aims in our sights. Whether we define that tradition as “the liberal arts and sciences,” “liberal education,” the “traditional liberals arts and sciences,” or “foundational studies,” our curriculum is distinguished by a commitment to teaching our students to read and think broadly, critically, and creatively; by a commitment to teaching our students to understand foundational principles so they can apply that understanding to evolving problems and new challenges; and by a commitment to teaching our students to develop the habits of spoken and written fluency, self-awareness, collaboration, and initiative that will prepare them to be leaders in their chosen fields of endeavor. While particular programs may change and some new ones may be added, we will stand by our commitment to prepare students who are equipped to lead in a fast-changing and culturally interconnected world, and we will demonstrate in our educational programs both our understanding of the important skills and knowledge sets our students need to understand the world today and our vision of what they will need to grapple with the problems of the future. The conversation about how best to accomplish these objectives is a never-ending process that seeks to balance the superlative teaching and learning that has always been Bethany’s calling card with the ever-shifting demands facing our students and our society. We know that we must think boldly about the experiences and skills a liberally educated person should have for the next 50 years (and beyond). In the next several years, Bethany College must commit to making it possible for every one of our students to study abroad so that they can develop the cultural
understanding and personal sense of connection that will render them capable of appreciating the possibilities offered by difference and of navigating the international arenas in which political and economic life is now grounded. We will need to expand our students’ access to and understanding of technology – not because we wish to give them a “technical” education but because technology now furnishes the tools by which every discipline and every profession are being advanced. We will need to expand our curricula to engage in challenging interdisciplinary inquiries that will define the challenges faced by the next generation; these interdisciplinary focus areas will include programs in the biomedical sciences and public health, energy and the environment, and the changing expectations for leaders and leadership, among others. The complexity of the challenges we face in these fields call for a liberal education, now more than ever. From its founding in 1840 through the fall of 2017 and beyond, the evidence is overwhelming that the college has maintained its commitment to the concept of a liberating educational experience for its students, an education designed to free them from vulgar prejudices, ignorance, and error. Ultimately, the goal is to prepare students, again in Campbell’s own words, “to become [their] own teacher and pupil,” throughout the rest of their lives, regardless of their career choices and their life experiences. It is clear that generations of Bethany College faculty, staff, administrators, and trustees have concurred that a liberal arts education is, by far, the best vehicle for accomplishing that goal. And, in the context of the 21st century, where changes in the workplace, society, even the home, are taking place with ever increasing rapidity, the liberating aspect of that education is the best hope for our students in dealing with those changes in a positive, effective, and humane fashion. B E T H A N Y M AG A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 | 11
BRIEFS
Bethany Welcomes New Senior Leaders
Dr. Joe Lane is the new provost and
John M. Lipinski ’81 joined Bethany
dean of faculty at Bethany College. He comes to Bethany from Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia, where he served as the Hawthorne Professor of Politics, chair of the Department of Politics, Law and International Relations, and the founding director of the honors college. Dr. Lane is the co-editor of three books and has published articles and reviews in a number of journals, including the American Political Science Review, Review of Politics and Political Theory. From 2008 through 2012, he served as a regular commentator on political affairs for the Encyclopedia Brittanica’s “Smart Talk” blog and published more than 40 essays on political events. A graduate with honors from Hampden-Sydney College with a bachelor of arts degree in classics and political science, Lane completed his Ph.D. at Boston College and has also taught political theory and American government at Hampden-Sydney and Bowdoin College.
as the new vice president for operations after 25 years of service with the U.S. Department of State. A retired member of the Senior Foreign Service, Lipinski had overseas assignments in Jamaica, Ukraine, Poland, Slovenia, Uganda, El Salvador, Iraq, Greece, and Indonesia. During his career, he also held several positions in Washington, helping to manage the State Department’s extensive property and real estate holdings. Prior to his State Department career, he practiced law in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Lipinski managed large and small programs and institutions as a Foreign Service Officer, and brings to Bethany the leadership, administrative, and interpersonal skills of a seasoned diplomat. He graduated from Bethany magna cum laude with a degree in history and political science.
BETHANY OPE NS ZE ROCHAOS CYBERSECURITY LAB To support its new academic majors in cybersecurity and information assurance, Bethany College has opened the ZeroChaos Cybersecurity Lab that includes computers that are separated from the College’s network and the Internet. Funded through a contribution from ZeroChaos, a global provider of workforce management solutions that help organizations achieve greater management and financial control of their workforce and talent supply chains, the ZeroChaos Cybersecurity Lab will provide students with the opportunity to simulate cyberattacks without harming any network in a controlled environment. The Lab will be designed with the assistance of two cybersecurity experts who work in both the private sector and in educational environments.
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L E T ’ S E AT ! It didn’t take long for the Bethany campus community to discover the new Ogden Dining Hall in Benedum Commons. The dining hall received a major renovation that included rotisserie ovens, new grills, a pizza oven, salad and sandwich bars, an ice cream bar, and other features. All new flooring, seating, lighting, and air handling equipment were also installed. Operated by Parkhurst Dining, a leader in award-winning food service management to colleges, universities, and businesses, the new eatery is a big hit, and even more amenities are scheduled for 2018.
NEW DEAN OF THE CHAPEL Bethany welcomes Rev. Cherisna Jean-Marie as the new dean of the chapel of Bethany College and pastor of Bethany Memorial Church. Previously, she was chaplain at Jarvis Christian College. “Pastor J” graduated from Kean University in New Jersey in 2001 and completed her Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School in 2010. She was ordained into the Christian ministry in 2011 by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) at New Covenant Christian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, where she served as associate minister. She is a Bethany Fellow (Disciples of Christ), a member of the National Consortium of Black Women in Ministry-Nashville Branch, and she serves as the vice president of the Fellowship of Black Disciples Clergywomen.
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BRIEFS
A C E L E B R AT I O N O F J A PA N E S E D A N C E Bethany’s 2017 “Explore Japan Days” celebration featured a special performance in classical Japanese dance by master dancer Shinojo Nishikawa. Even in Japan, it is considered rare and costly to experience Japanese dance by a master dancer. But Bethany College promotes “Explore Japan Days” every year to introduce various aspects of Japanese culture to the campus community and the Ohio Valley region. Japanese dance, called Nihon Buyo in Japanese, was developed into a performing art during the early 17th century and has been refined over the past 400 years. This annual event also included a short lecture about the history of Japanese dance, culture, and art.
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BETHANY ADDS FOUR TO MEDIA ARTS WA L L O F FA M E
Four alumni from the fields of public relations, journalism, and broadcasting were added to the Bethany College Communications and Media Arts Wall of Fame during the 2017 Homecoming weekend. Greg Hammaren, ’81 is senior vice president / general manager at FOX Sports Detroit. Dean Lampietro ’91 has been a producer at WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh since 1998, producing news, sports, election coverage, and special programming for this NBC affiliate. Keith Joseph Piasecki ’98 is currently a technical director / director with CNN in Atlanta. Dan Verakis ’94 is a senior principal at Clareo Partners, an international growth strategy firm, where he leads the brand loyalty and change management practice. BETHANY ANNOUNCES NEW GEORGIANA A N D B O B R I L E Y AT H L E T I C C E N T E R
The Georgiana and Bob Riley Athletic Center is expected to break ground in 2018. The new facility will include a new athletic training room, weight room, multiple conference rooms, and offices. The building is made possible by a lead donation maybe by Georgiana (Nanni) ’71 and Robert Riley ’67. Other naming opportunities for the facility exist, to learn more please email sdejong@bethanywv.edu.
Wall of Fame Inductees Dan Verakis, ’94 and Dean Lampietro ’91.
“Take out your phone. I want you to take a selfie in a special way. I want you to take a selfie that includes you, the person on your right, and the person on your left… . In that photo, you should be able to see three people capable of graduating from Bethany College. You should expect this to be hard. But you can do this…together. I want to see you four years from now at graduation in May 2021… here on this lawn… taking selfies with the same three people, this time in caps and gowns.” Dr. Joe Lane Provost and Dean of Faculty Bethany College Matriculation Ceremony August 24, 2017
BETHANY ACQUIRES PROPERT Y AT C A M P U S F R O N T D O O R
Thanks to the generosity to two anonymous donors, Bethany College has acquired and will begin restoration work on the Huff House. This building is located on the corner of Rt. 88 and Rt. 67 at Bethany’s “front door” and once restored, will serve as a beautiful gateway to the Town of Bethany and Bethany College.
FA C U LT Y N E W S Dr. Lisa M. Reilly, associate professor of chemistry and chair
of the Department of Physical and Computational Sciences, together with Dr. Scott M. Brothers, assistant professor of chemistry, have been honored by the American Chemical Society for excellence in advising the chemistry students at Bethany College. Dr. Aaron Honsowetz, assistant professor of economics,
has been awarded a Neubauer Collegium for Culture & Society Grant for his work on telegraph expansion and the economy in 19th-century America. B E T H A N Y M AG A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 | 15
Homecoming 2017 Homecoming 2017 was a weekend to remember! Beautiful early fall weather made for lots of fun tailgating, reuniting with classmates, watching football, and reminiscing around the Bethany campus. Numerous social and professional events highlighted the agenda, including the 13th Annual Hugh “Tiger” Joyce Golf Scramble, the Athletic Hall of Fame Induction, Allison’s Run 10K, the Larry E. Grimes Lecture, Bison football and soccer, campus tours, and much, much more.
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M A R K YO U R C A L E N DA R FOR HOMECOMING 2018, SEPTEMB ER 28 —30, 201 8!
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HEARD ON CAMPUS This year, our school’s theme is ‘Bison Home.’ As we begin this year, we live together in intentional community. Home is a place where one flourishes. More poignantly, home is a place of belonging and it is a center from which one goes out, and one returns. You will learn at Bethany, you will go out from Bethany and become an alumni, and we want you to return home… your Bison home. This is a home where all belong. And from which all who choose to will graduate and endeavor to change the world. Rev. Dr. Tamara Nichols Rodenberg President Bethany College Fall Convocation September 14, 2017
The old saw that you sometimes hear is that ‘these are the best four years of your life.’ I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Sorry to disappoint you. But I would say it this way — these are the four years that will make all the other years of your life better, if you let them. Dr. Joe Lane Provost and Dean of the Faculty 2017 Matriculation Exercises August 24, 2017
Russia did effect the 2016 election, but we cannot measure that effect. It’s called “covert influence” and it would be dishonest of me to say that only the Russians do that. As someone who should know something about this, covert influence campaigns never create fractures in a society… they exploit pre-existing fractures in that society. So we should go to school on this and build defenses against it, that’s true. But the best defense is for us to heal our political processes, because it’s that which makes us vulnerable. Gen. Michael Hayden Former Director, CIA Larry Grimes Lecture Series September 30, 2017
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If you believe that every American child, regardless of background or family status, is entitled to a good education, you must oppose any action which would prevent them from having that opportunity. And if you believe that every American citizen is entitled to equal opportunity and equal justice, you must stand up and speak out against all forms of discrimination and injustice. Never forget that in the presence of evil, silence makes you an accomplice.
As religious communities, we all have been the stranger: Mormons in New York; Buddhists in Southeast Asia; Hindus in the Middle East; Turkish Muslims in Germany; Jews in China; African refugees, whether Christian or Muslim or indigenous religions. All of us, as communities, have turned strangers away. There is no room for self-righteousness on this topic. Welcoming the stranger is not a matter of altruism. Rather, it is crucial to our own health. But probably the most difficult point is that welcoming the stranger means welcoming those who don’t welcome strangers. Nathan Wilson Christian Theological Seminary Fall Convocation September 14, 2017
George J. Mitchell Former Majority Leader U.S. Senate Bethany College Commencement May 20, 2017 During my freshman and sophomore years of high school, I was bullied for the color of my skin. People threatened to beat me up and push me down stairs. I felt defeated and even destroyed. I want to become a psychologist and open my own practice, working in schools and teaching faculty members how to handle bullying. Anonymous Freshman Class of 2021 as written in Bethany College Application for Admission Essay
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“It’s always been a goal of mine to remain whole and happy and also be real about what happens in life.” — Dr. Holly Hillgardner Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
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FA C U LT Y W O R K S
LO N G I N G & LETTING GO FINDING THE MEANING OF LIFE IN LOVE & LOSS
Nearly 50 years ago, Sen. Ted Kennedy, the youngest of the famous Kennedy brothers, eulogized his late brother, Bobby, who had been gunned down by an assassin’s bullet during the 1968 presidential campaign. n The close-knit Kennedy family cast a long shadow over Washington, D.C., for most of the 20th century. But they were riddled by profound grief over the losses of children and two famous brothers. So great was the depth of their love for one another and the grief they shared at the premature loss of so many loved ones that they wondered publicly if they were cursed. n “Love,” said Sen. Kennedy, “ is not an easy feeling to put into words.”
F
or thousands of years, civilizations the world over have struggled to express the depths of human emotion that come from love and loss. History and art overflow with works that cry out in pain but provide no answers. Perhaps beginning as early as ancient Egypt, inscriptions, sculptures, lamentations, psalms, and canonized texts struggle to overcome the limitations of language to eloquently capture the spirituality men felt from their most intimate human relationships with women...and with God. What’s more, the foundations of theology in most world religions have been defined and expressed by men, the tribal elders, high priests, rabbis, and others.
But seldom, if ever, have the hearts of women been represented in these writings. “Women’s voices get lost all the time in history and literature,” says Dr. Holly Hillgardner, assistant professor of religious studies at Bethany College. “I’ve always thought about how to continue to love the world, and in my world that means how to continue to have a spiritual life and love God…in the midst of loss.” And Hillgardner knows about love and loss. Her mother passed away when Hillgardner was just a teenager. Then, she was widowed at the young age of 25. Now in her 40s, she has had nine surgeries to treat a brain aneurysm.
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FA C U LT Y W O R K S
And now, Dr. Hillgardner is slowly losing her aging father to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. “Everybody is going to deal with loss,” she says with resignation. “I just had to think about this a little bit earlier than most people. And I think all first books are autobiographical in some way, so I decided to not run from that but to embrace it.” Her book, Longing and Letting Go: Christian and Hindu Practices of Passionate Non- Attachment, (Oxford University Press), is a study between two women, Mirabai and Hadewijch, who Hillgardner discovered during her doctoral studies in comparative religion at Drew University. Mirabai led a life of a wandering poet, artist, and musician. A Hindu from 16thcentury India, she didn’t have a traditional family life but loved Krishna like a husband. So she simultaneously celebrates and mourns her separation from Krishna and at once feels the romantic love and pain that a woman traditionally feels for her spouse. Hadewijch was a Beguine from 13thcentury Holland. Beguines formed orders and lived communally to do spiritual work, but they could leave to get married if they chose. Both were ascetics, and, says Hillgardner, “they were both married to the divine.” Mirabai and Hadewijch had fallen in love and “married” deities that could never fully be theirs alone and suffered the full range and depth of emotions from living in such a state.
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T H E F U N PA R T O F T H E O LO GY
L E T T I N G G R I E F D O I T S WO R K
“The book is about longing and letting go… passion and non-attachment, how these women across different cultures and time periods engaged spiritual energies of asceticism and longing.” Comparative theology takes the writings of theologians and well-known thinkers and puts them in conversation. But one of the reasons there aren’t many women in books of comparative theology is that women weren’t allowed to do theology for hundreds of years. “Theology is a fun thing to study because, for me, it’s not abstract,” says Hillgardner. “I chose these two women because they talk about embodied practices of longing. “This isn’t abstract thinking about God,” she continues. “Women in these time periods couldn’t be theologians in their fields. They aren’t found in mainstream theology textbooks, but these women have something to say, so let’s hear them.” In her research, Hillgardner zeroed in on what she calls the “middle spaces” between faith and yearning. In longing, we seek to realize romantic love and attain fulfillment. In loss, we seek to ease our suffering. Hillgardner discovered that instead of always seeking the attainment of love or comfort, both Mirabai and Hadewijch lived in a “middle space,” where they don’t always live happily ever after. “But,” says Hillgardner, “Mirabai and Hadewijch find that this is where the joy is… where the learning is… where life is. They teach us something about living in the real world.” Unfortunately, that sometimes means that fulfillment can’t always be attained, suffering can’t always be eased… and God can’t always be found. “So in these writings that I spent years with, I was moved and inspired by the way they didn’t shy away from grief. At the same time, they weren’t consumed by it, either.”
What can we learn from Mirabai and Hadewijch? What do the perspectives of these two women, separated by miles and centuries, offer those of us struggling with the pain of love and loss in the 21st century? “It’s always been a goal of mine to remain whole and happy and also be real about what happens in life,” says Hillgardner. “I’m trying to take care of my dad. How do I love him and let go of things I can’t control, such as the aging process and Alzheimer’s? How do I let go of those things without letting go of my love for him? I think that’s a temptation, to detach for love for things so that we don’t have to suffer the pain. But Hadewijch and Mirabai say, ‘We are going to suffer the pain, and yet it’s worth it because that’s where the life is.’ “So the idea of longing and letting go seems to be, in many ways, a framework for dealing with really difficult things. How do we engage things with our whole heart and then also practice some sort of non-attachment when we’re not completely attached to the results of what we’re longing for?” “Grief breaks the heart open, and when that happens you have a chance to see how you actually are interconnected to everything else. We actually are connected intrinsically to each other and to the world, and grief helps open the heart to that.” “If we let grief do its work, perhaps it can help us break out of these ways of thinking and be connected and open to love, life, to God, and to the world in new ways. “I wasn’t trying to write a self-help book or help myself, but I like the fact that there’s at least a shot in theology at helping yourself or helping others. “That’s part of the journey and the practice of theology for me… that it might have some practical, spiritual value.” — Bethany Magazine
Grief breaks the heart open, and when that happens you have a chance to see how you actually are interconnected to everything else. We actually are connected intrinsically to each other and to the world, and grief helps open the heart to that.�
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EYES ON THE WORLD A Conversation with Former CIA Director General Michael Hayden
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M I C H A E L H AY D E N G R E W U P O N P I T T S B U R G H ’ S N O R T H S I D E , I N A NEIGHBORHOOD NOW OCCUPIED BY HEINZ FIELD, HOME OF THE P I T T S B U R G H S T E E L E R S . H I S H I G H S C H O O L F O OT B A L L COAC H WA S N O N E O T H E R T H A N T H E L AT E S T E E L E R S O W N E R D A N R O O N E Y. A F T E R H I G H S C H O O L , H E W E N T A C R O S S T O W N T O AT T E N D D U Q U E S N E U N I V E R S I T Y A N D, F R O M T H E R E , A 41 -Y E A R C A R E E R IN THE U.S. AIR FORCE.
B
y the time he retired from the Air Force, the erudite Hayden was a four-star general and the highest ranking military intelligence officer in the U.S. armed forces. He served under two presidents as the director of the National Security Agency, principal deputy director of National Intelligence, and director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Now, Michael V. Hayden Boulevard runs through Pittsburgh’s North Shore where the general’s old neighborhood once stood. And Hayden, a former liberal arts student himself, bobs and weaves effortlessly among topics like the war on terror, European history, cyber intelligence, world religions, military strategy, law, and politics. General Hayden spoke at Bethany College during Homecoming 2017 as part of the Larry E. Grimes Lecture Series. We caught up with him to talk about his views on the cyberthreats facing America, the state of our cybersecurity readiness, privacy, surveillance, and a wide range of other issues.
BM: The Russian interference in the U.S. election, the Equifax
BETHANY MAGAZINE: What would you say is the #1 cyber-
MH: The short answer is no. But we can do better. I view this
threat facing the United States? What keeps you up at night?
more like infectious diseases or crime than war. Our traditional view of war is, you have a winner, you have a loser, and then you move on. This is different. With infectious diseases, you have to immunize forever. There are still new diseases that pop up. Infectious disease and crime are continuous struggles. I think cyber defense is more like that. You can’t look to the government—whether it’s the armed forces, the Department of Homeland Security, state or local government, or law enforcement—to keep you safe in the cyber domain the way we look to the government to keep us safe in the physical space. The government is just not going to be able to perform well enough there. So there is going to have to be more personal responsibility and more reliance on the private sector than we ever think we have to do for things like burglary.
MICHAEL HAYDEN: One of the problems with cyberspace is
how varied and unpredictable it is. Right now, day in and day out, you’ve got criminal gangs and activists who are mostly responsible for the destructive cyberattacks. But the high-end threats still reside in nation states. We saw an example of that in North Korea’s attack on Sony North America about three years ago. And of course, we’ve seen Russian and Chinese cyber espionage, which is a little bit different than a destructive attack. We’ve decided as a people to take a bunch of things that are precious to us and that we used to keep in a desk drawer or a safe or a vault and put them in our phones. And that makes us very vulnerable to people who want to embarrass us, steal from us, coerce us, and punish us. So there’s a great deal of variability—different actors, different purposes, lots of vulnerabilities.
hack, and other large-scale hacks are the ones we hear about. What other kinds of cyberattacks are occurring that we don’t hear about? MH: The ones that are most destructive generally get into the
news. The Russians, for example, turned out the lights in the Ukraine, which was public. Equifax became very public but they didn’t come out with a public announcement right away. So there are attacks that take place but some individuals or companies for whatever reason decide to keep them quiet. We’re fond of saying there are two kinds of companies in America—those that have suffered a cyberattack and those that don’t know they’ve suffered a cyberattack. It’s not so much that they didn’t make it public, it’s that it was done so well that they don’t know they were attacked. BM: Is the U.S. line of defense against cyberattacks equal to
the task? Is this even a war that can ever be won?
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BM: Is there a “next frontier” or “next generation”
BM: What is the essential skill set for a career in
of cybercrime?
cybersecurity or intelligence?
MH: The next thing lurking out there is artificial intelligence.
MH: Those are two different things. Intelligence is a bigger box,
And one of the challenges of cyber is its speed. It’s able to do things with unheard of speed and unheard of scale. When you get to artificial intelligence, that increases exponentially. It may increase the dangers, but it may also be able to be used to increase defense. But it requires mastering it. If good people do nothing about it, then that will advantage the attackers.
so you really do need the Arabic linguist steeped in Islamic history. Even in the modern world, a deep-thinking analyst still has to work with Big Data and still has to know how to manipulate Big Data. So even that person has to develop a certain degree of fluency. Conversely, a cyber expert—the one writing the algorithm for the deep-thinking analyst—needs more than a rudimentary understanding of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the history of western civilization, the impact of the printing press, etc.
BM: Have you ever been hacked? MH: Not that I know of. Although I occasionally get evidence
of it, so I run scans and virus checks and change passwords, and so on. But have I gotten phishing emails, oh my yes! BM: You’ve said that the key to cybersecurity lies between policy
and technology. What do you mean by that? MH: I’m fond of saying the greatest concentration of cyber power
on this planet is at Fort Meade, Maryland, which is where the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command is located. Can we use more technology? Yes. More people? Sure. But fundamentally, people and technology are not the limiting factor. The limiting factors are policy and law. Put another way, what is it that you want the government to do in the cyber domain? And, oh yeah, what is it that you’ll let the government do? Because before too long, the government’s cybersecurity work begins bumping into your emails and mine.
I’M A LIBERAL ARTS GRADUATE MYSELF, AND THE OLDER I GET THE MORE I RELY ON THOSE TRADITIONAL LIBERAL ARTS VALUES.
BM: Is the gap in understanding of the cyberthreat between
technologists and policy makers leaving the U.S. vulnerable? MH: It certainly makes us less safe. It makes it harder to get
to the right kind of understanding. It makes it harder to get that legal-policy framework that is, at best, incomplete. That will change generationally. I’ve been in the White House Situation Room and had a guy give a very detailed and very good briefing on some sort of cyber defensive or offensive activity, and it’s clear to me that the 60- and 70-something-year-old cabinet secretaries around the table think this kid is “Rain Man”! They have no idea what he is saying. That’s a generational thing. I was head of the NSA, but I’m 72 years old so I’m a “digital immigrant.” No matter how long I live in the “new country,” I will always speak with an accent. My grandchildren are native and they speak unaccented digital.
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BM: In your book and in many of the interviews I’ve seen you do,
you move with great ease from history, to law, to science, religion, mathematics, and other disciplines. You even allude to your liberal arts education in one chapter. Can you discuss your views on the liberal arts as preparation for success in a technology-driven world? MH: I’m a liberal arts graduate myself, and the older I get the
more I rely on those traditional liberal arts values. Of course, you need technology and you need to make it work. But technology is not the “short straw.” Right now, the short straw is law and policy. So what is the appropriate role of the government in cybersecurity? What will you ask it to do and what will you allow it to do? What is the meaning of a reasonable expectation of privacy in the 21st-century digital world? Those things can really benefit from a technologically savvy liberal arts graduate who understands the more fundamental issues of how this fits into broader concepts of American history, the U.S. Constitution, the balance between privacy and security, and how to articulate those arguments so that people understand the trade-offs they will have to make. People will say to me that there’s no trade-off between privacy and security, and my reply to them is that they have obviously never been responsible for either. There are trade-offs, and a free people have to decide where to draw that line based upon the circumstances they find themselves at the moment. This isn’t an equation to be solved, it’s a condition to be managed forever.
WE’RE FOND OF SAYING THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF COMPANIES IN AMERICA— THOSE THAT HAVE SUFFERED A CYBERATTACK AND THOSE THAT DON’T KNOW THEY’VE SUFFERED A CYBERATTACK.
Now I’m not going to minimize the value of a STEM education, or the value of technological expertise. As an intelligence officer, I need to know the range of a missile. But at a certain point, at least in the armed forces, you transition, and your total responsibility is about doing the right thing. So the liberal arts background is important at the front end… . You have to be a master of facts and detail. But it becomes more important the more senior you become. At a senior level, your responsibility isn’t to be more efficient. Your responsibility now is to make the institution effective. I’ll give you an example of how deep knowledge matters. I once had a young lieutenant briefing me in Stuttgart in the early ’90s during the war in Bosnia. He was briefing me about a battle in a town called Mostar near Sarajevo. A four-star general asked lots of questions about the battle and the young lieutenant gave excellent answers to every tactical question. Near the end of the briefing, the generals had concluded that all the tactical factors pointed to the Croatian army advancing through the center of town to the Neretva River. “But, sir,” the young lieutenant said. “That’s not why the Croats will go to the Neretva River.” “Alright, then. Why not?” asked the generals. “Because of the Great Schism of Christianity in 1054, which created the dividing line between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, was at the Neretva River.” One of the problems we have now in the ISIS fight is a lot of people think they know what they’re doing and say things
like “Islam hates us.” But they don’t realize that throughout the history of Islam and Christianity, Islam has actually been the more tolerant monotheism. This really isn’t a war between civilizations… between Islam and the West. This is a war within Islam, and you know what? It looks a lot like the war within Christendom in the 17th century, the 30 Years War, the Peace of Westphalia, the grand debate between faith and reason, etc. BM: After such a long and distinguished career, was it a
difficult transition from having your finger on the pulse of the most sensitive intelligence in the world to being out of the loop? MH: One of the best life decisions I ever made was on
Thanksgiving 2008, when I thought President Obama was going to pick someone else to run the CIA, so I decided to run the Pittsburgh Marathon. I started training around Thanksgiving 2008 and ran the marathon in May 2009. And when you have to put in a daily regimen of running 15 miles a day, you don’t mind not having anything else to do that day! I don’t mean to scare anybody, but I actually think I know more “stuff” right now than I did on my last day as CIA director. And that’s fully admitting that I’ve lost tactical detail. I travel around the world now and get so many varied points of view that I understand more things now than I did then because I get time to reflect and talk with, absorb, and debate people with different points of view.
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sound off: BETHANY STUDENTS SPEAK THEIR MINDS
What have you learned about yourself since enrolling at Bethany?
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The unexpected moments and memorable lessons that have transpired over these past four years will never be forgotten. Bethany College has helped transform me into the strong and passionate individual I am today. Being a student here has helped manifest my dreams and open my eyes to the endless possibilities I have in life. The beauty of college is it teaches you more about yourself than you ever thought was possible. JADA E PPS
Monroeville, Pennsylvania Psychology
Apart from academics, I have learned that I have the ability to be a leader. Bethany College has given me opportunities that have brought out skills that I didn’t realize I had. It has helped me realize what I really want in life, and has shown me that I can achieve what I want.
I came into Bethany as a Music major and I later switched to Music Technology. With Bethany College being a Liberal Arts School, I was able to discover more about myself and what my interests were. Not only did I find a better suited major for myself, I also learned that I enjoyed writing comedy. Bethany then gave me the opportunity to incorporate both my love for music and comedy together with the newly formed club at Bethany called “Bethany After Dark,” which is a comedic late night show put together by the students. JOSH FISHER
Hamburg, New York Music Technology
LEAH ROMAN
Weirton, West Virginia Communications–Digital Media
In my years at Bethany College I have learned a lot of myself as a person. I’ve learned how much trust I can have in someone, as well as how much trust some people could have in me. Bethany has given me the opportunity to see me turn my potential into a reality. It has given me so much laughter, friendship, memories, confidence, and love that I will never forget! It truly is its own little world, and my god, what a world it is. A true experience. RJ SINKO
Bentleyville, Pennsylvania Business Management
While at Bethany, I have learned to take advantage of each opportunity provided to me, including the amazing opportunities here. I’ve been taught to appreciate my atmosphere and use it to benefit those in my community. CAROLINE DUDLEY
Baker City, Oregon Political Science, History Minor
While being here at Bethany, I have learned that I do not have to be scared of being in charge. I have learned that I have many more interests than I thought I did when I came into college. Bethany has helped me to learn more about diversity and acceptance. I have learned that it is okay to agree to disagree and it is all in the process. The biggest thing I learned about myself would be that I’m still learning about myself. E M I LY D I M I C H E L E
Butler, Pennsylvania Social Work
B E T H A N Y M AG A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 | 29
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NO LIBERAL ARTS JOKES HERE. EXCEPT PERHAPS THE ONE ABOUT ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF AIRBNB WHO GRADUATED WITH A DEGREE IN FINE ARTS. WE HEAR HE’S LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK. SO, WHAT’S A LIBERAL ARTS GRAD TO DO THESE DAYS AND INTO THE FUTURE? TURNS OUT, A LOT!
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“THE REASON THAT APPLE IS ABLE TO CREATE PRODUCTS LIKE THE IPAD IS BECAUSE WE’VE ALWAYS TRIED TO BE AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY AND THE LIBERAL ARTS.” —Steve Jobs, Apple
BIG PICTURE WISDOM George Davis ’78 co-founded his mobile and wireless data computing company in the mid-1990s because he recognized the significant power behind the idea of taking computer tools from the desktop and placing them on cell phones. The pioneering company raised $1.5 billion in capital before the market collapsed, recalls Davis of his time as president and vice chairman of Aether Systems. From a competitive perspective, “the last thing that crossed our mind was an Apple or a Google,” he notes. “Steve Jobs had the vision and that was all about the human interface… really cool and pretty to use in their hands,” contends Davis. He “That’s a liberal arts mindset.” Today, Davis, who serves as trustee emeritus at Bethany, is CEO of Maryland Technology Development Corp., an economic development organization that serves as a go-to source for entrepreneurs and is often ranked among the most active seed/early-stage investors in the country. To understand what people are going to want over the long term—say, use mobile computing, for example— that takes “big picture vision,” says Davis, and it’s what makes true leaders stand out.
“PEOPLE TEND TO GET SO CONSUMED ON THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY, THAT THEY FORGET HOW TO THINK. AND THEY REALLY LOSE THE CONCEPT OF WISDOM,” SAYS DAVIS. ‘WE ARE DROWNING IN INFORMATION WHILE STARVING FOR WISDOM.’” “People tend to get so consumed on the information highway, that they forget how to think. And they really lose the concept of wisdom,” says Davis. ‘We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom,’ says Davis, quoting E. O. Wilson, the renowned American biologist dubbed the “father of sociobiology” for his research detailing social behaviors in everything from ants to humans. And, Davis contends, wisdom comes from a broader liberal education where one learns how to think. Being exposed to arts, religion, politics—all of this and more was a valuable asset that Davis leveraged throughout his career—from his days at Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Northrop Grumman to investing and managing numerous biotech, IT, and software companies. “When I was at Bethany, I learned how to think,” he affirms.
“THE ONLY EDUCATION THAT PREPARES US FOR CHANGE IS A LIBERAL EDUCATION.” —David Kearns, former CEO of Xerox and former Deputy Secretary of U.S. Department of Education
LIFELONG LEARNERS “We want lifelong learners,” says Travis Straub, assistant professor of English, about Bethany College’s role in preparing students for a lifetime of work. He says liberal arts offers a broad education and prepares people with multiple skill sets for different careers—for jobs potentially that don’t even yet exist. As Straub likes to say about liberal arts grads: “Do you want to hire four different people or one person who can do four different things?” With its core foundation that crosses multiple areas— from arts and religious studies to chemistry and history of African culture—liberal arts degrees lend themselves to broad critical thinking, which in turn enables big-picture thinking. And this, says Straub, ultimately prepares students for the real world. A company doesn’t want to have to hire a consultant “every time there’s a wrinkle,” he contends. “What we need more often is the ability to react when we don’t always have the best information to draw upon.”
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Straub, an English major—who, yes, worked as a barista and yes, whose parents were concerned that he wouldn’t be able to find a career—contends that a liberal arts degrees allows you to do more than one thing in a variety of fields by providing proficient skill sets…so proficient that they can prepare you for a position in the future if your current job may cease to exist. As for what are the jobs of the future? Straub says there’s no way to predict. He relays a story about being in school at a time when the literary rage was all vampire stories and Harry Potter. “One of my classmates wanted to know what the next trend was going to be [in literature]. Basically, by the time you recognize it, it’s too late,” he says. Trying to get that degree for the next hot field in 10 or 20 years? Forget it. “That’s why a liberal arts degree is much more valuable. It doesn’t have to predict. It can adapt,” says Straub.
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“THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE OPPORTUNITIES AND MOVE IN NEW—AND SOMETIMES UNEXPECTED DIRECTIONS—WILL BENEFIT YOU NO MATTER YOUR INTERESTS OR ASPIRATIONS. A LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION IS DESIGNED TO EQUIP STUDENTS FOR JUST SUCH FLEXIBILITY AND IMAGINATION.”
LIBERAL EDUCATION INTO THE FUTURE Fareed Zakaria, who hosts CNN’s flagship international affairs program and is a New York Times bestselling author, contends in an interview with Bethany Magazine that the greatest value a liberal education has today is that it “makes you curious, and intellectual curiosity is almost the prize.” “You’re going to keep learning the rest of your life, and a lot of companies understand that a broad liberal background is infinite,” Zakaria states. “Things are going to change in five years. And having the mentality that allows you to make that change is the most important thing.” In his 2015 book, “In Defense of a Liberal Education,” Zakaria tells the story of a medical professor teaching at Yale Medical School. The teacher found that the students’ powers of observation and diagnosis were lacking, and so he took them to an art gallery. After teaming with a curator from the Yale Center for British Art, the pair designed a visual tutorial for medical students, who were asked to examine paintings and “layers of detail.” The results? The med school teacher found that, after taking the class students performed “demonstrably better,” so much so that Zakaria reported 20 other medical schools followed this art school example. Zakaria writes, “The central virtue of a liberal education is that it teaches you how to write, and writing makes you think. Whatever you do in life, the ability to write clearly, cleanly, and reasonably quickly will be an invaluable skill.”
MARINELLI IS SEEING A SHIFT IN LEADERSHIP, TOO. “AS MILLENNIALS BECOME LEADERS, THERE’S A DIFFERENT OUTLOOK ON HOW BUSINESSES SHOULD BE RUN, AND I’M SEEING IT FIRSTHAND.” According to a 2015 study by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, nearly all employers surveyed (91 percent) agree that for career success, “a candidate’s demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than his or her undergraduate major.” Mark Cuban, tech entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, contends that the nature of employment is changing, and “big companies know this.” In a 2017 Bloomberg TV interview, Cuban stated: “I personally think there’s going to be a greater demand in 10 years for liberal arts majors than there were for programming majors—maybe even engineering.” He predicts that with automation and artificial intelligence, computers will write better software than humans, and he sees a need for experts in English, philosophy, and foreign languages. Kelly Marinelli, founder of Solve HR Inc., based in Boulder, Colorado, agrees that “things are changing.” Marinelli, a member of the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) 2017 Talent Acquisition Special Expertise Panel, notes that “employers are noticing that we need a balance and diversity of skills in our workforce.”
When asked if she’s seeing a greater demand for job candidates with a liberal arts degree, Marinelli responds: “Absolutely. It’s critical to have a well-rounded understanding of the world, and it’s really important as we move forward and more rote skills are taken on by AI [artificial intelligence] and are automated by increasingly complex technologies.” Marinelli is seeing a shift in leadership, too. “As millennials become leaders, there’s a different outlook on how businesses should be run, and I’m seeing it firsthand.” At a recent LinkedIn conference in Nashville, its CEO Jeff Weiner affirmed that thanks to artificial intelligence “over 50 percent of the activities in the U.S. economy are susceptible to automation.” And that’s using technology that already exists. According to a 2017 Pew Research study, 77 percent of Americans think it’s realistic that robots and computers might one day be able to do many of the jobs currently done by humans. Cue TARA.AI, an automated talent acquisition and recruiting automation company based in Silicon Valley. Its team spent two-plus years building a recruiting algorithm that classifies computer programmers based on skills and work experience, with high-profile investors that include the founders of Skype, Waze, and early Dropbox investors. B E T H A N Y M AG A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 | 33
“ONE CANNOT LIVE BY EQUATIONS ALONE. THE NEED IS INCREASING FOR WORKERS WITH GREATER FOREIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS AND AN EXPANDED KNOWLEDGE OF ECONOMICS, HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.” —Norman Augustine, former chairman and CEO, Lockheed Martin Corp.
EMPLOYER PRIORITIES FOR MOST IMPORTANT COLLEGE LEARNING OUTCOMES Problem-solving in diverse settings
96%
(1)
Oral communication
85%
(2)
Teamwork skills in diverse groups
83%
(2)
Written communication
82%
(2)
Critical thinking and analytic reasoning
81%
(2)
Broad knowledge in the liberal arts and sciences
78%
(1)
(1) Indicates percentage of employers who “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” that, “regardless of a student’s chosen field of study,” every student should attain this area of knowledge or skill (2) Indicates percentage of employers who rate this outcome as very important (8–10 on a 10-point scale) for recent grads entering the job market Source: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2015 report, “Falling Short? College Learning and Career Success”
‘LEARN HOW TO LEARN’ The technology is going to keep evolving, notes Aaron Honsowetz, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics at Bethany. “The key,” he stresses about students, “is to teach them to learn how to learn.” At Bethany, students are pushed to do real imperial work in research method courses, which invariably bring a divergent group of students together. “These backgrounds intersect with the same issues,” Dr. Honsowetz explains. This perspective from multiple interests enables cross pollination on projects and furthers learning while sharpening data skills. Today, thanks to open source software that’s rich in functionality, the cost of doing data work has been reduced. “It’s so much less expensive and time-consuming,” said Honsowetz. Today, a laptop can run much data work companies need using off-the-shelf packages. “It’s a datacentric world. Economics as a field is so useful,” says Honsowetz. “It has its hands everywhere…One thing that makes economics really powerful is the emphasis on how something can affect everything.” Whether it’s measuring risk and human behavior or building economies, you can test how interventions change outcome, he explains. At the forefront of that is a lot of statistical work. Honsowetz contends that liberal arts students at Bethany do a lot of data work and can crunch out the results, organize the data sets, talk about the formulas, run regressions, know how to run the actual data sets—and have the skills needed for planning ahead. According to Honsowetz, one of Bethany’s biggest strengths in its liberal arts program is “the people we work with on campus.” There’s strong interdisciplinary programs throughout—in business, math, political science, sports. “Not all colleges
are integrated as well,” he says. “Our size helps form those relationships and professors know each other. For instance, a sports management student takes economics with business kids—this further reinforces those connections that allow us to apply good data work to their chosen field and to cross-pollinate across different majors and offer different insights.” And different insights are always welcomed at Bethany. During Bethany’s Fall Convocation, held in September, Lisa Reilly, Ph.D., the Goulding-Woolery Professor in Chemistry, associate professor of chemistry, and chair of the Department of Physical and Computational Sciences, received not one, but two standing ovations as the recipient of the John R. Taylor Award in Liberal Arts. “I’m hopeful it is about my teaching,” says Dr. Reilly about the award, “and how I’m working to integrate other fields into chemistry.” Take, for example, art and chemistry, which are incorporated into labs that look at the chemistry reactions around art mediums and the paper on the art conservation side. “The way an artist approaches a problem is different from the way a chemist approaches a problem,” notes Reilly. It’s this idea of looking at where fields intersect and taking advantage of what each field has to offer as Reilly moves forward with more integrated learning. She sees more integration of food and chemistry and hopes to expand on experimental classes in wine making that were previously offered. Having this type of exposure will inherently alter one’s method of thinking, she says. “It allows you to expand your mind. “You can’t teach them the knowledge for current jobs because they won’t be here,” she says. “Teach them for future jobs that we don’t even know exist.”
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“THE LIBERAL ARTS DO NOT CONDUCT THE SOUL ALL THE WAY TO VIRTUE, BUT MERELY SET IT GOING IN THAT DIRECTION.” —Seneca
ADVANTAGE LIBERAL ARTS Cara Halldin, ’06, Ph.D., credits the liberal arts education she received at Bethany for her ability to relate to people with divergent backgrounds. As supervisory team leader and epidemiologist for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Morgantown, this means Dr. Halldin routinely interacts with physicians, pathologists, radiologists, industrial hygienists, lab workers, and coal miners. Sometimes very sick coal miners, at that. Halldin says classes including sociology, education, and psychology were all extremely helpful in her being able to do what she does for the CDC which involves traveling to remote mining towns around the country and talking to miners about their health and their job conditions as she tracks data for black lung disease. “Yes, a lot of things are data-driven,” says Halldin, who supervises staff and deals directly with miners and former miners. “But I understand they are not just a number… Bethany taught me to be respectful of all people, to have an open mind, to hear people out. And that’s helped me.” There’s no formal training for the job that Shawn Brown ’97, Ph.D., does as chief software architect at CBRAIN at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. CBRAIN allows neuroimaging researchers from around the world to access its supercomputing capabilities without needing any computer programming skills which “frees them up to do more and larger science,” says Dr. Brown.
While his bachelor’s and Ph.D. are both in chemistry, Brown says he hasn’t done chemistry in 20 years. His liberal arts degree helped him “not to be siloed.” “It helped me to be willing to learn other areas of science and technology beyond chemistry,” he said. Brown worked on the H1N1 Swine Flu epidemic in 2009 — and (then at Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center as senior scientific specialist) was embedded in the federal government to advise on public health policy. Brown routinely talks to a variety of people in the course of his business, like “people who run hospitals, which I know nothing about. But I learn to speak their language and can make simulation models of public health systems” to mitigate the spread of hospital-acquired infections like MRSA or C. diff. “Mark Cuban is correct,” says Brown. “There’s a need for people to see the bigger picture of how things connect. “When I hire people, I grill them about technical skill. But, I’m really looking for people who are continuing to learn. I want them to say, ‘I am going to figure it out or find out how to do it,’” says Brown. “They’re going to be in high demand because the world is a rapidly changing place.”
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S T U D E N T S T O WAT C H
MIA JUDULANG P SYCH O LOGY
“I love flipping!” One look at Mia Judulang and it’s easy to see why. The junior psychology major from Cupertino, California, flips, twists, and dives in the pool six days a week and this year became the first diver from Bethany College to qualify for the NCAA regional diving championship.
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he’s already the Bethany record-holder in two diving events and usually comes out on top in head-to-head competition. But coming off a season of injuries, including a concussion she suffered from hitting the water head-first from the three-meter board, she didn’t have her best performance in the 2017 NCAA regionals. “It wasn’t my best meet, but I did it for the experience,” she says. “That was my first time, but this year I want to see where I can actually place…if I can avoid injuries.” Judulang’s path to diving actually began on the gymnastics floor at the age of three. But by the time she was in her early teens, she was forced to quit because of a lower back injury. So she began looking for a new athletic outlet. “I tried diving and loved it… . It’s an easy transition from gymnastics to diving. So now I’ve been diving since my freshman year in high school.” And while she’s focused on improving her showing at this year’s NCAA championships, Mia is already looking beyond her graduation from Bethany.
“I came here wanting to do physical therapy,” she says. “But I have an interest in working with mentally disabled children. When I was in high school, I did three years of volunteer work at my gym. We coached gymnastics, swimming, and dance with autistic children, and I fell in love with it.” So, looking ahead to the 2018 swimming and diving season, what dive will Judulang go to with a competition on the line? “My front twister or a back twister... a back flip with a 1-1/2 twist,” she says. “Since I was a gymnast, twisting always came easy for me. It’s my most consistent dive, so if I need the points to win, I’ll do that dive.” “But,” she’s quick to add, “I’d rather be known as more consistent and more technically skilled than the winner. I don’t care about winning for me… I care about bettering myself.”
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ALUMNI GAME CHANGERS
the key to successful education is on the playground MICHAEL HYNES, ED.D. (P SYCH O LOGY ’ 9 4) S U P E R I N T E N D E N T O F S C H O O L S
play
PAT C H O G U E - M E D F O R D SCHOOL DISTRICT PAT C H O G U E , N E W YO R K
Standardized testing is depriving children of many life skills that comprised the foundation of education for previous generations. It’s time we provided our children with an environment for learning that will let them compete and thrive in the 21st century.
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ALUMNI GAME CHANGERS
“The playground is its own microcosm, where children are the governors and citizens who learn to play in their world together, with goals of kindness and support.”
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braham Lincoln once said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” If public schools are the birthplace of future citizens and leaders, the focus on what it means to be a productive citizen must escape the contracted mindset of today’s education reform. Instead, public education needs to be reassessed, with the goal of cultivating optimal conditions for each child to grow to his or her full potentials. Beginning with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and continuing through the present day with increased annual testing requirements as well as tremendous business opportunities in education, the philosophy and purpose of public education has drastically changed. Far too much emphasis is placed on test scores in literacy and math. The aftermath is that the concept of teaching children, rather than achieving scores, has been lost. While data, accountability, and assessment are important, they are not the primary means to educating our children. But at this time, at both the federal and the state levels, we are experiencing a hyper-focus on ranking, sorting, and test scores...and not on fully educating students. Moving forward, a 21st-century education must consist not just of 40 | W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • B E T H A N Y M AG A Z I N E
academics focused heavily on math and English language arts (ELA), but of four components: Physical growth, Emotional growth, Academic growth, and Social growth — PEAS. PEAS allows children to tap into their own potentials and maximize their talents. Each component is equally as important as the others, and each also reinforces the others. And with PEAS, research shows that even with less time spent on traditional academics, academic achievement improves, along with so much more. PEAS gives direction and guidance to the “whole child” approach so often spoken about, but so rarely successfully achieved.
Recess as a Requirement Most adults understand that a sedentary work day is far from ideal and leads to reduced output. Cutting-edge corporations like Google design their work campuses to include gymnasiums, swimming pools, volleyball courts, and walking paths. Businesses provide gym memberships to their employees for use during the workday. With more movement comes more focus, less boredom, fewer absences, better attitudes, and more positive outlooks. The trend in public school, though, has been the opposite. As the emphasis on attaining high scores in math and ELA grows, the reaction has been to increase classroom time, on the assumption that more time spent on these subjects will correlate with better performance. All too
often, that extra classroom time is pulled from recess time, or from physical education time. Meanwhile, the childhood obesity problem in the United States has continued to grow, being cited as parents’ number one health concern last year by the American Heart Association. Recess can no longer be thought of as a throwaway. In fact, recess is critical to children’s healthy growth and to their successful performance in school. Children run, play, climb, swing — and smile. They connect with their peers. They are out of breath. When they finish their play, they are ready to be in a class again, ready to focus. And they are happy. Research repeatedly supports that increasing physical fitness opportunities for children leads to not just improved physical health but also to increased academic growth. The Centers for Disease Control reports that “[t]here is substantial evidence that physical activity can help improve academic achievement, including grades and standardized test scores.” The CDC further notes that physical activity “enhance[s] concentration and attention as well as improve[s] classroom behavior.” Even simply incorporating physical activity breaks during class increases student performance. In addition, recess lets children actively develop the 21st-century skills that are so often discussed in the education world: communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity.
“Recess lets children actively develop 21st century skills…communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity…by creating an imaginary kingdom out of a shade tree with kids wearing crowns made of autumn leaves.”
These skills are best learned and honed not in a classroom exercise, but rather on the playground, by creating an imaginary kingdom out of a shade tree with kids wearing crowns made of autumn leaves. They learn problem-solving and collaborating when they figure out how to share a space or decide how to choose who participates in a game. The playground is its own microcosm, where children are the governors and citizens, who learn to play in their world together, with goals of kindness and support. We understand that physical growth, via recess, physical education, and participation in afterschool sports, is just as important as academic teaching, and is in fact integral to maximizing academic success and improving student health. When physical activity is relegated to being just a disposable, non-essential filler, our children suffer. It’s time to right the wrong of reducing children’s physical activity that high-pressure testing has caused. It’s unhealthy on too many levels. The United Nations Standards of Human Rights endorses that prisoners have at least an hour of outdoor exercise every day. Why don’t we allow the same right to our children in schools?
Laying the Foundation As schools, we are remiss if we don’t ensure that children, especially our youngest, are learning in ways that create
emotional health, because, in fact, a strong emotional base is the groundwork for the academics that will follow. It is this emotional strength that will allow a child to continue to strive even when he or she is frustrated. Emotional well-being gives a child permission to fail on his or her route to success. Children will understand that feelings both positive and negative are part of the human experience and aren’t something to be feared or repressed. To combat excess stress and foster emotional well-being, schools also need to offer outlets and lifelong methods of coping, such as yoga and mindfulness training. These activities help children develop healthy relationships with peers and teachers, and be able to self-regulate emotionally, mentally, and behaviorally. I believe that by integrating mindfulness and yoga into the curriculum, it creates a number of other benefits, including improved academic performance. By prioritizing the importance of emotional growth and reducing the emphasis on testing, we help our children grow into more secure, well balanced adults who can thrive in a diverse global society, able to navigate the multitude of opportunities and challenges that they encounter. And we also help improve their academic careers. For students’ overall health, both emotionally and cognitively, it is imperative that we focus on emotional growth.
“With a school’s very existence riding on the outcome of standardized tests, and with teachers’ jobs dependent on these scores, schools have been forced to narrow their curricula… neglecting science, social studies, art, and music…”
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Rethinking Common Core The mandates of the Common Core Learning Standards enforced by highstakes tests have led to dramatic changes in our classrooms, at the expense of our children. With a school’s very existence riding on the outcome of grades 3 – 8 standardized tests, and with teachers’ jobs dependent on these scores, schools have been forced to narrow their curricula to focus far too heavily on just these two subjects, neglecting science, social studies, art, music, and so much more. It is time now to recalibrate and move forward with research-based methods of teaching that we know will improve our children’s academic lives and will not continue the harm caused by the mandates of the current system. We must abandon one-size-fits-all lesson plans and stop drilling to create high scores on yearend standardized tests. Instead, children should be involved in play (especially younger learners), project-based learning, cooperation, collaboration, and openended inquiry. As pressure has mounted on achieving high test scores, focusing on a child’s social growth has been shunted aside. But study after study shows that social learning is critical, in more ways than intuition suggests. It isn’t surprising that integrating social and emotional learning within a curriculum leads to improvements in
positive self-image, positive connections with school, reductions in discipline issues, and reductions in substance abuse. It makes sense that a child’s overall behavior and wellness would improve when he or she can navigate social issues, from sharing, to teamwork, to collaboration, to work division, to conflict resolution, to managing within a group. An added bonus to this healthy sense of being, though, is that academic achievement also improves – significantly. A recent study involving almost 100,000 students concluded that children who had the benefit of curricula with social and emotional learning opportunities placed well over ten percentage points academically above their non-trained peers. But today’s mandates and heavy pressure on ELA and math test scores have made fostering emotional growth an afterthought, if that. Twenty-first – century skills of collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication aren’t learned with testing and drilling math and ELA. They are learned, truly learned, when done in the context of social learning, of emotional learning – and it is long overdue that this learning be prioritized. As one educator noted, if our children had sufficient social and emotional learning opportunities, “we’d live in a better world with far less hate and far better social and emotional health.”
Our current system, based on flawed standards and enforced by high-stakes tests, has led to a situation that is no longer healthy or productive for our children. We must create a new philosophy of what it means to be truly educated and how we plan to achieve that. There is a loud call from education leaders, families, students, and community members to end the current system and strive for a way to educate children so that they become engaged, lifelong learners. By truly focusing on the whole child, we are finally acting in the best interest of all children, supporting their physical and emotional health, and at the same time, setting the stage, as research strongly supports, to maximize academic achievement. Unfortunately, the new normal is to teach less and test more. And because of the high stakes attached to these tests, schools are forced to focus on academic outcomes at the expense of a child’s social and emotional growth. Under the current model, teachers rank and sort children based on a proficiency model instead of how much growth each individual child may show. Our emphasis on well-being is a much needed new narrative that will inevitably swing the educational pendulum back toward a balanced state of the true purpose of education.
There is a loud call from education leaders, families, students, and community members to end the current system and strive for a way to educate children so that they become engaged, lifelong learners.
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
BRITTNY DUELL CLASS OF 2014 B . S . , P SYCH O LOGY
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rittny Duell still remembers her first trip to SeaWorld, when she was just three years old. On a family trip to Orlando, the Duell family sat in an area filled with children, but young Brittny was fascinated with what she was seeing for the first time—killer whales. She watched in awe while trainers interacted with different marine mammals. “It was that moment where I knew this is what I wanted to do when I grew up,” she recalled. Step one—Learn to swim. Duell’s parents enrolled her in a synchronized swimming class to learned controlled breathing, choreographed dance, and intense swimming. For ten years, she practiced synchronized swimming and went on to compete for her high school’s varsity swimming and diving team. Step two —Enroll at Bethany College. “When I first came to visit Bethany, I met with the swimming coach, and it was an easy decision,” she said. “Not only does it have a great swim program, but it also had such a beautiful campus. The minute I took a look around, I knew I had found my second home.” Duell settled on psychology as her major, with an emphasis on
A WHALE OF A DREAM physical therapy. “Many people asked me, why not biology, or marine biology if you want to work with marine mammals?,” she recalls. “Psychology just makes sense. We notice very simple things based on their behavior. We train the whales using operant conditioning and positive reinforcement,” she added. After graduation, she moved to St. Augustine, Florida, to complete an internship at Marineland Dolphin Adventure. “The training is hard,” she recalled. “People drop out left and right. I worked constantly for almost three years completing internships, and taking on extra jobs.” The work paid off. In 2016, Duell got the call she had been waiting for all her life—an opportunity to complete a swim test at SeaWorld San Antonio in Texas. “Before you even get an interview, you have to pass a swim test,” she said. The swim test is a critical and rigorous component of the interview process. “I swam with 17 people, and only seven passed the swim test,” she remembered. A month later, after a series of scrutinizing interviews, she joined the White Whale and Dolphin Stadium team
at SeaWorld San Antonio an Associate Trainer. For the next six months, she worked with beluga whales, Pacific white sided dolphins, and Macaws, before moving to Shamu Stadium to work with the orcas. “I just couldn’t believe it,” she recalled. “When I first looked at the killer whales, I just stood there and stared at them. You don’t realize how big a killer whale is until you get face to face with them. It truly is an amazing feeling, and I am so thankful to have this opportunity.” Duell says her experience in the Psychology Department at Bethany really helped make her lifelong dream come true. “Our main job is to give the best possible care for these animals. We offer a number of different sessions, including training, learning, and husbandry sessions,” she said. “One of my favorite parts of my job is planning enrichment for the whales. This helps to keep them stimulated and enriched throughout the day, and is vital to their overall health and well-being.” Duell added. “These animals are so smart, and they’re so much fun to be around.” — Bethany Magazine
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FA C U LT Y W O R K S
I N S E ARC H O F A
bug’s life
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FA C U LT Y W O R K S
B E T H A N Y B I O L O G Y P R O F E S S O R J O H N B U R N S T R AV E L E D T O T H E S O U T H PAC I F I C T O S T U D Y T H E R O L E C I C A D A S P L AY I N T H E E C O S Y S T E M O F A P O LY N E S I A N P A R A D I S E .
In the northern panhandle of West Virginia, they come along every 17 years. Marked by a deafening chirp that can overwhelm human conversation, cicadas emerge almost on cue in a remarkable rhythm of nature to stake their claim on our outdoor barbecues. Cicada carcasses litter the roads, lawns, patios, sidewalks, and driveways. For about ten days every 17 years, they seem to be everywhere. And we can’t wait to get rid of them.
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here are about 4,000, species of cicadas around the world, a small percentage of which emerge on a periodic schedule. But unlike those that wiggle out of the ground on Bethany’s campus every 17 years, the species in Fiji pop out once every eight years. So Bethany biology professor John Burns flew to Fiji this summer to study the local cicada brood, Raiatanea knowlesi. Until 2009, most Fijians didn’t even know their cicadas existed. But biodiversity and environmental conservation are growing issues in Fiji. To help raise awareness of the special place the cicada plays in the island’s ecosystem, its image now adorns the Fijian $100 bill. These days, their arrival every eight years brings a wave of excitement to this island archipelago. They are, after all… delicious. A cicada feast on Fiji can only be described as a cross between “Fear Factor” and “Iron Chef.” Villagers young and old forage late into the night through the rainforest, using pieces of green bamboo to hold the fresh adult cicadas as they emerge from their last nymph stage, usually within 30 minutes after they crawl from holes in the ground. The green bamboo containers packed with crushed cicadas and spices are roasted in a bonfire. Then, a machete is used to split open the smoking bamboo and the hot roasted cicadas are ready to be eaten, paired with late vintage coconut milk, presumably to arouse the palette. “They have an oily or fatty taste,” says Burns. “Somewhat like shrimp with Grape Nuts roasted together with salt, peppers, and lemon for seasoning.” Burns recently hiked the mountainous rainforests of Viti Levu, Fiji’s largest island. During the emergence of Brood V of the 17-year periodical cicadas in West Virginia last year, Burns was intrigued with references in the scientific literature to the rare eight-year periodical cicadas of Fiji. “It’s spring in the Southern Hemisphere and the eight-year periodical cicada lives in scattered patches on this remote island,” he said.
Yet despite how many species of cicadas exist around the world, only a few specimens of the Fijian variety can be found in the world’s greatest museums. Not even the Smithsonian has one. In fact, little is known of the natural history of these insects, and, according to Burns, it is important to learn more about their amazing timing abilities. “The 8-year periodical cicadas are not currently a protected species and baseline data is needed to determine whether they need this designation,” he says. Burns integrated his field work with that of Fijian scientists Ms. Nunia Moko, Melania Segaidina, and staff members at Nature Fiji-Mareqeti Viti, a local organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Fiji’s natural biodiversity. He was joined by Robin Yarrow, a distinguished advocate for biodiversity protection and conservation in Fiji. This field research was supported by the Bethany College Faculty Development Fund and the Edward R. Dewey Research Fund. Faculty and student cicada research is also supported by the West Virginia Space Grant Consortium (NASA) administered by Bethany professor Lisa M. Reilly. — Bethany Magazine
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Bethany College Honors Program First Year Class Explores New Worlds… Together Bethany College has created an Honors Program designed to enable students to discover more about themselves than they ever knew before. The self-directed curriculum combines all the disciplines of the liberal arts that leads the student into an exploration of their own potential. Close collaboration with professors and fellow students instills new ways of learning, critical thinking and analysis, and problem-solving.
E THAN YO U N G
Pre-engineering Washington, Pennsylvania
Directed by Dr. Elizabeth Hull, professor of English and the Dr. Robert L. Martin Chair in English Literature, the Honors Program provides students both the freedom and the responsibility to fuse together the arts and sciences in order to enrich their creativity; their critical thinking, problem-solving, writing, quantitative, and presentation skills; and their collaborative ability. And if you listen to what some of these students have to say about the rigors and challenges of this unique program, you’ll be struck by their openness to new ideas, acceptance of different opinions, and commitment to consensus-building to solve problems — something the world needs now more than ever. — Bethany Magazine
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I’ve probably asked more questions and been more confused in the first few weeks of this program than I was in my entire life. It’s very different… but the real world isn’t straight answers all the time so being able to know what you’re looking for and know what you want to know is important. The discussions we have, I wouldn’t call them arguments because we’re all learning it together, so we’re all making our own views together. And then we discuss them. Tempers don’t flare — it’s just a discussion.
CELESTÈ MARCHBANKS
MADISON CRAMER
Economics and Finance Leavenworth, Kansas
Biology Kendallville, Indiana
What matters is that we’re open to new ideas. If you’re not open to new ideas, there’s no point in being here… but this is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
I’ve learned that I’m a lot better at time management than I thought I was. Apparently, I’m the only one in the Honors Program that has a good sleep schedule! M A R I A CO N C H A VA Z Q U E Z
Communications – Graphic Design Querétaro, Mexico I didn’t know what to expect… . Sometimes I wonder, “What am I doing here?” For me, it’s more difficult because English is my second language. I love the fact that by learning so many new things, you realize that you really don’t know anything. You never stop learning.
ANTHONY CIRRI
Political Science Eldersburg, Maryland When you go to high school, you’re around friends and peers that come from the same culture and share the same beliefs. And then you come here and you meet people from all across the United States and around the world. You have to open your mind to different perspectives on certain issues. A big part of the Honors Program is that we have to come to a consensus on things. And that comes from disagreeing with each other, making arguments, but also figuring out a way to resolve differences. I want to become a better critical thinker…especially in political science and law. It’s good to diversify and see all the perspectives and views on a topic. So I want to become a more well-rounded thinker who can accept certain views even if I’m not aware of them. This is a great learning environment. It’s a place where you can speak your mind without judgment. When we have conversations, we all give our own opinions and yours might not be the same as mine, but we’re all understanding and accepting of those opinions.
ELIZABETH LINEBERRY
Biochemistry York, Pennsylvania I think that there’s a lot of trouble with solving global problems because I personally see a lot of polar opposition…people organizing themselves into two separate groups, left and right. And it applies to what we’re doing in this program. This program is all about making connections through the liberal arts—it’s meant to see how everything connects with each other and works with each other. We need more of that in real life… B E T H A N Y M AG A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 | 47
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Memories from a Living Scrapbook
C I C I L LY W O R T H I N G T O N CLASS OF 1949 B.A., ENGLISH
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isit with Cicilly Worthington and step back in time. On her shelves, you find her love of England with Victorian china and souvenir plates bought in London and photos of the royal family. Above her bed are the two possessions that Worthington, 92, has valued most in her life and kept close to her all these years. On one side is the Military Order of the Purple Heart, awarded to her brother, John, who was killed in action in World War II. A note from President Franklin D. Roosevelt hangs in a place of honor next to the medal. Displayed proudly on the other side of her bed is her diploma from Bethany College. “My diploma is so unusual and beautiful,” she says. “I just love Bethany. And I will always proudly display it.” She enrolled at Bethany in 1945 at the tail end of the war. She even paid for her last semester at Bethany with a war bond. “There was such a reaction from the young people,” she remembered. “If the boys were able, they signed up. We hardly had anyone to take us to the prom!” Worthington’s male classmates returned to Bethany during her underclassman years. “They never talked about what they saw, but when they came home, it was extremely patriotic,” she recalls. A resident of Phillips Hall, Worthington loved the different types of people she met. She grew up in Amsterdam, Ohio, so she enjoyed meeting classmates from New York and New Jersey. 48 | W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • B E T H A N Y M AG A Z I N E
“I loved living in Phillips Hall!” she exclaims. “We would get up early on Sunday morning and sneak out of the dorm to make breakfast. We would build a fire and cook bacon and sausage outside on the nature trail.” A major in English, Worthington’s dream was to become a teacher. One of her professors even encouraged her to expand her English major and take classes in Spanish. Worthington went on to teach Spanish in Ohio for more than 30 years. And though she loved her time at Bethany, her heart longs for England. “Old Main looks similar to the architecture in England,” she observes. “Specifically like Oxford.” In 1953, Worthington traveled to England with her Bethany roommate to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. “I remember the parade and watching the Queen wave to everyone. Winston Churchill was right in front of me.” “I have been to France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Scotland, England, Ireland, and Wales,” she said. “If I could leave one piece of advice to students, it’s to study abroad.” Today, you can still find Worthington with a book—this one filled with pictures and memories... her parents landing at Ellis Island in 1920, awards from her years as a teacher, and memories from her time at Bethany. And with her diploma from the Class of 1949 still proudly displayed, Cicilly Worthington’s home is a living scrapbook. — Bethany Magazine
Chambers at 100 A Bethany Mainstay Since the Horse and Buggy Days Celebrates its Centennial
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n an age when most Americans live within a few minutes of big box home improvement stores, chain restaurants, and super-sized grocery stores, Chambers General Store on Main Street in Bethany is a treasure from a bygone era. Started in 1917 by William Lincoln Chambers as a full-service grocery, there’s still a lot more nostalgia on the shelves in Chamber’s store than trendiness. Today, Mr. Chambers’ great grandson, Harry, runs the place. “I started working in the store when I was five or six,” he says. “I went to WVU and have an animal science degree in pre-veterinary medicine, and I had hoped to go to vet school. But organic chemistry and I didn’t get along as well as we should have.” So after graduation, Chambers left Bethany to work for Purdue Farms for 15 years before coming back to help out in the family business.
Virtually everyone who has attended Bethany College in the past century has been to Chambers and probably has a sandwich favorite. Harry Chambers can usually tell what the regulars want for lunch as soon as he sees them walking to the deli counter in the back of the store. “The Bethany Sandwich was Dad’s idea,” he recalls of the store’s namesake lunch staple, “to be better in tune with what the students wanted, and what local workers wanted. So Dad came up with the idea for what would attract them. They’re quick to make…and everybody’s got a buck in their pocket.” But Chambers says that the famous Bethany Sandwich is more of a loss leader than a money maker. And the profit margin on a $1.00 lunch? “ZEEEEEE-RO!” he laughs. Still, business is good at Chambers with more than 500 sandwiches sold each week.
Among other traditions, Chambers remains a family business. Harry’s parents, Bob and Charlotte, still work at the store, as does his wife, Beverly, and their teenage sons, Talon and Austin. Harry says it’s too early to tell if the younger Chambers boys will follow in the footsteps of their parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and great-great-grandparents. “That thought hasn’t entered their minds yet,” he says. But the thought of taking organic chemistry probably has. — Bethany Magazine
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BISON ATHLETICS: FALL 2017
CASTRO RUNS TO ALL-PAC HONORS Junior Jordan Castro capped off another strong season with his second straight all-conference nod at the annual Presidents’ Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships. The Wahiawa, Hawaii, native led the men’s team with a 17th-place finish in the eight-kilometer race to earn Honorable Mention All-PAC distinction.
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MEN’S SOCCER WINS WITH INTERNATIONAL FLAIR The men’s soccer team notched a second consecutive eight-win season with the help of a quartet of international student-athletes. Freshman goalkeeper Torben Greather, a native of Germany, helped backstop the team with three shutouts and ranked among the best in the league in virtually every statistical category. In the field, freshmen Raul Arteaga and Bernardo Vilchis, both natives of Mexico, combined to tally 23 points for the team, with Arteaga ranking among the top five in the PAC in goals scored. Sophomore Mikel Ubeda, who hails from Spain, was a force in the midfield and provided one of the most exciting moments of the season when he scored the game-winning goal in the final 10 minutes of a 1-0 win at Westminster. All four were named all-conference selections at the end of the season.
HISTORIC VICTORY HIGHLIGHTS WOMEN’S SOCCER’S RESURGENT SEASON Bethany notched six wins this season, doubling its win total from a year ago, but one victory stood above the rest. The Bison snapped Thomas More’s 55-match unbeaten streak versus PAC opponents with a 1-0 win. A mishandled ball by Thomas More’s goalkeeper allowed junior Lexie Metz to give Bethany the lead in the second half, and senior goalkeeper Anna Riddle made 13 saves to propel the Bison to the victory. The win was the first by any PAC school against Thomas More since 2011, when Bethany defeated the Saints 2-1 at Hoag Field. After the season, freshman Riley Meyers became the first Bison since 2012 to be named to one of the top two all-conference teams with her inclusion on the All-PAC Second Team. Meyers ranked in the top five of the PAC with seven goals, including two game-winning markers.
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VOLLEYBALL REACHES 20-WIN PLATEAU FOR EIGHTH STRAIGHT SEASON Despite graduating the two most decorated players in program history, the Bison kept rolling under 11th-year Head Coach Courtney Kline. The volleyball team won 23 games overall and reached the PAC Tournament Semifinals, where they were narrowly defeated by eventual-ECAC Champion Westminster. The team’s success did not go unnoticed, as an invitation to the ECAC Tournament ensured an eighth consecutive post-season appearance. Four Bison were named to All-PAC teams, including first-team selection Sumayyah Muhammad. Muhammad, a senior, became a two-time honoree and wrapped up her career ranking third all-time in school history in assisted blocks. Muhammad was joined by junior Reilly Parker on the first team, while sophomore Katie Sparks and freshman Jenna Scott were tabbed All-PAC Second Team selections.
SENIORS LEAVE THEIR MARKS IN BISON FOOTBALL RECORD BOOKS The Bethany Football record book has two new entries. Senior defensive end Khallid Pierce firmly established himself as one of the most dynamic pass rushers in school history with a PAC-leading nine sacks this season to give him 28.5 for his career. Pierce ends his Bison career second all-time at Bethany and only three sacks behind Dan Rovira (1990–91), who took down the quarterback a school-record 31.5 times. On offense, senior quarterback Chase Kinemond moved into fourthplace all-time with 27 career touchdown passes and completed 56.7 percent of his pass attempts. Only Matt Grimmard (2010–13) and Chad Smith (2008–09) completed a higher percentage of their passes while wearing the Green & White. Despite a slow start to the season, Bethany finished strong with wins over Grove City and Saint Vincent to end the year. Pierce and Kinemond were joined by seven underclassmen on the all-conference teams announced after the season. 52 | W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • B E T H A N Y M AG A Z I N E
WOMEN’S TENNIS ENJOYS MOST SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN IN SIX YEARS The women’s tennis program began a new era with the hiring of Brad Jones as head coach over the summer, and his impact was immediate. Bethany earned its first win since 2012, when they defeated Muskingum 9-0 and went on to finish with four victories overall, the most in a single season since 2011. German exchange student Kristin Schafbuch emerged as one of the PAC’s best players after she won nine of her 14 matches while playing at the top singles position for the Bison.
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S T U D E N T S T O WAT C H
Personally Invested D E N N I S BOYCE FINANCE
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eet Dennis Boyce and the thing that you quickly notice is his unbridled self-confidence. “Since coming to Bethany,” he says, “I’ve learned that if I put the work into something that I’m passionate about, I really don’t think I can fail.” A former high school basketball standout in Pittsburgh, Boyce played briefly at Bethany before committing himself full-time to academics. As a finance major, Boyce joined the McCann Student Investment Fund. He was later accepted into Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), a nonprofit organization dedicated to minorities to maximize their opportunities for college and career success. Boyce was one of just 250 interns from a pool of more than 10,000 applicants. At SEO, he received professional development and leadership training from Fortune 150 executives and completed training covering the technical and professional skills he would need in a corporate environment. That experience paved the way for a semester-long internship as a financial analyst with IBM in upstate New York.
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“I received exposure to all types of finance within IBM, on the revenue side, the cost side, expense, accounts receivables—you name it, and I had exposure to it,” he says. “In New York, I was up against people from Princeton and Harvard, and I held my own against them. I don’t see anybody who can outwork me.” But the senior finance major still has hoops in his blood.
“In New York, I was up against people from Princeton and Harvard, and I held my own against them. I don’t see anybody who can outwork me.” Boyce’s family runs a business in Pittsburgh that showcases top basketball talent to colleges across the country. “I want to help expand our family business and make it more than just a basketball organization,” he says. “It’s one thing for a college coach to like a player’s talent, but they also have to pass the SATs and ACTs to get into college. I know of a lot of people who had the talent but didn’t have the scores they needed to get into college. It’s unfortunate that these kids weren’t prepared properly for the other aspect of basketball.
“What I really want to do is help people really prepare for that… but in my spare time.” First, Boyce wants to pursue his passion in corporate finance. “I love finance and business, and wealth management, so I want to get experience to see where my career will take me. “Honestly, because of everything Bethany has done for me, I have no regrets. On the day of my first visit, I met with Dr. Anju Ramjee. She was running late for a faculty meeting, but she stopped and took the time to sit down with me, explain the Business Department and the Finance Department. Every year, there were people who believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.” The best kept secret about Bethany? “It’s the people you meet,” says Boyce. “The people who come here are amazing.” “I’ve learned that you have to have thick skin and really believe in yourself. And now, good things are happening.” — Bethany Magazine
“I’ve learned that if I put the work into something that I’m passionate about, I really don’t think I can fail.”
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J E F F W E I S S B A R T ’ 76
Class Notes
retired this past year after working at KDK A-TV for the past 34 years. While at KDK A, he held a variety of positions including news director and he ended his career as the operations manager. He currently lives in Valencia, Pennsylvania. He has plans with his spouse to travel the world.
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DA N I E L C . D U N M Y E R ’ 8 0 has
been named chief executive officer of Ohio Valley Medical Center. Dunmyer has held senior-level health care executive positions at Cornerstone Hospital in Huntington, Princeton Community Hospital, and at Wetzel County Hospital in New Martinsville. After graduation from Bethany, he received his master of healthcare administration from the University of Pittsburgh and is a past chairman of the West Virginia Hospital Association. JOHN LEE MERCER ’81
recently finished his Ph.D. in history at Kent State University. His dissertation concerned an Ohioan who commanded African-American troops during the Civil War. CO DY K N OT T S ’ 9 0 and Emily
Lapisardi were married on June, 30, 2014 in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. The wedding party included Bethanian Troy Martin ’85. Cody and Emily also welcomed their son Nathaniel Felton Knotts home on June 8, 2016.
CLASS NOTES
JA N E L A R M S T R O N G TAY LO R
J E N N I F E R ( N AY LO R )
’ 97 and Joseph Armstrong were married
E S S I N G TO N ’ 0 9 A N D
on October 8, 2016 in Wheeling, West Virginia.
B R A N D O N E S S I N G TO N ’ 0 9
welcomed their daughter Hallie Jane on July 27, 2017.
D R . C A R I S SA M A S S E Y ’ 0 0
was promoted to Full Professor at Adrian College. JULIE (HA AS) WILLIAMS ’00
and Christopher Williams ’98 welcomed their daughter Bridget Katherine on March 4, 2017. H E AT H E R ( R I L E Y ) H I B N E R ’ 0 2
was recently one of the five educators at the Games for Change summit in New York City who was chosen to speak on a panel to share how educators and teachers are implementing gamification and game-based learning in their classrooms. She now oversees this program. R A N DY S H A H ’ 03 and wife M E R E D ITH S H A H VA N SA NT ’ 0 6
welcomed home son Wesley Kent Shah on March 20, 2017. JILLIAN (HOFRICHTER) KLEZIA ’04
and husband Jeremy Klezia welcomed their daughter Leanna Marie on April 4, 2017. L I SA H O P P E R S TO RY ’ 0 6 and
husband K E N N E T H H O P P E R ’ 0 6 welcomed home son Henry Nicolas Hopper on July 29, 2015.
ASHLEY K ANONTZ ’06 AND JOSEPH SUBASIC ’08
were married on July 8th, 2017, at Bethany College around the Gresham Garden Fountain. Bethanians in the wedding included Cassie (McConnaughy) Sansone ’06, Dani Munas ’08, Kevin Clancy ’09, and Mike Muklewicz ’11. Judge Joyce (Dumbaugh) Chernenko ’78 was the officiant. JOSEPH R. WILLIAMS ’06
S COT T F R A L E Y ’ 1 0
and Bethany Fraley were married on July 2, 2016, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. They also welcomed their daughter Harper Quinn on August 25, 2017.
was recently added to the Best Lawyers in America List. He currently practices law in Pittsburgh at the family law firm of Pollock Begg Komar Glasser & Vertz LLC. SAMANTHA KESTNER ROHM ’ 0 8 and Aaron Kestner were married in
May 4, 2016 in Wheeling, West Virginia. Bethanians in the wedding included Marlena Rohm Mlodzik ’04. A S H L E Y B A R T H O LO M E W S H U T T L E WO R T H ’ 0 9
and husband B R E T B A R T H O LO M E W ‘ 07
welcomed their son Travis Derek Bartholomew home.
C H A R LOT T E ( E M I LY ) K I N G ’ 1 4 AND K YLE ROCKEY ’ 14
were married on June 3, 2017, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Bethanians in the wedding were Teresa Mock ’14, Kendra Hill ’14, Alyssa Laughman ’14, Amanda Nielsen ’16, and Kyle Booker ’16. A M B E R R I D I N G S ’ 1 4 and James
W E WA N T TO H E A R F R O M YO U ! Send us your professional news, achievements, and honors, as well as marriages and birth announcements. Your Class Notes submission should include your name, address, class year, and major. High-resolution photos up to 1 MB in size are welcome and must include a photo of the alumnus.
Email to alumni@bethanywv.edu or send to: Bethany College Office of Alumni Relations 31 E. Campus Drive Bethany, WV 26032-3002
Lawson were married on June 18, 2016, in Wake Forest, North Carolina. Bethanians in the wedding were Katie (Powell) Foster ’14, Amanda Madurski ’14, Alix Lilly ’14 and Ashley (Asbury) Campbell ’16.
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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Smart Moves “I still look back to the professors that helped me so much in my time there.”
JARED ROQUE
CLASS OF 2015
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B . A . , MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS
n 2011, Jared Roque had his life pretty well planned. Or so he thought. An average student at Munster High School near Chicago, he spent more time on the tennis court than in the library. “I was not a good high school student,” he says. “I had a pretty low GPA. I wasn’t even going to take the SATs. In Chicago, if you wanted a good-paying job, you worked in the steel mills. So, my family and I decided that I was going to be a pipefitter.” But on a trip to the Disciples of Christ General Assembly that year in Nashville, Roque met two students who convinced him to apply to Bethany College. “I applied at the last minute and got in,” recalls Roque. “And that changed the direction of my life completely.” While he studied managerial economics at Bethany, Roque traveled to Dubai, Ireland, Germany, and Costa Rica. It was on these trips that he got his first glimpse of what the world beyond Munster, Indiana, had to offer. Roque played and coached the Bethany tennis team, where he met a women’s tennis player from Germany who was at Bethany on a semester abroad. They hit it off, and the spark that was lit on Bethany’s
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tennis courts blossomed into a relationship that inspired him to study in Heidelberg, where he recently earned his master’s degree in international business and engineering. After a brief stint with SAP in Germany, Roque found himself at Digital Agentur Heidelberg, an exciting new startup business working on the digitalization of the city. Its mission is to implement new technologies such as the “Internet of Things” in a wide range of devices to make Heidelberg the “smartest” city in Germany. And though his young career is just beginning, he looks back at his four years at Bethany as the turning point that made it all possible. “I still look back to the professors that helped me so much in my time there,” he says. “The alumni—in particular, Bob McCann— took about 20 hand-picked students on an amazing trip to New York City, which included an opportunity to experience life at UBS, Bloomberg, and the New York Stock Exchange. That was an amazing experience in terms of where I want to go, and how high I want to reach professionally. It completely changed my life.” — Bethany Magazine
“I applied at the last minute and got in,” recalls Roque. “And that changed the direction of my life completely.”
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AU T U M N PA S T U R E
Ashley Worst, an equine studies and visual art major from Apollo, Pennsylvania, shares a tender moment with her four-hoofed friend, Charlie, as the sun sets on the fall semester at the Bethany College Equestrian Facility.
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Bethany made a difference in your life. Now Bethany needs you to help make a difference in its future. The support and generosity of Bethany College alumni has never been more important than it is now. We are working to make Bethany an attractive choice for students. In addition to the changes to our campus and curriculum, we are planning innovations that will help Bethany continue to thrive in a highly competitive world. But the future we’re planning cannot be realized without the help of our alumni. If you have not supported Bethany in the past, we need your help now. If you have supported Bethany, thank you…and we hope you’ll do even more. Bethany’s future depends on you.
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O P F Bethany College Bethany, West Virginia 26032-0417
S AV E T H E D AT E S UPCOMING ALUMNI EVENTS Women and Leadership Weekend March 23–24, 2018 The fourth annual Women and Leadership Weekend at Bethany College is designed to enhance the leadership skills of the college’s female students by connecting them with its network of successful alumnae. Women and Leadership Weekend will include a leadership recognition dinner and a half day of direct interaction with alumni through storytelling, a skill-building workshop, and a networking reception. Homecoming 2018 September 28–30, 2018 Mark your calendar for Bethany’s 2018 Homecoming Weekend, highlighted by dozens of events and activities, including the Larry E. Grimes Lecture Series, Bison football, tailgating, class reunions and receptions, campus tours, the Hugh “Tiger” Joyce Golf Scramble, and other alumni gatherings! For more information on alumni events, click www.bethanywv.edu/alumni