The Study Center, Summer 2019

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THE S T U DY C E NT E R

Celebrating ANOTHER YEAR Reflecting on 2018-2019

THIS ISSUE: Celebrating Another Year, pg. 3 Bill Wilder Cultivated in Community: A Fourth Year Reflection, pg. 4 Claire Simons

STUDY CENTER STAFF BILL WILDER

After the Big Win: Reflections from Jay Huff, pg. 6 Abby Vendt

Executive Director bill@studycenter.net

FITZ GREEN

First-Year Foundations, pg. 7 Rachel Gaffin

Senior Director for Education & Programs fitz@studycenter.net

RICK CAMPANELLI

Director of Graduate Ministries rick@studycenter.net

NIKKI FLANNERY

Questions about content? Contact Rachel Gaffin at rachel@studycenter.net WWW.STUDYCENTER.NET Front Page: (clockwise from top right) A student browses the library (photo by Ron Londen); Kunrui Peng (ENGR '18) celebrates his second-place finish in the Study Center March Madness Bracket Challenge (photo by Rachel Gaffin) ; Louis Nelson & Pat Edwards chat at January's Race and Place in Charlottesville event (photo by Brittany Fan); Savannah Hard (CLAS '19) gets excited for Exam Snacks (photo by Ron Londen); Dr. Alison Milbank speaks during her lecture "Making Strange: The Value of Fantasy in Tolkien and Harry Potter" (photo by Abby Vendt); Dr. Felicia Song converses with staff and Grounds ministers (photo by Brittany Fan). Page 3: Exam Snacks volunteers enjoy breakfast with Lisa Keller (on staff with InterVarsity) and Katie Hightower (photo by Rachel Gaffin); Dr. Alison Milbank speaks at the Study Center (photo by Abby Vendt); Ethan Hightower and Anna Hickman prep food for an event; Carla Weidner celebrates winning the Study Center March Madness Bracket Challenge (photos by Rachel Gaffin).

The Study Center newsletter is published for our friends and supporters.

University Christian Ministries, Inc. (dba Center for Christian Study) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation EIN 51-0192618.

Development Manager nikki@studycenter.net

RACHEL GAFFIN

Communications Manager rachel@studycenter.net

ETHAN HIGHTOWER

Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Men ethan@studycenter.net

KATIE HIGHTOWER

Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Women katie@studycenter.net

JAN MATHEWS

Administrative Assistant jan@studycenter.net

TRISH OWEN

Librarian trish@studycenter.net

BILL PORTER

Summer Reads from the Study Center Library: The Joy of Missing Out: Finding Balance in a Wired World Christina Crook

Gilead Marilynne Robinson

Technology can be a useful tool, but it can also serve as a constant distraction from life.

In this book Crook asks what it looks like to find joy off-line.

Having become a new father in his seventies, Pastor John Ames of Gilead, Iowa, sets out to write a letter for his son to read after his passing. What results is a beautiful, layered series of meditations on God, family, church, and what it looks like to surrender to God's timeline—all set in small-town America.

Recommended by Trish Owen

Recommended by Nikki Flannery

Thirst Mary Oliver "Grant me, in your mercy, a little more time," prays the late Mary Oliver in this collection of poems that explore grief & suffering, hope & growth, the power of prayer, and what it means to walk with the Lord.

Recommended by Rachel Gaffin

Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power and the Only Hope That Matters Timothy Keller The gods of this world (sex, money, power) make a lot of promises (satisfaction, happiness, fulfillment). Join Timothy Keller as he asks: do they actually deliver?

Recommended by Bill Wilder

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Facilities Coordinator billporter@studycenter.net

DEBBIE RODRIGUEZ Director of Finance debbie@studycenter.net

CARLY VANNESS Programs Manager carly@studycenter.net

AMY ZELL

Director of Counseling Resources amy@studycenter.net

WHO WE ARE We are a non-profit education and outreach ministry serving the University of Virginia and Charlottesville since 1976. We seek to serve Jesus Christ by fostering the serious consideration in the university environment of a biblical worldview, and by encouraging and facilitating wise discussion of the Truth in light of the challenges of contemporary culture.

CONTACT US Phone: (434) 817-1050 Email: info@studycenter.net Website: www.studycenter.net Find us on social media: @studycenterUVA

CELEBRATING

ANOTHER YEAR

by Bill Wilder Executive Director bill@studycenter.net

The theme of this newsletter is celebration.

Our fourth years are moving into new places of challenge and growth. The Study Center has exciting plans for next year.

And, of course, we’re all still basking in the afterglow of a certain national championship!

Speaking of the championship, the NCAA National Men’s Basketball Championship was a powerful experience for many of us. It’s remarkable how closely you can identify with the travails and triumphs of your team. Their losses are yours, their victories are yours, their heart-stopping moments are all yours. That’s true of the memories too. How many times have we all relived Mamid Diakete’s last-millisecond basket, Kyle Guy’s free throws, or De’Andre Hunter’s clutch three-pointers?

Of course, March Madness takes place about the time that Christians observe Lent and celebrate Easter. There are more similarities (or should be) than you might imagine. This is the time when, more than any other, Christians get to identify with the champion on their team. This is a season above all that is meant to be a reliving of the travails and triumphs of the Lord Jesus – distress over his suffering and death, exultation in his victory, retelling the stories of what he said and did along the way for sheer joy.

Communications intern Abby Vendt shares post-tournament reflections from UVA basketball player, Jay Huff, who mentions his desire for witness and humility following the men’s basketball championship. It occurs to me that pointing

to Christ (and not to ourselves) goes hand in hand with remembering who won the greatest Championship of all. I for one would like to take a cue from my post-basketball-championship fervor for my post-resurrection celebrations!

A fourth-year reflection from facilities intern, Claire Simons, and an announcement of our new “Foundations Week” initiative round out our causes for celebration in this newsletter.

Claire’s favorite intern responsibility has been tending to the small garden in front of the Study Center, which she sees as a picture of her own experience of the Study Center. Rachel describes a new Study Center outreach to first-year students in the days before Move-In Weekend. We’re calling it “Foundations Week,” where we hope students will find their footing before entering UVA. Cultivating gardens and laying foundations. Those are the two ways Paul describes spiritual growth in 1 Corinthians 3, after Paul’s own reflections on the crucified “Lord of Glory” in 1 Corinthians 1-2. Once again God in Christ gets all the credit. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth,” Paul says. Paul is a “master builder,” to be sure, but also insists that there is only one foundation “which is Jesus Christ.” Jesus died and rose so that his people, including UVA students, might be the garden and temple he always intended them to be. Now that’s a victory worth celebrating!

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d e t a v i C u l t in Community F o u r t h Ye a r R e f l e c t i o n | C l a i r e S i m o n s , C L A S ’ 1 9

Each year the Study Center shares the stories of a few fourth-year students as they reflect on God's faithfulness to them over their careers at UVA. In these pages, Claire Simons reflects on her three years of service as a Study Center intern. She graduates this May with degrees in Psychology and Economics. After graduation, she'll drive across the country to start a job with the FBI in Portland, Oregon.

I have been an intern at the Study Center

for three years now. Throughout my time, I’ve had a lot of different responsibilities, but my favorite one has always been tending to the front garden. Each season bears unique demands for the small garden.

In the springtime, we have to cut away all the dead leaves and put down new mulch, so that the plants can grow and thrive all summer long. In the fall, it’s constantly dealing with pesky weeds and watering the plants. In the winter, it’s watching it all die, waiting for the spring, and diligently pulling out the trash that gets caught up under the brush.

Looking back, I can also see how I have been tended to through my relationships and time spent at the Study Center. I have found refuge and comfort during my hardships.

Through guidance and friendship, my understanding of who Jesus is and who I am has been pruned and poured into. I have met some of my best friends around the intern dinner table, spent endless hours procrastinating in the kitchen, and taken so many naps in the nook. I have danced and sung and celebrated all throughout the building too.

The intern program provided me with two mentors and friends, Carly Vanness (Programs Manager) and Rachel (Communications Manager), whom I love so dearly. They have been

Visit www.studycenter.net/stories to read more Fourth Year Reflections.

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steadfast, constant beacons of light for me, pointing me to shore when the waters have been too rough for me to see on my own. They continually remind me of how loved I am. I can’t count the number of times I have fallen into the big blue chairs in their office, literally too tired to cry, and been blessed by Rachel’s sweet guitar playing and undivided attention. For the entirety of my fourth year, my doctor put me on a really restrictive diet. Carly has made sure that I had food available for me at every single exam snack, intern dinner, class dinner, and lecture that has happened since then. These people love me so well and they show it in action everyday. I can’t make the flowers in the garden grow, but I can cultivate the ground and provide an environment that promotes growth. That’s what Carly and Rachel do for me—they have created a space that so easily allows me to see the gospel in action and catch glimpses of God’s character.

Serving breakfast during 2018 Exam Snacks.

I think that the Study Center as a whole works like this. It is rich and fertile ground for relationships and community to grow. It is a home where welcome and comfort are palpable as soon as you walk through the doors. I really love this place and the people that I’ve met here—this reflection doesn’t begin to do the past four years I’ve spent here justice, but I hope that it at least begins to shed light on the good things God is doing in this place.

Celebrating Christmas in October with current & former Study Center staff in 2016.

Enjoying the 2017 Study Center Homecoming Tailgate with fellow interns & intern alumni.

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WIN

AFTER THE BIG

This past March, UVA's men's basketball team made a thrilling comeback from 2018's loss to UMBC to win the NCAA tournament. UVA basketball player Jay Huff sat down with Abby Vendt to share his story.

reflections from Jay Huff

by Abby Vendt

champion. They see him as Jay, the goofy, Christloving kid from Durham.

For Jay, the Study Center is a place to socialize and spend quality time with his friends, as well as enjoy resources like the computers and the quiet atmosphere of the Nook.

In the summer of 2017, a “It is a little bit hard [to be a first-year student walks into Christian] depending on the the Center for Christian Study, situation. [I want] to make unsure what he would find sure that people know [what there. He tours the rooms: I believe]. During media one looks small but comfy, a interviews, I try to talk about good place to study. Another my faith when I can.” He also is spacious, big enough to hold feels comfortable being a a large meeting. Still a third— Christian around his coaches, the library—holds copious many of whom are Christians amounts of books. In this room, as well. he finds the complete series of Calvin and Hobbes, and that’s The hardest thing to do the moment he decides he likes as an athlete is to stay this place. Fast forward to April humble, “especially after 2019, this same student stands the championship game, on the national championship Jay Huff strikes a pose in the Study with everyone coming up to court, raising a trophy high Center Front Room. [me] and saying how great above his head. It’s taken years of a job [I] did.” He finds that to get here. He walks over to the people treat him differently, sidelines to be congratulated by friends and family. Jay Huff is a national setting him on a pedestal, which reminds him that “humility is really important in the Christian champion! faith because even though the world may treat us As one might imagine, returning to normal life differently, God sees us the same. Any successes or after winning a championship proves a challenge. failures that we have come from him.” He manages Walking around Grounds, fellow students want to maintain this humility due to the support and pictures and autographs. To make matters worse, encouragement of his friends, both those at UVA at 7’1”, Jay is hard to miss, regardless of national and back home. In fact, he has told them to call championship status. But to him, life isn’t about him out when he acts differently. basketball.“I like to surround myself with people who don’t really care about basketball," Jay says. Being a Christian athlete is not an easy path, "I mean, obviously my friends enjoy it [and] they but the Lord is using Jay to bring glory to his cheer me on. But at the end of the day, I hang out kingdom—and that provides a greater joy than with them because we are friends.” His friends do any championship ever can. not see him as a basketball player or a national PAG E 6 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R S U M M E R 2019

oundations F First-Year

by Rachel Gaffin | Communications Manager | rachel@studycenter.net

Transitioning to life

Since its inception, the Study Center’s mission has been to extend hospitality to students seeking to find their place at UVA, with the hope of forming them as followers of Christ. In an effort to grow our practice of showing hospitality and cultivating formation in students, Study Center staff are excited to announce the launch of a new tradition: Foundations Week!

Students will spend four nights in a house located about 20 minutes away from the Study Center.

During this time, first years will get to know peers, enjoy time in prayer and reflection, and explore much of what Charlottesville has to offer, from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Downtown Mall.

Upperclassmen students will serve as counselors, offering older students’ perspectives. In an effort to engage questions of faith and education, our ministry staff—Ethan & Katie Hightower, along with Fitz Green—will lead discussion surrounding several faith-based videos with titles such as “You Are What You Love” and “Pluralism, Faith, and Dialogue” from speakers like James K.A. Smith and Timothy Keller.

From August 19-22, twelve incoming first years will have the opportunity to establish a foundation in the University’s Christian community—all before move-in weekend even begins. Co-sponsored by the Veritas Forum, the intention behind the week is to encourage students “to cultivate faith, elevate intellectual life, and discern vocation.” We pray that students will walk into their first week of classes at UVA with a firm footing: in community, in the Lord, and in knowing what resources the Study Center and Christian community more broadly has to offer.

Embarking on a college career can be a scary season, rife with uncertainty and fear. Here at the Study Center, we trust that nothing can separate us (or our students) from the love of God. As such, we’re excited to welcome students into the loving community of believers at UVA to which the Lord has been so faithful over the years. While we can’t and don’t promise to shield students from the growing pains of college, we do promise to faithfully equip them with the truth of the gospel as we invite them into UVA’s community of believers.

at college presents a significant learning curve. Incoming first-year students have to navigate a new school, a new city, and new friendships. Many spend their first year (and beyond) struggling with anxiety, uncertain of how to build community or with whom.

Spread the word! Interested first years are invited to register for Foundations Week here: www.studycenter.net/foundations-week

We will also host Move-In Day Lunches at the start of the year to welcome first years. www.studycenter.net/move-in-day PAG E 7 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R S U M M E R 2019

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