2019–2020 Inside
Features
Page 3 Faculty in the Public Square
Page 1 Student Cabinet Feature
Page 2 Letter from the President
Page 2 How the Campus Adapted
Page 2 A 2019-2020 Academic Timeline
Page 4 Donor Spotlight
Page 8 In Memoriam
Page 8 Alumni Spotlight
LOV E T H Y NEIGHBOR A S T HYSELF B Y R E B E C C A AU - M U L L A N E Y
Photo above from left to right: Isaac Coston, Marisol Santana, Koby Jackson, Ava Grossmann, Madelynn Kaufmann, Rebekah Lambdin. E A C H S P R I N G , the students of The King’s College elect a Student
Body President for the coming year, who then chooses five fellow students to serve on the student cabinet. The 2019-20 cabinet consisted of Koby Jackson (HUM ’21) as Student Body President, Ava Grossmann (HUM ’20) as director of communications, Madelynn Kaufmann (RTS ’21) as director of student organizations, Marisol Santana (FIN ’21) as director of finance, Rebekah Lambdin (HUM ’20) as director of student events, and Isaac Coston (PPE ’20) as director of spiritual life. Now that their term has concluded, we asked them to share reflections on the past academic year. Appreciation for one another was a recurring theme throughout their answers. Jackson said his proudest moment was “realizing that I picked the absolute best team.” At their first event of the year, Fall Retreat—attended by well over 300 members of the King’s community—Jackson observed how his team “came together in ways that I hadn’t even expected... I realized that they share a similar vision as I do for the student body, and they share the same spirit of love and intention for their fellow person in our King’s community.” Kaufmann experienced a similar moment of gratitude during Fall Retreat. She described the countless hours of work that went into planning, noting that several team members pulled all-nighters leading up to the event to confirm rosters and coordinate logistics. “But as I watched everyone present their drama competition skits on the last night,” Kaufmann said, “I couldn’t help but feel such gratitude for my teammates. They selflessly served behind the scenes, but they never complained.” Santana remembers, “My proudest moment was when we decided that, as a team, we would strive to do everything out of love. This not only helped us remain focused on caring for each other and the rest of the student body but also helped us rely on God as a team. This reinforced my understanding that the best way to approach any situation is out of love.”
Kaufmann said that this selfless attitude showed even at the end of the year when big events like Spring Formal were canceled due to COVID-19. “It was a hard year, but I am so proud of the fact that we did not let any of the difficulties we encountered define our time serving the student body.” Grossmann said, “Our year ended much sooner than we had anticipated. I wish I could go back and tell myself to slow down and appreciate the intelligent and funny people I worked with each week!”
“My proudest moment was when we decided that, as a team, we would strive to do everything out of love.” M A R I S O L SA N TA N A
When asked about the lessons they took away from their experiences in leadership, they spoke about the complexities of working within a team. Coston said, “I tend to be a fly-solo, head-down-to-desk kind of guy so it was a new challenge learning how to communicate and serve my teammates.” Grossmann said she learned the importance of compromise when team members agreed on the goals but disagreed on their approach. “The same problem or issue can be solved in a variety of ways. As a team you will not
always agree on the path forward. However, it is important to remember that you all have the same goal in mind.” However, being open to others’ perspectives shouldn’t mean neglecting your own. Kaufmann pointed out, “I can’t serve others well if I am not willing to stick up for myself. In the past, I subscribed to the harmful mindset that neglecting my own needs makes me a better and stronger person and leader. While advocating and caring for others is important, I think this past year taught me that I am also worthy of respect and care.” Lambdin said, “Without a doubt the greatest lesson I learned while on the cabinet is that relationships matter most. People matter most. It was hard some days being in school leadership but man it was so rewarding serving my classmates, professors, and friends, and on top of that with an amazing team.” Jackson observed that he had to learn how to balance the voices of the student body. “King’s students don’t hold back when wanting to tell you their opinion, and being King’s students, they have good reasoning,” Jackson said. “I had to decipher how to take in all the information I was receiving and determine what was best.” That meant a lot of listening. It also meant taking time to discern what actions best aligned with his vision, the vision that the student body had elected him to pursue. The main goal Jackson had expressed in his campaign was “encouraging others to care about themselves and others.” Now, at the conclusion of the year, Jackson reflected, “I posed it as something I knew I could never really gauge. I wanted it to be a call to action,” a reminder to “be humble with someone who has a different opinion than you.” “The Bible says, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself,’” Jackson continued. “I wanted to speak into that as Student Body President. I wanted it to be at the forefront of the decisions I was making.”
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H OW T H E C A M P U S A DA P T E D FACI NG CH A LLE NGE W I T H A N AT T I T U DE OF SERV ICE Students and staff recount some of the people who took a good, brave, and ready approach to the pandemic, keeping spirits lifted and helping learning to continue. B Y R E B E C C A AU - M U L L A N E Y
LT H O U GH T H E S H I F T
in mid-March happened quickly, College staff and faculty graciously stepped up to the challenges of offering courses remotely. Professors reworked their inperson courses for delivery online while students worked to stay focused and connected as many returned to live with their families across the country. Kaitlyn Simon (JCS ’22) said, “Professors have communicated well, encouraged us, and given us grace with the transition to online learning. I still felt like I learned a lot and did well overall the second half of the spring semester.” Hope Villandre (PPE ’21) specifically praised Dr. Joseph Griffith, assistant professor of politics, for the way he adapted in the spring. “His lessons were focused, effective, and fun. Every day of his class, I could tell that he cared deeply about his students: not just that we scored high on tests,
but also that we were doing alright during this unprecedented time. “He created PowerPoint slides to go with each lecture in case our audio dropped so we could better follow along; he incorporated the occasional YouTube video to help us visualize what we were learning. He went the extra mile to ensure the best possible experience for his students. I loved being in his class both in person and online.” Staff also contributed extra effort and creativity to keep students safe while maintaining a high quality of education. A WORLD magazine article published on March 17, 2020, quoted President Tim Gibson and reported on how the College adapted its inclement weather emergency plan to fit the unique challenges of the coronavirus situation. Because of the emergency operations team’s planning, King’s senior leadership was able
to make informed decisions quickly before COVID-19 case counts accelerated in New York City. Staff members shared how they saw colleagues maintain a spirit of service during a demanding season. Director of Information Technology Bracey Fuenzalida said of Paul Middlekauff, the registrar, “Paul has gone out of his way to make the transition from our traditional format to online. The man is available at many hours of the evening and is always willing and ready to help with inquiries that come his way. He does this with a willing spirit and a lot of gentleness.” Of Provost Dr. Mark Hijleh, Educational Ventures Administrator Brittin Ward said, “Mark has been an excellent leader this whole year. The last few months especially, Mark has handled the COVID-19 changes with swiftness and keen perception.” As the College has faced weighty
“Professors have communicated well, encouraged us, and given us grace with the transition to online learning.” K A I T LY N S I M O N
decisions concerning a virus that the world’s scientists do not yet fully understand, staff have stayed in regular communication with other schools in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and with members of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities. Megan Dishman, AVP of Marketing and Communications, has served throughout this season as Incident Commander of the emergency operations team. Chief Development Officer Bridget Rogers said of Dishman, “Megan must have worked hundreds of additional hours in March 2020 as the College communicated with various stakeholders about the implications of COVID-19.” The College continued remote operations and teaching through the end of the spring semester. To support the community in following New York state quarantine rules, the fall 2020 semester began online on September 3 and students attended their first in person classes of the semester on September 14.
W E A R E G O O D , B R AV E , A N D R E A D Y
LOOK ING BACK
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F ROM T HE PRESIDENT
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DEAR FRIENDS,
E ACH
YEAR
ON
THE
FIRST
DAY
OF
classes, I send a letter to students, staff, and faculty with an encouragement for the year. In last year’s letter, I introduced the King’s personality of “Good, Brave, and Ready,” words that describe the kind of people we are striving to be here at The King’s College. The 2019-2020 academic year is replete with examples of this community seeking the good. Students, faculty, staff approached their commitments with ingenuity, passion, and intellectual curiosity. I am proud of how they served one another and our city. But this community has also had to be brave. It’s painfully obvious that the world is not as it should be. Ever since humanity chose to elevate self instead of submitting to God, we’ve been trapped in a pattern of brokenness that affects our institutions, leaders, the natural world, and of course, ourselves. Honestly facing that brokenness is not for the faint of heart. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic called forth more from each of us than we could have anticipated. I see bravery in the way students, faculty, and staff handled the unanticipated switch to remote learning, and the disappointment of a virtual Commencement. They even forged new ways to bless one another and contribute to society. I think about the virtual miniconferences about how epidemics shape history, proposed by Dr. Bob Carle and featuring half of the faculty. I think of new graduates embarking on job
searches, fellowships, and graduate programs in these recent tumultuous months. I think of the student leaders who ran for election last spring after classes had already gone remote, willingly embracing the challenges of leading fellow students through an unpredictable year. Despite all we have experienced in 2020 so far, Jesus Christ is King and one day, He will return. As we wait, we pursue restoration to catch a glimpse of the Kingdom that is to come. The mission that motivates all of us at The King’s College is helping students become ready to bring God’s redemption to a hurting world—and supporting faculty as they use their writing and speaking to do the same. Looking back on the year, our community spurred one another to pursue what’s eternal, even and especially when it is hard. Whatever 2021 has in store, I look forward to walking through it with all of you, seeking to be good, brave, and ready.
Yours in Service,
Tim Gibson, Brig. Gen. USAF (Ret.) President of The King’s College
Center for Hebraic Thought The King’s College launched the Center for Hebraic Thought (CHT), a hub for research, resources, and conversations about biblical literacy and the intellectual world of the Bible. Hosted at The King’s College in partnership with The Philos Project, the Center aims to help both scholars and laypeople understand the Scriptures’ systems of thought and apply them to today’s big questions. Dr. Dru Johnson, associate professor of biblical and theological studies at King’s, directs CHT. Robert Nicholson, founder
and executive director of The Philos Project, is a senior fellow. Aiming to reach “scholars, pastors, and normal folks” both within and outside of Jewish and Christian circles, CHT maintains partnerships with the American Bible Society, The Herzl Institute, and the Theopolis Institute. Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman, Dr. Jeffrey P. Garcia, Rev. Dr. Peter Leithart, Rev. Dr. Ryan O’Dowd, Rabbi Dr. Jeremiah Unterman, Dr. Jonathan T. Pennington, and Dr. Shira Weiss serve as academic fellows.
Page 3 FULFILLING THE MISSION
FAC U LT Y I N T H E PU BLIC S QUA R E “The King’s College seeks to transform society by preparing students for careers in which they help to shape and eventually to lead strategic public and private institutions, and by supporting faculty members as they directly engage culture through writing and speaking publicly on critical issues.” The mission of The King’s College is two-fold, and that is reflected in the schedules our faculty keep. Besides teaching dynamic classes, our faculty are active publishing books, delivering lectures and conference presentations, speaking on podcasts and television, and writing popular commentary on the issues of the day.
FA C U LT Y
BOOKS
Killing for the Republic: Citizen Soldiers and the Roman Way of War
Christ and The Kingdoms of Men
Francis Bacon
(P&R Publishing, 2019)
(John Hopkins University Press, 2019)
D R . D AV I D I N N E S , PRO F E S S O R O F P O L I T I C S
D R . D AV I D I N N E S , PRO F E S S O R O F P O L I T I C S
DR. STEELE BR AND, A S S I S TA N T PRO F E S S O R O F H I S TO RY
Brand reconstructs five separate battles―representative moments in Rome’s constitutional and cultural evolution that saw its citizen-soldiers encounter the best warriors of the day, from marauding Gauls and the Alps-crossing Hannibal to the heirs of Alexander the Great. A sweeping political and cultural history, Killing for the Republic argues in favor of resurrecting the citizen-soldier ideal in modern America.
The deterioration of institutions of family and church have pushed people to turn to “old nationalisms, old hatreds, and ever newer vices in search of identity and community,” says Innes. The remedy to these issues lies in our return to a Christian understanding of our common life, “one that accords with God’s revelation of who he is, who we are, and our chief end.”
Great Society: A New History
(P&R Publishing, 2019)
Innes writes in the introduction, “Why should a thoughtful, modern reader care about Francis Bacon (1561-1626)? The most pressing reason is that we live in Bacon’s world. He planned it all and we participate unwittingly in his grand project.” Innes’s Francis Bacon offers a study of what makes the world—and what makes us—modern.
Before You Leave: For College, Career, and Eternity
(Harper, 2019)
The Universal Story: Genesis 1-11 (Lexham Press, 2018; released in Korean in 2020)
(The King’s College Press, 2020)
AMIT Y SHLAES, PR E SIDEN T I AL SCHOL AR
D R . TO D D VO N H E L M S , S E N I O R F E L L OW
In Great Society, Shlaes shows that in fact there was scant difference between two presidents we consider opposites: Johnson and Nixon. Just as technocratic military planning by “the Best and the Brightest” made failure in Vietnam inevitable, so planning by a team of the domestic best and brightest guaranteed fiasco at home. Drawing on her classic economic expertise and deep historical knowledge, Shlaes upends the traditional narrative of the era, providing a damning indictment of the consequences of thoughtless idealism with striking relevance for today.
Drawing on both Protestant and Catholic theologians, as well as church history and cutting-edge conversations, Before You Leave helps young people engage with unanswered questions about Christianity so that they can think through them for themselves and be better prepared to discuss them with others.
ADEMIC TIMELINE
D R . D RU J O H N S O N , A S S O C I AT E PRO F E S S O R O F BIBLICAL AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Part of the Transformative Word series edited by biblical scholars Craig Bartholomew and David Beldman, The Universal Story provides an accessible introduction to the theological themes in the first chapters of Genesis. In May 2020, The Universal Story was released in a Korean translation. In the book, Johnson draws from his ten years of teaching and writing on Genesis to help lay readers “see how this respected-but-often-neglected part of Genesis is central to capital-E Everything, and especially the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom.”
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Public Reading of Scripture The King’s College launched year three of the Public Reading of Scripture (PRS). Each Monday while class is in session, the King’s community gathers in our largest classroom, the City Room, to eat lunch and listen to Scripture read by their classmates, staff, and faculty. The weekly corporate Scripture reading is modeled after the Public Reading of Scripture at the Grace and Mercy Foundation. Since 2017, PRS has become a distinctive weekly event that characterizes spiritual life at King’s. For many students, PRS offers structure to their weekly schedule and provides a consistent opportunity to share in community with the rest of the student body. Dr. Benjamin White, assistant professor of biblical studies, said, “During the week, we may take out our swords to discuss theology and the nature of God, but during the Public Reading of Scripture, we lay down our swords to unite around the Bible.”
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325 students and 21 faculty and staff members, along with their spouses and children, retreated to upstate New York to breathe fresh air, unite in worship, and grapple with this year’s spiritual life theme, Endurance. Christian formation coordinator Kylie Willis, Associate Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies Dr. Dru Johnson, and President Tim Gibson delivered plenary lectures on the theme. Johnson said, “True endurance comes from the Holy Spirit; it’s eternal, and it’s not funded by any knowledge, skills, abilities, or energies that we bring to the table. . . . Only in our exhaustion and weakness, when we’ve run out of options and steam, can we clearly distinguish the power of God at work through us from our own grit and determination.”
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Namesake Review Begins Fall Retreat
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In the spring of 2019, The King’s College made plans to formally review the namesakes of the ten Houses to evaluate whether the namesakes that have served The King’s College for the last fifteen years are the ones to carry the campus through the next fifteen. In the fall of 2019, President Tim Gibson convened a Namesake Review Committee comprising select faculty, staff, alumni, and the Student Body President, with Dean of Students David Leedy as chair. The Namesake Review Committee met from October 2019 through March 2020 to deliberate on the current namesakes and to establish criteria for future namesakes.
Journalism Students Shine at College Media Convention At the National College Media Convention, Jackson Fordyce (BUS ’20) received second place in the “Best Column” category for his “Tech Talk” column. Fordyce said, “I’m really thankful that I received an award for something I love to write about, and the fact that I get to share it with my friends who are here made it that much more meaningful.” Shannon Reed Mason (JCS ’20) interviewed Washington Post editor Marty Baron on stage in front of hundreds of other student journalists. Mason said, “Apparently there were a lot of applicants, so when I was chosen, I was really excited. This editor has been such an inspiration to me over the years.” Prof. Paul Glader was named one of three Distinguished Advisers for 4-year college newspapers nationwide.
Women’s Volleyball Wins Conference Championship The King’s College women’s volleyball team made history—the Lady Lions are the first King’s athletics team in the New York City era to win a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship. King’s defeated Five Towns College in straight sets to cap off a 12-6 season. The Lady Lions finished the season on an eight-game winning streak and won ten of their last eleven games. Captain Samantha Klozik (Business ’22) said, “It was exhilarating. I just remember finding Renae [Maganza, her co-captain] immediately after the match and bear-hugging her at midcourt.” Alex Kemsley (PPE ’23) received the HVIAC Rookie of the Year award, recording a league-leading 147 kills, as well as 15 blocks this season. She was also awarded HVIAC All-Conference Team honors alongside teammate Avery Johnson (MCA ’23) before the game. Abby Roth (MCA ’23) was awarded Championship Game Most Valuable Player for her performance. Grace Croley (MCA ’17) and her assistant coaches, Richard Christensen (PPE ’20) and Draven Haefs (MCA ’22), received HVIAC Coaching Staff of the Year honors.
Page 4 FA C U LT Y
BY T HE NUMBER S
WRITING A selection of popular writing and journal articles from faculty in the last year
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T V I N T E RV I E W S
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COVID-19 reminds us of the humanizing aspect of work.
Responsible crisis leadership Mathematics is the great includes putting Americans equalizer, not a tool of back to work. oppression.
– Dr. Anthony Bradley, Professor of Religious Studies, in Acton Institute
– Prof. Brian Brenberg, Associate Professor of Business and Economics, in Fox News
A century ago, medical and scientific authorities, egged on by religious leaders, supported a violent form of social Darwinism even in the wake of the 1918 pandemic. We’ve come a long way. – Dr. Joseph Loconte, Senior Fellow in Christianity and Culture, in The Hill
Religious radicalization can happen in any family. – Dr. Robert Carle, Professor of Theology, in Religion Unplugged
As the ancients knew, political participation is a school for moral and civic development.
In life and work, Fred Rogers helps us see the Gospel of the Good Samaritan.
– Dr. Jared Pincin, Associate Professor of Economics, and Dr. Phillip Williams, Associate Professor of Mathematics, in the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
– Prof. Paul Glader, Associate Professor of Journalism, Media and Entrepreneurship, in Religion Unplugged
Metaphors are culturally inescapable. The ones we use for pandemics are important.
For all its challenges, Rome can be an antidote to fragmentation.
– Prof. Alissa Wilkinson, Associate Professor of English and Humanities, in Vox.com
– Dr. David Tubbs, Associate Professor of Politics, with Nathan Pinkoski (University of Toronto), in City Journal
PODCAST & R ADIO PR E S E N TAT I O N S
When the ever-present God of the Bible asks us to be bold and courageous, we find a surprising paradigm for dealing with anxiety. – Dr. Benjamin White, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, in Christianity Today
– Dr. Joshua Kinlaw, Assistant Professor of History and Humanities, in First Things
Knowing Roman history is key to preserving America’s future: A lesson from the Founders. – Dr. Steele Brand, Assistant Professor of History, in Washington Post
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LECTURES & CONFERENCE PR E S E N TAT I O N S
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OP-EDS, BOOK & FILM REVIEWS, A RT I C L E S
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TO TA L PU B L I C APPE AR ANCE S
FA C U LT Y
SPEAKING A sampling of faculty lectures and conference presentations from the last year Prof. Brian Brenberg spoke at the Young America’s Foundation annual conference for college students in Washington, D.C. in August 2019. In November 2019, he gave three lectures at AEI’s Weekend Honors Program in Entrepreneurship in Austin, Texas.
Prof. Dawn Fotopulos Dr. Joshua Blander participated in the October 2019 Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture hosted by Baylor’s Institute of Faith and Learning, where he presented a paper titled “Divine Moral Exemplarism and Human Moral Imitation.”
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Dr. Anthony Bradley spoke at Acton Institute conferences in Denver, CO and Huntington Beach, CA; the Penn Club hosted by The Manhattan Institute; Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; Rice University; and Cairn University on topics including mass incarceration, transitional justice, a Christian view of the human person and the Black lives matter movement. Prof. Chris Cragin-Day’s play OKC BOMBING was in a table reading hosted by the Sheen Center.
MCA Program Presents: Songs for a New World The MCA program presented Songs for a New World, written by Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown. The show involved a 15-member student crew, including student producer Lexi Smith (MCA ’22) and assistant director Ann Marie Hogan (MCA ’21). Misti B. Wills served as the director and Virginia Hart Pike, lecturer in musical theater at The King’s College, served as the faculty producer and the musical director. Dr. Henry Bleattler, then-chair of the College’s program in Media, Culture, and the Arts, was the executive producer. Bleattler said, “Each year that we’ve offered a musical, and this is our fifth, the student talent pool at King’s has gotten stronger and stronger. Professor Pike and I felt that we were ready to tackle this beautiful but musically challenging song cycle. The songs are full of character-driven lyrics, intricate harmonies, and emotional heft. When sung well, this show can knock your socks off. And our students, with great direction from Misti Wills, have done just that.”
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Dr. Ethan Campbell spoke at the New York C.S. Lewis Society on the topic of “Tolkien’s Medieval English Sources.” Prof. Dawn Fotopulos was interviewed online in August 2019 by the Business Systems Summit team based in Melbourne, Australia on a “5 Step System to Improving Profit for Small Business Owners.”
Prof. Paul Glader led the Dow Jones News Fund business reporting training week (via Zoom) for 10 journalism students who worked with American City Business Journal publications in the summer of 2020. He also spoke at the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention in November 2019. Dr. Dru Johnson spoke at George Fox University and Western Seminary about the intellectual world of the Bible in October 2019. During the trip, he met with the creators of The Bible Project to pitch ideas for future videos. Johnson also gave lectures at the University of Cambridge (England) and the Universities of St Andrews and Aberdeen (Scotland) on the philosophical approach to Scripture.
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Giving Tuesday and End of Year Campaign The King’s community rallied together to contribute over $440,000 to support The King’s College in our #GivingTuesday and endof-year match campaigns. We are so grateful for the parents, alumni, and friends of the College who partner with us to prepare students to live out a biblical worldview.
Sixth Annual Day of Service On Saturday, January 25, 159 students, staff, faculty, and alumni of The King’s College participated in the Sixth Annual King’s Day of Service, a day-long initiative to confront the spiritual and material needs of New Yorkers across the city. This year, King’s partnered with eight local ministries, four of which were new partnerships. Joey and Kylie Willis, Christian formation coordinators, alongside Taylor Dickerson (JCS ’20), 201920 student Service Coordinator, organized the Day of Service. Dickerson researched and discovered several of the new ministries with which King’s partnered this year. These include City Harvest, a nonprofit that runs “mobile markets” throughout the city to provide farmer’s-market-style food distribution; KEEN New York, which provides free and fun exercise programming for kids of all ages and abilities; City Meals on Wheels, which delivers food to home-bound residents; and the NYC Relief Bus, which serves curbside meals, distributes clothing, and shares work and housing resources from a refurbished school bus.
Prof. Amity Shlaes spoke at the Edmund Burke Conservative Summit in Washington in August 2019. She was cited by Justice Gorsuch in his dissent in the Supreme Court case Gundy v. United States.
Dr. Joshua Blander Dr. Joshua Kinlaw presented a paper at Catholic University of America’s “Christian Culture in the Patristic Age” conference in October 2019. He was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Early Christianity at CUA. Dr. Paul Mueller spoke on “Adam Smith and the Idea of Virtuous Capitalists” at Acton University in June 2020.
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Dr. David Talcott served as emcee and panel moderator for the annual conference of truthXchange, a Christian worldview ministry. At the conference, Dr. Rosaria Butterfield, Dr. Brian Mattson, Dr. Gabe Fluerer, and Dr. Stephen Chavura were the plenary speakers. Prof. Alissa Wilkinson moderated multiple screenings of Terrence Malick’s film A Hidden Life (one for BAFTA and one for the Academy) with star Valerie Pachner. She taught two sessions on art in the time of apocalypse in the Gotham Fellows program at Redeemer’s Center for Faith and Work.
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Student Body President Election House History in Living Dioramas The House History Competition required students to create a living diorama (also known as a tableau) in response to the prompt, “If you were making a museum of your House, what parts of your House’s history would you put on display?” Houses more than rose to the challenge of this new competition format. Students contacted alumni to find ideas for their scenes. In a five-hour set-up period, they posed props, audio recordings, fellow House members, and the occasional House advisor to portray scenes from their history.
The student body elected Colin Phillips (PPE ’21) as 2020-21 Student Body President. A member of the House of Winston Churchill, Colin will lead the Council in its efforts to support student events, organizations, spiritual life, and much more. In April, Colin announced the members of his cabinet: Taryn Cohn (PPE ’22) Director of Communications Aisha Seay (Finance ’21) Director of Finance Brent Buterbaugh (PPE ’21) Director of Student Organizations Lydia Marlin (PPE ’22) Director of Spiritual Life Deborah Gonçalves (PPE ’21) Director of Student Events
Page 5 DONOR SPOT LIGHT
A WAG E R WITH GOD As a young couple with entrepreneurial dreams, Rudy and Lavonne Blanco chose to trust God with everything He’d given them. The result has been over three decades of fruitful relationships and gospelinspired generosity. BY EL AINA BAL S
udy Blanco sat in the driver’s seat of his 1988 manual transmission Colt Vista, holding his breath and rubbing at the condensation on the windshield. It was the winter of 1996 and he was driving from Minnesota to North Dakota to visit the second of two prospective clients. He’d just fixed a leaking radiator and asked a stranger in the hotel parking lot for a jump to his battery. When he couldn’t hold in his breath any longer, he leaned his head to the side so he wouldn’t cloud up the glass again. This trip was too important to miss. If these contacts became customers, the sales would lift his newly-incorporated business off the ground. Rudy’s product was a road and pavement system that he had coded himself. At the time he was launching Pathway Services, he and his wife, Lavonne, had four small children. The Blancos had witnessed God’s
Spanish while she was finishing high school. She and Rudy married six years later and would go on to raise seven children, three adopted. Alongside Rudy’s spiritual longing was an ambition to be a business owner. First he and Lavonne tried making and selling carrot cakes, but the long days of grating carrots took a toll, and they gave up. Rudy’s sister had a break-in at her house, so he turned to house alarm systems as his next business attempt. When they went off at three in the morning because of a malfunction and not a break-in, he decided it was time to move on to the next idea. In 1986, Rudy and Lavonne moved their growing family from Costa Rica to Oregon to seek new business opportunities in the States. “By now I did believe God existed,” so Rudy decided to make a wager with Him. In his book, Mapping the Road to Your Destiny, he recalls the prayer that he made: “I’ll give You ten years to do something with my life. I want my own business, but I
FOR THE FIRST SEV ER AL YEARS OF GI V ING T O K I N G ’ S , T H E B L A N C O S H A D N O PR I O R R E L AT I O N S H I P W I T H T H E C O L L E G E . T H E Y D O N O T R E M E M B E R H OW T H E Y F I R S T H E A R D A BOUT K ING’S BUT BEGAN GI V ING IN 2001. faithfulness through many challenges and uncertainties before, and now Rudy trusted that He would prove faithful again. The couple had come to know Him personally in a small church on a hill in Washington around a decade before, and in response to God’s provision, they’d made it their practice to give generously to gospel ministries. Since 2001, The King’s College has been a beneficiary of the generosity and prayer that grow from the Blancos’ relationship with God. Lavonne Rogelstad grew up near Milwaukie, Oregon, with two younger brothers in a Lutheran family. Her father was a high school math teacher. Rudy Blanco was raised in Cartago, Costa Rica, in a home with only three beds for the family’s four boys. To supplement his family’s minimal income, Rudy worked as an altar boy, sometimes for up to four masses a day. At this point, Rudy didn’t believe in God, but each time the New Testament passage was read, he felt a spiritual hunger. Lavonne came to Costa Rica in 1976 to learn
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don’t know what to do. Will You help me?” After this prayer, Rudy says that he sensed God working within him. The next step in this journey was conversion. They had been attending a Catholic church in Spokane, Washington, but at the time, their understanding of God was missing the component of a relationship with God. When friends invited them to a nearby Protestant church, Rudy says he met the Lord for the first time. Because of her family’s faith, Lavonne had always known Christ, but she says that shortly before Rudy came to believe, “I had a renewal and the Word of God came alive to me.” As they learned more about God and the Bible, Rudy asked God another question. “Can you show me what it means to live by faith?” On top of his regular employment, Rudy would occasionally work side jobs like computer maintenance for friends. The Blancos decided to reserve 50 percent of this extra income to
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that their greatest assets are their employees and that they extend grace—“So that people don’t live in fear of making a mistake,” Lavonne adds. Relationships are also their favorite part of financial giving. “As you get to know people,” says Lavonne, “you get to know their heart.” For the first several years of giving to King’s, the Blancos had no prior relationship with the College. They do not remember how they first heard about King’s but began giving in 2001. They wanted to support young people at educational institutions but had both attended secular colleges and universities. “We had been consistent for many years, but it wasn’t a whole lot,” Lavonne says, until President Tim Gibson came to visit their home. “When the relationship starts, it changes.” Every Wednesday at Pathway Services, the Blancos cater lunch for their employees and their families and sit down to eat together. President Gibson joined one of these lunches on his visit, getting to know the Blancos, and he also shared more about The King’s College. Rudy and Lavonne say that over time, they came to connect more deeply with the mission. They share, “[The College] doesn’t shy away from subjects that are hard and need to be addressed. At the same time, it presents an aspect of the gospel and Christianity that people need to hear and understand. It’s not just information that’s regurgitated. You guys are really taught to think, debate, and discuss.” With millions of people in New York City, the Blancos see King’s as positioned to make a great impact because of its location. “There are a high percentage of students being placed in areas that affect culture,” they say. Rudy and Lavonne are encouraged to see students at King’s embark on the journey they underwent when, early in their marriage, they learned to live by faith and trust in a loving God. In his business and legacy, Rudy’s hope is that “one person gives God a chance because of what I did or what I said.”
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Instruction Moves Online Due to COVID-19 On March 10, we announced that as a precautionary measure against the spread of COVID-19, classes and operations would temporarily shift to remote by end of day Wednesday, March 11. By Friday, March 13, President Gibson and the Emergency Operations team determined that the shift to remote operations would continue through the end of the semester, due to escalating developments, including Governor Cuomo’s regulations on public gatherings, the U.S. extension of high-risk travel advisories, and Mayor de Blasio’s call for greater social distancing.
give away to people in need. Then, while they were living in Spokane, Rudy received word from his employer: finances were tight, and they could not continue to pay him. He could either quit or temporarily work without a salary. Rudy chose to work without pay for half the year, but as side jobs came in, he and Lavonne kept their promise to God. The Blancos continued to give half of that “extra” income away, although it was their only income at the time. Yet their needs never went unmet. Several years later, after starting Pathway Services, the Blancos needed $200,000 to purchase equipment necessary to fill their first contracts. Their church’s food pantry was providing their macaroni and cheese dinners at the time. They had no money to spare. In a short time, however, through lenient credit card offers and loans from family and friends, they had borrowed the money without business partners or interest. They paid it all off within seven months. As Pathway Services grew, Rudy says that God remained the driving force behind their business. “This was His company; Lavonne and I were simply stewards.” This conviction only grew when Rudy was hit with a lawsuit from a former partner. As Rudy searched for legal help, the lawyer immediately asked for a $10,000 check upfront to begin his work. Footing that bill would force Rudy to give up purchasing much-needed equipment and supplies. Faced with the lawsuit, Rudy and Lavonne say they had no other choice than to hire the lawyer and trust that God would still care for their needs. Rudy says, “I felt God was teaching me to put Him first and to give Him the first fruits of my work. I know now that God wants to be honored in our lives and we can do that by putting him first in our finances and in our hearts.” Out of this experience, Rudy decided to commit to giving 10 percent of the company’s gross income to the Lord’s work. Eventually, the Blancos saw God’s provision as the lawsuit was settled out of court. “It cost us,” Lavonne recalls, but says they learned that “our money could go to a lot of things; it’s best to be generous, and trust God. God did take care of us.” This year marks 24 years of owning and operating Pathway Services, which now employs nearly 200 people. The Blancos have been married for 40 years and make their life passion “the lives that we touch.” Lavonne says that at work, Rudy is famous for exclaiming, “Praise the Lord!” and some employees have picked up the habit. Rudy says it is their object to “Let everyone have their own little business” within the business, so the staff can have a sense of ownership in their work. Two principles guide their operation:
Interregnum XVI: Progress
TKC.edu Gets A New Look The new layout of our redesigned website provides easier navigation and presents information more clearly. This project, created largely in-house with collaboration from every department, represents a leap forward in terms of user experience and our capacity to serve anyone who finds the College online. Comparing the six month period after the site’s launch (March 2020-August 2020) versus that time period in 2019, users finding our website through organic search spent 204% more time on the site, indicating that they were more engaged with the website content.
An academic “Olympics” of sorts, Interregnum is a signature event at King’s that dates back to 2005. Students showcase their talents and represent their Houses in various competitions centered around a theme, earning points towards the Interregnum Cup and House Cup. This year, Interregnum conferences took place in both the fall and spring semesters. Previously concentrated in one festival in April, the format was changed to spur student engagement with this year’s theme, “Progress,” throughout the entire academic year. Students read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and the Epistle to the Philippians to reflect upon the theme. The Film Festival, Academic Writing, Great Speech, and Random Theme Debate events
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Epidemics Conference Series took place in the fall conference; remaining events took place in the spring. Due to the unusual conditions caused by COVID-19, the Interregnum Committee reoriented the spring events to suit a virtual medium. Students remotely attended the opening lecture and debate rounds via Zoom; lecture and art competitions transferred to a digital format. Interregnum XVI concluded with the House of Margaret Thatcher in third, the House of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in second, and the House of Susan B. Anthony taking first. Adding in House Competition events throughout the school year, Anthony also claimed the House Cup, followed by Thatcher in second and Bonhoeffer in third.
The King’s College hosted a fourpart lecture series titled “How Epidemics Change History.” In this series of noonday talks, nearly half of The King’s College faculty explored “ways in which epidemics shape societies, concentrate power in government, shatter assumptions about world order, and drive religious innovation.” The aim was to look back at the plagues of the past and discover lessons that could help guide us through the COVID-19 crisis. Watch these lectures and more at YouTube.com/TheKingsCollegeNewYork
HONOR S A N D ACCOL A DE S Dr. Henry Bleattler was selected in May 2020 as one of twenty new volunteer docents at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He will be a part of the 2020-21 New Volunteer Training Program in preparation to deliver tours of the Met’s collections. Dr. Anthony Bradley was appointed Theologian-InResidence at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Lincoln Square. Dr. Steele Brand was invited to serve as a scholar advisor for the Faith and Liberty Discovery Center of the American Bible Society. Prof. Brian Brenberg signed on as a contributor with Fox News, a role he takes on while continuing his service at King’s. For the past four years, Brenberg appeared on Fox News and Fox Business regularly, offering commentary on economic and business issues. Brenberg’s first post as a regular commentator was on Kennedy on Fox Business, and he has since appeared on numerous shows across the two platforms. Prof. Chris Cragin-Day was a finalist for New Dramatists, a prestigious playwriting fellowship in NYC, and her play Tornado was a semi-finalist for the International Wolfe Prize at Playmaker’s Repertory Theater. Cragin-Day’s play A Woman, about women in church leadership, was chosen as a 2019 favorite in the Raleigh Arts Magazine, Indy Week. Cragin-Day was offered two new commissions this year, one from AD Players in Houston to write a play about the sex trafficking industry there and another from the Fellowship for Performing Arts to write a play adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces. Prof. Paul Glader was approved to the Fulbright specialist roster for the next four years, meaning he can teach for 14- to 40-day stints at other universities as part of the Fulbright program. In fall 2019, he was named as one of three Distinguished Newspaper Advisors this year by the College Media Association for his work advising the Empire State Tribune (student paper) over the last six years. In December 2019, Glader broke a series of investigative stories at ReligionUnplugged.com about a secret $100 billion investment fund connected to the LDS Church. Glader’s stories were reprinted by Newsweek and ZeroHedge and followed by stories in more than150 other media outlets including The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. The series won a Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) award for investigative reporting and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2019.
Prof. Lynda Kong was one of six finalists for the 2020 Rumi Prize for Poetry sponsored by the national literary journal Arts & Letters at Georgia College and State University. Prof. Clemente Lisi is writing a screenplay adaptation of his 2012 book, The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team: An American Success Story and working with Nine Thirteen, a Los Angeles-based production company that purchased the film rights to the book. Lisi, Glader, and team designer Peter Freeby (MCA ’15) received a $75,000 grant from Knight Foundation to build a new technology with their VettNews. com project to improve the corrections processes for newsrooms. They installed the product at the EST and ReligionUnplugged.com and are now planning further expansions and tests. The product also won honorable mention in a startup pitch contest at Montclair State University. Dr. Joseph Loconte was named a board member for the U.S. branch of the Londonbased Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a leading advocate for religious freedom around the globe. This summer, he was appointed Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation and will remain affiliated with The King’s College as a Senior Fellow in Christianity and Culture. Dr. Kimberly Reeve and Prof. Michael Hrynuik received a best paper award for their work entitled, “Social Impact Bonds: A Christian Perspective” at the Christian Business Faculty Association conference in October 2019. In November 2019, Reeve was elected to the board of directors of ISM, the global graduate business school in France from which she received her Ph.D. Prof. Alissa Wilkinson was elected to the National Society of Film Critics, one of the country’s oldest elite organizations of critics and is the American representative of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI). She remains a member of the New York Film Critics Circle as well. In October 2019, she was invited along with critics from Indiewire, Rolling Stone, and Variety to select the slate of actors and actresses nominated for the Gotham Awards. Dr. Benjamin White was named a visiting scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary to complete research for a book on the early Christians and their relevance for modern notions of power and cultural change. Due to the pandemic, the fellowship has been postponed from Summer 2020 until a future date when the library reopens.
Leah Thomas (MCA ’20) Thomas played volleyball in 2018 and soccer in 2019 and achieved a 3.94 GPA while fulfilling all her team’s practice and game commitments and serving as scholar to the House of Truth, faculty assistant to Dr. Steele Brand, and research intern at the Truth Exchange.
N O M I N E E S : Kimchean Koy (MCA ’20), Caitlin
Smith (MCA ’20)
MCA Academic Excellence Award
NOMINEES:
Jackson Kane (PPE ’20), Josiah Simons (PPE ’20), Michel Wenzel (Business ’20)
Amelia Lehosit (English ’20) Lehosit was a leader in the classroom and tutored students in writing and Western Civilization classes as a Faculty Assistant to Drs. Ethan Campbell and Steele Brand. She was noted by Campbell for her “uncommon writing talent and work ethic” and as being a tireless cheerleader for the English program. This fall, she began a Ph.D. in English at the University of Washington with a focus on Old English literature and history. Lehosit was also recognized by Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford for her “exceptional academic performance” during the fall 2019 Oxford Scholars’ Semester.
Athlete of the Year Daniel Fuenzalida (PPE ’20) Helping lead the men’s soccer team to the USCAA national championships in 2018, Fuenzalida started on the team all four seasons at King’s. On campus, he also served as president of the House of Dietrich Bonhoeffer this year and as president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. In fall 2019, he interned at the World Evangelical Alliance in the United Nations.
Humanities Academic Excellence Award
N O M I N E E S : Annie Kopack (MCA ’20), Christina
Lewis (Business ’20), Josiah Simons (PPE ’20)
Ava Grossmann (Humanities ’20)
Student Service Award
Director of Communications for last year’s student cabinet, Grossmann is also an accomplished violinist and aspiring Latinist and graduated Summa Cum Laude. Dr. Joshua Kinlaw described her as “most likely to send her professors or classmates classical music to study by” and added, “She has made me proud to be at the College.” Grossmann received the Humanities Academic Excellence Award in recognition of her exceptional promise for future work or study in the humanities.
Edward vanZandt (PPE ’20) VanZandt received the Student Service Award for his consistent positive contributions to the student body, motivated not by title or prestige, but by his identity in Christ. He served for two years as chamberlain for the House of C.S. Lewis, and showed a deep love, respect, and passion for the King’s community, starting conversations with fellow students and writing frequently on prevalent issues.
N O M I N E E S : Sarah Stettheimer (Humanities ’20), N O M I N E E S : Holly Shavelle (PPE ’20), Paris Welker-
Aaron Cho (Humanities ’20)
Widell (Business ’20), Abigail Smith (PPE ’20)
Roberta Green Ahmanson MCA Capstone Award of Excellence Journalism Award Mercedes Ronnander (MCA ’20)
Jillian Cheney (JCS ’20) Cheney started the year-long Poynter-Koch journalism fellowship this summer, working with Religion Unplugged. “You are intellectually curious, intelligent but not arrogant, tough but also fair, joyful but not sappy, skeptical but not cynical,” Glader said of Cheney, saying these quali-
Ronnander received the MCA Capstone Award of Excellence for her pilot episode plus TV series “bible” (describing a show’s tone, plot, location, characters, and development) for Keystone, a fantasy television series she has been building
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Class of 2020 Digital Yearbook Faculty and staff teamed up to create the first-ever digital yearbook for the Class of 2020, a gift to honor the seniors, their work, and their legacies at King’s. Despite not being able to say “goodbye” and “well done” in person, the whole King’s community plus graduates’ families and friends left a total of 2,966 comments on the digital site with photos or words of encouragement for each grad. Read the digital yearbook at classof2020.tkc.edu.
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Center for the Study of Christianity and the Black Experience
House Namesake Decisions Announced President Tim Gibson released the results of the Namesake Review Committee’s deliberations: the College will create a process by which Houses may explore a namesake change, based on the Namesake Review Committee’s new rubric, which states that namesakes must be historical figures who constructively engaged with the Christian or classical traditions. King’s will retain existing House namesakes unless a House completes that formal process. Read the full statement here: tkc.edu/stories/kings-collegereleases-house-namesake-decisions
for almost eight years. Ronnander built a full and cohesive world including hundreds of years of back history, a mythological foundation on which the world rests, and even the creation of a lost, ancient language. Her project was advised by Dr. Stephen Salyers.
72nd Annual Commencement Exercises Rear Admiral Barry C. Black (Ret.), the 62nd Chaplain of the United States Senate, addressed the 2020 graduating class of The King’s College at its 72nd Annual Commencement Exercises on May 9, held virtually. President Gibson said, “Chaplain Black’s abiding conviction, humble spirit, and moral courage are inspiring examples for our community.” Over five hundred participants tuned in to celebrate the 114 graduates. In his address, Black charged graduates to see themselves as ambassadors of God, “people who have such an experiential relationship with God that they can witness, they can testify.” He said of the graduates, “You will demonstrate as an ambassador of Jesus Christ that the Savior is alive and well on planet Earth—and is still able to save.” Kaylee Long (MCA ’20) gave the valedictory address, acknowledging the sense of loss that the Class of 2020 feels to not have a traditional ceremony while encouraging them to find hope in Jesus Christ. “Let’s give ourselves grace to feel the sadness of being apart. But then, let’s turn our eyes to see to the hope we have that is not failing. That cannot be canceled.”
Class of 2019 Graduate Report
99% of the class of 2019 was
employed or in graduate school within 6 months (national average: 85%)
87% of the class of 2019 in-
terned before graduating (national average: 61%)
87% of the class of 2019
agreed or strongly agreed that they are working in one of their preferred fields
$61,016 was the average starting salary and bonus for the class of 2019
The King’s College follows the reporting standards of the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
King’s launched the Center for the Study of Christianity and the Black Experience and appointed Dr. Jacqueline C. Rivers as senior fellow of the Center. Rivers is the executive director of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, where she was a doctoral fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Rivers gave the 2019 Black History Month lecture at King’s on February 13. In addition to Rivers, the Center’s leadership includes Dr. David Tubbs, associate professor of politics, as director and Dr. Dami Kabiawu, assistant professor of finance, as associate director. The Center’s mission statement reads: “Through teaching, research, scholarly writing, and public engagement, the Center seeks to increase our knowledge of Black Christian communities’ influence on the faith around the globe, with critical attention to the ancient, modern, and future roles of the Black Church, and its contributions to worldwide Christianity, including the civic dimensions of its work.”
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Scholar Athlete Award
On Friday, May 8, 2020, The King’s College held its fourth annual formal award ceremony to honor outstanding students in the class of 2020 and to recognize faculty and staff who have made significant contributions to the King’s community.
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Dr. Dru Johnson held the first Center for Hebraic Thought pastors workshop with the American Bible Society at their headquarters in Philadelphia. He has been appointed the director for the 2021 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship summer seminar at Calvin University.
AWA R D S
R E A R A D M I R A L B A R R Y C . B L A C K ( R E T. )
FA C U LT Y
“GRADUATION IS WONDERFUL, BUT OH WHAT A DAY IT WILL BE WHEN WE WILL HAVE A CELESTIAL GRADUATION.”
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AT HLET IC S AWA R D WINNERS ties would serve her well in the field of journalism. She won the Roberta Green Ahmanson Journalism Award. She served as editor of Empire State Tribune magazine and interned at NY Daily News while earning the highest GPA of all graduating JCS seniors.
tal Technologies. “We’ll miss your can-do attitude, your pursuit of excellence, and your desire to help humbly in any and every way,” Dr. Kimberly Reeve said of Cook.
Outstanding Service to the House System Leticia Mosqueda, Director of Residence Life
N O M I N E E S : Meric Pope (Business ’20), Paris
Welker-Widell (Business ’20) N O M I N E E S : Morgan Chittum (JCS ’20), Callie
Patteson (JCS ’20), Kassidy Vavra (JCS ’20)
Abigail Smith (PPE ’20) In 2019-20, Smith served as the Interregnum Chair, and headed off the team’s execution of the remote Interregnum conference in the spring. She also worked as administrator of the College’s Center for Hebraic Thought. N O M I N E E S : Rachel Shinn (PPE ’20), Zachary
Wagner (PPE ’20)
Aaron Cho (Humanities ’20) During his time at King’s, Cho coordinated service opportunities for the House of C.S. Lewis, advocated for positive Christian engagement in the Middle East with the Philos Project, and taught English as a Second Language to immigrant populations in New York City. He also served as both the service coordinator and community group coordinator at his church. He received the William R. Bright award, recognizing him as a student who embodies Bright’s passion for missions, evangelism, and discipleship.
Smith received the William Wilberforce Award in honor of how she represents the College’s mission to vigorously engage the public square with truth and civility. She was the founder and president for Students for Life, a student organization that exists to “protect life with reason and compassion,” and a member of the College’s Special Committee on Spiritual Formation. N O M I N E E S : Sarah Fox (PPE ’20), Abigail Murphy
(Humanities ’20)
Joe T. Ford Award Benjamin Cook (Finance ’20) Cook received the Joe. T. Ford award in recognition for his grace under pressure and willingness to make change in the business world. He led his CapSim team to a global victory and was a three-time financial intern with Corning Incorporated and one of its major segments, Corning Environmen-
President Gibson hosted a webinar on “Serpent in the Garden: Christian Perspectives on Race Relations in America,” featuring presentations from Dr. Anthony Bradley, Dr. Dami Kabiawu, Dr. David Tubbs, and Dr. Dru Johnson. Heather Cate (MCA ’15) said, “This was a very good and helpful conversation between people I deeply respect. I recommend it as a trustworthy source to anyone who is reading and researching systemic racism, our criminal justice system, and police brutality. I only wish it was longer!”
Staff of the Year Joey Willis, Christian Formation Coordinator Willis received Staff of the Year for being “a great listener, wise counselor, and servant leader,” as noted by Koby Jackson.
N O M I N E E : Dr. Joshua Kinlaw, Assistant Professor
of History and Humanities
Staff Service Award
vices; Samantha Ryan, Administrative Director of Academic Affairs; David Leedy, Dean of Students
Jackson Fordyce (Business ’20) Fordyce served on the Honor Council for two years and served two terms on the Interregnum Committee, and was Dr. Reeve’s faculty assistant. He has worked as the Youth Program Coordinator at Lower Manhattan Community Church for three years and was chosen by his peers as the Class of 2020 senior speaker. Dean of Students David Leedy said, “He is enthusiastic and diligent with a dash of humor, eager to help in any situation, and committed to the success of his fellow students.” He was awarded the Harriet Tubman Award for his work advancing equality and human dignity. N O M I N E E S : Abigail Smith (PPE ’20), Kimchean Koy
Samantha Ryan, Administrative Director of Academic Affairs
Faculty of the Year
Ryan received the Staff Service Award for her quiet faithfulness going “above and beyond to serve and support The King’s College community.”
Dr. David Tubbs, Associate Professor of Politics
N O M I N E E S : Jennifer Anderson, Assistant Control-
Dr. Tubbs was chosen by the student cabinet as Faculty of the Year. Jackson praised Tubbs’s “excellence with humility” as well as his sympathy for the senior class.
ler and Director of Budgets; Paul Middlekauff, Registrar
Staff Leadership Award Megan Dishman, Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communications
N O M I N E E S : Dr. Joshua Kinlaw, Assistant Profes-
sor of History and Humanities; Dr. Joseph Griffith, Assistant Professor of Politics; Dr. Dami Kabiawu, Assistant Professor of Finance
Dishman was awarded the Staff Leadership Award for demonstrating “exemplary influence and direction” this academic year, reflecting her work as Incident Commander of the Emergency Operations Team.
(MCA ’20)
Faculty Service Award Dr. David Tubbs, Associate Professor of Politics
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Dr. Tubbs was selected as the winner of the Faculty Service Award, a new award chosen by fellow members of the College faculty. Hijleh remarked, “He did much to lift the spirits of the King’s community and to bolster connection when it was needed.”
A Commitment to Unity in Diversity
Serpent in the Garden Conference
Dr. Blander received the Faculty Teaching Award for his “exceptional effectiveness in pedagogy.” Hijleh noted how students have consistently noted Blander’s skillful transition to remote teaching this semester.
N O M I N E E S : Andrea Lopez, Director of Student Ser-
Harriet Tubman Award
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Dr. Joshua Blander, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
gious Studies; Christopher Josselyn, Assistant Director of Student Success; Danise Stokeld, Director of Academic Advising
Taylor Dickerson (JCS ’20)
Abigail Smith (PPE ’20)
Faculty Teaching Award
N O M I N E E S : Dr. Anthony Bradley, Professor of Reli-
N O M I N E E S : Ivan Denizac Gonzalez (RTS ’20),
William Wilberforce Award
Mosqueda, who is also a staff advisor to the House of Margaret Thatcher, was given the Outstanding Service to the House System Award for her dedication and mentorship to the women of Thatcher.
William R. Bright Award
Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Academic Excellence Award
The King’s College had 86 student-athletes recognized by our HVIAC conference and our USCAA national governing body in the 2019-20 seasons. Awards included USCAA All American First Team, USCAA All-Academic Team, Rookie of the Week, Player of the Week, and HVIAC All Academic Team, and many more. See the full awards list online at tkcathletics.com/ information/Award_Winners.
“A Biblical-Theological Commitment to Unity in Diversity” presents a vision for ethnic diversity in light of the College’s mission to provide a common understanding that students, staff, and faculty can rally behind. A committee of the College worked for over a year on the statement. The committee comprised Dean of Students David Leedy, Dr. Ethan Campbell, Kaitlyn Hasegawa (PPE ’19), Director of Residence Life Leticia Mosqueda, then-Admissions Counselor Tasha Azor, Angel Boyd (MCA ’19), Director of Student Development Jonathan Sheaffer, and Dr. Dru Johnson as chair. The Unity in Diversity statement lays out the biblical basis for taking particular care to cultivate diverse cultures and perspectives, citing examples like the “multi-ethnic authorship of the four-gospel tradition” and the “final eschatological vision of ‘every tribe, nation, and tongue’ united before God’s throne.”
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N O M I N E E S : Dr. Mark Hijleh, Provost; David Leedy,
Dean of Students; Noah Hunter, Assistant Vice President of Admissions
N O M I N E E : Dr. Kimberly Reeve
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Digital Marketing Bootcamp Over the month of July, 63 current and incoming King’s students completed a free Digital Marketing Bootcamp offered by Prof. Alex Andreyev, a King’s alumnus (Business ’09) and VP of Advisory Services at Matterkind. Why volunteer his time? Andreyev said he was “excited to showcase the practical courses that are available at The King’s College within growing and innovative industries.” He added, “The benefit of seeing purposedriven, hard-working, and smart students that ultimately become my colleagues in the digital marketing industry is an even greater perk.”
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Statement on Academic Freedom
Summer Academy Online In 2020, 27 high school students participated in Summer Academy Online. Meeting in real time through lectures, discussions, and hangouts on Zoom, students earned one college credit for a week spent studying finance or journalism with King’s professors. The finance program took place July 1217, and two tracks in journalism ran July 26-31.
This summer, The King’s College approved and published a statement on academic freedom to support the freedom of all members of the College community “to discuss any problem that presents itself.” That phrase draws from the University of Chicago’s 2015 Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression, which served as a model for the King’s statement. The King’s academic freedom statement begins, “Because The King’s College is committed to free and open inquiry, it guarantees all members of The King’s College community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn.”
Page 8 LEADERSHIP
ALUMNI F E AT UR E
∙ IN MEMORI A M ∙
Tim Gibson Brig Gen, USAF (Ret) President Bridget Rogers Chief Development Officer Dr. Mark Hijleh Provost and Professor of Music
BY R EBECC A AU - M U L L A N E Y
were the last vendor to leave,” Sanabria says. me, I’m calling warriors,” says Daniel Sanabria When eventually the Youth for Christ (Marketing ’05). “I need people who will go team had to stop visiting the juvenile centin and get dirty. I don’t want a checklist ers because of COVID-19 restrictions, they volunteer.” got creative. They started an art project called Daniel Sanabria is executive director of the “Inside Out,” in which young people proNew York City branch of Youth for Christ, an duced artwork around the theme “Give Life, international organization devoted to raising Give Hope, Give Peace.” These artworks now up lifelong followers of Jesus Christ. Youth for hang on 3x6-foot posters across the city’s borChrist works with young people everywhere, oughs. Throughout the pandemic, Sanabria from high schools, and other volunteers to the military, to have continued to juvenile detention keep up with 12 young centers. (The organipeople who are out zation also shares of jail through weekroots with The King’s ly phone or Zoom College. Dr. Percy video calls. Crawford and Dr. Sanabria says Robert Cook, the that this ministry first two presidents doesn’t end with the of King’s, were deeply criminal justice sysinvolved in the early tem. It is ultimately years of Youth for about showing young Christ.) people that they are A born-and-raised created in the image New Yorker, Sanabria of God. In developing spends much of his mentors, he says, “I’m time building relationnot looking for someships with kids who one who says their callare incarcerated, living ing is juvenile justice in tough situations, or or that their calling recently released from DA N I E L SA N A B R I A is reaching prisoners. prison. He also works Your calling is reaching to mobilize volunteers from local churches who people. These are young people who bear the can do the same. image of God. They did something wrong, and He dreams of a thousand mentors in New there are consequences, absolutely. But they York City. “In every neighborhood, there’s a don’t need to stay in those consequences all believer. When a kid comes out of jail and goes their lives. They need to hear a message that back to their neighborhood, they need to meet will open their hearts and help them realize that believer, because that individual has the who they are in Christ.” light.” He says that mentorship makes a key dif- To do that, Sanabria prioritizes spending ference in the lives of kids and in reducing their quality time with young people and making odds of landing back in prison. himself part of their community. “I’ve been re Before the pandemic hit New York City, jected, I’ve been slapped in the face, I’ve been Sanabria and his team held weekly chapel ser- cursed out. But that same person who cursed vices at two juvenile facilities, Crossroads (in me out will later call me up and say, ‘I got a job,’ Brooklyn) and Horizon (in the Bronx). Their and I say, ‘Let’s celebrate.’ It’s a rough road, but visits provided time for a Public Reading of any ministry is a rough road. I always tell myself, Scripture as well as individual mentoring. “We and I tell leaders, ‘You need to smell like sheep.’”
Robert A. Dobson III, who served on the Board of Trustees 2002-2011, passed away on August 7, 2019. The King’s College grieved the loss of a dedicated friend and a champion for the cause of Christ.
Megan Dishman (MCA ’14) Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communications
Edward Bailey Marks, Sr., a trustee emeritus at The King’s College in New York City, passed away in his home in Melbourne, Fla. on February 13, 2020. He was 87 years old and served actively on the King’s board from 1998 to 2012.
C R E AT I V E D I R EC T I O N
Rebecca Au-Mullaney (MCA ’15) Editor-in-Chief Natalie Nakamura (MCA ’13) Art and Design Director
“W HEN I CALL VOLUNTEERS TO JOIN
“In every neighborhood, there’s a believer. When a kid comes out of jail and goes back to their neighborhood, they need to meet that believer, because thatindividual has the light.”
Sungjun Kim (PPE ’18) Photographer Elaina Bals (English ’21) Contributing Writer
Keith E. Yandell, former professor of philosophy at The King’s College, passed away April 28, 2020. During his lifetime, Yandell published 6 books and over 100 articles and chapters. A 2005 Christian Worldview conference was held in honor of his contributions to the philosophy of religion.
H OW TO G E T T H E N E X T ISSUE
Dr. Kenneth A. Christiansen, former professor of business at King’s, passed away at the age of 92 on January 17, 2020. Christiansen taught accounting and tax accounting at the Briarcliff Manor campus, where he also served as department chair. After the College closed its doors in 1994 and prepared to reopen in New York City, Christiansen loyally helped through the entire transition and commuted from Shelton, Conn., making a four-hour round trip commute to serve as CFO.
We publish Year in Review every fall, and Emblem every spring. These magazines will be sent automatically to supporters in the United States who give at least $50 per year. If you liked this issue and want to make sure you keep getting more, go to our website and sign up to become a regular donor: tkc.edu/donate
Contact: Bridget Rogers - brogers@tkc.edu
Do you know a future Kingsian? Do you know any high school students who love ideas and are brave enough to live out their faith in New York City? Referrals from students, alumni, and friends of the College are one of the best ways we find students who thrive at King’s. Over a third of our students hear about King’s through word of mouth. Recommend a young person you know! tkc.edu/admissions/refer
T H A NK YOU F O R B E I N G PA RT O F T H E C O M M U N I T Y. Over one hundred new students joined our community this August—a smaller class than we targeted before COVID-19 changed the recruitment landscape. Now, as ever, we look to the Lord to sustain the College, even as we rely upon the generosity of friends like you to enable our work. Thank you for making it possible for these hundred students, like the thousands before them, to receive an education through which they become a force for good in their careers and our communities. Today, you have an opportunity to invest in students who feel led by God to participate in the restoration of the world. As you are able, would you consider a gift to The King’s College to support faculty as they educate, mentor, and shape the future of these students? The seeds you plant will yield fruitful God-honoring results.
O U R S U PP O RT E R S
Parents Advisory Council for 2019-20 Brian and Jody Bell (CA) Ned and Leslie Bustard (PA) Davis and Rachael Carman (NC) David and Lindy Chapman (MA) Rick and Amelia Gatt (TX) Daryl and Martha Jones (VA) Stan and Kerri Pleban (TN)
Alumni Giving Society Alan and Ann Abel John and Cynthia Adair Mel and Janice Albright Ted and Janet Anderson Karen Andrews Rebecca Au-Mullaney James and Susan Barker Judy Barringer Richard and Anne Bawinkel
Brian and Jody Bell Roger and Linda Bensing Charles Black Judith Bryson Dawn Caputo David and Jean Cossey Marjorie “Peggy” Craven Kiley Crossland Catherine Denney Kellen and Shannon DiStefano Peter and Abby Flemming Steve and Sharon French Dave and Karen Fritz Bob and Lillian Hague Michael and Lynn Hart Francie and Morris Henard Ruth Hornickel James and Elizabeth Johnson Matt Kaal Michael Karipidis
Cheryl and Peter Kenney Nancy Kimball Ralph and Janet Lennon Christina Lewis Victoria Li Jonathan and Mia Lile Judith and Ralph Linstra Bob and Hallie Mann Lois Merseles Erin and Matthew Miller Rick and Lori Millham Michael and Lynn Mitchell Henry and Ginger Morriello David and Gail Morris Lorraine and Robert Moyer George and Joan Ohman Christopher Pasquale Oliver and Dottie Perry Allison and John Pfeffer Brad and Kristin Plaster
John Roney Christopher Ross Bob and Barbara Rusbuldt Richard and Donna Samuel Brent and Cheryl Sandy Andrew and Emily Schatz Jonathan Schwab Alex and Sandra Shine Tom and Helen Sickman Larry and Patricia Singer John and Doris Spier Bob and Sally Stites Bob and Barbara Straton Donna Synmoie Catherine and Steven Terwilliger Ruth Wackes George and Terry Ann Wentling Gloria Wilkins Edie Williams
Alumni Association Executive Committee 19-20 Sarah (Ferrara) Keenan ’12, President Holly Hall Tate ’11, Vice President Chris Ross ’10, Secretary Matthew Kaal ’09, Treasurer Lynn Albanese Mitchell ’86, Host Henry Morriello ’76, Board of Trustees Steve French ’80, Northeastern Bible College Rick Veit ’83, Representative Richard B. Millham ’90, Representative Jonathon Seidl ’09, Representative Emily (Miller) Schatz ’11, Representative Christopher Kendall ’15, Representative Katherine Thompson ’17, Representative Bridget Rogers, TKC Staff Liaison to the Alumni Executive Committee
Board of Trustees Timothy Dunn, Chairman Tim Gibson, President David Bahnsen John Beckett (emeritus) Nathan Bond Stephen Douglass E. Bailey Marks, Sr. (until his passing Feb. 2020) Henry G. Morriello David Palomares Launa Stayer-Maloney Lisa Troutt Susie Wilson