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Stutz ’21 Thankful for Remote Experience
By Tom Campisi, Managing Editor
Most college students experienced the last academic year staring into laptop screens, suffering through Zoom fatigue, and lamenting limited or no social interaction. Stanford student Rachel Stutz ’21 also took online classes, but was blessed to do it in some of the country’s most scenic locations, living in community, breaking bread with friends, and growing deeper in her faith.
The end of summer is fast approaching! The nights are getting cooler, there’s a slight hint of red in the leaves, and Thayer Street is getting busier as students slowly return to campus. We eagerly await the full arrival of the class of 2025 and preparations are well underway to welcome them on campus. We are so thankful that God has opened the door for in-person learning and the opportunity to host events at the Judson Center. We can’t wait to gather the returning students together over shared meals and Bible study! This is a busy time for them; shopping classes, settling into new living arrangements, finding jobs, and reconnecting with old friends. But, even in the midst of all that, they always go the extra mile in greeting incoming freshmen and connecting them into the Christian community here at Brown.
What a year this has been so far, particularly for university students. Columbia University announced it will reopen for new students and returning students for the Fall 2021 semester. There are already signs of life on campus and in NYC as students are slowly coming back and moving on to campus.
I hope you will be encouraged to know that your prayers for us for the start of the year at Cornell have been answered! During the first week of the semester that started last week, we were able to meaningfully welcome and serve over 40 new Cornell students. Many of them are finding Christian community with CU Vita and showing sincere interest in joining our Bible courses that start this week.
The end of summer in Hanover is bittersweet. The summer term is over and with it go the warm temperatures and slower pace of life, but it ushers in the return of the full student body and the arrival of the Class of 2025. The bustle of a full campus will soon be a reality again and it will be wonderful to all be in person after a year and a half of discontinuity. Preparations are underway for both a welcome back for the upperclassmen and a welcome to the 2025’s. I am immensely grateful for God’s care and provision for the students and for me over the past year. I am delighted to see what He has in store for the CU Vox community in this new academic year. As always there is much prayer needed and I would ask that you join with me in praying for:
CU Martus Leader Earns Prestigious Fellowship at Penn
By Tom Campisi and Fuji Kim
Michael Hagan is one of eight undergraduates in the inaugural class of fellows for the University of Pennsylvania’s new Office of Social Equity and Community.
Grandson of Evangelist Recalls Defining Moment
By Will Graham
Editor’s note: The following article was written by Will Graham, grandson of Billy Graham and vice president and associate evangelist at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Article was first published in 2014, four years before the passing of Billy Graham; Reprinted with permission.
On a daily basis I’m blessed with memories and stories of the many ways God chose to use my grandfather to reach people around the world over the course of many decades. Nearly everywhere I go people stop to tell me about how entire families and generations were impacted by his ministry. It’s humbling.
Penn Professor, Yale Lecturer Make Shocking Statements
By Tom Campisi, Managing Editor
This spring, two academic seminars with ties to Ivy League universities came under fire for incendiary comments regarding race. A University of Pennsylvania professor said white evangelicals are racists who “may end up killing us all,” while a guest lecturer at the Yale School of Medicine expressed frustration with the national dialogue by saying she had fantasies about shooting white people.
CU Lumine Prepares for Fall Semester
By Kelly Parks, Staff Writer
Despite the challenges posed by conducting Bible courses and other events online or with strict social distancing guidelines this past academic year, CU Lumine, Christian Union’s ministry at Columbia, was full of prayer pods, evangelism workshops, and Bible courses - all of which took place online. While the ministry center was open for occasional one-on-one meetings and small groups of under nine participants, Zoom meetings were the primary way students connected with each other.
Catholic Author Weighs In on Students' Pursuit of Happiness
Cognitive scientist Laurie Santos has a thought question for you: if you could live in a simulated reality where you are perfectly happy, would you knowingly choose it over a less-happy real life? Santos, who is a psychology professor at Yale, has been studying the nature of happiness—how we get it, what makes us happy, and how psychology directly impacts our happiness—for years.
