BestSemester News

Australia Studies Centre Announces Relocation

CCCU President Edward O. Blews, Jr., and Christian Heritage College Principal Brian Millis.

Christian Heritage College Citipointe Campus, the new home of BestSemester's Australia Studies Centre beginning in spring, 2014.

WASHINGTON--When the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) launched the Australia Studies Centre (ASC) in 2004, only 19 students were sent to study at the Wesley Institute. Since that time, over 500 students have journeyed to and around Australia as part of the program.

Kimberly Spragg, ASC director, spoke of the experience the students have had during their time with BestSemester. “[They] have created memories with homestay families, dorm-mates, service placement supervisors and patrons, Wesley students and staff, ASC students and staff, and even random, serendipitous friends.”

The Australia Studies Centre will celebrate 10 years at the Wesley Institute and in Sydney at the end of 2013.

“It has been such a blessing to partner with Wesley in the difficult but rewarding task of providing Christ-centered higher education to students studying outside of their home countries,” said Spragg.

Due to the growing and changing interests of today’s students, CCCU President Edward O. Blews, Jr., on recommendation of the BestSemester staff, recently announced that the Australia Studies Centre will relocate to Brisbane, Australia, and partner with Christian Heritage College (CHC) beginning spring 2014.

“While this means a change in location,” said Spragg, “We believe that CHC has unique advantages for students studying in Australia especially in the range of classes it offers for ASC students in the areas of business, education, the social sciences, and ministries.”

Blews made a trip to Australia in late May to personally visit the Christian Heritage College campus, faculty, and staff in Brisbane, and to meet with CHC Principal Brian Millis to review and finalize the agreement to host the CCCU's Australia Studies Centre. He also met ASC program staff and with Wesley Institute Managing Director Greg Rough to discuss a smooth and successful transition for the ASC. Blews thanked Rough for Wesley Institute's service to CCCU students.

“After this thorough review of the BestSemester and ASC staff recommendations,” Blews said. “I am very excited about the future success of the ASC as it undergoes this transition. I am confident the ASC will continue to transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth while offering expanded academic options for our students in Australia. I join ASC Director Spragg and the BestSemester staff in believing that this is the right move for the ASC.”

“Furthermore, I want to express my profound gratitude to Wesley Institute and its Managing Director Greg Rough and to Christian Heritage College and its Principal Brian Millis for their commitments to serving CCCU ASC students in the past and into the future.”

BestSemester and the Australia Studies Centre anticipate an excellent partnership with Christian Heritage College. Students planning to study with ASC will experience Australia in new and exciting ways with the city of Brisbane as the backdrop.

“Brisbane is not only a beautiful river city filled with ferries and bridges and sky-scrapers and quirky art installations,” explained Spragg. “But it's foot-friendly and built for adventure and outdoor experiences. Brisbane is also closer than Sydney to destinations such as the Great Barrier Reef, Fraser Island, the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast and Surfer's Paradise, the Scenic Rim and Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo.”

The ASC will continue at Wesley Institute for the fall 2013 semester and looks forward to celebrating the 10 years of professional and spiritual growth facilitated through partnership with Wesley Institute.

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About BestSemester: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities offers 12 off-campus study programs, collectively branded BestSemester®, which expand learning opportunities for students from CCCU campuses and are designated as culture-shaping or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping BestSemester programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (Los Angeles); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Culture-crossing BestSemester programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; India Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; and Uganda Studies Program. Visit www.bestsemester.com for program details.

About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 172 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 118 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 54 affiliate campuses from 20 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.

Premiere Night Features Films Made by BestSemester Students

LAFSC students on Premiere Night (Photo provided by Carly Marconi, Southeastern University).

LOS ANGELES--Normally the stars shine brightly in Hollywood, but it was students of CCCU member institutions who had their opportunity to shine April 30 when the L.A. Film Studies Center held its festival-ready films “Premiere Night,” an end-of-semester tradition for students of the domestic BestSemester program.

Premiere Night features films written, cast, directed and edited by LAFSC students as part of their Hollywood Production Workshop (HPW) coursework.

The student films included “Kat,” the story of a road-worn trucker who fights her family to give her grandfather the burial he told her he wanted when she was a little girl; “Maxwell,” the story of a boy who utilizes a school talent show and his magic kit to win the heart of a young girl; “The Ghost of Pailthorpe,” the tale of a new teacher who must battle the ghost of the man who had his job before his tragic death; and “The Ancestry of Thomas Waylebarry,” which tells of a boy who rescues a ballerina from her difficult family circumstances, only to find the circumstances were caused by the girl he rescued.

This year, the film screening was held in the Chaplain Theater on the Raleigh Studios Lot in Hollywood. Charlie Chaplain once owned the studios and made many of his most famous films there.

“Our goal is to give students the opportunity to have a true Hollywood red carpet premiere of their films,” said LAFSC director, Rebecca Ver Straten-McSparran. “Holding it at the Chaplin Theater offers the opportunity of screening on a studio lot in a lovely theater. We've used other interesting venues in the past, including the Sunset Laemmle and the Academy's Linwood Dunn Theater.”

Approximately 150 attended the event, including LAFSC students, faculty and staff, program alumni, actors from the films and even some parents.

“Two of the films featured children this year, so the entire front row of the theater was filled with excited child actors,” said Ver Straten-McSparran.

LAFSC faculty member, John Bucher, looks forward to viewing the students’ capstone pieces and finds that seeing their hard work come to fruition is fulfilling for students as well as the faculty and staff.

“Our Premiere screening has become not only a significant event for our students but also for our alumni,” Bucher said. “It is not uncommon for industry professionals, actors and alums from our program to attend the premiere. It is an opportunity for our best and brightest from previous semesters to mingle with the up and coming filmmakers of tomorrow.”

Of course, participating in a real Hollywood film screening is a nice addition to any students resume, Ver Straten-McSparran adds.

“This event offers a unique experience that is not replicable in any other part of the country,” she said, “and is a great way to celebrate the end of the semester.”

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BestSemester Photo Contest Winners Named

The BestSemester photo contest winning image, "Making a Living," by Christopher Lund, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minn., taken while participating in BestSemester's Middle East Studies Program.

WASHINGTON--For the second consecutive year, BestSemester invited recent alumni to participate in the 2013 BestSemester Photo Contest. The contest attracted over 75 participants who submitted 325 total photographs.

Contestants were invited to submit photos that reflect their BestSemester experience and fit into one of three categories: Program, Place, or Purpose. The online photo contest allowed the public to almost immediately view entries and eventually vote for their favorite photos.

The grand prize for “Best Overall” photo was awarded to fall 2011 Middle East Studies Program alumnus Christopher Lund, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minn., for his photo, “Making a Living,” depicting a Palestinian man mending an old shoe.

When asked what the photo meant to him, Lund responded,

“I like this photo because it is so up close and personal,” he said. “I asked the man if I could take his picture and he didn't mind at all. Up close and personal seems to be a way of life in the Middle East. Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, and Turkish people regularly invited us into their homes, into their shops, and into their lives in a moment's notice. One moment you are on the street corner negotiating a price with a storeowner, the next moment you are sitting in the back of his shop, drinking tea with his family and laughing about his son's reluctance to find a spouse.”

Additional category winners include:

Program Winner: “Student and Teacher,” by Hannah Burgess, Eastern University, St. Davids, Penn., India Studies Program, Spring 2012.

Place Winner: “Hollywood’s Calling Your Name,” by Joe Miller, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Wash., LA Film Studies Center, Fall 2012.

Purpose Winner: “Forgotten Song,” by Tamara Barrett, Taylor University, Upland, Ind., Australia Studies Centre, Spring 2012.

People's Choice Winner: “Live. Laugh. Love. China,” set of photos by Ann Katagiri, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas, China Studies Program, Spring 2013.

To view all of the winning photos and further descriptions, visit www.bestsemester.com/photocontest or www.facebook.com/bestsemester.

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BestSemester Uganda Study Leads to Unique Opportunity

Ruth Berta and several UCU/USP staff members enjoy Sezibwa Falls, near Mukono. BestSemester offers a number of unique overseas learning opportunities.

Group photo of UCU/USP staff during a retreat day.

UGANDA—Ruth Berta wasn’t thinking about Uganda when the Messiah College senior was researching ways to fulfill her social work degree requirements.

Berta studied in Thailand her junior year and was planning to return as a senior to complete her 450-hour senior field placement project. But when that program’s social-work accredited supervisor relocated, Berta’s plans had to evolve quickly. Instead, she spent the last semester of her college career studying social work in BestSemester’s Uganda Studies Program (USP).

One year and one bachelor’s degree later, Berta, who graduated from Messiah College in May 2012, is now rounding out her third academic semester in Uganda and the end of a one-year position as USP’s program assistant.

“USP was hard,” said Berta of her senior semester as a student at USP. “It required a lot of learning about myself, God and social work. I had great interactions with the program faculty and staff. They helped me see social work through new eyes.”

According to USP program director Mark Bartels, the program assistant position is usually advertised to alumni. In Berta’s case, though, program staff approached her about the position in the spring of 2012, while she was still a student in the program.

“Our former social work coordinator was leaving that semester and [current coordinator] Lisa Topka was joining us for the fall 2012 semester,” said Bartels. “We felt that Ruth had the maturity and experience to help throughout that transition.”

As program assistant, Berta’s job is 60 percent student care and 40 percent administrative work. She lives in dorms with USP students and serves as a mentor, helping students navigate the cultural and academic challenges of the program. Topka said Berta is also tapped as a resources in USP’s social work emphasis track since her undergraduate degree is in social work.

According to Topka, Berta’s presence during USP’s faculty shift last summer has proved invaluable during the 2012-2013 school year, helping ensure a smooth transition between social work coordinators. This semester, 10 of 38 USP students are studying in the program’s social work track.

“Ruth helps lead discussions in the junior-level social work seminar, bringing an important perspective based on her experience and recent USP practicum at Hospice Africa,” said Topka. “She also gives insightful feedback to junior and senior social work students, both informally and through the student's weekly journals, which are a valuable tool that helps them process their various practicum experiences.

“This semester, Ruth has been especially helpful with the junior social work students,” continued Topka. She is their practicum site's liaison with USP – helping students with logistics, nurturing relationships with field supervisors, taking part in the evaluation process of students, and problem-solving any challenges that arise.”

According to Berta, the best part of her job is interacting and living with students and hearing their joys and struggles. She cites her return to Uganda as a crucial step in developing and deepening her passion for, and understanding of, social work – a career path that will intensify with her return to the U.S. this summer and goals for grad school soon after.

“Being in Uganda this time around has been eye-opening,” said Berta of her year-long position at USP. “I’ve been able to learn a lot more about the culture and deepen friendships with people that I had just started to know when I left last time. I’m so blessed for the opportunity to be here now, and I’m not looking forward to it ending!”

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Blogging Globally Connects BestSemester Opportunities

BestSemester programs engage students where they’re already plugged in: the blogosphere.

WASHINGTON-From professional development to program promotion, BestSemester programs engage current, former and prospective students where they're already plugged in: the blogosphere.

"BestSemester programs use blogging for a variety of reasons," said Lindsey Podguski, campus relations manager for BestSemester. "Some of our international programs find that blog posts featuring photos of cultural experiences, along with student reflections, help minimize the distance between students and their friends and family back home. Our domestic programs, on the other hand, often employ blogs to highlight student work, which can aid in alumni networking and professional exposure."

At the Contemporary Music Center in Nashville, Tenn., business faculty member Natalie Ferwerda oversees a blog whose primary aim is to provide support and resources to current and former students. Though Ferwerda posts from time to time, the majority of content - including alumni interviews and video highlights from stops on the program's semester tour - comes from students, she says.

In his recent post, "Survival Guide: Managing Two Artists," current CMC business track student Stephen Johnston advises his colleagues on dealing with "creative" but "unorganized" musicians.

"Managing one artist takes energy and a lot of focus, but managing two artists...that can drive some [people] crazy," Johnston writes. "The key to successfully managing multiple artists is using a calendar or a planner."

Fellow CMC student Lexy Wiersma took a similar approach in her lighthearted, "10 Things You Should Know Before Coming to CMC," which includes insider tips ("The staff at CMC doesn't drink coffee. If you are picky, bring your own."), industry observations ("If you are a drummer, you will be needed...by everyone.") and practical advice on how to succeed in the program ("Early is on time.").

Some programs, such as the Washington Journalism Center in Washington, D.C., incorporate blogs directly into their curriculum. In addition to writing for the program's blog for participation credit, WJC students are graded on their journalistic blogging in the class, "Washington, News and Public Discourse."

The assignment enables students to become experts on a specific subject while honing a crucial journalistic skill in today's media market, according to program director Terry Mattingly.

"Blogging was the first form of social media that had any impact in the mainstream press, starting around 2005," said Mattingly. "It's still evolving and we are still trying to keep up. The key is that we want our students exposed to the basic news forms that have lasted from generation to generation, such as wire-service news reporting. We also want them to plug into the new forms that are linked to online publishing. All we can do is keep trying to keep up, since no one really knows where this digital industry is going."

In international programs such as the Australia Studies Centre, India Studies Program and others, staff and faculty use blogs to highlight students' cultural and academic experiences in the program, allowing family, friends and prospective students to peek in on each semester.

At ASC's blog, cleverly tagged "The Upside of Life Down Under," program assistant Ty Tuin posts photos of the staff preparing for move-in day, as well as new student orientation and the program's Australia Day celebration. One ocean away at the India Studies Program, Tuin's ISP counterpart - program assistant Karmen Tam - tries to portray what life is like for students in Combiatore, India, on the program's blog, Riding in Rickshaws.

In addition to documenting and preserving students' experiences, Tam said, program blogs and Facebook pages also play an important role in helping prospective students envision what their encounters in a foreign country might look like.

"Potential students can see what is happening now in Coimbatore," said Tam. "They get an idea of what their semester in India could potentially look like and what opportunities they will have.

"For current students, [Facebook] is a way to share their experiences with people who follow our page. We often have their friends and family engage us and our students by commenting.They enjoy having a window into moments here."

According to director Kirk McClelland, ISP's blog is vital in helping the new program - now in its fourth semester - establish its own identity.

"Social media tells our story," said McClelland. "It reminds past students of the experiences, ideas, and people who influenced their time in India. It helps past students stay connected, and future students see how their lives might be changed because of the opportunities they may encounter while in India."

Though each of BestSemester's 12 programs maintains its own Facebook fan page, people can follow the general BestSemester fan page - an aggregate of each program's content - to see updates from all of the programs.

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About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 172 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 118 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 54 affiliate campuses from 20 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council's mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.

Alumni Maintain Close Relationship with BestSemester’s Contemporary Music Center

CMC alum from Semester 21, Clayton Thornton, running lighting on tour with Old Crow Medicine Show during the summer of 2012.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Clayton Thornton has been fascinated with lighting and set design since the age of 12, when he was put in charge of his first show at his school's new multimillion-dollar theatre.

That fascination became a career after Thornton spent a semester of his senior year of college at BestSemester's Contemporary Music Center in Nashville, where CMC Director Warren Pettit spotted his talent and introduced Thornton to the owner of a local production company.

One week before Thornton's CMC semester ended, Jeff Lavallee, owner of that production company, hired Thornton as the lighting director for a two-week tour with Christian rockers Family Force 5, Hawk Nelson, and Manafest. Thornton returned to Nashville the following year to volunteer for Lavallee. He also toured with Old Crow Medicine Show through a different company that summer.

"CMC capitalized on skill sets we already had as students," said Thornton, who graduated in 2012 from North Greenville University in Tigerville, S.C., drove to Nashville the day after graduation, and now works with Lavallee at 44 Production Designs. "They brought in people specifically to help with our particular talents. I'd had 10 years of lighting experience at that point, and they brought in Jeff to work with me. Now he's my boss."

Thornton is one of about 120 CMC alumni living and working in Nashville, where the BestSemester program has been located since the fall of 2010. With its state-of-the-art facilities, faculty resources, and industry connections, CMC remains a crucial resource for alums trying to make it in Music City.

"Our local alumni are very involved in the life of the CMC," said Natalie Ferwerda, who directs the program's music business track and coordinates at least one alumni event, such as a songwriters' feedback session or an outing to a local show, every month.

In addition to attending weekly student concerts on campus, known as CMC Live, local alumni are occasionally asked to perform themselves, according to Ferwerda. They're also invited to take advantage of CMC's facilities-including its recording studio, photography studio and gear, and performance space-during the program's breaks and in the summer when current students are not using the facilities.

The program's alumni connection is so robust, in fact, that many alums-like Hannah Smith, who attended CMC in the fall of 2009 and returned the following semester as an artist-in-residence-even followed the program to Nashville when it moved after nine years at Martha's Vineyard.

Smith and her roommate, fellow CMC alum Alissa Abeler, are aspiring singer-songwriters who make up the alternative folk duo The Daily Fare.

"You live in an environment at CMC with people who have the exact same ideas and goals," said Smith, who grew up in North Syracuse, N.Y., and graduated from Johnson University, located in Knoxville, Tenn. "It's life-changing, perspective-changing. A huge group of my CMC friends moved here after the program [moved], and so did I."

Like many other local alums, Smith and Abeler attend CMC Live every week to reconnect with program faculty and support current students. For Smith, who considers herself "the encourager" amongst an intimidating 60-plus audience, providing a helping hand for other aspiring musicians is what it's all about.

"Going to students' shows, seeing new artists giving all their effort, watching them grow from beginning to end-it's inspiring to us too," she said. "I know what it's like. And I let them know that they have a place to go to if they want to be in community with other musicians."

CMC's dynamic program-alumni connection provides more than just student mentoring, however. For Thornton and his work at 44 Designs, the benefits to both parties are indispensably practical.

"It's more than just the students," he said, though he invited all 41 students to come tour his shop and learn about lighting production this semester. "It's the facilities, staff, and social circle. The CMC has connections greater than me or my company, and we in turn have connections that can help CMC."

Thornton regularly provides lighting for CMC events, such as the semester's kickoff Winter Jam show. Likewise, Ferwerda helps connect his company with student help.

"If I need extra hands, I shoot Natalie a text, and she hooks me up with students," he said. "If I can show them something about lighting, we can both be future resources to each other."

Nathan Allen is a senior from Asbury University in Wilmore, Ky. This semester, like Thornton a year earlier, he is studying in the CMC's technical track and hopes eventually "to move to Nashville and do studio work-that's the dream."

In just his first five weeks at CMC this semester, Allen is already broadening his focus from audio production to "all things tech production"-influenced, in large part, by watching and learning from alums like Thornton.

"When we visited his studio, Thornton talked about how companies do lighting design," said Allen. "He introduced me to lighting in a whole new way."

Allen, Smith, and Thornton all agree that the program's heavy emphasis on maintaining industry and alumni connections provides an indispensible collaboration among students, faculty, and alums.

"Alums and faculty essentially teach us the same things, but alums have ‘made it,'" said Allen. "We have a different type of respect and response to their advice. They're at the next level, putting theory into practice-showing us ‘this is what I do and why.'"

In addition to encouraging current students to stay connected to the CMC as alumni, both Smith and Thornton have the same advice for new CMC students.

"Try everything. Do everything. Don't be discouraged," said Smith. "Know there's an entire community behind you in this."

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India Studies Program Wraps Up Third Semester with Travel Across Northern India

Fall 2012 ISP students and faculty at the Taj Mahal in Agra -- a dream come true for many students.

COIMBATORE, India - The students in BestSemester's India Studies Program spend most of their semester living, working, and studying in Coimbatore, the "Manchester of the South," or the textile capital of the South India.

A bustling city of more than two million people, Coimbatore is the second largest city in the state of Tamil Nadu. It boasts countless features that make it an ideal setting for the newest BestSemester program, which is now in the middle of its fourth semester. Coimbatore is known for its temples and ancient architecture, as well as educational institutions, textile mills, factories, engineering firms, manufacturers, and health care facilities.

Though one could easily spend a lifetime exploring just Coimbatore and the rest of Tamil Nadu, ISP Program Director Kirk McClelland insists that to understand India, you must also travel to the North. So that is what ISP students spend the last two weeks of their semester doing.

"India is so different. If you stayed just in the South, you wouldn't know anything about it," said McClelland. "To really see its diversity and understand all branches of Hinduism, you have to go to the North."

In December 2012, McClelland, program assistant Karmen Tam, and two faculty from ISP's partner academic institution, Bishop Appasamy College of Arts & Science, led the fall semester ISP students on a whirlwind 15-day trip across Northern India. The trip included famous stops such as Calcutta, the city where Mother Teresa did much of her work, and the Taj Mahal, as well as lesser-known cultural and religious sites. Though students stayed in hotels in tourist areas, McClelland and the other faculty took care to arrange "places of significance" for lodging along the trip, including a Christian retreat center and local YMCA.

Senior Johanna Copan described the fall 2012 end-of-semester trip as "the icing on the cake" of an incredible semester.

"All that we learned about in our history and culture classes made sense in a whole new way as we traveled by train from South to North," said Copan, who graduates this spring from Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla. "My view of India was expanded, and I better understood the relationship and cultural differences between North and South India."

The group began the trip in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, which boasts a wealth of Islamic history. Stays in Calcutta, Varanasi, Agra, and Dehradun followed, and the trip concluded in Delhi, the capital of India. During ISP's first year, McClelland and other faculty refined the trip's itinerary to include "classic sites in the North, as well as meetings with meaningful people who inspire students."

According to Tam, the ISP program assistant who wrote about each stop on the group's journey for the program blog, one student described Calcutta as "what you think of when you think of India." Despite its historical and cultural gems, Calcutta in particular is a challenging highlight for most students, said McClelland.

Several students described the impact of a startling scene in Calcutta: While visiting Kalighat Temple, which is dedicated to the "bloodthirsty goddess" Kali, the group witnessed the sacrifice of a young goat.

"It wasn't on my personal agenda for the day," said Ashley Ober, a junior at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. "[The sacrifice] left me with an uneasy feeling in my stomach, but a greater understanding of the depth of Christ's sacrifice."

Like her five ISP classmates, Ober reveled in seeing the Taj Mahal for the first time, but she especially treasured stops in lesser-known locations such as Dehradun, a city nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas.

"I loved being able to see some of the bigger tourist attractions, but some of the most meaningful pieces of the trip were not spent in the glamorous areas," she said. "One of the things we did in each city was walk through the streets-not just the developed areas where Westerners might go, but through the neighborhoods, and into their temples, where the majority live. The trip forced me to encounter pieces of India that I wish did not exist-the poor areas, the slums, the places where people are not properly provided for."

It was not just scenes of poverty and injustice that confronted students, however: Long hours of group train travel challenged students personally, culturally, and communally.

"Spending so much time on the train was a challenge for me," admitted Ober. "The most rewarding piece was realizing that I am capable of much more than I gave myself credit for. I didn't think I would be able to spend over 90 hours on a train in a two-week span, but I did. I didn't think I would be able to white-water raft down the Ganges-let alone enjoy it-but I did. I didn't think that I could handle all of the poverty and suffering that we would experience, but I did."

McClelland takes great pride in the strides students make during the semester, particularly during the intense pace of the two-week trip.

"Our American sense of space is very different," he said. "The train travel can be uncomfortable for Westerners. But it's also an opportunity to meet local people and live the way they live. By the end of the trip, students are champs. They become experienced train travelers."

According to Tanner Michels, a student at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif., because students and faculty developed a close-knit community during the trip that superseded any one destination, "it didn't really matter where we stopped."

"I fell in love with my group, my micro-family that I grew to love in spite of all our differences," said Michels. "The Taj Mahal was amazing; so was the small temple in Varanasi. [But] it wasn't the locations that made the trip, no matter how amazing they were. It was about visiting these sites together as a family and enjoying them for the first time as a whole."

For junior Kelly Uchiumi, from George Fox University in Newberg, Ore., the most memorable moment of the trip occurred in New Delhi, as the group was returning from lunch by way of bicycle rickshaws. When one bicyclist became tired and tried to flag down a new rickshaw to finish the trip, visiting Bishop Appasamy lecturer and avid biker Randy Cronk, professor of psychology at Mount Vernon University in Mount Vernon, Ohio, took over.

"It was so funny watching people's faces as they pointed at us, laughing that a white tourist was biking on the rickshaw, while our driver was running behind making sure that we didn't run off the street into any cracks," said Uchiumi.

Through the trip's challenges, triumphs, and memories, the faculty continued to stress the connection to experiences back in the students' Western cities and on their Western campuses.

"There are problems and challenges here," McClelland tells his students every semester. "Where is that in your own country? How can you work for justice and peace?"

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A LASP Case Study: Chitwood 3.0, the Alumnus Years

By Matthew Chitwood

There's nothing like a 30th birthday to make you get introspective. As I hit the big 3-0 last month, the dreaded question actually came to mind: "What if my best days are behind me?"

Suddenly, a panic of processing hit me, and it was BestSemester's Latin American Studies Program all over again. Telos this. Praxis that. Trust the process. Change the world.

Hmmm. That last one hasn't quite happened yet. I was planning on changing the world. My token verse coming out of LASP was Isaiah 61:1-2:

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners."

This mandate was empowering. I was anointed and that was that. But in many ways it proved more a burden than a blessing. The scale of the problems I saw in the world was overwhelming, insurmountable, paralyzing. There are 26,000 kids dying every day from hunger and preventable disease; 12.3 million people are human trafficking victims; more than 1 billion people live on less than one dollar a day. Where was I to start?

As an additional barrier, there were few jobs with "broken heart binder-upper" in the job description (yes, I checked idealist.org). I taught English abroad to kids who couldn't afford it. I explored microfinance in order to help people lift themselves out of poverty. I considered medicine in order to equip myself with a tangible skill and be a direct channel of good. I even tried changing the system "from the inside" while doing trade in China. But these efforts were never enough. The impact was minimal on what I saw as a thoroughly broken world.

I also had a hefty case of what I now affectionately refer to as LASP-guilt. Would LASP approve of this job? Am I living up to that letter I wrote myself at the end of the semester? WWLD? LASP became my gold standard of a purpose-driven life (sorry, Mr. Warren).

A world in need of saving is a terrible burden for one person to bear. My enlightenment weighed heavy on my shoulders. I often wished that I'd never done LASP. I wished I could go back to the ignorant and carefree person I was before. I used to be really happy.

Ironically, in as much as LASP was a catalyst for my melancholy, it was also a catalyst for my renewal. In 2011, a group of fall 2003 LASPers gathered in D.C. for The Ocho, a LASP reunion. Our time together was quenching for the soul. We were immediately reminiscing about tres leches in el Carmen de Guadelupe and throwing Don Trevs in the ocean in Limón. We also turned quickly to doing what LASP had fostered in us so well: processing within community. What was our post-LASP journey like? How did LASP shape our current existence? What would we have changed about LASP?

As we drifted between fond memories, processing, and celebration of God's work in us during LASP and beyond, it became evident that LASP had played a catalytic role in everyone's life. All of us worked in very different fields: international development, education, medicine, health insurance, and politics. But each of us could trace experiences during LASP that steered us toward those unique vocations.

As we shared, it also became evident that many had struggled with the same LASP-guilt that I had suffered from. Some longed for a sense of purpose at work, but job satisfaction seemed elusive. Some struggled with being homeowners or saving for retirement while so many continued to be in need.

As we worshiped and shared together that Sunday morning, I reflected further on my mantra from Isaiah that had commissioned me to change the world. But, for the first time since LASP, I read it with different eyes-no longer in the first person. The Lord wasn't anointing me, he was anointing Isaiah. Rather, I was the poor one in need of good news; I was the one whose heart needed binding; I was the captive who needed set free; I was the prisoner who needed release from darkness.

Release.

Suddenly this weight that I'd felt since my experience at LASP was lifted from my shoulders. No longer was saving the world my responsibility. In fact, I myself still needed rescue.

This epiphany confirmed in me two important truths. First, at the center of my relationship with God is a need for brokenness. As good as I am, as enlightened as I become, I am still in need of rescue-which, thankfully, He readily does.

Second, only from my own state of brokenness can I engage the broken world that surrounds me. As Henri Nouwen poignantly wrote in The Wounded Healer, "[Christ's] appearance in our midst has made it undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing human society are not separate tasks, but are as interconnected as the two beams of the cross." My brokenness is linked to others' brokenness, and others' brokenness is linked to changing the world. Only from that vantage point can I truly understand, love, and serve a broken world.

A mentor once cautioned me, "Be wary the old specter of paternalism-that you have something to give and they all need to receive-which creates a power gap and isolates you from those whom you really want to love." In loving and serving from my own brokenness, I am able to see past myself, and my efforts once again become about glorifying God rather than the work itself.

I have in turn discovered that brokenness only comes by daily choice to receive God's Spirit, rather than trying by my might and my power. And I've in turn discovered that prayer is the key component to receiving his Spirit. Andrew Murray, a South African pastor in the late 1800s, captured this succinctly: "I feel sure that as long as we look on prayer chiefly as the means of maintaining our own Christian life, we shall not know fully what it is meant to be. But when we learn to regard it as the highest part of the work entrusted to us, the root and strength of all other work, we shall see that there is nothing that we so need to study and practice as the art of praying rightly." Changing the world strikes me as falling in the category of "all other work," and so I learn to press further into the work of prayer.

As I head into my 30s, I turn to a new mandate: "Let your petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers" (Phil. 4:6). As prayer finally creates time and space for God to work in my broken life and in the broken world around me, I become fully expectant of His work to change the world and, as I am a part of His work, of my best decade yet. My 20s were great, but I've come to realize that my efforts are but an earthly bean in God's ethereal platter of pinto.

And at my age, it's nice to know your best days aren't just behind you.

Matt Chitwood participated in the CCCU's BestSemester Latin American Studies Program in fall 2003 during his undergraduate studies at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. He recently completed his M.A. in International Economics and China Studies from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Matt is now in his fifth year of living in China where he works as a Research Analyst for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He also moonlights as a Chinese TV host.

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About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 171 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 118 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 53 affiliate campuses from 19 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council's mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.

ASC Students Are Treated Like Family During New Trip to Booderee National Park

An Aboriginal dancer performs during a traditional ceremony.

Fall 2012 ASC students learn about traditional uses for bush plants from Bernie while visiting Booderee National Park.

By Rose Creasman Welcome

At first glance, Australia's Booderee National Park is just one of many pristinely beautiful South Coast destinations on tourists' must-see lists. Visitors can camp at three different beaches, explore the exotic flora of the botanic gardens, and even go whale-watching.

But for last fall's BestSemester Australia Studies Centre students, who spent three days living with the aboriginal tribe that has called this land home for centuries, the park's lush beaches and rainforests became the backdrop to a cultural immersion experience unlike any other.

"A lot of foreign cultures, like Australia, make some sense to Western eyes," said ASC Director Kimberly Spragg, who accompanied the group of 20 students on the program's new three-day trip to Booderee National Park. "But aboriginal culture is totally different."

Booderee is considered one of the most beautiful national parks in the state and is home to the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community. In a joint agreement that became effective in 1995 between the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community and Environment Australia, the park's management rights were handed back to the descendants of the Yuin Nation that had inhabited the area before the British arrived in Australia. As the only aboriginal community located in a non-self-governing territory, the Yuin descendents are highly unique.

Organized by ASC lecturer Jennifer Newman as part of her Indigenous Cultures course, the students' visit to the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community allowed them the rare opportunity to participate in traditional ceremonies and in guided bush walks through the country - all while treated as "family" by their hosts, the Yuin people.

Students were particularly struck by the Yuin community's willingness to include them in intimate cultural activities, said Spragg - a trust made possible through Newman, who is Wiradjuri, another indigenous group of Australia from the New South Wales region.

"Other indigenous cultures are eager to say, ‘let us tell you about our culture.' Aboriginal culture is very different - they don't give away their culture," Spragg said. "You have to earn the right to experience it. They are very private; they trust us because of our connection with Jennifer."

Feeling respected by this vastly different culture helps students learn to respect other cultures, she added.

"I absolutely loved our trip to Booderee because it gave us a chance to get out of the classroom and learn about the aboriginal people of Australia by spending time with them," said fall 2012 student Bethany Sangl, a senior at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pa. "The members of the Yuin tribe that we spent time with welcomed us as family and were very open with us about their lives."

Students also heard stories from the Yuin people about their generations-long relationship to the land that now makes up Booderee National Park and their holistic connection to Country that serves as a primary foundation to their culture.

"The aboriginals who call Booderee home were especially focused on educating their community on the importance of land, environment, and our responsibility to take care of it," said fellow fall 2012 student Sabrina Johnson, who's a senior at William Jessup University in Rocklin, Calif. "We were able to experience a ceremony where the natives welcomed us to the land, and from that point forward they referred to us as family."

Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community consists of around 315 people, according to 2011 data. Community members generally belong to one of several main family groups that have lived in the village for generations.

Being able to experience firsthand the values, lifestyle, and traditions of aboriginal people is an invaluable complement to the Cultural Emphasis portion of ASC's curriculum, said Spragg. And students agree.

"We arrived at Booderee as guests and left as family, which is more than most visitors to the park can say," noted Sangl.

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Classroom Expands for ASP and WJC Students in D.C. During Presidential Election Year

The crowd at the White House by Connor McClain

ASP and WJC students at the White House - includes (left to right) Meagan Jennings (Oral Roberts University), Connor McClain (Hope International University), Sydney Bickers (Milligan College).

WASHINGTON – Each semester, approximately 40 students from a variety of CCCU campuses venture to Washington, D.C., to participate in BestSemester’s American Studies Program and Washington Journalism Center. Whether studying public policy, global development, or journalism, the students relish the opportunity to make the capital city their classroom for one exciting semester. However, once every four years, the city offers a little something extra to these students: the chance to experience the historic event that is a presidential election.

The fall 2012 semester was no exception. While some students, upon returning from a long day at their internship site, opted to take in the election results alongside their peers at the quintessential pizza party in the student lounge, others had alternative plans.

For Connor McClain, a junior from Hope International University in Fullerton, Calif., and an ASP student this fall, it was the opportunity to cross one more item off his “DC Bucket List”—head to the White House on election night.

“I love politics in general, and I really wanted to experience what it would be like on election night at the White House,” McClain shared. So he and a few friends from ASP and WJC trekked over to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that Tuesday night.

“We were constantly checking the news on our phones on the trip over. Just about the time we arrived, NBC began projecting that Barack Obama had won re-election. Cars were honking, people were yelling, and students from [nearby George Washington University] began streaming toward the White House.” McClain compared the atmosphere to when a major sports team wins a championship and everyone in the city goes wild. “It didn’t seem to matter your political view. Everyone was in a celebratory mood!”

Sydney Bickers, who is studying at WJC, was also thrilled to be a part of the crowd. “There were actually a lot more people there than I had expected. It was very exciting and actually the first time I had been that close to the White House.”

Heading to the “People’s House” was just one part of an already full day. As part of Bickers’ internship with the Georgetown version of the local news site Patch.com, the student from Milligan College in Milligan College, Tenn., spent the day at various polling locations across the city interacting with voters for an article on local charter amendments. When her editor, Shaun Courtney, learned Bickers was at the White House that night, she asked Bickers to tweet her experience to the Patch’s twitter feed.

Reflecting on the day and her entire DC experience, Bickers said, “You can’t help but get caught up in the conversation of the city.”

Another WJC student, Keely Brazil, hailing from The Master’s College in Santa Clarita, Calif., was sent to Maryland polling places to interview voters for her internship with The Washington Times.

“This city is always the center of national attention to some extent, but to see it in its prime, firing on all cylinders, a vibrant place where people know and care about current events and have opinions as to the direction of our country—that was pretty exciting. I couldn't have asked for a better time to see this incredible city.”

Of course, a semester in Washington does not begin or end with an election. Life goes on even after the last ballot is cast and counted.

After years of planning to study in D.C., McClain is still impressed with how the entire semester has gone “above and beyond his expectations.” From meeting notable members of the House of Representatives, to his internship with Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), to cheering on every major league sports team at least once, to engaging members of the community at the bus stop or during service projects, McClain has learned that “DC is more than just the capital; it’s people too.”

“If any student thinks that a semester spent in Washington, D.C., is not worth their time, they should definitely reconsider. You will learn so much about what it is really like to live and work in D.C., and you will gain a great experience, regardless of whether an election is going on or not,” McClain shared. “This has been my best semester and totally worth it!”

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About BestSemester: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities offers 12 off-campus study programs, collectively branded BestSemester®, which expand learning opportunities for students from CCCU campuses and are designated as culture-shaping or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping BestSemester programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (Los Angeles); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Culture-crossing BestSemester programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; India Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; and Uganda Studies Program. Visit www.bestsemester.com for program details.

About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 171 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 118 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 53 affiliate campuses from 19 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.

BestSemester Alumni Ambassador Program Gives Alumni a Forum for Sharing Their BestSemester Experiences

Messiah College reunion of USP alumni - Andrea Haskins

It’s a common scene at BestSemester programs around the world. The semester ends, tearful good-byes are shared between newfound friends, and students head home. The students who aren’t immediately graduating return to campus the next semester full of stories about their BestSemester experience and bursting at the seams to share them with their peers. But how?

For the past five years, BestSemester has offered a platform for program alumni returning to their campuses to share their stories and encourage other students to consider studying abroad or off-campus. The BestSemester Alumni Ambassador Program was created in the fall of 2007 by partnering with 10 program alumni who were returning to their campuses. Since then, the program has grown to include at least 20 students representing BestSemester on their home campus each semester, for a total of 40 alumni involved per year.

BestSemester Campus Relations Assistant, Meghan Donaghue, recruits and works with the alumni ambassadors. “We are encouraged with the number of qualified applicants each semester; it’s very exciting to see so much enthusiasm from our alumni to share their stories and spread the word back on their campus.”

This fall, Kylie Stevens and Travis Dodd were selected to be co-ambassadors at William Jessup University in Rocklin, Calif. Stevens and Dodd both participated in the Middle East Studies Program during the spring 2012 semester.

“Traveling to the Middle East allowed me to open a new door into a place that was only a mystery to me before,” Stevens shared. “Being [at MESP] made me see so much in our world that is impacted by others, and I learned how we impact others.”

Alumni Ambassadors are tasked with just one responsibility: host at least one event on campus to share about the types of BestSemester programs that are offered. When Stevens received the notice that BestSemester was looking for ambassadors, she knew it would be a perfect fit.

“Every time someone asked if I recommended studying abroad I responded with an enthusiastic ‘Yes!’”

William Jessup University is currently making efforts to encourage more of their students to study off-campus for a semester, so the university was enthusiastic when approached about having BestSemester Alumni Ambassadors on campus.

“Kylie and Travis are both excellent students who have a passion to learn, and the BestSemester program was one of the best ways to integrate that passion with a study abroad experience,” said Tina Petersen, William Jessup University registrar. “We who support the BestSemester programs know what an incredible experience it will be. However, Kylie and Travis have been able to express that experience to their peers in a way that I can’t.”

Stevens and Dodd at William Jessup have already made great strides this semester by hosting an informational table after chapel services on campus each week.

At Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Bethany Parks is now in her third semester working with the Alumni Ambassador program after studying at the Uganda Studies Program in spring 2011.

“I had an absolutely amazing experience with BestSemester,” Parks shared. “I feel very passionate that students should spend a semester abroad to enrich their knowledge as well as open their eyes to people, cultures, and other opportunities that may never arise again.”

Eastern University student and fall 2011 India Studies Program alumna Natasha Yoder is planning an event this fall to facilitate conversations between BestSemester alumni at Eastern, which is located in St. Davids, Pa., and students who have questions about the BestSemester programs.

“I chose to apply to be an ambassador because I really enjoyed my semester at ISP and wanted to encourage other students to take the opportunity to study abroad with BestSemester,” Yoder said. “I still get excited when I talk about my time in India, so I am always happy to talk with others about my experience and answer any questions about my time there.”

Andrea Haskins, a spring 2012 India Studies Program alumna, admits that she would have shared her BestSemester experience and urged fellow students at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., to study abroad no matter what. “I wanted to be an ambassador so I could have access to more resources and be a part of the community of ambassadors.”

At William Jessup, Stevens and Dodd look forward to sharing about BestSemester opportunities at a missions fair later this month. They are planning an event to highlight stories from other BestSemester alumni at William Jessup while showcasing foods from areas like the Middle East and Uganda, where several of the students have studied.

Petersen, the William Jessup registrar, looks forward to supporting the alumni ambassador campus team this semester. “Having an Alumni Ambassador is the one of the best ways to promote what great opportunities are available to William Jessup students,” she said.

Student applications for spring 2013 Alumni Ambassador positions will soon be available. If your campus has an interest in working with a student as a BestSemester Alumni Ambassador, please contact Lindsey Podguski, campus relations manager (lpodguski@cccu.org).

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About BestSemester: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities offers 12 off-campus study programs, collectively branded BestSemester®, which expand learning opportunities for students from CCCU campuses and are designated as culture-shaping or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping BestSemester programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (Los Angeles); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Culture-crossing BestSemester programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; India Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; and Uganda Studies Program. Visit www.bestsemester.com for program details.

About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 172 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 118 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 54 affiliate campuses from 19 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.

Letters from abroad: A plea from a fellow child of empire

Fall 2012 Middle East Studies Program student, Tesica Starkey, recently wrote an article for her campus newspaper at Southern Nazarene University, "The Echo."

Letters from abroad: A plea from a fellow child of empire
By Tesica Starkey
Posted on September 28, 2012
The Echo, Southern Nazarene University

"Dine with the opposition." It's a phrase that frequents the lips of Dr. David Holt, the director of CCCU's Middle East Studies Program (MESP). Initially, under the influence of jet lag and naiveté, I assumed that any opposition I encountered would fit nicely under labels like Israeli, Jew, Arab, Palestinian, or Muslim. This is their conflict, after all, and I was prepared to occasionally interact with them throughout the semester before boarding a plane in December to retreat to my comfortable solace with my neatly packaged ideas regarding the Middle East conflict. Little did I know that dining with the opposition would hit much closer to home.

I've only been studying in Jerusalem for almost a month, and, while my knowledge of the conflict has grown immensely, I'm nowhere near a scholar on the subject. What I have learned, however, is that the situation is impossibly complicated and frustratingly misrepresented by American media. Even if you're more educated on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than I was going into MESP (which is entirely likely), a realistic grasp of the complexity of the situation is impossible without living here, hearing these stories, meeting these people, and understanding that this is real life. [...]

Continue Reading this Article at SNU's The Echo

Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony Marks Opening of New MESP Center in Jerusalem

MESP students take in the view from the rooftop of the new MESP Center.

During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, MESP student Sarah Chung receives the torch passed from Chris Mawhorter, alum of MESP's last Cairo semester.

JERUSALEM – While walking along the southern rim of Tantur Ecumenical Institute last year, BestSemester’s Middle East Studies Program Director Dr. David Holt stumbled upon a run-down building on Tantur’s property that had been abandoned since 1997. This Jerusalem diamond-in-the-rough overlooked the historically-Christian communities of Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, and Beit Jala.

In a cooperative gesture of hope and common purpose, Tantur agreed that the building should be used for MESP and that renovations costs would be shared. By late spring, local contractors had begun their work, and in July the finishing touches on the new MESP Center were added.

On September 1, 2012, the Middle East Studies Program faculty, staff, and students gathered for a humble yet symbolically significant ribbon-cutting ceremony. Attendees included Tantur rector Fr. Tim Lowe and wife Lisa as well as Nasra Dahdal of Bethlehem University and Rev. Dr. Yazid Said, acting dean, St. George’s Anglican Cathedral, Jerusalem. Dr. Suzanne Holt and Mrs. Lisa Lowe conducted the ribbon cutting while Fr. Lowe led the Litany of Dedication.

One of the most important ceremonial acts of the occasion involved the passing of the torch from MESP Program Assistant Chris Mawhorter, representing program alumni and the last MESP semester held in its old Cairo setting, to Sarah Chung, representing the current fall 2012 students and the first group to use the new center. It signaled a transition of continuity, moving MESP from one location to another without compromising its core purpose to engage students with the people and culture of the region.

“The service was simple but significant for me,” said Mawhorter. “To have the various members of MESP’s community here in Israel and our hosts and friends at Tantur present was a small but powerful testament to how MESP has continued to thrive in the region and has completed the transition that my semester embarked on. Despite the winds of change across the region, MESP has continued to be an unparalleled window for students into this fascinating and important place.”

The new center will now serve as the main hub for MESP academic and social activities, as well as a place where students can enjoy the incredible views in every direction from its patio and rooftop. More importantly, the new facility in Jerusalem will allow the program to continue fostering many opportunities for intellectual growth, spiritual maturity, and career preparation for Council for Christian Colleges & Universities’ students.

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About BestSemester: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities offers 12 off-campus study programs, collectively branded BestSemester®, which expand learning opportunities for students from CCCU campuses and are designated as culture-shaping or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping BestSemester programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (Los Angeles); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Culture-crossing BestSemester programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; India Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; and Uganda Studies Program. Visit www.bestsemester.com for program details.

About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 172 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 118 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 54 affiliate campuses from 19 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.

Nine BestSemester Students Awarded Prizes for Exceptional Performance at Oxford

OXFORD, United Kingdom - BestSemester's Scholars' Semester in Oxford has awarded nine spring 2012 students with deJager prizes for exceptional academic performance.

Prizewinners are:

Benjamin Baker from Houghton College in Houghton, N.Y.
Jessica Barnett from Messiah College in Grantham, Pa.
Victoria Chandler from Gordon College in Wenham, Mass.
Philip Derbesy from Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho
Christoph Sanz from Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Kelsey Shaw from East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Texas
Casey Smedberg from Gordon College
Nate Van Wyck from Messiah College
Jessica Yu from Gordon College

In addition to the honor of the prize, students also receive a $50 cash award for each prize. This spring's prizewinners are receiving the deJager prize's inaugural awards. Normally, up to 10 prizes will be awarded at the end of each Scholars' Semester in Oxford semester, though this spring two students received two awards each, making a total 11 prizes awarded. Following each Oxford Summer Programme, up to three deJager prizes are awarded.

All SSO and OSP students in good standing are automatically considered for prizes. Essays written for the three SSO courses-integrative seminar, British studies, and thesis-are evaluated for scholarly excellence by SSO faculty, and particularly meritorious essays are judged winners in each of the three categories. Winning essays show originality of conception, ease in handling primary and secondary sources, professional handling of scholarly apparatus, lucid and stylistically appropriate prose, a sustained argument, and effective rebuttal of counter arguments.

Philip Derbesy and Nate Van Wyck produced outstanding essays in two categories and hence won two prizes following the spring SSO semester.

"When I look back on Oxford, I realize that just about everything I did helped me grow both intellectually and spiritually," noted Van Wyck. "From my wonderful conversations with tutors, to the dozen lectures I attended each week, to the long hours I spent reading whatever book I wanted to in the library, to the exciting thoughts I had just looking around the beautiful old city, to the unforgettable chats I had with great friends back at the house, everything that happened at Oxford was significant, and I would love to do it all over again."

"When thinking back over what I learned from the two semesters that I was a part of the SCIO programme, I keep coming back to one thing: I am a Christian, and I am also a scholar. I have always logically known that the two are not mutually exclusive, but my time in SCIO has truly made me believe that an academic life is not only acceptable for a Christian, but that it is actually a God-given calling," said prizewinner Smedberg. "There is something very beautiful and fulfilling in the realization that while I know very little, God has equipped me for a life in which I might bring glory to Him by endeavoring to learn more. I credit my Oxford experience for helping me to truly comprehend that."

"We are delighted to recognize the achievement of these students who impressed us with their application and intellectual ability. We believe that study at Oxford is of great benefit to all academically able students and hope that these prizes help the students by acting as a mark of their outstanding achievement as they plan their future careers," said Stan Rosenberg, director of the Scholars' Semester in Oxford and Oxford Summer Programme.

The Scholars' Semester in Oxford, which is for students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher, and Oxford Summer Programme, which welcomes a wider range of students, give students from CCCU colleges and elsewhere a chance to experience the intellectual challenges of a world-class research university. When studying at SSO, students are members of Wycliffe Hall, one of the University of Oxford's 44 constituent colleges and halls. SSO students are also on the Register of Visiting Students of the University of Oxford, which gives them rights to use University libraries and other facilities and attend University lectures. All OSP students are associate members of Wycliffe.

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About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 172 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 118 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 54 affiliate campuses from 19 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council's mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.

2012 BestSemester Photo Contest Winners Announced

Best Overall photo: "Youth" by BrittaLisa Gess, MESP, Fall 2008

BestSemester recently invited alumni from fall 2008 through spring 2012 to participate in the 2012 BestSemester Photo Contest. The contest attracted 150 participants who submitted over 500 total photographs.

The photo contest was hosted online this year, which allowed the public to view entries almost immediately and vote on their favorite photos. Contestants were invited to submit photos reflecting their BestSemester experience and fitting into one of three categories: Adventure, Community, or Discovery.

The grand prize for “Best Overall” photo was awarded to fall 2008 Middle East Studies Program alumna BrittaLisa Gess for her photo “Youth,” depicting MESP students making friends with teenage soldiers outside a hostel in East Jerusalem.

When she learned of her winning photo, Gess commented, “I had numerous life-changing experiences on MESP and am so glad I was able to share some of those with people through my photography.”

Additional category winners include:

Adventure Winner: “Lovin' Life” by Barnabas Bridgman (Australia Studies Centre, Spring 2010)

Community Winner: “Universal Language” by BrittaLisaGess (Middle East Studies Program, Fall 2008)

Discovery Winner: “Did We Get It?” by Miles Allen (L.A. Film Studies Center, Spring 2012)

People's Choice Winner: “The Way We Get By” by Amy Lin (Scholars' Semester in Oxford, Spring 2011)

To view all of the winning photos, visit www.bestsemester.com/photocontest or www.facebook.com/bestsemester.

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About BestSemester: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities offers 12 off-campus study programs, collectively branded BestSemester®, which expand learning opportunities for students from CCCU campuses and are designated as culture-shaping or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping BestSemester programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (Los Angeles); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Culture-crossing BestSemester programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; India Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; and Uganda Studies Program. Visit www.bestsemester.com for program details.

About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 185 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 116 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 69 affiliate campuses from 25 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.

CCCU Off-Campus Study Coordinators Convene in Houston

Cynthia Toms Smedley presents a session at the OCSC conference in Houston.

Wendy Lippert addresses OCSC participants.

HOUSTON – On June 1-2 in Houston, BestSemester hosted a conference of Council for Christian Colleges & Universities Off-Campus Study Coordinators. Administrators, faculty, and staff tasked with encouraging and preparing students to study abroad attended from 17 CCCU member and affiliate campuses.

The conference theme, “Bridge the Gap: Study Abroad and the Christian Student,” focused on important issues in the context of faith-based study abroad and off-campus study.

In the opening keynote address, Cynthia Toms Smedley, director of Educational Immersions at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns, challenged conference participants to consider how study abroad opportunities prepare students to embrace otherness in their own neighborhoods as well as across the world.

Two of the BestSemester program directors were on hand to share their on-the-ground perspectives. Kirk McClelland, director of the India Studies Program, presented on the value and struggles associated with international internships. Mark Bartels, director of the Uganda Studies Program, shared how students can learn to engage other cultures from a perspective of friendship rather than servanthood.

Additional sessions discussed an array of topics important to off-campus study coordinators. Brock Schroeder, an associate vice president at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and a member of the CCCU’s Student Academic Programs Commission, addressed assessment methods and standards of off-campus programs. Ken Bussema, CCCU vice president for student programs, provided insight on standards of good practice in crisis management planning.

Jeffrey Miller, assistant director of off-campus programs at Taylor University in Upland, Ind., presented highlights of the findings from the Taylor University Intercultural Inventory which measured student development due to intercultural experiences and how the university can incorporate the findings into further development of their pre-departure and re-entry programming.

Wendy Lippert, director of international programs at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., demonstrated many of the lessons Messiah has learned in developing programming to support students’ transition back to the United States and beyond.

“The sessions were informative and...the whole conference had a nice laid-back feel,” said Brent Reimer, director of semester abroad programs at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind. “The best part of the OCSC conference for me was meeting colleagues from schools across the country and networking.”

Barbara Pointer, off-campus programs coordinator at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., said the conference was a “wonderful way to connect with colleagues, wrestle together with the challenges, gain new ideas and perspectives, and encourage one another on our respective campuses”

She added, “Once again, I was renewed in my passion to help students significantly connect their off-campus experience upon return to their campus and on into their life work.”

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About BestSemester: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities offers 12 off-campus study programs, collectively branded BestSemester®, which expand learning opportunities for students from CCCU campuses and are designated as culture-shaping or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping BestSemester programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (Los Angeles); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Culture-crossing BestSemester programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; India Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; and Uganda Studies Program. Visit www.bestsemester.com for program details.

About CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 185 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 116 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 69 affiliate campuses from 25 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.

Highlights Abound as India Studies Program Concludes First Year

Kali Fairchild (in orange) and other fall ISPers react to the fireworks during Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights.

ISP student Jake Maude poses with the local cigarette-walla.

COIMBATORE, India – BestSemester’s India Studies Program recently completed its inaugural year. Twenty-three students—12 students last fall and 11 this spring—from Council for Christian Colleges & Universities campuses experienced the richness and challenge of immersion in Indian culture.

Through a partnership with CCCU international affiliate Bishop Appasamy College of Arts & Science, located in Coimbatore in southern India, students spent weekdays in classes with BACAS faculty and ISP guest lecturers as well as experiencing internships and service placements, exploring Coimbatore, and participating in BACAS campus life. Each semester also included 4-5 regional trips in the southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well as a longer end-of-semester trip to North India, expanding students’ exposure to India’s varied cultures.

Learning through relationships

The many highlights of the fall semester for Kali Fairchild, an economic development major who graduated this month from Eastern University in St. Davids, Pa., included the weekend she spent with her host family and her Friday Indian cooking classes with BACAS professor Fabin Charles Nathan.

“Through our many hours we spent with Charles in the kitchen, he showed us patience, the joy in cooking, kindness, and humor,” said Fairchild. “Charles had a huge impact on my time in India and served as someone I could talk to about the experiences we were having. He taught me that two people of completely different cultures can relate [to] and learn from each other despite their differences.”

Jacob Maude, whose spring semester at ISP completed his undergraduate degree from Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, was struck by how Indians value relationships. “Indians have truly understood that relationships are the most important part of life and take priority over dreams and ambitions, which is an idea that I want to integrate into my daily life,” he said.

Related to the Indian people’s high value on relationships is the generous hospitality they bestowed on ISP students. “The way the Indian people lived and treated the ISP students completely transformed my understanding of hospitality. Through that new understanding, I learned more of God’s love,” said Celiz Aguilar, a junior intercultural studies major at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif.

Her Indian friends, neighbors, and BACAS faculty gave as God loves, holding back nothing. “I believe that it is all a tangible manifestation of God’s unyielding, dedicated, and fervent love for people regardless of what they have to offer back,” she added. “I’m unsure how to give and be hospitable in my home context, but I’m beginning to truly realize it is not about giving to those who are sincerely thankful. The sacrifice may go unnoticed, but the giving should still come regardless.”

Exposure to many religions

During the semester, ISP students were exposed to India’s pluralistic religious culture through friendships with followers of religions other than Christianity, through a day spent with a Tibetan Buddhist monk at his monastery, and through visits to some of India’s holy Hindu sites as well as to a famous Muslim temple in Hyderabad, India’s oldest synagogue in Kochi (Cochin), and a famous ashram in Kerala.

For Jamie Rubadue, a May 2012 communication studies graduate from Eastern University, one of the highlights of her spring ISP semester was “gaining a new perspective on open dialogue in regard to faith and religion. From physically experiencing hubs of religious activity to spending time with people of a multitude of faith backgrounds, I was able to learn a new way of communicating faith: that is, a conversation without competition.”

Fairchild, too, noted that she struggled during the semester with how to react to the diversity of religions present in India. “I found learning about Hinduism, Sikhism, etc., very fascinating but struggled when I became very close with people practicing these religions,” she said.

“I was faced with many hard questions when thinking about them and whether or not they would go to heaven. I struggled with how to ‘evangelize’ someone whose religion is also their history, culture, etc. Kirk, Kandyce, and Jon [ISP director and program assistants] helped us work through these issues.”

Good foundation, tweaking where needed

While ISP staff will continue evaluating the program and making adjustments to enhance students’ learning experience, Kirk McClelland, ISP director, said, “I’m excited about every element and what we’ve accomplished with the foundations we’ve made. I’m pleased after [this first] year.”

Yet, he also notes that he is excited to build on the lessons learned, particularly regarding academics and internships. “Our partners at BACAS are equally excited and wanting to make this the best program it can be and are really just enthusiastic about improving things, so I’m looking forward to working with them again.”

“Overall, the program really delivers on giving students an experiential understanding of India in all its complexities,” McClelland said. “Students come away with a deepened understanding of what it means to follow God in their own context.”

His hope is not that all ISP students will return to India but that they will go into whatever profession they are called to and live out the values of God’s kingdom there, doing this better for having been exposed to Christians in India who are living faithfully in a pluralistic society.

Rubadue offered evidence that McClelland’s hope will be realized when she noted that ISP experiences have left her taking on a deeper conviction for her community. “After my experiences in India, meeting so many people who are working to empower their communities, the desire to use the education that I have been blessed with has intensified to a more specific degree. Whether I work internationally or locally, I find myself having more energy than I can contain [for serving] with the gifts I have been given.”

For more stories from the first year of BestSemester’s India Studies Program, visit the ISP blog “Riding in Rickshaws.”

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About BestSemester: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities offers 12 off-campus study programs, collectively branded BestSemester®, which expand learning opportunities for students from CCCU campuses and are designated as culture-shaping or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping BestSemester programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (Los Angeles); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Culture-crossing BestSemester programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; India Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; and Uganda Studies Program. Visit www.bestsemester.com for program details.

About CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 185 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 116 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 69 affiliate campuses from 25 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.

The Universal Language of Story

Jeremy Casper teaches film students during a one-week film school outside Brisbane, Australia.

Jeremy Caspar (plaid shirt, front left) poses for a group shot with students from a film school in Ukraine.

LAFSC Faculty Members Coach Fledgling Filmmakers Around the World

By Jeremy Casper, faculty/instructor, BestSemester Los Angeles Film Studies Center

It was Saint Ambrose who said, “When I am at Rome, I fast on a Saturday; when I am at Milan, I do not. Follow the custom of the church where you are.” This phrase probably sounds familiar, though you are more than likely accustomed to the shortened and much more song-lyric-friendly, “When in Rome, do as the Romans…”

While on his missionary journeys, the Apostle Paul took on the customs of the cultures he visited by becoming “all things to all men” for the sake of the gospel.

Saint Augustine and the Apostle Paul both knew that in order to reach a culture, they must first know the culture—an endeavor that encompasses learning everything from new languages to idiosyncratic customs to the proper way to ask for directions to the bathroom.

Our world is different than the worlds of Augustine and Paul. Today, there are believers rising up in every known people group, from every corner of the globe. How necessary is it for me to become like an Ethiopian, when there are numerous Ethiopians rising up in their own land? Who better to reach out to New Zealanders than the Kiwi’s or the Māori people? What advice can someone like me—a guy from Hollywood—bring to the people of Ukraine?

The Global Short Film Network is a collective of artists affiliated with Cru (formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ). Part of GSFN’s mission is to coach filmmakers, particularly outside North America, on how to craft stories that speak to their culture. My colleague John Bucher and I have been given the opportunity to travel to some of the above-mentioned countries and join GSFN to teach week-long filmmaking seminars to locals who want to learn how to use film in ministry.

There’s not much advice I can give Christians in the Muslim world of Egypt. But I can teach them a language that tends to be understood across cultures, and that is the language of cinema.

I recently returned from a trip to Ukraine. There I worked with an amazing group of artists who are reaching out to the younger generation of Ukrainians through the use of online short films and media. They already have all the tools. Many of them already know how to run cameras and how to interface with editing software. But they do not know how to effectively tell stories.

Cinema (and the arts) shares something in common with the Holy Spirit. In Romans, Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf, expressing the achings of our hearts with groans that words cannot express. Art does the exact same thing; it gives tangible form to those complexities of our inner self that words are painfully incapable of describing.

Story has a way of bypassing our brains and cutting straight through to our hearts; it’s a powerful way to communicate that can be inadvertently abused if entrusted to someone who doesn’t understand the language. Just like studying any language, filmmakers must learn how to, not only read the language of cinema (critical viewing, film deconstruction), but also how to write in the language of cinema (crafting stories, choosing proper camera angles, lighting, editing) in order for their films to reach their full potential. I cannot be an effective filmmaker unless I understand how the medium of film works and why the human psyche responds to story the way it does.

During our seminars, I spend an entire week teaching the basics of film. We meet with students in their home countries, often working with multiple translators, cramming nearly an entire semester’s worth of information into four days! We cover topics like, “Developing Your Protagonist,” “The Basic Beats of Storytelling,” “Understanding Your Antagonist,” and “Writing Effective Endings.”

During the second half of our seminar the students get to choose a specific track of study. I teach the Directing Track. In this track students learn how to effectively translate their scripted stories into fully fleshed-out films on the big screen. We talk about auditioning actors, giving direction on set, working with the director of photography, using the language of cinema, and a number of other topics to prepare them for the next phase of their studies.

After I leave, students spend another week shooting their freshly-written short films. They end their training time with a film festival and celebration. After saying their goodbyes, they board planes, head back to their respective countries, and begin implementing the things they learned during their film training.

I always tell my students that the best way to learn something is to teach it. I have never once stepped away from the lecture podium at the LAFSC or at a film school on the other side of the world without having learned something new. Every time I teach abroad, I discover new cultural perspectives on how humans engage story. So much of what I now teach at the LAFSC has come from the bits and pieces I’ve gathered from my teachings abroad.

The basics of story have been in place for millennia and are understood universally around the world. What better way to learn story and prepare myself as an instructor than to teach it around the world.

About the author: Jeremy Casper has been teaching at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center since fall 2007. An alum of LAFSC and Southwest Baptist University, he earned an M.A. in Communication, with an emphasis in Film Directing and Cinematography, from Regent University. Jeremy served as writer/director/producer for his recently-completed first feature film, Vacant House, which he is currently submitting to festivals. This summer, with his LAFSC colleague John Bucher, Jeremy will co-author a book on story structure for the short film. He is also developing a new feature screenplay set to launch production in summer 2013.

About BestSemester: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities offers 12 off-campus study programs, collectively branded BestSemester®, which expand learning opportunities for students from CCCU campuses and are designated as culture-shaping or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping BestSemester programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (Los Angeles); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Culture-crossing BestSemester programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; India Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; and Uganda Studies Program. Visit www.bestsemester.com for program details.

LAFSC Director Gives Address on the Dark Side of Beauty, Studies in U.K. During Sabbatical

Rebecca Ver Straten-McSparran, director of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities’ BestSemester Los Angeles Film Studies Center, has been working with artists and churches in Los Angeles for decades. Over time, she said, she has seen a trend toward Christian art-making that she finds troubling.

“A lot of people in the Christian world don’t know how to mentor artists,” Ver Straten-McSparran said. “We don’t know how to deal with a side of beauty that is not all things bright and beautiful.”

In late January, Ver Straten-McSparran was a lecturer for the Santa Barbara dates of a lecture series, the Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry, organized by The Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. Her lecture, entitled “13 Ways of Looking at a Black Bird: The Dark Side of Beauty,” explored how Christian churches and schools can better incorporate students who resonate more with the dark side of God’s beauty.

“There is so much richness and fullness to God’s beauty, all of who He is,” she said. “It was an awesome, sublime moment when he was forsaken and descended into hell. It was a very dark moment, but it was significant.”

In order to engage in the full experience of life, it is necessary to look beyond “Christian art” that presents a picture only of the lovely and beautiful. Thus, the idea for Ver Straten-McSparran’s provocative address was born from considering the need for Christian mentorship for young artists who identify with a darker side of life at an early age.

“Some of the best artists view the world through a darker lens,” she noted, “and churches often don’t know how to deal with these kinds of students or youth.” In recent years, churches have been very open to art, and as a result, young artists have felt welcome in youth groups. However, some youth leaders don’t know how to respond to these bright, young artists who ask tough questions in a different way, said Ver Straten-McSparran. Because of this, these students who view life through a darker lens sometimes stay on the edges of faith and fail to engage it.

“They may end up becoming great artists, but by that time they’ve already walked away from the church,” she explained.

At LAFSC, Ver Straten-McSparran aims to provide a space for students to explore all sides of art and beauty. In her experience, some of the students who have flourished most at BestSemester’s filmmaking studies program are those who push back against the boundaries of cultural Christianity and dare to ask hard questions.

“They have a freedom to both act and react within a pretty loving, boundaried community,” she explained. “We offer them some walls to push against but also encouragement.” LAFSC classes and internships allow students to express themselves creatively while still providing them with knowledge about good filmmaking. “They have certain things they want to express, and we let them do that, but at times we also have to tell them that it’s not good filmmaking,” she said.

Ver Straten-McSparran is currently on sabbatical from her position as LAFSC director. She has begun work on her doctorate from King’s College London and has been living in the United Kingdom this semester. Though the experience has been a radical change from the pace of her life in Los Angeles, every day is full of wonder and amazement, she said. “I get to go through the countryside every day. I love London,” she enthused. “In what I do, there is no coursework, but they constantly offer brilliant lectures.”

The experience so far has made Ver Straten-McSparran “a very happy woman.” She returns to her director duties at LAFSC on July 1 but will continue to spend time in the U.K. as she progresses toward earning her doctoral degree, with plans to complete the Ph.D. in three years.

Ver Straten-McSparran will be a plenary speaker at the American Scientific Affiliation annual meeting in July. This year’s theme is “Science, Faith, & the Media: Communicating Beyond Books.”

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About BestSemester: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities offers 12 off-campus study programs, collectively branded BestSemester®, which expand learning opportunities for students from CCCU campuses and are designated as culture-shaping or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping BestSemester programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (Los Angeles); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Culture-crossing BestSemester programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; India Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; and Uganda Studies Program. Visit www.bestsemester.com for program details.

About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 185 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 116 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 69 affiliate campuses from 25 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help its institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.

LAFSC Alumni Are Part of Crew for ’The Artist,’ Winner of 2012’s Best Picture Oscar

Katie Alloway Page

David Smokay

By Chris Krebsbach, LAFSC industry relations director

The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities’ BestSemester Los Angeles Film Studies Center is proud to announce that two LAFSC alumni were part of the crew of 2012’s Best Picture Oscar winner, The Artist. In addition, Christina Lee Storm, a regular guest speaker for LAFSC’s Faith and Artistic Development course was the production supervisor on the film. LAFSC sat down with Katie Alloway Page, spring 2005 alumna, and David Smokay, fall 2010 alum, to ask about their experience.

LAFSC: How did you get your position on The Artist?

Smokay: LAFSC’s internship director had tried to set me up with an internship on the Disney lot, but when we never heard back from them, I was a little disappointed. Almost a week after internships started, I got a call from LAFSC about a feature film looking for office interns for "a black and white silent French film." So that afternoon I set up an interview time, and they offered me the position the next day. I was an office intern but ended up working with the camera crew so much, they requested I be listed as a camera intern in the credits.

Page: I found out about the opportunity through Christina Lee Storm, the production supervisor of The Artist. I was in the Producing and Entertainment Executive Program at Act One, and she reached out to them for interns…I didn't know much about the project at that time, just that it was a black and white silent film, produced by a French production company, and it would be shot in Hollywood. Little did I know that I was working on the next Best Picture.

LAFSC: What fun stories do you have about working on the film?

Smokay: In November, I was asked to drive Malcolm McDowell [who plays The Butler in the film] from Paramount Studios to his home in the Simi Valley. So for an hour and a half, I was able to listen to him tell me stories about when he was young and breaking into the business. As if that wasn't enough, when we reached his home, he asked me to come in and meet his wife and two young sons.

Another time, during the last week of shooting, while waiting for lighting to be set, I asked [a crew member] what he thought about the film overall. He responded, "I've worked on a lot of films, but with this film...I smell award season." Even though I hoped he was right, I never thought it would win an Oscar, much less Best Picture.

Page: My favorite moment of the entire experience is the first time I watched the film. It screened at the AFI Film Festival at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre…I've never experienced anything quite like it. At the end of the film, we received a standing ovation, and I knew in that moment that we were part of something very special.

LAFSC: How does it feel to have a Best Picture award winner on your resume?

Page: I feel incredibly grateful to have The Artist be the first feature I worked on… My hope is that I continue to work on films that embrace beauty, truth, and meaning. I am incredibly proud to be a part of the team and hope that I get another opportunity to work alongside these wonderful creators, producers, cast, and crew.

Smokay: It feels a little surreal right now. I still can't believe it's the same film I worked on…Regardless of any awards it won, it was the most eye-opening experience of my life, and I feel like it has equipped me greatly to work in the film industry.

LAFSC: Any final thoughts?

Smokay: The opportunity to work on such an important film came straight from God. I couldn't have dreamed up or planned that perfect internship. I am very grateful for the entire LAFSC faculty and staff…Their guidance was instrumental in my success and placement on this film set.

Page: I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the LAFSC for having me as part of the program in the spring of 2005. It is through LAFSC that I discovered my love for Hollywood and producing films. I owe many of the opportunities that I have had over the past seven years to your organization and the wonderful people that run the program. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

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About BestSemester: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities offers 12 off-campus study programs, collectively branded BestSemester®, which expand learning opportunities for students from CCCU campuses and are designated as culture-shaping or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping BestSemester programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (Los Angeles); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Culture-crossing BestSemester programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; India Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; and Uganda Studies Program. Visit www.bestsemester.com for program details.

About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 185 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 116 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 69 affiliate campuses from 25 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help its institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.