Category: Stories In Focus

This year for National Poetry Month, Houghton’s Department of English and writing will host two visiting poets on campus.

The first of the visiting poets is Suzanne Rhodes, a New York native who now makes her home in Virginia Beach and teaches at the Muse Writers Center. The author of five books of poetry and lyrical essays and a finalist for the Pushcart Poetry Prize and the Library of Virginia Prize, Rhodes is currently at work on her second full-length poetry collection. She describes her work as an exploration of “the natural world with its Otherness and beauty ever summoning, and the human complicated, often contradictory human self.” After sharing a short on-campus poetry reading on Monday, she had dinner with students from the department and answered questions about her work.

On April 24, Canadian poet, Suzanne Nussey ‘74, will visit Houghton to read excerpts from her published works and sharing insights into her writing process, which she says “hope(s) to bring to light something that was previously invisible to me, to find out what some part of me already knows but has not reached the level of language.” Nussey, a Houghton alumnus, has won the Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest and the 2014 National Magazines Award, and has published articles and poems in a variety of publications.

Professor of English, Linda Mills-Woolsey, a published poet herself, invests great worth in the experience of hearing from accomplished and experienced authors. “The immediate value is getting to know about another writer,” she said. “If you have the chance to talk to other writers, they become part of your network.” In the past, visiting writers have given aspiring writers valuable advice and have been open to students contacting them later for advice and feedback. This makes  these events especially valuable for those who wish to enter the writing community or even consider publication.

Mills-Woolsey also emphasized the value of interacting with “people who once sat where you are sitting now,” and who have learned to transfer academic truths into their lifelong writing practice. While both Rhodes and Nussey have advanced degrees, they are also women who have balanced careers, family responsibilities, and creative pursuits. While Nussey describes her Houghton education, particularly the influence of fellow poet Jack Leax, as “foundational in my development as a writer,” she also said a lifetime full of diverse experiences has given her “more self-confidence as a writer, more empathy, an ear for different voices, and a real appreciation for the absurd.”

Both writers have drawn on own experiences as well as poetic tradition, providing a model for student writers who have other career ambitions.  “Each of them decided not to go the full academic route, to do other things,” Mills-Woolsey shared. Rather than pursuing a career as a full-time writer or professor, Rhodes remained at home to raise her children, work with various homeschooling groups, and write grade school curriculum materials, while Nussey has worked as an editor, teacher, and tutor.

“These sorts of writers are accessible,” Mills-Woolsey said. “They give you useful patterns for the writing life, because not everyone is going to be famous one day.” She believes that these two particular writers showcase the rewards of “keeping at it.”

For those who may be unable to attend the events but still wish to hear from these exemplary poets, Suzanne Nussey offers a few words of encouragement for aspiring writers: “Expect to go through periods, sometimes seemingly unending, of self-doubt, bad writing, or no writing at all. This is pretty common for most writers I know. Pay no attention to the little devil on your shoulder who says you’re a failure. Be patient.”

Every year since 1990, Houghton College has selected one of its faculty members to receive the Excellence in Teaching Award. This award is intended to recognize, publicly acknowledge and reward faculty for outstanding teaching. This year, Ron Oakerson, professor of political science, is the recipient of this honor.

Oakerson completed his undergraduate studies at Taylor University, then continued on to earn a Masters degree and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Indiana University. The end of this semester will mark his twenty-fifth year of serving at Houghton, including two years as the chair of the department of history and political science, and seven years as the academic vice president and dean of the college.

Faculty colleagues of Oakerson have “unquestionably” noted him as “one of the college’s top scholars.” They admire his ability to “devise new, creative, and innovative classroom experiences” that create a “remarkable” educational experience for his students. Peter Meilaender, professor of political science, said, “Ron is a tremendously innovative teacher who has continued to experiment with new approaches. He has developed multiple new courses, and he has introduced an important element of fieldwork into his teaching.”

Oakerson is passionate about bringing students into an unfamiliar environment where they come face-to-face with issues that are only understood when experienced. “Increasingly, I have been more interested in getting students out of the classroom,” he said. “I love the classroom, but I also think students need to come into contact with people who are immersed in doing things and accomplishing things and reflecting on how they do and accomplish these things.”

Issues related to community governance and international development have taken Oakerson and his students to numerous communities around the country and around the world. In his course on urban governance, Oakerson has taken students to meet and talk with government officials and community leaders in Buffalo to interact with principles they learn in the classroom. Perhaps his most well-known endeavor would be the “Mango Out-Growers Project,” a joint outreach of Houghton College and World Hope International that Oakerson has led in Sierra Leone since 2009. In this experience, students engage in field research in the rural villages of Sierra Leone and investigate various issues that are related to development. “For many of those students, it has been a life-changing experience,” Oakerson said.

“The ‘Mango Project’ has been a remarkable opportunity for students not only to put their political science study into practice, but also to perform Christian service at the same time,” Meilaender said.

One of the most important lessons Oakerson has learned over the past 25 years of teaching at Houghton has been the value of respect in the classroom. He said, “I’m sure I have not always succeeded in this, but my effort and my aim has always been to try to accord respect to students for their thoughts, their ideas, and their articulation of those ideas.”

From April 6 to 8, five English students and their professor, Laurie Dashnau, will take part in the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in Memphis, Tennessee.

Established in 1987, NCUR “is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity in all fields of study by sponsoring an annual conference for students,” according to their official website. They welcome undergraduate students “from all institutions of higher learning and from all corners of the academic curriculum.” The conference was founded at the University of North Carolina Asheville, but it is hosted by different institutions every year. This year it is taking place at the University of Memphis. Their official statement says, “We look forward to showcasing the best in undergraduate research and the creative and performing arts during the conference.”

In 2011, the NCUR was hosted by nearby Ithaca College, and several Houghton students learned about the event and attended. Last year, five Houghton students majoring in English and writing attended the conference when it was hosted by the University of North Carolina Asheville.

This year, five Houghton students, including Bethany Kuiken ‘18, Emma Carpenter ‘18, Emily Friesen ‘17, Alyssa Rogan ‘18, and Grace MacKay ‘17, will join over 4,000 students from across the country to share their work in the form of 15 to 20 minute presentations. Dashnau, who has overseen their research projects all semester, will accompany them.

“Their presentations are culminations of proposals they submitted last fall and independent studies done with me this spring,” she said.

Kuiken, who is presenting an analysis of  the work of two modern American poets, said that she wanted to participate in order to challenge herself and learn from other students around the country. “I wanted to step outside of my comfort zone and engage in this conference that I knew would stretch me in many ways,” said Kuiken. At the conference, she and the other students will have the opportunity to learn about research from several different disciplines. When asked about what she is most looking forward to, she said, “I am most looking forward to supporting my peers from Houghton who will be presenting and interacting with other students who share the same passions.”

Carpenter, another English student going on the trip to Memphis, also decided to attend to stretch herself. In response to why she wanted to attend the conference, she said, “I thought it would be a great opportunity to gain experience presenting my work in a formal academic context.” Carpenter is presenting on the elegy and eulogy poems of W.H. Auden, a twentieth-century writer, and will also share some poems she wrote herself in Auden’s style. Carpenter is most looking forward to learning and absorbing knowledge from other presenters. She added, “It will be a great opportunity to represent Houghton College, and to take what I’ve learned here and share it with other conference attendees.”

Friesen  is also going to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. She was invited by the English department, and plans to share her paper, “Joseph Beuys and the Performance of Jacques Derrida’s Writing Difference.” The paper compares the writings of Derrida, a seminal literary critic, with Beuys, a late twentieth-century German performance artist. Friesen is most looking forward to hearing from other undergraduates, and going to Memphis for the first time.

While it is her third time attending the conference, Dashnau remains excited at the prospect of attending. She thoroughly enjoys the opportunity to see her students share their work with others at the conference, and have the opportunity to present research as students in the humanities. “They now have the privilege and joy of sharing these papers with students invested in undergraduate research,” she said. “Students who are especially interested in cultivating the life of the mind beyond the traditional classroom setting.”