Category: Stories In Focus

It is horrifying how much of our growth is the product of pain. Even more terrifying is the fact that an M. Night Shyamalan movie in 2017 was something that made me dwell deeply on the subtle ways that my experiences have shaped my personality and being. It’s important that you understand how viscerally this offends me, in order to understand the significance of any praise this movie deserves. The director of Lady in the Water, The Last Airbender, and After Earth, shouldn’t be able to convince a child to sympathize with a bunny dying of rabbit cancer in her mother’s fluffy, tear-soaked arms. And yet, I find myself uttering the impossible, with Split, Shyamalan has made another great film.

Split follows Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), an unexpectedly capable teenage heroine. She doesn’t have friends, she sulks in corners while the cool kids celebrate their sweet 16’s. Casey is the kind of person you want to have around when a deranged man (specifically James McAvoy) kidnaps you and your acquaintances and locks you all in a ten by ten cell deep underground. When this happens to Casey and her acquaintances, they learn that their abductor is afflicted with Dissociative Identity Disorder and that each one of his twenty three unique personalities has a different idea of what to do with them. This is when Casey learns what lengths she will go to in order to escape.

Split is the kind of movie that seethes and boils silently beneath your skin. It is equal parts innovative and quaint, restrained and madcap, sentimental and malevolent. There is a carefully teetering balance between schlock and drama that is always threatening to tip too far in one direction, but the moment of failure never comes. It serves as a testament to the values of careful direction and fine-tuned performances that this story manages to take such overused elements of modern horror and allow them to ferment, creating an atmosphere of distrust that lingers long after the screen goes dark. The cinematography enhances this even more, knowing how to hide pertinent visual information until the sheer frustration of the viewer seems to telekinetically influence the camera to move. This film is secure in its tone and its content in a really encouraging, and honestly invigorating, way. It’s not always masterful, but Split never lets the tension droop. Every scene is just efficient enough to move you onto the next before things get too uncomfortable, and not too soon to be accused of backing down from its subject matter.

James McAvoy is the primary reason Split works at all, and deserves all the praise he is being adorned with by pundits. There is an inherent challenge in taking on a role that requires one to inhabit what are essentially twenty three different people, each with their distinct sets of mental, physical, and spiritual characteristics. It is an even greater challenge still, to do so deftly. Somehow, he manages to do so. He’s so good in fact, that you when you see him contort his body and mind between many personalities in a single scene, you can catch of glimpse of someone deeply in love with their craft.

With Split, Shyamalan manages to take a premise that’s campy, unempathetic, voyeuristic, shoved into the Osh Kosh overalls of modern filmmaking that is the PG-13 horror/thriller, and mold it into something with surprising thematic coherence. It’s incredibly refreshing to watch a film in this muddled genre actually have something important to say about human psychology, interaction, and trauma. If you were wondering why I haven’t mentioned the trademark Shyamalan twist yet, I’ll just say that if you’ve kept up with his filmography, you’re in for a treat. It’s nice to have you back M. Night.

On January 27 two Houghton students, Elizabeth Clark and Gabrielle Kettinger, followed their interest in pro-life activism to the movement’s most iconic gathering: the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. According to the March’s official website, the March first took place in January of 1974, and has continued as a peaceful demonstration to encourage lawmakers to end abortion.

Before the march, Clark and Kettinger attended a rally that featured speakers like Vice President, Mike Pence, and Bishop Vincent Mathews. Particularly moving to both Clark and Kettinger was the testimony of Ludmya “Mia” Love, a U.S. Representative from Utah and the first female black Republican in Congress, whose immigrant parents elected not to have an abortion. “Never would they have thought that their daughter who they decided to have would be standing in front of all these people,” Clark said.

Neither student considers herself an activist. Clark shared with a laugh that this was her “first time doing anything like this,” but both are passionate about deepening their understanding. Both women left the march with a newfound dedication to advocacy and conviction about the power of public demonstration, due in part to the event’s explicitly activist tone. “They said that we would be the pro-life generation,” reminisced Kettinger. “The generation that would end abortion.”

“Half of it is about being a witness,” Clark shared the experience. “We the people care about this issue and want to see it change. But it’s also very educational and reaffirming. It’s very popular, especially among people my age, to see only the grey areas and not think of anything as concrete. Reaffirming my belief that certain things are not okay was definitely very good for me.”

Though media attention sometimes profiled the March for Life in opposition to the Women’s March that had previously taken to the same streets, both Clark and Kettinger were adamant about the “women-focused” attitude they had seen in the crowd. “A lot of the women who were marching had had abortions,” Clark said. “It’s not coming from a place of ignorance. They know exactly how this system works. It’s a side of this issue that is ignored, that it can be very damaging to have an abortion.”

Smiling, Kettinger recalled walking down the street and seeing groups of monks or nuns march past. In keeping with the religious tone of the event, Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s address drew parallels between the Christian church and the “sanctuary of the womb” while also urging listeners to care for the environment and embrace refugees.

Dolan’s comprehensive ideology and doctrine of tolerance was reflected in the crowd. “They didn’t even want to call it a protest,” Kettinger said. “It was such a joyful, loving celebration of life.” Clark agreed, adding that there was “no violence, no yelling, just seeing the beautiful things in life and trying to protect life.” Both women were also heartened by the event’s broad definition of “life,” which embraced discussions of domestic violence, care for the elderly, and the Black Lives Matter movement. “It’s not just anti-abortion,” Clark said. “It’s about having an abundant, fulfilling life.”

“It all started with a Hiccup. Hiccup and Toothless, actually,” said Alumna Laura White ’13 of her recently published fantasy novel. White, who writes under penname Elle Katherine White, began working on her book Heartstone as a student, after an evening of trying to divide her attention between reading Pride and Prejudice and watching the film How to Train Your Dragon. She stated, “Halfway through the movie I had the sudden image of Mr. Darcy riding a dragon and all I could think was ‘This story HAS to exist.’”

The fact that her story has gone on to be published is no small feat. From the time of its conception to its publication in January, the book has been four years in the making and has gone through multiple rewrites. White stated she had “Lots and lots of rejection…we went through several rounds of editing with Heartstone before going on submission to a list of editors my agent thought would be interested. After that, it was . . . more rejection. Luckily there was one yes in that sea of no’s, and that’s how we landed with HarperVoyager.”

White visited her alma mater in October, both to promote her book and to encourage aspiring writers that publication is possible. She held a lecture and visited classes, speaking powerfully about the writing life and the need for diligent work while maintaining a gracious attitude. Professor of English, Stephen Woolsey, who taught one of White’s classes at Houghton, stated, “She has a real calling or concern for the students here, wanting them to value their own gifts…calling them to a kind of courage in exploring those gifts and making the most of them.”

Students who attended White’s talks certainly felt the passion that White has for writing and encouraging young artists in their craft. Sophia Ross, who attended the lectures, stated, “Laura had a lot of practical advice for us at each of her events. She obviously works incredibly hard to balance her work life with her writing life. She’s proof that being published by a big house isn’t impossible, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.”  HarperVoyager, White’s publisher, is a branch of HarperCollins, and is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world. Not bad at all, for a Houghton grad.

White stressed how important a writing community has been for her during the creative process, and recommended a similar path to aspiring authors. “Network with fellow writers at all stages in the career path,” she said. “Writing is often a lonely endeavor, and you need a strong community to keep you sane.” White also emphasized the importance of treating writing as a serious occupation. She worked as a marketing manager while writing her novel, but considered her writing to be the equivalent of another full-time job. She stated, “If you treat it seriously, other people will too; if you treat it like a casual hobby, so will the rest of the world.”

It is always challenging to make a movie adaptation of a book, especially one as well revered and cherished as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince.  Yet director Mark Osborne decided to take on this task, releasing the movie in August of 2016.  The result?  An overall memorable and innovative film that adheres to the message of the original story while making it relevant for today.

Written as a novella in 1943 in French, The Little Prince expresses the journey of a – you guessed it – little prince from asteroid B-612.  He is the only inhabitant of his planet, and in fact, it is so small that once he watched 44 sunsets in a day, simply by scooting his chair forward bit by bit.  One day, a rose sprouts on his planet, and they fall in love.  After tending to her for a while, the rose’s vanity causes the little prince to leave his home, where he eventually lands on Earth.  Here, the little prince encounters an aviator stranded in the Sahara desert after his plane crashed.  “Draw me a sheep,” the little prince says to the man.

This unusual interaction, along with the ensuing relationship, causes the aviator to write the story of the little prince.  This story, in the words of the aviator is Exupéry’s book, and here is where the movie departs.  Done in animation reminiscent of recent Pixar films, it follows the summer of a young girl (voice by Mackenzie Foy) as she prepares for acceptance of a prestigious school.  After being declined at their first-choice academy, mother (Rachel McAdams) and daughter up-and-move to a new neighborhood just to be closer to the new school.  The mother then introduces the daughter’s Life Plan, a detailed schedule of the little girl’s entire life planned out to the minute.  Yet in her micromanaging, the mother didn’t account for the eccentric old man living next door.  Before long, the little girl is spending her summer days as all children should – listening to stories, playing outside, and making a new friend.  As the carefree days unfold, so does the story of the Little Prince, told to the girl by the old man (voice by Jeff Bridges), who was in fact the Aviator.

Soon the mother discovers this unique friendship and the girl’s ‘reckless abandonment’ from the Life Plan.  Attempting to squash this deviation and make up for precious lost time, the girl is forced to return to her studies and books for the last few weeks of summer.  While the mother’s obsession with perfecting her daughter’s life is rather over-the-top, the message still comes across.  From the soundtrack to the graphics and coloring, it illustrates a case of typical suburban life caste in neat squares in shades of white and gray with closely clipped lawns.  Contrasted with the colorful and vibrant home of the Aviator, the cookie-cutter landscape seems to be truly lacking.  Be it societal pressures, definitions of success, or a desire for perfection, the viewer can find some way in which to relate to the little girl, or perhaps even the overbearing mother.  

Portions of the Little Prince’s story are woven into the main plot and depicted in beautiful stop-motion animation, giving it an overall whimsical and poetic feel. This adaptation does not simply replay the well-loved story of the Little Prince, but depicts a world in which the book bears relevance.  A world in which creativity and imagination are embedded in the landscape, where questions are encouraged, and where there is time to tame and be tamed.  A world that values relationships across generations and species and planets.  A world that is not afraid to love and be loved.  

Overall, the film does the original book justice and illustrates a world in which its themes may be lived out.  Yes, it is rated PG and some may call it a “kids’ movie,” but it holds as much value for adults as for little ones. In this defining time in American history, it is a good reminder to choose connection over division, to see with the heart.  Oh, and it’s also on Netflix.

On February 3 and 4, students at Houghton will be hosting an IF:Gathering women’s conference focused on gathering, equipping, and unleashing the next generation of women to live out God’s calling on their lives.  

Amy Brennfleck ’19 took initiative to organize and host the event at Houghton for any women who wanted to participate. “Each year, Jennie Allen hosts the IF:Gathering in Dallas, Texas, but in order to make it more accessible, their team created IF Locals,” she said. “IF Locals are simulcasts of the event hosted by individuals across the world. The IF team asks you to gather your community of women, grab some food, and learn about Jesus through the speakers together.”

According to their official website, the purpose of the IF:Gathering is to equip ordinary women to become leaders who rise up to make disciples in every city in the country and every country in the world. Jennie Allen, the founder of the IF:Gathering, is a Christian speaker and author who felt called by God in 2007 to disciple a generation. Out of this seemingly impossible and improbable calling, Jennie Allen, together with a team of friends, established IF:Gathering.

Sydney Shufelt ’17, along with approximately forty other students, will be attending the event. “I signed up for the IF:Gathering because it seems like an awesome opportunity to gather together with girls across campus and share our mutual love for Christ,” she said. “Even though Houghton is a small campus, I still feel like there are so many girls who I haven’t had the opportunity to connect with and this seems like a great way to bring us all together.”

Brennfleck saw a need at Houghton for intentional discipleship among women. “The reason that I want to hold an IF:Gathering at Houghton is because I see a lack of women intentionally coming together to learn more about God,” she said. “My hope is that this group of women will be vulnerable and real together, so that we can begin to build a strong community of women.”

The IF:Gathering believes that a strong community of Christian women is built around coming together to wrestle with essential questions of faith and encountering God in a powerful way.

“Along with learning and growing in faith, I’m hoping to leave this experience feeling more connected to the community of amazing women we have on campus,” Shufelt said.

Brennfleck hopes this IF:Gathering will only be the start of building a more intentional community of women at Houghton College who desire to pursue God’s calling in their lives. She said, “My hope is for each of the participants of the IF:Gathering to leave the weekend feeling equipped to be obedient to whatever the Lord asks them to do in their lives.”

This event will be hosted in Gillette Hall from 5 p.m. today until 5 p.m. on Saturday. Shufelt and many others are eagerly anticipating a weekend of fellowship and growth. “I’ve always felt like any opportunity to learn more about the heart of God is something to look forward to,” said Shufelt. “To do that with some of my best friends here on campus is really exciting.”

Every Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the Dining Hall, a group of students join together for a time of worship and to learn from someone from their campus community or the wider Christian community. Global Christian Fellowship (GCF) is a club on campus dedicated to facilitating knowledge and passion for missions around the world. According to GCF Treasurer, Natalia Sytch ’18, “People share the lessons they have learned through their experiences. It’s a source of wisdom and insight into life and living as a Christian. So even if you’re not interested in international things, I think it’s still a valuable place to learn.”

In a meeting two weeks ago, Houghton community members Cindy and Kevin Austin spoke about returning to the Czech Republic to work with Global Partners in a young church. Their focus is development and discipleship. It is common to have missionaries speak and tell stories of what God is doing in their lives. GCF often hosts missionaries from One Mission Society (OMS), an evangelical mission group based in Greenwood, Indiana.

Sergio Mata ’19 serves as a representative for One Mission Society on campus. A highlight of GCF for Mata is the annual OMS weekend retreat. Every year, Houghton students are hosted by OMS for three days. This year’s conference will take place March 3 through 5. At the retreat, students will have the opportunity to learn from different departments at OMS. They will also learn discipleship and leadership skills.

Students who have gone to an OMS retreat say that they experienced real change. Mata said, “I’ve just seen that when people come back from the weekend and share with GCF how God answers a lot of the questions they’ve been wrestling with about missions or what their call is. And when they take that opportunity, to go to the retreat, and spend some time with the Lord, you can see how they’re transformed.”

Another exciting GCF event includes an upcoming Faculty and Staff talent show at 7 p.m. on March 11 hosted by professor of intercultural studies, biology, and Earth science, Eli Knapp. All proceeds from the tickets and bake sale will go toward mission trip scholarships, which will be awarded to various applicants within the student body. GCF President, Cayleigh Pracht ’17, said, “In the past, we have had Dr. Pearse telling stories, [as well as performances by] John Wise and Steve Dunmire.”

The GCF- led chapel is another event the club is looking forward to hosting. Pracht explained, “At the end of the year we have a commissioning ceremony for all of the students who received scholarships or are going out in Christian service. So, people who are going out to work in Buffalo over the summer with refugees or something like that.”

“Essentially, GCF is for those who are interested in missions, other cultures, and service,” Sytch said. She and other GCF members invite the Houghton student body to attend Wednesday meetings and events to find out for themselves what Global Christian Fellowship is all about.

On Saturday, January 21, approximately 500,000 citizens from across the United States flooded the streets of the nation’s capital city to participate in the Women’s March on Washington. Among the marchers were Houghton’s own Kristina LaCelle-Peterson, professor of Religion, and Nancy Murphy, Title IX Coordinator and Counselor, and several other Houghton alumni and current students.

According to NPR, the march, which began at 1:15 p.m. on Independence Avenue near the U.S. Capitol building, was organized by a national committee of women with the intention of promoting social justice for all. Their official website says that their mission is to “stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families – recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country.” In regards to the march, they wrote, “This march is the first step towards unifying our communities, grounded in new relationships, to create change from the grassroots level up…we work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equity for all.”

The march attracted citizens from at least 40 states, including New York. LaCelle-Peterson found out about the march through the newspaper, Facebook, and a number of environmental and other justice oriented groups. When asked why she decided to attend, she said, “I wanted to march to raise my voice against the hatefulness of the rhetoric of the administration that came to power.” She added, “As a Christian person I am saddened that millions of people have been insulted, as if they are not human beings made in the image of God and worthy of respect.” LaCelle-Peterson also marched to push for stronger environmental policies, and to stand against wage suppressions, the removal of worker protections, and the reduction of social programs that will affect women and children living in poverty. She emphasized Martin Luther King Jr.’s framework for nonviolence. She stated, “The organizers make clear that this is not a movement against specific politicians but against policies that would make it hard for the vulnerable in society to thrive.”

Murphy also found out about the Women’s March via Facebook, and was immediately responsive to the event. She commented, “I felt deep down that I must go.” Women’s issues have always been important to Murphy, especially in her professional life. Her job often involves working with those who are vulnerable. She mentioned a feeling of helplessness when seeing the injustices that affect many people, especially women, and knew that she must do something. In this case, she wanted to stand in solidarity with those who are vulnerable. She chose to march for the safety and welfare of women, and for the healthy treatment of everyone. Additionally, she expressed her sadness over the support of an insensitive man to vulnerable people, “Christians are called to reconciliation and healing.” Murphy also added that she hoped the march would not be a reflection on the divided and angry feelings of the people, but a show of positivity and solidarity.

According to their website, the Women’s March on Washington is a branch of Women’s March Global, a larger organization committed to women’s rights priorities in health, economic security, representation, and safety. WMG states, “Women’s March Global seeks to build local coalitions of grassroots organizers and empower them as part of a sustainable global network.”

In addition to the  marching in Washington on Saturday, about 300 sister marches took place in other cities in the U.S. and around the world, on all 7 continents. Locally, there were marches in Buffalo, Seneca Falls, and Rochester. Kimberly Eclipse, Administrative Assistant in the Counseling Center, attended the march in Buffalo. She commented, “It was a positive, peaceful, empowering, family-friendly event. We demanded that our new political leaders maintain, not dismantle, the progress our country has made in granting increased equality and justice for all groups of people.”

Every semester, Houghton students extend the classroom to a cross-cultural setting. With a variety of programs to choose from, students have the opportunity to engage their education in a new context through study abroad opportunities. These programs are intended to instill each student with a new sense of purpose and an ignited imagination.

Emily Barry ’17, a double major in international development and political science, studied abroad in Rwanda through the Go-ED program in Spring 2016. Her experience challenged her in many ways as she further developed her gifts.

“My favorite part was going on practicum,” she said. “I was on a fish farm teaching English at the private school on the premises.” She continued, “It was outside of my comfort zone to be teaching, but learning from the teachers there, getting to know my students and taking it day by day was a powerful experience for me.”

Studying abroad provides students with the opportunity to discover new gifts and abilities unknown to them before. These programs also challenge students academically to push themselves beyond what they thought they were capable of. Jonan Pilet ’17, a writing major, studied abroad in Oxford through Best Semester’s Scholar’s Semester in Oxford program in Fall 2016. “The most rewarding part of my experience was getting to the end of the program and recognizing the academic confidence I built in myself,” said Pilet. “This program forces you to grow as a student. You don’t really have an option.”

Judith Marklin ’17, an international development major with minors in linguistics and world religions, had two opportunities to study abroad last year. She began in New Zealand in the Spring of 2016 through the Creation Care Study Program, and last semester studied in India through Alliance for Global Education. Her time abroad in these various places allowed her to gain new perspectives through experiencing a different way of life. Her experiences gave her vision for direction in the future.

“My time in New Zealand was important for me to intentionally take a semester and slow down a little,” she said. “This different pace of life gave me time to think about what I want out of my experience at Houghton and the rest of my life.”

Houghton emphasizes the importance in valuing others in an intercultural setting. Marklin carried this lesson with her in her experiences abroad. “I learned that to love is to risk,” she said. “I traveled abroad to learn, listen, see, and try to understand another way of seeing the world and another way of living.” She added, “I learned the importance of interacting with people as people and seeing them as children of God.”

Barry, Pilet, and Marklin all highly recommended their study abroad programs to other students. Through these opportunities, they all say they developed lasting change in their lives that they will carry with them throughout the rest of their time at Houghton and beyond.

One of the best things about the recent film Manchester By The Sea is the way that its plot meanders so patiently. It is in no rush to jump to hasty conclusions or unnatural climaxes – which, unfortunately, is likely what many audience members will hate about it. But to fully appreciate what director Kenneth Lonergan is doing, to experience the portrait of grief he is painting, and to feel its depth and breadth so fully, to do so in any way other than the painstaking, reserved, and measured approach it takes would have done the film a major injustice.

Manchester By The Sea is another creation from the Damonfleck vault (Matt Damon is producer on the project), evidenced by the depiction of Massachusetts blue-collar life, and, of course, the inevitable exploitation of words that have r’s in them. Mentions of “StAH Trek” and “ShAHk attacks” abound, but more than the superficial in-jokes audience members love to hear in movies about New England, Lonergan has created a film designed to move beyond clichés and skin-deep relatability. This one you can feel down in your bones if you let it. It doesn’t follow the conventional story beats for characters going through the grieving process. It doesn’t pull happy endings out of thin air. Coping mechanisms have to be discovered and there are no guarantees that everyone will.

The story is concerned primarily with Lee, Casey Affleck’s character, his performance of which there is far too much to say than could feasibly be discussed in this review. Without giving too much away, Lee is called back to his hometown in Manchester-By-the-Sea after the death of his older brother Joe (played in flashbacks by Kyle Chandler) who had suffered a prolonged bout with congestive heart failure. Lee by extension then becomes the sole guardian of Patrick, Joe’s fifteen-year-old son. Basically, everything is a mess and no one wants any part of the situation. That much is obvious and easy to understand on paper. But the beauty of Manchester’s story is in its revelation of details. Information tumbles out slowly and always at the peak of tension, much the same way as it would in a taut crime thriller. We can only infer the baggage that Lee carries with him. We know that it’s there. We can see it in his eyes, in the way he moves, and speaks. But we’re only told when the director decides to let us in on the horrible secret.

Everyone has seen bad movies (and even good movies) that rely on communicating plots and storylines through clunky exposition and forced dialogue. Lonergan knows that his audience is not too dumb to fill in the gaps. When Lee gets a phone call from a doctor to tell him of his brother’s passing there is no cringey “What?? My brothAH’s dead?!?!?” There is no scene like that. That is not who Lee is. That is not how Lee reacts to things. It is brilliant moments of subdued acting and characterization that add so effortlessly to Manchester’s tortured but grounded aesthetic. No one creates more of these moments than Casey Affleck. He is just as incredible as every critic has claimed. It’s rare to see any character in a film communicate such immense pain with such minute gestures and minimal dialogue. If Casey Affleck is top Oscar priority as far as awards go, the screenplay is a close number two, and maybe shouldn’t even be that low.

To be clear, Manchester By the Sea is not a sadistic two-hour tearfest. Far from it. It has great moments of levity; scenarios where you can relax your shoulders and just inhabit the world that Lee and his nephew live in. Both actors play off one another as only family members do when they are young enough to laugh at the same jokes. Their relationship is more than just the cornerstone of the movie, but of each other’s lives. They need each other so clearly, but, like everything else in Manchester, this too is temporary; a Band-Aid to be torn off after the scar tissue has closed up and hardened again, never truly getting the time or care to heal. These are working-class Boston men, after all.