Category: Stories In Focus

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Stories In Focus

Rene Stempert

Rene Stempert with her son - Courtesy of Renee Stempert
By Anna Catherman ('24)

On July 4, 2024, Rene Stempert will celebrate her 30th year on the job. 

“My first day on the job was a paid holiday, so that was kinda cool,” Stempert said. 

Stempert started off on that day in July 1994 as a custodian in Gillette Hall. Now, she serves as the lead custodian for Sodexo, who promoted her to the role five years ago.

As lead custodian, there is no “typical” day on the job. Stempert does whatever’s at the top of her to-do list. She trains new hires and cleans guest bedrooms down at the Flats and in the President’s House. She is certified in pool maintenance. In the summer, she maintains all the hard floors on campus, scrubbing between tiles. 

Although Stempert’s day-to-day work is primarily keeping campus clean and safe, Stempert views her work not as a chore but as a ministry. 

Serving exclusively in Gillette for decades, Stempert made it her mission to learn the names of every girl in Gillette. Some years, she succeeded. She even knows many pets. Stempert recalls a seeing-eye dog named Brownie was the first service animal to live in Gillette with his owner, Elicia.

Now that Stempert’s work covers most of campus, she hasn’t had as close a connection to Gillette residents. But she gets to meet and train more students – up to 40 each semester, plus 3-6 new staff per year. 

When students skip work or their performance goes down, Stempert has a heart-to-heart with them. Three times this year, she’s used the parable of talents as a reminder to be faithful in the small tasks. At the end of December last year, she saw a student in Paine who looked like he was depressed and struggling, so she stopped and prayed with him. 

Stempert used to struggle a lot with being grumpy and short with people, and explained that she is still working at showing love and kindness. 

Working at Houghton has helped Stempert’s faith grow. The first time she shared her faith journey in 2001 was a major turning point for her. She had accepted Christ a decade prior, after a childhood riddled with sexual abuse, a stint in the Air Force and marrying a man who became verbally and emotionally abusive. There were no sudden revelations for Stempert. 

“I really wish my faith story had started off more intensely because I continued to make a lot of stupid choices in my life,” Stempert confessed. 

But God used moments throughout the years to slowly transform Stempert. Sharing her story was a big one. One that helped her understand what testimony and ministry are. 

Stempert strives to put what she’s learned into action. This year, she felt a strong call to invite people to come to her church. Thanks to her initiative, five First Year students are now attending Belfast Free Methodist. ★

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Stories In Focus

Rachel Wells

By Anna Catherman ('24)

Senior Rachel Wells took Transitions this Fall 2023 semester. 

Wells came to Houghton from New York City, where she’d attended The King’s College for two years. When King’s shuddered due to financial woes, Houghton offered a generous teach out program, making it a clear choice. But it still wasn’t easy for Wells to start over in a new place for the second time in three years.

Wells grew up in suburban Florida—vastly different from both New York City and Houghton. 

She didn’t tour King’s, and had only spent half a day in New York City before moving there.

Wells said that her new life “did not feel real for a very long time.”

Thrust into not only starting classes, Wells also had to learn how to grocery shop, cook, and make friends in a place where she knew no one. She contracted COVID-19 in her first month and had to spend time in isolation, which worsened her homesickness. But she pushed through, and in time, grew to enjoy living within walking distance of Battery Park and its views of the Statue of Liberty.

By her second year, Wells said she found she “actually love[d] living in the city.”

Highlights included her college professors, classmates, prayer group, babysitting, and studying at the city’s many coffee shops. She enjoyed King’s unique culture of debate and friendly competition, tutoring her housemates to win a writing contest. It was the only contest the House of Queen Elizabeth won in her time there.

However, the year was fraught with tension as King’s financial woes slowly became public. 

Zoom calls with executives became routine. The interim president, Steven French, said that more money was needed to finish the semester. Students began getting rent notices for their college housing. Yet through May 2023, the school claimed no intention to close.

Then King’s announced no classes would be taught in the 2023-2024 school year. 

Forced to transfer somewhere else, Wells “eventually came around to the idea of Houghton.” Many of Wells’ family members have attended Houghton University.

Wells misses the iced oat milk lattes at Olive’s, her favorite coffee shop; her babysitting job; and her former professors and classmates. But she’s found new people —and drink orders—at Houghton. 

Wells really enjoys chapels. “Hot take, I guess?” she chuckled, acknowledging that many students don’t feel the same way.

And Wells has had a blast at Houghton’s events, including intramural water polo. 

Wells hopes to return to New York City from time to time to visit friends, although she plans to move home to Florida after graduation. There, she wants to teach alongside her high school English teacher. 

Ultimately? She’d like to be Dr. Wells. 

She asks herself, “should you be saying that right now because you’re an undergraduate?” But she still dreams. ★

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Stories In Focus

Feature: Andrew Walton

Faculty Present Research at Faculty Scholarship Day - Courtesy of Marcomm
By Anna Catherman ('24)

Dr. Andrew Walton has been in school for 21 years. During his undergraduate years at Houghton College, he took a gap year to “go be a ski bum in Colorado.” After his freshman year as a politics major, he was adrift. But once he came back, he “never left school again.” He ended up switching his major after falling in love with the Old Testament of the Bible. 

Upon graduation, Walton immediately entered Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He toyed with a career in ministry, but ultimately felt led to scholarship. Walton enjoys studying the language and Israelite culture. He went straight from his Master’s program at Gordon-Conwell to Harvard, where he completed his Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible. 

Coming back to Houghton from Harvard was a transition that Walton welcomed. 

“I wanted to be in a college that cared about students,” Walton said. 

Besides teaching Old Testament courses, Walton is also involved in research. The area he’s been focusing on is the idea of challenging God. Last semester, he shared a Faculty Lecture entitled “The Paradox of the Pious Person: When Challenging God is the Most Faithful Course of Action.” He explained that there are many instances in the Old Testament where the Israelites are “talking back to God.” Abraham begs for Sodom and Gomorrah to be spared, David laments in the Psalms and Jacob wrestles with God. It’s a longstanding tradition, and one that comes up frequently in his classes. 

While many Christians view doubts as a major weakness, Walton has a different take on it. He says that ignoring wrestling and doubts is unhealthy for Christians. But at the same time, resisting God in any way is “a delicate and dangerous conversation.” Therein lies the paradox of his work, and one he discusses regularly with students. He reads a lot about it too. 

Walton reads so much that he was recently named the Willard J. Houghton Library’s Faculty Model Reader for 2024. Walton posed with Abraham’s Silence by J. Richard Middleton, one of the many books he’s read on challenging God. It’s the best book he’s read recently, and he doesn’t read much for leisure. 

“I try to read for fun and then I think ‘I have better things to read,’” Walton commented. 

Walton no longer skis. He finds the western New York slopes to be boring compared to the cliffs he used to jump off in Colorado. 

“Mountains are just puny and tiny [here],” Walton claimed. “It just wasn’t the same thing.” 

Now, Walton spends free time watching Houghton’s sporting events and just being with his wife and four children. ★

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Impacts of AI on the Job Market

Industries exposed to AI graph - Courtesy of Goldman Sachs
By Christian Welker ('24)

“I am interviewing you, ChatGPT … about the effects of Artificial Intelligence on education and the future job market.”

“Certainly!” ChatGPT responded, “I’m happy to discuss the effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on education and the future job market. Reporter: How do you see AI impacting education? ChatGPT: AI has the potential to…”

Watching ChatGPT write and conduct an interview with itself left me with mixed emotions. On the one hand, it was ridiculous for the AI to believe that was what I wanted, but at the same time, it developed a line of questions in seconds that was scarily close to what I had just spent ten minutes thinking of before beginning the interview.

Interviewing an AI seems like something out of a science fiction movie, but with the Challenger Economics May 2023 report stating over 3,900 jobs were cut due to Artificial Intelligence in one month alone and Goldman Sachs estimating 300 million potential job cuts by 2030, it’s obvious many industries are taking this new tech and running with it. This trend of increasing use of AI threatens not only the current members of the workforce but also college students looking to join it after graduation. As college students are looking at a shifting job market, the question turns to how higher education should respond to the AI boom?

One area where AI affects the job market is journalism and media. Jonan Pilet, a writer for foodsafetynews.com, has been watching how Artificial Intelligence continues to change the journalism scene.

“The issue, I think, is that AI is … impacting the number of jobs because it’s taking a lot of what I would say is like the grunt work, the lower work,” Pilet said, “these are the kinds of stuff that AI can do really well because it’s like filling in a form.”

The journalism market has struggled with profitability over the past few years, with dozens of outlets laying off large percentages of their staff in attempts to reduce expenses and streamline their businesses. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, these outlets are given the opportunity to further reduce expenses and make production more efficient by replacing workers with AI and further streamlining processes with the integration of AI tools.

“What might have taken three of us several hours to do, now one person could do in 30 minutes,” Pilet stated.

Rachel Wright, who works for Houghton University’s Office of Vocation and Calling, added, “There’s certainly going to be some things that can be done in a more automated way … that’s where I think it’s important to, for somebody who’s applying for jobs … to be able to very clearly articulate the value that they bring [to a job].”

In a shifting job market, staying up to date with the latest technology is essential. Artificial Intelligence is developing rapidly, with little sign of slowing down. How focused should colleges and universities be on integrating AI into the classroom?

Houghton Professor David Huth believes that higher education needs to do more to prepare students.

“I wish that every college and university professor could take … say, three semesters off and enroll at their institution in the world of AI so that they can actually understand what is actually happening.” Huth stated that “If I wanted to get educated in the age of AI, now, what would I be doing?”

Similarly, Pilet states that students need to learn how to use AI tools to become more efficient in the classroom and in future jobs.

“Transcribing used to take hours,” Pilet stated. “But [now] there’s transcribing tools that will save you a ton of time because it’ll do it in minutes.”

Pilet believes that in the future, the deciding factor between employees will be those who know how to use the tools to make their work faster and more efficient versus those who don’t.

“You have to use it because you have to keep up. It almost has become a nonnegotiable,” Pilet stated.

In Pilet’s opinion, it’s important for college classes to teach students how to use Artificial Intelligence and how people in their desired fields utilize AI tools. Otherwise, students risk falling behind and losing job opportunities to younger workers with more experience with the tools. However, it’s also essential that students learn the basics before they learn the tools.

“We have to avoid having the tool get in the way of learning the basics,” Pilet emphasized. “That’s the fear … if you’ve never written anything, how do you know that the AI is spitting it out well?”

Pilet ultimately stated that higher education should integrate AI into classrooms and teach students how to use the tools alongside their knowledge of the craft.

On the other hand, Huth believes that Artificial Intelligence will change the world as the internet did with its introduction. He sees learning how to use the tools as a temporary solution. In his view, colleges need to prepare for what might come next because if they are not prepared, AI could replace higher education in its entirety.

AI is rapidly advancing, and there are few signs of slowing down. As mentioned above, it is already affecting the job market and causing mass layoffs. Huth and Pilet believe that college students must be prepared to integrate AI into their workflow to remain competitive in an increasingly AI-focused world.

For what it’s worth, ChatGPT seems to agree. When asked how people should consider AI in the job market, the AI stated: “The dynamic nature of technology and the job market underscores the importance of lifelong learning. College graduates should be prepared to adapt and upskill throughout their careers to stay relevant in a changing landscape.”

As Artificial Intelligence continues to evolve and change the world around it, students entering the workforce need to be at least aware of the tools their potential jobs are using and how to utilize them to stay competitive. ★

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Stories In Focus

Feature: Jesse Sharpe

By Anna Catherman ('24)

Dr. Jesse Sharpe has had a fruitful year of teaching, researching, and speaking. Over the past few months, he spoke at conferences in Philadelphia, and Baton Rouge, La. 

“It’s been a particularly busy scholarly semester,” Sharpe noted. 

In early February, Sharpe had the opportunity to attend the John Donne Society convention. He spent a weekend with friends from across the world. The agenda includes both lectures and ample time to catch up. 

“Nobody sleeps for three days,” Sharpe claimed. 

This year’s trip was especially eventful as it overlapped with the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras. They held an impromptu party for the big game. Then the Louisiana State University campus lost power for five hours on Mardi Gras. While the lights were out, they all gathered in a hotel suite and talked until the issue was resolved.

The society recently finished a variorum of Donne’s work, a collection of every manuscript of every poem. It was a massive undertaking; there are more copies of Donne’s work than any other in the time period. 

Back in January, Sharpe presented on Donne’s Devotions at the Modern Language Association national convention in Philadelphia. And at the end of February, he spent his Spring Break in England conducting research.

In the classroom, Sharpe has been teaching two classes, Critical Evaluations of Literature and Contemporary World Literature, that he hasn’t taught since 2020. He also has two sections of Humanities 201.

In Contemporary World Literature, Sharpe tried something new: exclusively reading authors outside North America and Europe. This class’s conversations have been exceptional, and he really enjoys them. His favorite part of being a professor is “just being in a classroom and having discussions.” 

Sharpe’s home life has been busy as well. His sons are filling out a flurry of college applications, and he’s planning to spend the summer with them before they leave home. And the family cat, Nougat, has been doing her role in keeping life exciting.

Nougat recently got out of quarantine after eating a bat. The New York Department of Health ordered her isolation since her rabies vaccine had just expired. She ate the bat on a Sunday, and on Wednesday her next shot was scheduled.

She emerged from six months in the basement the same cat she was before. And Sharpe took her to get her rabies shot. 

“It’s nice to know there’s not rabies in the house,” Sharpe laughed, adding “[n]ow she can eat all the bats she wants.” ★

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Feature: Carolyn Miller

By Anna Catherman ('24)

When Carolyn Paine left the Houghton to go to Vietnam in 1961, she “didn’t cry until she was on the plane.”

“I’m not a person who made unusual, brave, or wild decisions,” Carolyn claims. But when John Miller telephoned her to propose, she agreed.

John had stayed in her family’s home during his years at Houghton College, which she also attended. Wycliffe Bible Translators had assigned him to Vietnam. 

A month after Carolyn’s arrival, they were married. They lived in a thatched house among the Bru people, and started translating the Bible. John and Carolyn began raising a family together; all four of their children were born in Vietnam. 

In 1975, their work came to an abrupt stop. Just as the Millers were finishing typesetting and proofreading, they were captured and held as prisoners of war for eight months. Their youngest daughter, LuAnne (five years old at the time), was with them. Their older children, Gordie, Nate and Margie, had been evacuated. They were sent back to Houghton to live with their grandparents.

John, Carolyn and LuAnne were shuffled from one camp to another before ultimately being released – without their manuscripts.

“When we had to leave without the translation, that seemed like the end,” Carolyn said. 

But she and John were able to continue their work long-distance. In 2014, their team finished translating the entire Bible into Bru. 

Today, retired, Miller continues to translate. She works on one chapter of the Tang Old Testament each day. Currently, she’s back-translating the book of Esther to ensure accuracy. She sits at her desktop computer with a four-language translation screen open, fingers trembling slightly. Surrounding her are framed Bible verses and shelves of other translations she has worked on. 

Four times a week, she shares meals with her daughters, LuAnne Brubaker and Marge Doty, and their families. Miller sits on two church committees. Paul Shea, a retired pastor at the Houghton Wesleyan Church, serves aside Miller on the church’s mission committee. He called her service on the missions committee “invaluable.” Despite the difficulties on the war-torn mission field, “[s]he doesn’t ask for sympathy, she asks for service,” he added.

She hosts Bible studies and organizes potlucks when missionaries come to visit. And Miller keeps up with her friends across the world. Using the convenience of Facebook messenger, they communicate from time zones twelve hours apart.

“I’m at the hospital with a little girl who’s sick. Pray for her,” one friend asks, a picture attached of a tiny child curled up on a cot. 

Another asks for prayers for his son, who has eye problems.

She is grateful for the technology that has allowed her to keep translating while living close to family, and to remain connected with the people she and her late husband ministered to.

She’s also glad that her friends have “learned to call not in the middle of the night, I think.” ★

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Feature: Mercy Seat and Koinonia

By Rebecca Dailey ('25)

Both Mercy Seat and Koinonia (Koin) are just two of several ways students can participate in worship on Houghton University’s campus, with each bringing its own unique forms of fellowship. Mercy Seat first began in 2001 and Koin was originally called Celebration in 1978, until it was renamed Koinonia in September of 1999. 

Mercy Seat is flexible but is held on Mondays through Thursdays at 8 p.m. and on Fridays at 7 p.m. in the Wesley Chapel basement. Different teams form the Mercy Seat gatherings, with some participating in worship music and others using the time for silence and prayer.   

Susannah Denham (‘26), who is on the Mercy Seat Cabinet states, “It’s really a great chance to worship and pray with friends or with people that you don’t know too.”

Mercy Seat worship is open to all students who wish to take part. Teams are also always looking to fill open spots.

“Mercy Seat,” Isabella Matton (‘24), the Mercy Seat president, says, “is a club for students to lead their own worship to serve fellow students. It’s leadership based and gives the opportunity for students to serve Houghton and build character.”

Mercy Seat holds many events throughout the semester, such as caroling in the local area during Christmas, hymnal night and The Cry during finals. 

Matton also explains, “We are working on an event with International student Alliance (ISA) as a multicultural night with songs from different cultures.” 

Koinonia is Greek for fellowship among believers, and occurs on Sundays at 7 p.m. as a worship concert including both music and prayer. Four teams rotate throughout the semester and often partner with the Houghton Wesleyan Church for events such as Sunday services. 

Kayleigh Verspoor (‘24), one of the student directors of Koin and a music leader for her team, explains, “Some sit, some dance, some sing but they all come seeking the same thing, the atmosphere of worship.” 

Each week of Koin has a theme for music and the devotion, which are rehearsed throughout the week.

A music team leader, Matthew Arndt (‘25) says, “We try to create an atmosphere of worship, share our musical abilities and bring people closer to God. We do the best we can to serve students through fellowship and reaching out with prayer baskets and prayer leaders.” 

Dr. Sharon Johnson has been the faculty advisor for Koin since the Spring of 2021. She is uniquely positioned as both a member of the Houghton Wesleyan Church and a faculty member at Houghton.

“I’m there as a resource and encouragement for them,” Dr. Johnson explains. “I might give them ideas about music but, they really rehearse on their own and choose the passage of scripture and devotions. Part of supervising is letting them make their own decisions.”

In the spring, Dr. Johnson sits in on interviews for the team leaders, co-directors and the band interviews and auditions. She meets with the Koin members  before the service to talk about their weeks with the music team for that night and the sound team and prays with them.

“I see it as worshiping God,” Jackson Collins (‘27), a band member of a team states, “I don’t see it as a performance but a way of worshiping with the audience and exalting God. Worship starts early in the day and goes on throughout the week as we receive the spirit and go out serving God.” ★

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Feature: Dean Jordan

By Jiana Martin ('26)

Dean Michael Jordan has been Houghton’s full-time Dean of the Chapel for 12 years. Additionally, he works half-time as a professor for various theology and biblical literature classes. After marrying his wife, Jill, and graduating from Houghton in the class of ‘99, he attended seminary and earned his master’s in 2002 from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. For the next seven years, he pastored the Exton Community Baptist Church Church in Exton, PA, and returned to school to earn his Doctorate. In 2009, he received his Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from Drew University. 

“I like that I get to have a pastoral connection with any student that wants one,” Dean Jordan thoughtfully replied. 

Dean Jordan enjoys being a teacher, but his role as a pastor has allowed him to have a different type of relationship with anybody who wants to “just talk.” In regards to students, he can connect with them and get to know them as people without worrying about their academic achievements.

As for Dean Jordan’s favorite places on campus, he really likes how the new Spiritual Life office turned out. In general, he enjoys quiet, sacred and sanctuary spaces, such as the prayer chapel space in the basement of the Wesley Chapel. 

“I also like how outdoorsy Houghton is and I like having so much that is walkable and breathable,” Dean Jordan added. 

Last Thursday, Jan. 18, Dean Jordan spoke at the first faculty lecture of the semester, based on his upcoming book, “Worship in an Age of Anxiety.” This is his first book and he is excited for its release later this year on June 2. 

“I have always valued writing,” Dean Jordan commented and was encouraged by his friend, a professor from Yale, to write a book. 

A couple of years ago, InterVarsity Press reached out to him about a series they were planning to do called Dynamics of Christian Worship. This gave him the opportunity to put pen to paper. The first part of the book looks at anxiety and discusses how churches have often talked about it in the past. Dean Jordan explains that the book contemplates the question: What are some ways that churches can do what we do in a way that is more anxiety informed?

During his lecture, Dean Jordan talked about the prevalence of anxiety and how it has increased in American culture over the past 20 years. He also touched on what people are learning when they get help for anxiety and in what ways the church helps or hurts them. 

Dean Jordan hopes the lecture was a good opportunity for attendees to start reflecting more conscientiously on the ways they practice worship.

“Hopefully, a lecture like this can help people understand some of the backstory to a lot of these worship practices and help them be a little more informed in the way they think about worship,” Dean Jordan concluded.  ★

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Campus Stories In Focus

Willard J. Houghton Library

Library Second Floor - Courtesy of Christian Welker
By Rebecca Dailey ('25)

The Willard J. Houghton Library comprises about 200,000 physical books and an online database with roughly 50,000 journals and 600,000 ebooks. The library is not just limited to research materials, as there is a childrens and young adult library in the basement and a collection of movies and players on the main floor. There are several study rooms and reading rooms throughout the library with an archival room in the basement. 

Susannah Denham (‘26) remarked, “The library space itself is a great place to study or relax with coloring books and puzzles.” 

Houghton’s library contains archives of the Houghton STAR, other periodicals and The Boulder, Houghton’s yearbook. In addition, the Music Library in the Center for the Arts  contains over 11,000 scores, a collection of music reference works, composer works and a collection of musical sound recordings. 

The Director of Libraries and Information Resources, David Stevick stated, “The goal is to create a welcoming space to study . . . to provide research help at the desk and online and sometimes teach workshops or in classes.” 

Academic departments, who assist with the development of research collection, partner with library staff. Photographic equipment that can be used for digital and photography classes. Professors can request materials to be held for their classes, which students can then pursue. Students can go into the library to find assistance or look for these resources on their own both in person and online on the databases. 

Doyin Adenuga, the Electronic Resources Librarian, explained, “When it comes to online resources, part of it is ensuring the access to the journals and maintaining the library website by updating information on the home page.” 

However, if there are articles or books that are not available at Houghton’s library, students can make a request through the interlibrary loan which can request materials from several other library databases.

Anna Catherman (‘26)  stated, “Interlibrary loan has been picking up . . . you can request anything and the librarians will do their best to find it.” 

Currently, the main project is converting the Woolsey Library in Chamberlain into the basement of the main library. These books will be added to the children’s and young adult books already in the Children Literature Room. 

Ciciley Haslem (‘25) explained that “each book now needs to be processed, stickered with the identification and call number, stamped and given a due date slip.” 

This move allows all young adult and children’s books to be in one location but to also keep better track of when the books are checked out. This will help students if they are looking for a particular book. This also helps limit duplication and allows for new books to potentially be brought into the library. 

Anna Catherman (‘26) encouraged everyone to, “Come in, we are there as resources . . . It makes us so happy when someone checks out a book for fun.” ★

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Feature: Patrick Hager

Patrick Hager (left) with men's cross country team - Courtesy of Houghton Highlander Athletics
By Abigail Bates ('26)

Patrick Hager is in his 10th year of being the Head Cross Country and Track & Field Coach at Houghton University. Under his leadership, the program has won conference championships in cross country for women in 2019 and the men in 2023, as well as broken numerous records.

Coach Hager first came to Houghton when he was searching for full-time coaching jobs after finishing his two year tenure at Messiah University as a graduate assistant coach. He was offered the position and immediately accepted in the fall of 2014.

He explained that he has learned a lot since working at the university, especially from the student-athletes he works with.

“They energize me,” he stated, “and honestly push me to be a better man. I do think I hold my position in high regard in terms of my ability to influence and be a positive figure in the lives of 40-60 student-athletes a year. This ‘burden’, of sorts, really pushes me to adjust any bad attitude, or negativity that might try and peak to the surface.” 

Sophomore Noelle Linenfelser (‘26), a member of the women’s cross country team, has been positively impacted by Coach Hager in both her running and as a person, during her time at Houghton.

“I see Coach Hager impacting other students every day,” Linenfelser expressed. “He invests time and thought into every one of his athletes, developing personal training plans that will fit each individual to be able to help them reach their fullest potential.”

Linenfelser explained that runners in cross country and track & field programs will often peak performance-wise in their second and third year, before potentially declining. Comparatively, it is amazing that there are so many athletes in the program at Houghton who continue to progress throughout their four years.

“I have no doubt that this is thanks to Coach Hager’s hard and very intentional work, and I am so grateful to have him as a coach,” Linenfelser stated.

Matthew Webb, the Director of Athletics, is optimistic about the continued success under Coach Hager’s leadership. He described the culture Hagar has built in cross country and track & field as one of discipline and excellence.

“Honestly,” Coach Hager disclosed, “I think our program is in as good of a place from a culture and performance standpoint as it’s ever been.”

Coach Hager wants to maintain this quality in the program, while continuing to reach for breakthroughs. In the future, he would like to have someone qualify for the NCAA Championships, and pave the way for future student-athletes to do the same. Even so, Coach Hager remarked that it means more to him to see success in athletics when there are solid relationships with those he is working with.

“Every summer,” Webb commented, “it seems as if Coach Hager is attending multiple weddings of his former athletes.”

One of Coach Hager’s favorite things about being a coach at Houghton are the wedding invitations. At the weddings, there always tends to be a handful of past and present student-athletes (or as many as 33, in the case of Miller-Domaracki’s wedding).

“Being [a part] of this,” Coach Hager stated, “I think encapsulates my goal for the program. To get so connected with each other through the vehicle of athletics that we can celebrate important life events together, years later.” ★