Category: Stories In Focus

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Stories In Focus

Investing in the Future: Student Group Practices Investing at Houghton

Investing money may seem like an activity reserved for business professionals, but over the past fifteen years, Houghton College students have participated in this pursuit. Last year, Houghton College’s Investment Group outperformed professional investors by a wide margin, according to member Joseph Gilligan ‘17. This dynamic group uses their shared perspective as students to take risks and gauge the market in unconventional ways. The skills that they hone in the process make them better candidates for jobs and internships.

Photo from STAR Archives
Photo from STAR Archives

When the Investment Group was endowed by Houghton College in 2001, a select group of business students were given $20,000 to invest. Today, these funds have been increased to $350,000. To be eligible for the Investment Group, a student must hold a 3.5 grade point average and have taken several finance courses. Only juniors and seniors are accepted, with two exceptions in the history of the club. The first is Gilligan, who joined his freshman year. The second is Tyler Stetson ’20, who joined this semester. Both Gilligan and Stetson said they began investing in middle school. The group currently has 10 members, according to member Ryan Buckley ‘17.

To invest, the group must reach consensus. Their advisor, assistant professor of business administration Pil Joon Kim, has the ability to veto stock decisions made by students if he believes it is a poor decision, but this veto power has never been used. According to Jesse Toth ’17, that consensus is a very important part of the group dynamic. He said that senior members Buckley and Gilligan have differing views: “They present two sides of the argument, and you’re weighing the options. I’ve learned so much from watching them just going at it,” he said.

Buckley said his approach is more specific to companies, or microeconomics. Gilligan, meanwhile, prefers to focus on macroeconomics, or the big picture of economic trends. “Through our different approaches on investing, I always am confident in a stock choice we both agree on,” Gilligan said.

The group members attributed some of their success to their perspective as students. “Professionals wait until the hard numbers come in, but we look at the media and the big picture to predict where the best returns will be,” Buckley said. He gave two examples of stocks the group invested in recently that proved to be wise investments: Netflix and Disney. When Netflix’s monthly price went up, many people stopped investing in the company, Buckley said. However, as students, the members of the Investment Group knew that a few more dollars a month is a small price to pay for the ability to binge-watch shows. “People aren’t going to give up their Netflix,” Gilligan said.

The investment in Disney was also a choice that professional investors would not have made, because it was based on expectations rather than numbers. “We knew that Disney was opening a new park in China and lots of people would want to go to that. We also knew that Disney owned the Star Wars franchise and a new movie was about to come out,” Buckley said. These unconventional methods have helped them beat not only the stock market return, but top hedge funds, according to Gilligan.

In the past, the Investment Group has had many opportunities open up to them due to their success, Gilligan said. “Two years ago, we were invited to Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Archegos Capital.  It was a great experience where we learned great trading techniques, gained a better sense of the nature of the work, and provided us with a great opportunity to network with top investment banks and hedge funds,” he said. He also said last year Hedge Fund Manager Bill Hwang visited the group. “It was a great experience to present our stock techniques to a person I have read about in books,” Gilligan said.

This semester, the Investment Group is on the cusp of discovering for themselves and implementing a brand new model. Their advisor has worked out a yet-unpublicized model of investing to predict where the price of a stock is going, and Toth said that Kim has asked the Investment Group figure it out for themselves using Excel. “Having a model that no one has used before,that’s huge. We can take advantage of that,” Toth said.

This semester, the Investment Group will have the opportunity to participate in a stock market competition at Temple University. The team will consist of Buckley, Gilligan, and Stetson.

“We will be competing against all of the best schools in the nation, but I am confident that with our investing strategy that we will win,” said Gilligan.

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Stories In Focus

Equestrian Center Invites Houghton Community to Open House

For the second year in a row, the equestrian center will be hosting an open house, allowing community members and students to see a glimpse of the elusive equestrian lifestyle. Last November, Houghton’s equestrian program hosted its first open house, opening riding demonstrations, and lesson opportunities to non-majors and the surrounding community. The equestrian center will be hosting an open house once again this year, planned by equestrian student event organizer Grace Walker ’18. The event will take place on October 1, running from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Photo by: Nate Morre
Photo by: Nate Morre

The open house, like last year’s, is intended to bring both income and awareness to Houghton’s Equestrian program. Among the events and activities, the open house will be advertising lessons, which the equestrian program offers throughout the year. “We teach lessons to students, little kids, middle-aged people,” Walker said. Walker also emphasized the hope the open house will attract people who have had little previous interaction with the equestrian center. “A lot of people go through the year and have never been up there,” she said. Equestrian student Hannah Levesque ‘18 also looks forward to the event for the same reason,          While last year’s open house took place in November, this year’s has been planned for early October, when, Walker hopes, the weather will be warmer. The event will also differ in using the entire facility instead of only having indoor events, and being “more of a day fair than a night time event,” Walker said. The event will have a variety of activities including face painting, hay rides, pony rides, a bounce house, concessions, and riding demonstrations, which Walker said she “hand-picked.” She noted there will be more opportunities for riding demonstrations at this year’s event, with five hours-worth as opposed to last year’s two demonstrations that only last ten minutes each.

Walker and the equestrian students look forward to showcasing their program this year. They expressed their appreciation for the professors, who Rebecca Rex ‘18 described  as “super knowledgeable. Levesque also discussed their faith and the influence it has. “I am encouraged by God-fearing professors who push and guide me to be the best that I can be as an equestrian, and as a follower of Christ,” she said. Walker echoed this by acknowledging their  relationships with the equestrian professors are intimate, that they are “your coach, mentor, professor, everything.” Smiling, she remembered a professor inviting her over for pancakes at 3 a.m..  

The equestrian majors are eager to share their passion with other students. Levesque said, “Not many people even know that Houghton has a barn, let alone what we do, and it will be great to show everyone what I am so passionate about.”. The equestrian program, according to Levesque, has allowed her to pursue her passion and, in addition, has given her an escape when things get tough., She said, “Horses have always been a good escape for me when life gets busy and Houghton’s Equestrian program has definitely allowed me to do that in various ways.” Walker, who is working toward one day participating in the Olympics, also appreciates the day to day benefits. “It’s the most mentally challenging thing I’ve ever done, yet also physical,” she said. “When you get it right, there’s no comparable thing.” Rex expressed enthusiasm that “the equestrian students and members of the Equestrian Society get to show our love of the horse industry to our friends and family.”

The open house encourages students, faculty, and community members to come regardless of having any experience with horses. While the open house celebrates the equestrian center, much of the intention is making people more aware of the center.  “You can never have been on a horse and we’ll welcome you with open arms,” Walker said. Walker also expressed a want for understanding, “I hope they come away with more understand of what equestrian means.”

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Stories In Focus

“See You At The Pole” Houghton Community Gathers for Worldwide Event

On Wednesday, September 28 at 7:00 a.m., Houghton’s Student Government Association (SGA) will host a See You At the Pole event around the flagpole in front of the Chamberlain Center. All students, as well as faculty and staff, are invited to come out and support one another in prayer and encouragement. In order to accommodate class schedules the event will run for a brief 20-30 minutes, and drinks and breakfast refreshments will be provided.

seeyou-at-the-poleSee You At the Pole is a worldwide event with a long history. The first See You At the Pole was a grassroots gathering held in 1990 at a Texas high school, when ten students gathered around the flagpole in defiance of their school’s ban on public prayer. In following years, the movement has experienced a vast expansion from its original purpose as a religious liberty protest, and now defines itself broadly as an event “committed to global unity in Christ and prayer for your generation.” See You At the Pole events now serve as an opportunity for students and faculty on campuses across the globe to come together in prayer for their schools and nations, and draw in students from Germany, Ecuador, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, and dozens of other countries.

In the North American region, See You At The Pole takes place annually at 7 a.m. on September 28. This falls in the middle of the Global Week of Student Prayer, an initiative dedicated to supporting student ministries and prayer groups. Houghton College began participating in the event several years ago, and has since seen a steady growth in attendance ever since. Last year’s See You At the Pole event attracted over one hundred Houghton students, the largest turnout the college has ever seen.

Melissa Maclean ’17, one of the event’s organizers, fell in love with See You At the Pole during her first semester at Houghton and is thrilled to help continue the tradition this year. “I think one of the most memorable moments is to see students and faculty from all different backgrounds and friend groups coming together as one body of Christ, praying with one another,” she said. “Prayer is such a unifying and transformative experience that I could not imagine a better way to start the semester.”

Houghton’s opportunities for spiritual growth are numerous, but it is rare for the whole campus to be able to come together in prayer. The Student Government Association hopes that this year’s See You At the Pole will continue a long tradition of encouragement and unification.

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Reviews Stories In Focus

Music Review: The Heart Speaks in Whispers by Corinne Bailey Rae

After the untimely death of her husband and scaling back on writing music for a while, Corinne Bailey Rae has come back with the highly anticipated album The Heart Speaks in Whispers. In this newest affair, Bailey Rae has found a way to integrate the vintage style of R&B with a modernized Synthpop. While this album is much more instrumentally heavier than her last, she finds a way to still let her full-bodied, yet silky voice sound relaxing and effortless while doing so. She is not as lyrically raw in this venture, much more akin to her first album, and her vocals are much more soulful, allowing listeners to hear her more unrefined and powerful voice. We get to hear a range of her abilities, from her edgier, more bluesy efforts, her classic smooth R&B sound, and in this effort she experiments more on the very 80’s, Prince styled, pop sound that listeners experienced on her last EP Is This Love.

The Heart Speaks in Whispers is easily her most eccentric work to date. We get tastes of how unique she could be with previous songs like “The Blackest Lily” and her cover of Belly’s “Low Red Moon.” Her latest venture starts out with the biggest sound and most instrumentally diverse track that she has ever attempted with “The Skies Will Break”. It suits her well and allows Bailey Rae to venture away from her usual sound that generally tends to be more of an urbanized version of easy listening.

 

She eventually fills the album with a mixture of 80’s inspired Synthpop styled songs such as “Been to the Moon,” “Horse Print Dress,” and soulful R&B such as “Green Aphrodisiac” (the album’s biggest hit) and “Hey, I Won’t Break Your Heart.”  The lowest point is “Stop Where You Are” a surprisingly cookie cutter song similar to what Jason Mraz or Sara Bareilles have made popular. Eventually, the album mellows out to her attractive and typical strings heavy, blues tinged love songs. This album’s biggest strength and overall theme is experimenting with what Corinne Bailey Rae’s voice can do, along with a more diverse and full instrumentation than she has previously attempted.

The album, for Bailey Rae, is a step in the right direction to what she wants to be as an artist. Each of her albums has a unique air, but this one ventures into new territory for the singer and also allows her to show off her instrumental tastes, something she is shy to do in her first two albums. It’s also simply a good album for music listeners. Some may find it a tad too eccentric or not quite their style, but no one would really go away feeling like they had listened to a bad album. The album itself is beautiful. It’s rich and quirky, while still maintaining the quirky chic vibe that is Corinne Bailey Rae. It should satisfy fans of hers and draw a few more in.

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News Stories In Focus

More Than a Headband: Alumna-Owned Brand Supports Anti-Human Trafficking Organizations

More often than not, the purchases people make do not have impact on anyone or anything other than themselves and their closet. The Houghton College Campus Store is active in supporting small businesses that try to create lasting impact worldwide. Last spring, the Campus Store started selling rePURPOSE headbands, and simultaneously joined the fight against human trafficking.

RePURPOSE is a business founded in March 2014 by Houghton alumna Jessica Burt ’06. According to the company’s website, Burt started crafting ethically made headbands from washed, used clothing out of a desire to do her part in the global fight against human trafficking. RePURPOSE donates 100% of its profit to two organizations: The Exodus Road and Make Way Partners. Both organizations work to actively take a stand against human trafficking.

repurpose-headband-copyEmma Webb ’16, a former Campus Store employee, served rePURPOSE in the spring of 2016 as a brand ambassador. “After working with Jessica, it is very clear how passionate she is about the lives of others. This business completely stems from how her and her team can make a difference in this world, not how they can make profit,” Webb said.

Houghton seeks to support small, fair-trade businesses that are fueled by passion and quality. “I think that it is really hard to be in fashion industry and not be fast-fashion. The passion that Jessica has is the best thing for a company like hers. It’s inspiring,” Webb remarked.

Rachel Blew, office coordinator and buyer at the Campus Store, echoed Webb and emphasized why it is important for Houghton to support rePURPOSE.

“In Psalms we are called to seek justice, rescue the weak and needy and deliver them from their oppressors. As a Christian Institution that was founded on the belief that education and the power of the Gospel can change the world, it is important for us to put these core values into practice. By supporting rePURPOSE, we are doing what we were founded to do. We are using our education, the Gospel, and the platform we have in the world to educate those around us about the injustices in the world and how we can help.”

Another way rePURPOSE combats human trafficking is through awareness. They sell their products online, at boutiques, salons and churches. Burt and her team also travel around the country speaking to colleges and conferences about rePURPOSE. Through all of those avenues they are able to raise awareness and share the hard facts of human trafficking.

Through rePURPOSE, Jessica and her team are choosing to be an active voice in the ethical issues behind fast-fashion, even if that means sacrifice. All of their products, including head wraps, tie-wraps, one layer boho wraps, headbands, and scarves, are made from washed, used clothing. If rePURPOSE has to buy new for bulk purposes, they purchase ethically made products from the USA or other countries with fair labor practices. All of their products are then handmade by local women.

Blew admires rePURPOSES’s integrity and conviction. “What I love most about rePURPOSE is their intentionality about the materials they use to create their products, as well as the awareness they are raising about human trafficking and the slave labor through these products.”

Webb highly recommends rePURPOSE products for more reasons than one. “The mission of rePURPOSE lines up with much of what Houghton stands for as a whole. That alone is a really good reason to buy and to support this company.”

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Stories In Focus

Learning to Love Our Neighbors

Every year, the Faith and Justice Symposium challenges Houghton College students and the wider Houghton community to consider a social justice issue through the lens of the Christian faith they share. From Wednesday, September 21 to Friday, September 23, this year’s Symposium, entitled “Loving our Neighbors,” will explore immigration and refugee issues with two keynote speakers, a coffeehouse, four workshops, and the screening of a documentary.

fjs-quoteThe selection of a topic for the Faith and Justice Symposium is based both on student feedback from the past year and on what subjects are timely in wider society. This year’s topic was chosen by the Symposium Advisory Team, which includes Brian Webb, Sustainability Coordinator, and Kristina LaCelle-Peterson, Professor of Religion. According to LaCelle-Peterson, they agreed that the issue of immigrants and refugees was relevant due to the current political climate and refugee crisis.

“According to the UN there are over 65 million displaced people in the world, over 21 million of whom are refugees,” said La-Celle Peterson. “Christians around the world are reflecting on what they can do and what churches can do to help displaced people rebuild their lives. We want to be part of that effort.” She continued, “Even aside from a discussion of refugees, the issue of immigration is on people’s minds, especially because of the election cycle we’re in. We wanted the Symposium to be a place where we can move beyond the sound-bites which are often misleading or simply playing on fears, and reframe the discussion on Jesus’ call to love our neighbor.”

Webb and LaCelle-Peterson also invited the two keynote for this year’s Symposium: Jenny Yang, the Vice President of Advocacy and Policy at World Relief, and Danny Carroll, the Blanchard Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College.

“We always try to get a diversity of keynote speakers,” said Webb. “We wanted people who could approach it from different angles. Jenny Yang is a well-known advocate on immigration justice issues. She’s highly regarded in Christian justice related circles on this issue. Danny Carroll comes more from an academic perspective, and has more of a theological background. He is a highly regarded scholar on biblical approaches to immigration.”

Yang will speak in chapel on Wednesday, while Carroll will both speak in chapel on Friday morning and will lead one of four workshops on Friday afternoon. The other three workshops will be led by speakers with a variety of perspectives on immigration and refugee issues. A representative from the Wesleyan Church will discuss the denomination’s approach, while an individual from the Christian Reform Church’s “Blessing Not Burden” campaign will discuss their organization’s attempt to reframe the immigration debate in terms of immigrants as a blessing to society. Another speaker who works in economic development in Buffalo will talk about how immigrants contribute to positive economic benefits of the country to which they immigrate.

“The workshops bring the opportunity to interact more closely with the speakers,” said Emily Barry ’17, who is part of this year’s Symposium Student Planning Committee. “It’s you in a classroom, so it’s more personal. They open it up for questions, and you can pick their brains how you want.”

On Thursday, the Symposium will present an “Engaging the Arts” coffeehouse organized by the student planning committee. It will feature live music and stories from Felix Madji, a second-year student at the Houghton in Buffalo campus and a refugee from the Central African Republic, as well as an art auction, participatory art project and free coffee. The Houghton College Gospel Choir will also make an appearance. This event is intended to help convey the human aspect of immigration and refugee issues, which is an overwhelming goal for this year’s Symposium.

“My hope is that students would see that these are real people with real stories,” said Webb. “Their stories matter, and we as Christians can value their stories and experiences in a way that uplifts the individual. Instead of arguing the ideology of an issue, I’d rather that people experience the real-life stories of ordinary people, and then frame their perspectives on the issue around what they learn.”

The wish to showcase the stories of real people is also why the Symposium will screen the film “Documented” on Friday. The documentary features Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist who came out as an undocumented immigrant in a New York Times Magazine cover story in 2011. Webb believes Vargas’s story is an especially powerful one.

“His story is actually what changed me 180 degrees on the immigration issue,” said Webb. “Just hearing his experiences as an undocumented individual helped me see this a really different light than I had grown up with.”

The Symposium, “Immigration and Refugees: Loving our Neighbors,” will begin on Wednesday in chapel with Jenny Yang, and continue through Friday. The full schedule is available on the Houghton College website.

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Stories In Focus

New RDs Take On Traditions and Values of Residence Halls

This fall, Houghton College welcomed two new Residence Directors (RDs). A.C. Taylor joined Shenawana Hall and Beth Phifer became a part of Lambein Hall. As RDs, Taylor and Phifer will oversee their respective residence halls and are each responsible for the maintenance and residents of that building. They will report to Marc Smithers, the Assistant Dean of Students for Residence Life and Programs. With their past experiences in Residence Life and shared enthusiasm for the job, both Phifer and Taylor are well prepared for their new positions.

img_3291img_3293Phifer has known of Houghton College for many years, with one of her favorite college professors having graduated from Houghton. Her undergraduate work focused on counseling, but Phifer said that she felt led by God to do work in Residence Life. That work is not unfamiliar to Phifer as she was a Resident Assistant during her undergraduate studies at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, and most recently she acted as an RD at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia. Last year, she applied to Christian campuses with openings for an RD closer to her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She wanted to work at a Christian establishment because she also received her education at a Christian liberal arts institution.

“In a Christian setting there is more freedom to help shape and develop students as followers in Christ,” Phifer said. She added that she is excited to talk about Jesus with her residents. Phifer plans to continue the work started by Krista Maroni, the previous RD of Lambein, in establishing a stronger sense of identity within the women’s dorm.

“There are three core values that Lambein embodies,” Phifer explained. “Those are compassion, courage, and wisdom.” She hopes to emphasize these three qualities throughout the year.

Taylor, who graduated from Houghton in 2014, is also thrilled to be an RD at Houghton. Like Phifer, Taylor worked in Residence Life as an RA when he was in college. His wife was looking to work in the admissions office at Houghton, so when a job opportunity as the RD of Shenawana Hall came up, Taylor applied.

“It is so great to be able to come back to Houghton and the amazing community that is,” he said. “As much of a buzzword as [community] is, it really is valid and unique. The kind of relationships among people that occur here really don’t happen everywhere.”

While a student and RA, Taylor lived in Rothenbuhler Hall. Even so, he is excited to work in Shenawana and experience the rich tradition of the building. He respects the culture and the identity that is Shenawana, and this year hopes to better understand the history and traditions that the dorm has to offer those who live there.

Both RDs expressed a desire to get to know their residents on a personal level.

“I am really excited to get to know each of my residents, although it is challenging to get to know every person,” said Phifer. “If my apartment is open please stop by, I really mean that. I want to highlight and bold that statement. I love opportunities to get to know people. I want to be there for them and be a person that they feel they can go to for support.”

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Stories In Focus

Shaping the Future: Houghton Student Summer Internships

Passing up an internship for a paid summer job may be common among college students, but it often means missing out on valuable experiences. This summer, Houghton students Chandler Jones ’17 and Melissa Maclean ’17 took internships in their fields, and agree that their experiences have shaped how they see their future career path.

Jones, an international development and communications major, interned at International Justice Mission (IJM), a Christian human rights organization headquartered in D.C. She worked as the Community Mobilization Intern.

img_3292img_3290“In any country where the legal system is corrupt, IJM goes in to help restore justice,” Jones said. According to the organization’s website, IJM is an anti-slavery organization that combats violence against the poor and vulnerable. Jones participated in lobbying congressmen and senators about the Ending Modern Slavery Act while interning for IJM. This role fit well for Jones, who hopes to one day work as an international human rights lawyer.

Jones added her experience at IJM made her feel sure that she was called to fight for justice through the legal field. She had known of the organization since her mission trip to Cambodia after graduating high school, where she helped care for victims of human trafficking. When she discovered that IJM rescued the girls from brothels, Jones began to pay attention to IJM’s efforts and dreamed of working there. Gary Hagen, the author of her favorite book, The Good News About Injustice, is the CEO of IJM. According to Jones, her internship built her communication skills and confidence, while also enriching her spiritually.

“Being with people my age who are so motivated and want to change the world is so inspiring,” she said.

Meanwhile, MacLean, also an international development and communications major, worked as an intern at two organizations throughout the summer, Heritage Christian Services and Motion Intelligence. MacLean worked under the director of communications at Heritage, which is an organization that provides services for people with autism spectrum disorder in Rochester. She also interned at Motion Intelligence, a company that does groundbreaking research with the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical Center in the field of diagnostics. Motion Intelligence focuses on concussion testing, autism, and athletic performance. MacLean acted as a freelance videographer for the organization.

“It’s been an incredible opportunity to explore my interests and get a genuine feeling for whether this would be a good fit for me,” MacLean said of both internship experiences. She said she realized she enjoys working for a specific cause like autism spectrum. “It’s molded my spiritual life, molded my work ethic, molded my compassion, honed my professional skills, and given me opportunities to network,” she said.

Both Jones and MacLean said their internships helped them to see what kind of work they felt passionate about and strengthened the skills they will need for the future.

“Even if you get an internship in something that has nothing to do with what you do in the future, that networking is so incredible,” MacLean said. “There’s nothing bad I can say that came out of the experience.”

 

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Reviews Stories In Focus

What to Watch This Summer

#10: Finding Dory – Finding Nemo continues to hold up as one of Pixar’s best, most vivid, and heart-warming films making this Dory-centered sequel one that audiences have awaited for years. The lovable blue tang’s search for her parents could easily be the next smash-hit for Pixar, provided it has something new to offer beyond simply living off the success of its predecessor.

#9: Warcraft – Warcraft with its name-recognition, big budget, and competent director, is seeking to upend the notion that all “Video Game Movies” have to suck. Its CGI-heavy story about the ongoing war between humans and orcs is given a boost of legitimacy with Duncan Jones’ name attached, having established a notable track record with films like Moon and Source Code, definitely making this one to look out for.

#8: Sausage Party – Seth Rogen’s hard R-rated animated comedy is about a talking sausage who’s trying to warn his fellow food-based friends about what really happens when humans take them home from the grocery store. Fans of Rogen’s crude humor are likely to enjoy this one, just know that it is not for everybody. Do not take the kids unless you want them learning some fun new words.

#7: Suicide Squad – DC’s lack of a sense of humor in their films is something Suicide Squad aims to fix, reintroducing the Joker and a number of Batman villains for Ben Affleck and the rest of Gotham to worry about. After such a mixed response to Batman v. Superman, DC needs a slam dunk here. The trailers have been promising. If Suicide Squad can actually deliver then Marvel may have to start paying attention.

#6: The Conjuring 2 – Ed and Lorraine Warren continue their paranormal investigations, counseling a young girl in London who is being tormented by another evil spirit. Horror movie sequels usually fall way short of their predecessors and The Conjuring set that standard pretty high, but if the trailer is any indication of 2’s overall quality then none of us are sleeping for weeks.

Kubo-and-the-Two-Strings-The-Garden-of-Eyes-1 copy#5: Kubo and the Two Strings – From the director of Coraline and ParaNorman, Kubo and the Two Strings looks beautiful. A young boy sets out on a quest to defeat a vengeful spirit, armed with only his friends and his small, important-looking guitar…thing. Anyone familiar with Travis Knight’s other films will be familiar with Kubo’s distinct, vivid animation. It is a unique looking film with plenty of character to sustain the film beyond simple aesthetics.

#4: Pete’s Dragon – The original Pete’s Dragon was a middling Disney movie with its standout feature being the melding of a live-action world with a two-dimensional dragon. That feature no longer feels like a gimmick today, but the trailer for this summer’s remake looks simply incredible. So close on the heels of Jon Favreau’s Jungle Book adaptation, to see Pete’s Dragon be given blockbuster treatment in such lavish fashion makes it look like another fine addition to Disney’s catalog.

#3: Swiss Army Man – Swiss Army Man is a dark comedy about Hank, (Paul Dano) who’s been stranded on a deserted island and finds a dead body (Daniel Radcliffe) that’s been washed ashore. Hank discovers that he can not only speak to the body, but he can use him for essentially any necessary task, plausible or surreal. It is completely bizarre and seemingly impossible to describe the film briefly. It is better just to watch the trailer and appreciate how strange it really is.

#2: The Lobster – The Lobster is an odd indie flick where single people are arrested and sent to retreat centers where they are required to fall in love within a 45-day window. If they cannot, those people are turned into animals, literally. It’s a quirky, dark comedy with an unsettling tone and critics are already raving about it.

#1: Captain America: Civil War – Marvel has outdone itself every year and Civil War is being called the best film in its lineup. Captain America vs. Iron Man, Liberty vs. Security. This is a film that provokes just as much thought as it does adrenaline. It is a visual spectacle foremost, but it also considers morality in a way that most superhero movies, heck, most movies fail to address. Oh, also Spider-Man is in it. You cannot forget Spider-Man.

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Stories In Focus

Physics Senior Present at RSPS

While it may appear to many undergraduate students that research conferences are reserved for professors and graduate students only, one benefit of a Houghton College education is participating in these conferences as an undergraduate. On April 2, 2016, five Houghton physics majors presented their research at the Rochester Symposium for Physics Students (RSPS). The annual symposium, which took place at the University of Rochester this year, is specifically designed so that undergraduate physics students can present their research orally. Students from all over New York state attend and participate in the type of conference setting that they might not otherwise encounter until graduate school.

Senior and junior physics majors attended the Rochester Symposium for Physics Students with professors Dr. Mark Yuly, Dr. Tanner Hoffman, and Dr. Kurt Aikens.
Senior and junior physics majors attended the Rochester Symposium for Physics Students with professors Dr. Mark Yuly, Dr. Tanner Hoffman, and Dr. Kurt Aikens.

Research is a key element of Houghton’s physics program. Every student majoring in physics or applied physics takes on a research project, often starting the work in the second semester of their sophomore year and continuing until graduation. This research is typically done in tandem with physics professors and takes up approximately forty-five hours every semester, which is essentially the equivalent of a one-credit class. The end result of their work is a thesis between forty and sixty pages, as well as presenting orally at RSPS.

For the past sixteen years, Houghton students have given twelve to fifteen-minute talks on their project lab research at RSPS as a graduation requirement. According to Mark Yuly, professor of physics and associate dean for natural sciences and mathematics, the experience is one that will prove invaluable for these students as they prepare for their careers.

“It gives the students a real-world experience doing something they will be doing all the time as professional physicists or engineers – speaking in public,” he said. “They get lots of practice presenting their work here on campus in their classes, but this is a chance to present for the outside world.”

Kurt Aikens, assistant professor of physics, added that the benefits of this program are self-evident. “It provides them with the opportunity to deliver a quality talk on their individual research project,” he said. “We help them to do the research, prepare their talks, we give them feedback, and generally ensure that they are prepared to do well. All of this is important because the ability to communicate one’s work is essential—you can be the best scientist in the world but no one will understand your results or how you obtained them if you cannot speak and write.

This year, five graduating physics majors including Kyle Craft, Thomas Eckert, August Gula, Margaret Kirkland and Jonathon Yuly presented their research orally. Craft, along with Andrew Redman ‘17, also presented a poster.

Eckert, who will begin a Ph.D. program in nuclear physics at the University of Rochester this fall, agrees that conferences like RSPS are a unique opportunity for Houghton students to gain experience. In addition to RSPS, Eckert has attended two international conferences as an undergraduate hosted by the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Plasma Physics.

“By going to conferences, you see first hand how important it is to talk about your work in an effective manner,” said Eckert. “If you can’t explain it simply enough for those outside of our field to understand it, you don’t really understand your work. And if you can’t do that, funding is harder to come by since the people you interact with most likely won’t have physics degrees.”

In a job market that places an emphasis on practical experience, symposiums and conferences like RSPS are more and more attractive on a resume. Participating in these events as undergraduates allows students not only to represent Houghton and to add to their personal resumes, but to begin building skills that will prove useful in the years to come.