Category: Stories In Focus

Irmgard Howard, a chemistry professor at Houghton College for nearly five decades, vividly remembers the unique experience of teaching a young Deborah Birx, M.D., in the 1970s.

“I discovered that she had a photographic memory,” Howard recalls. “After a test, I was reading through her blue book, and I could tell she hadn’t used any outside materials. She had – just from memory – written down what was on the pages that had been assigned for homework, the footnotes, the individual page numbers, even the margin notes from other students that were in the textbook. 

“It was not only amazing, it was amusing,” Howard continues. “I had never had a student who had been able to do that.”  

Nearly 45 years later, Birx continues to impress, becoming a household name in her prominent role as the United States’ Coronavirus Response Coordinator in the fight against COVID-19.

Birx has attracted media attention since her teenage years, attending the Lampeter-Strasburg school district in Lancaster County, PA. At 14, her project on paleobotany earned an honorable mention in a science contest. During her sophomore year of high school, Birx won third place in the Lancaster-City County Science Fair. This was quite significant at the time because the top three spots were taken by females. Known then as Debbi Birx, she was quoted in the April 13, 1972 issue of the Lancaster New Era explaining why she thought she won: “I worked very, very hard.” Birx finished her senior year at Carlisle High School in Carlisle, PA. There, she won two awards at the International Science and Engineering Fair in San Diego. 

Majoring in chemistry and math at Houghton College, Birx finished her undergraduate degree faster than most, graduating in 1976 alongside Shirley Mullen, who is now the college president. Although Mullen didn’t interact with Birx often due to their different academic disciplines, she remembers how the future Cornavirus Response Coordinator was well known around campus for her dedication to her studies.

“She and I were both very serious students – she in the sciences and I in the humanities. Our paths, thus, did not cross too much,” Mullen explains. “I did know her and knew of her reputation as an excellent student. She was involved in research early on – doing major honors work with Dr. Larry Christensen. It was this generation of faculty and students who laid the foundation for the Summer Research Institute that is part of Houghton today.” 

With the help and support of Houghton staff, Birx changed her career path to pre-med, and went to study at Penn State Hershey School of Medicine. Birx reflected on her past while addressing Houghton College virtually in May. “It’s people that make programs, not just resources and dollars,” she told members of the Class of 2020. “If you surround yourself with good people and you’re part of a good people team, you’ll be able to achieve all of your goals and make the country a better place.”

Additionally, Birx urged graduates to “be open to opportunities, even if it seems like a deviation from your primary path.” During her career, which spans four decades, Birx says she only had to apply for a job once. She showed initial interest in the medical field and was open-minded about where it could take her. This led her to work in internal medicine, clinical immunology, and infectious diseases. These paths allowed her to best understand the relationship between virus and host, the kind of knowledge her country desperately needs today.

As a world-renowned medical expert and leader in the field of HIV/AIDS, Birx also oversees the implementation of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The U.S. Department of State describes this as the largest commitment in history by any nation to combat a single disease. Additionally, she leads the nation’s engagement with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Birx serves as the U.S Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, working to align government action with the goals of achieving an AIDS-free generation. Other aspirations include ending preventable child and maternal deaths, and preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious disease threats. Her role is increasingly important as the world reacts to COVID-19.

Through her professionalism and leadership in the medical field, Birx had the opportunity to work alongside the Department of Defense as a military-trained clinician in immunology. While serving as an assistant chief of the Hospital Immunology Service at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Birx went on to serve as director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research from 1996 to 2005. 

Birx, who is a U.S. ambassador, also helped to lead RV 144, also known as the Thai trial, which is one of the most influential HIV vaccine trials in history. This trial provided the first evidence of vaccine success in treating HIV. Rising to the rank of colonel in the United States Army, Birx is the recipient of two U.S. Meritorious Service Medals and the Legion of Merit Award for groundbreaking research, leadership, and management skills during her service with the Department of Defense. She also was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the African Society for Laboratory Medicine in 2011, and honored with the prestigious William C. Watson Jr. Medal of Excellence in 2014. 

During Houghton College’s recent virtual commencement, Birx encouraged the Class of 2020 to bring a “can-do attitude” into everything they do in life. “Nothing is beneath you,” she attests, explaining there is no reason to wait for someone else to take action, even if it’s a task simple as making a phone call or mailing a letter. By maintaining this attitude, one is much more likely to be able to adapt to their situations.

Howard, the long-time Houghton chemistry professor who retired in 2013, explains that what she admires most about Deborah Birx is her adaptability. She says the Response Coordinator “has been able to adapt to every environment using all the skills she’s learned along the way. She is flexible and able to adapt, and she still looks good on TV!”

On Thursday, October 25th, Dr. Peter Meilaender delivered his faculty lecture entitled “Why You Should Learn a Foreign Language: Confessions of a Homebody Traveller.” Faculty Lectures are a long standing tradition at Houghton in which Professors from all departments are invited present their current work in their field of study or simply on a topic which they are passionate about. Speakers in the past have presented on everything from Michelangelo to Antibiotics to the role of Organists in Worship. For his presentation, Dr. Meilaender gave his argument for why students ought to learn at least one or two foreign languages.

Dr. Meilaender opened by explaining that in the past decade, enrollment in all foreign languages at the University level has declined to its lowest level since the 1960s. This phenomenon is evidenced on our very own campus by the merging of the foreign language department with Intercultural Studies and the decline in foreign language courses offered. At this point French, German, Hebrew, and Greek are offered on rotating schedules at beginner levels, compared to even just two decades ago when Houghton offered more foreign language classes at various levels and multiple foreign language majors and minors.

This decline in enrollment might suggest that there is no longer value in studying foreign languages. Dr. Meilaender argued that this is not the case. Learning foreign languages is important for University students because, in the words of Austrian Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, “the limits of my language means the limits of my world.” When we are only fluent in our own language, our world is limited to our own country and culture. Dr. Meilaender anecdotally explained his own experience of this phenomenon, as student who originally had no interest in other countries or cultures, but who learned German upon meeting the woman who is now his wife and discovering the positives of German culture and engineering.  Today, Dr. Meilaender reaps the many benefits of being able to fully engage both American and German culture, which would be impossible if not for his fluency in German. Students can do the same because language is a prerequisite for learning about a culture.

Not only is “learning a foreign language an admission pass to another cultural universe” but it is one of the bests way to understand English grammar, is practical in jobs, and translation increases one’s facility for the use of language. With these reasons in mind, Dr. Meilaender proposes a vision in which each student is fluent in at least one language, preferably two (one modern language and one classical language.) This vision is not totally unrealistic considering the many tools at students disposal like Duolingo and Babbel, which offer quick language acquisition options or self-designed minors which provide an option for students desiring more academic fluency.

Dr. Meilaender concluded with the argument that learning a language can also be considered deeply Christian. According to the Bible there will be a day where people from every nation, tongue, and tribe will gather before the throne of God and worship him together. This means that in heaven we might all be able to understand one another “but,” to use Dr. Meilaender’s concluding words  “there is no reason that we should not get a head start now.”

The lecture was received well by students and faculty. Many students, like Junior Emily Allen, attend and “appreciated Dr. Meilaender’s lecture and his whimsical approach to the serious topic of the life-changing effects of learning a foreign language.” Similarly, Dr. Sarah Derck, a foreign language professor herself, thought “Dr. Meilaender’s lecture today was winsome and insightful” and she “particularly appreciated the connections he drew between learning a foreign language and entering that culture.” The next lecture will be by Dr. Anna Pettway on November 15th at 4:25, entitled “#Existingwhileblack: The Psychological Burden of Anti-Black Racism.”

For those who missed his introduction in chapel the first week of the semester, Dr. Jetro Silva is Houghton’s new Professor of Music Industry and Director of Technical Arts. A native of Rio de Janeiro, Dr. Silva was raised in a Southern Baptist community, and started working with his church choir at the age of 7, at the encouragement of his uncle. He attributes his connection to the “Christian family” to his love of music, which has allowed him to relate with believers across denominations. Despite being from Brazil, Dr Silva considers himself an American as he moved here in his early twenties, when he completed a B.M. from Berklee College of Music. He later did his masters at Andover Newton Theological School, to better lead his home group that had grown into its own congregation.

Dr Silva’s favorite color is purple, and coincidentally his favorite novel is The Color Purple. He spoke of his affection for African American literature, saying “There’s something about being able to see myself culturally and physically in what I’m reading, that means a lot to me.” Cape Verde holds a special place in his heart, as the place was a major stop on the Portuguese slave trade to Brazil and holds a cultural significance for him.

Dr Silva’s career consisted of working a myriad of jobs such as Sound Engineer, Sound Designer, Programmer, Keyboardist, Worship Leader, both for well-known names like Whitney Houston as well churches around the US in Mississippi, California, and Rhode Island. Senior Derek Chase noted that “I think he has a ton of knowledge and I love just listening to him talk because it’s kinda like I just learn so much from his experience and life.”

Dr Silva already speaks favorably of his experience at Houghton. “I love the students,” he said, “the students are very, very very special, they are brilliant and they are passionate.” He was drawn to Houghton because of “the potential to build something,” specifically with the Music Industry program. Derek Chase adds that “I think he has really good ideas that are going to help the program start to become great again.”

“I want to establish my style of teaching, which is a combination of foundational theory and hands on,” Dr Silva said. His ideal Music Industry program would include his classes working with other classes in the Music building as well as establishing a firm understanding of how the music business works. He hopes that a student, after completing the program, will “still be an artist, but with a wealth of information on technology, application of production techniques, and be able to be an artist of their own with the music business knowledge, and that way they can go into the music industry and successfully survive.”

His theological background provides a valuable foundation for his work. He says “it is my hope that the music we do triggers the ear of the seer to hear from God and speak to the people the world salvation.” Genre, style, instrument is not as important as the intention behind the music created. Dr Silva ended the interview with a reference to John 4:23:  “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”

Two new professors, Heidi and John Giannini, and their toddler daughter Gloria, joined Houghton’s philosophy department this semester.

Prof. Heidi Giannini graduated from Houghton in 2006, with a major in philosophy and a minor in literature, before earning her Ph.D. in philosophy from Baylor University. Prof. John Giannini attended St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where he majored in computer science and philosophy, and then also earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Baylor.

The Profs. Giannini bring a wide range of expertise to the philosophy department. Prof. Heidi Giannini specializes primarily in ethics. She said, “I am very interested in questions about right and wrong, good and evil. One of my primary interests is in how we ought to respond to moral wrongdoing. Thus, much of my research concerns forgiveness, anger, and grace.” These pursuits have also lead her to acquire, as she said, “an interest in early modern French philosophy, in part because of debates on the nature of grace involving figures like Pascal, Arnauld, Malebranche, and (though not French) Leibniz.” Prof. John Giannini’s interests include philosophy of language (questions about how language works and the relationship between language and reality) and philosophy of religion (questions about the nature of God, religious belief, and related topics). His research has focused what philosophers call the principle of charity, which relates to the interpretive assumptions we should make about someone else’s writing.

These interests are well represented by the courses the Gianninis are teaching this fall. Prof. Heidi Giannini is teaching a course on the 17th-century French thinker Blaise Pascal, which students can take for credit in either philosophy or theology, along with two sections of the first course (“Ancient and Medieval World”) in Houghton’s new Enduring Questions sequence. Describing the Pascal course, she said, “Pascal’s status as a philosopher is controversial. Though a rigorous thinker, he recognized serious limitations on the power of reason. … Some contemporary philosophers also tend to dismiss his thought because of its overtly theological content.” “In this class,” she said, “we [are investigating] the argumentative structure of the Pensées,” Pascal’s primary philosophical work, “with particular attention to his thoughts on reason, the human condition, and divine grace.” Prof. John Giannini is teaching courses in the philosophy of religion – “Reason and Religious Belief” and “The Nature of God” – along with an Enduring Questions course on the modern Western world. Reflecting on his philosophy of religion offerings, he said, “I hope [these courses] give me a chance to involve some of you in reasoning about the same questions I’ve been fascinated by for years, for instance about whether the things we believe about God are rational, or how we can make sense of a good God allowing the evil we see in the world.”

Why is philosophy a valuable part of the Houghton experience?  “Deep down, I suspect most people are interested in philosophical questions,” Prof. Heidi Giannini said. “Most of us care about whether there is God and, if so, what God is like. Most of us care about what it means to live a good life and how to become good people. Not everyone investigates these questions with the rigor demanded by professional philosophy, but many nonetheless earnestly wrestle with them to at least some degree. My experience suggests that college students, many of whom are branching out on their own for the first time, are especially concerned to make their worldview their own. And philosophy can help with that.” Prof. Carlton Fisher, a long-time member of the philosophy department who retired this year, concurred. “I am very pleased that the college recognizes the need for philosophers and was able to hire the Gianninis. I expect that they will be very good at what they do. … Christian colleges, which by their very existence announce the importance of careful thought about the Faith, need to teach philosophy and do it well. We owe this to our students who make such a significant investment in a Christian education.”

The Kalanthuba Chiefdom is a newly de-amalgamated chiefdom in the Northern Province of the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Through professor Ronald Oakerson, Houghton College has been sending research teams to the region for some years and developed a relationship with the chiefdom. This year’s visit was prompted by a request that Houghton students return to do research after last year’s baseline development study was conducted, which locals found immensely helpful for directing development efforts.

This past May, the student research team studied agricultural marketing, ecotourism feasibility and community school formation. After a brief stay in Freetown, they set out to Kalanthuba to conduct interviews in villages every day for two weeks. The experience was intense, physically, academically and emotionally. Traveling from village to village gave them a taste of rural life in Sierra Leone and allowed them to make meaningful connections with locals.

Once the research period was over, they frantically compiled our findings in preparation for a meeting with community stakeholders at the end of the Mayterm. Other members of the team stayed an additional three weeks for internships; the ecotourism team worked with the Bumbuna Watershed Management Authority and the schools team worked for the chiefdom, writing project proposals and helping initiate school formation in a remote section. This included a 20-mile, overnight trek to meet with stakeholders to begin the formation of the future Ronald J. Oakerson Community Primary School. For students interested in the outcome of these teams’ research, there will be forthcoming reports in addition to the information provided here.

Community schools are what they sound like; schools created and operated by a community. None of Kalanthuba’s seven community schools are government-approved and do not receive government funding or teacher salaries. Teachers work voluntarily, subsisting on token payments, alternative livelihoods and family support. They work on behalf of their communities, utilizing what skills they have as they teach the standard curriculum all Sierra Leonian teachers use. Enrollment and attendance are low due to poverty, agricultural needs, poor road infrastructure and food insecurity. Education is an urgent need in Kalanthuba due to the staggering adult literacy rate of two percent.

The student research team found that there are community level structures in place for development aimed toward the betterment of educational and social infrastructure. Communities give what labor and finances they are able to after a social entrepreneur initiates formation. Communities have a high level of investment in these schools, but the support is limited due to poverty.

The team’s research sought to identify where the critical need lies, in order to help build upon existing programs. Their internship focused on this as they wrote proposals for the chiefdom to give to NGOs to reinitiate communal agriculture, provide tools for road-building labor groups, finish school construction and an environmental education project.

Beyond the academic, the Houghton students had various encounters that impacted their lives and expanded their worldview. On the trek to Kamakolo, the team visited a nearby village where a scene pierced their hearts. A woman was singing songs of lament outside of her home, where her son lay dying of edema. There was no way to get the boy treatment due to the village’s remoteness. At the end of Mass, in honor of the Day of the African Child, some young children from the parish gave brief presentations on development issues. A youth group from Magburaka also came, telling of their mission of empowerment and development. The students, encouraged in knowing that work is being done on the ground, furthered by courageous yet unknown individuals like these who daily take up the cross in service to their people, satiating the thirst of Jesus in the hearts of the poor.

What does it mean to “use your heartbeats well”? This was the question posed to a group of Houghton Students as they sat under a thatch roof, watching the vervet monkeys play in the trees, on a cloudless morning. Though they sat in front of a stereotypical chalkboard, with their pens and papers before them, this was anything but a normal spring semester.

For the past 17 years, Houghton (and other partnering colleges) have been sending groups of 20-25 students to Masumbo- a rural campus just outside of the city of Iringa, Tanzania- to study development, anthropology and biology in an intercultural and hands-on setting. It is a program focused on experiential learning, in which everything that is learned in the classroom is immediately applied in an authentic context. For example, students would learn about the flora and fauna of an ecosystem in the classroom, and then go experience the land for themselves on safari – or debate sustainable development strategies, and then visit the places in which these strategies are being carried out.

The climax of the trip was a homestay, during which students were sent out to live with Tanzanian villagers for eight days; working when they worked, eating what they ate, and worshiping where they worshiped. It was a culminating experience, which challenged students to join their classroom knowledge of culture, history and language with the everyday experience of rural Tanzanians. “Homestay is one of the things that blares in my mind when I think about Africa… it helped me begin to learn some of the cultural nuances and some of the things that you can’t really see on the surface” said senior Alana Meyers. In addition to homestay, students got to engage with East African culture by visiting the Maasai people, watching Wahehe dancers, experiencing Tanzanian cuisine at places like the iconic “Hasty Tasty”, playing lots of football (soccer) and enjoying the landscape that sustains such an abundance of life.

When not out exploring, students called the Masumbo campus home. It’s a spacious field shaded by huge umbrella acacia trees and complete with an open air picnic hut, the “Twiga”-where students had class, and tiny “bandas” (huts) where students lived in pairs. The Ruaha river flows close by and students spent their afternoons lounging by the rapids or soaring over the river on the zipline. Senior Maggie Clune offered this vivid description: “My place had turned into a muddy brown river with rocks lining the paths. It had Bandas running along the treeline and a giant thatch roof classroom with couches perfect for napping. My place was suddenly a little hut, filled with art, that monkeys jumped on the roof of to wake me up in the morning. It was where chipates [an African version of a tortilla] quickly turned into a campus favorite and our professors became our best friends. I had my home, I had Houghton, and now I had Tanzania…… Masumbo created a safe place for me to sit and think about but what the future will hold for me. It gave quietness and peace to work through the changes that would be made when I got home.”

The semester in Tanzania program is designed to grow students in more than just an academic sense. Students attended chapels focusing the connection between God, ourselves, and the earth and wrestled with what it means to experience life together in a small close-knit community. In the words of Hannah Sievers, the semester “immensely altered my view of people, nature and God.”