In a recent visit to Baltimore, I ate lunch with a group of Johns Hopkins University (JHU) graduate students. Dwight Schwartz (InterVarsity’s Graduate & Faculty Ministry Area Director for the MidAtlantic and Campus Staff Member at JHU) couldn’t wait to introduce me to Lisa, whose labors align so well with the passions and vision of […]
undergraduates
Four Things I Learned about Students and Faculty from Academically Adrift
Earlier this year, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa created quite a stir with their book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. Their central claim: if the goal of college is to teach students how to think critically, then colleges are failing at their primary purpose. With a large sample of more than 2,300 students, […]
Freshmen, Stress, and Spirituality
The NY Times reports that the emotional health of college freshmen is at a 25-year low, based on the annual survey conducted by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute. In the survey, “The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2010,” involving more than 200,000 incoming full-time students at four-year colleges, the percentage of students rating themselves as […]
ESN Gatherings at Berea and Ohio State
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Berea College and (T)he Ohio State University recently. I thought I would let you know how the trips went and how ESN served the different audience. At Berea College, I spoke at the undergraduate InterVarsity “large group” meeting. (IV Jargon Alert! […]
Comparing Research Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges
This week and next, I’m making a couple of short road trips to speak at two very different schools: small Berea College in Kentucky and huge (massive? gargantuan?) Ohio State University. Tonight, I’m speaking to the Berea InterVarsity chapter about the Emerging Scholars Network and serving Christ as a professor. Next Wednesday at Ohio State, […]