Category: Stories

NPU Student-Veteran Lands Rauner Internship

North Park senior and US veteran Nico Canete shares about his prized internship with Governor Bruce Rauner’s re-election campaign.

Politics and Government Major “It’s a pivotal time in Chicago’s history, specifically in terms of the violence. And I want to be a part of the solution." North Park University appealed to Nico because of its emphasis on social justice, diversity, and the concept of Chicago as classroom. He is very proud to be a part of North Park’s first class without a racial majority. Nico hopes to translate his education into a career in education in underserved neighborhoods. He is interning with a pastor and anti-violence activist on the South Side of Chicago.

Nine months before he came to North Park University, senior Nico Canete was on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf launching air strikes against ISIS as a member of the U.S. Navy.

So it’s not surprising that when he arrived on campus as a vet, Canete was instrumental in recovering a long-lost plaque honoring North Parkers who served in World War II. Along with Dr. John Laukaitis, assistant professor of education, Canete successfully lobbied to have the plaque prominently displayed on campus.

Veterans, and service to country in general, are important to Canete, who recently branched out into politics, beating out dozens of other applicants to land an internship with Governor Bruce Rauner’s re-election campaign.

“I’m really looking forward to all the experience I’m getting by working on a major political campaign,” said Canete, a politics and government major.

It’s experience he hopes to apply to his own future, potentially as an elected official.

“I do hope to run for office someday, but if I do, I imagine it would be on the local or state level, such as a school board, town council or as a state representative,” said Canete, who is from Northwest Indiana.

“But if I were elected, I would be intentional about only serving a maximum of two terms, as I do not believe in being a career politician or getting rich off of public service.”

After applying for the internship, Canete went through a few interviews before being offered the job. Working since October in Rauner’s downtown headquarters, he performs tasks like analyzing media clips for the communications team and verifies the legitimacy of campaign petitions using an online database.

In addition, Canete is the president of Pi Sigma Alpha, NPU’s chapter of the national political honor society; organizes events for the Student Veteran Association; and is a resident assistant in one of the campus apartment buildings. He spends his free time reading the Wall Street Journal, working out, or hanging out with his fiancée.

Canete, who graduates in May, hopes to end up in public relations, business operations, or law enforcement.

Whatever path he chooses, he said he will be forever influenced by his time at North Park, which he chose in part because of its dedication to service, and by his professors, including history lecturer Dr. Michael Johnson.

“His World War II class opened my eyes to the study of history, and the importance of understanding it so that we may draw closer to truth, learning lessons and developing solutions to challenges in the future,” Canete said.

A future Canete is clearly ready to face.

Author Ellen AlmerPosted on Categories Stories

NPU Celebrates 10th Annual Lessons and Carols Festival

North Park celebrated its tenth annual Festival of Lessons and Carols.

North Park celebrated its tenth annual Festival of Lessons and Carols, December 3, featuring performances by the North Park University Gospel Choir Touring Ensemble and Chamber Singers.

Other performers included the NPU Orchestra and the Women’s Chorale, as well as the People’s Music School and YOURS Orchestra Members from Hibbard Elementary School in Albany Park.

This year’s program, Worship Christ the Newborn King, was held at St. Hilary Catholic Church and, following tradition, featured music performed in several different languages. Interim University President Carl Balsam began the service with the opening prayer.

The lessons, mixed between songs, were read by North Park faculty, staff, and students, as well as members of St. Hilary Catholic Church.

First held on Christmas Eve in 1918 in Cambridge, England, the Festival of Lessons and Carols service comes from the Anglican tradition. In such services, music is interspersed between Scripture readings that tell the story of Christ, from the creation of the world to the birth of Jesus.

Author Ellen AlmerPosted on Categories News, Stories

Taste of the Pacific: Honoring Traditions of Pacific Island Students

The second annual Taste of the Pacific event featured singing, dancing, and storytelling celebrating the heritage of North Park University’s Pacific Islander students.

More than 100 students and faculty members attended the second annual Taste of the Pacific event December 1, a festival featuring singing, dancing and storytelling that celebrated the heritage of North Park University’s Pacific Islander students.

“We are far away from home, but we have created a home here; we’re not a club, we’re a family,” said Rakiiba Va’alele, one of the founders of the Pacific Cultural Association, the group that put on the event.

The performances were designed to showcase the cultures of several Pacific Island nations, including Fiji, Hawaii, New Zealand, Tahiti and Samoa.

“God and family—in that order—is the way of Polynesian Culture,” said Michael Conway, the event’s honorary speaker and also NPU’s head football coach. Conway and his wife, Beth, NPU’s project manager for student engagement, are longtime supporters of the PCA. “I’m thankful for you all, and I’m thankful for these young people.”

Throughout the night, students used song and dance to tell stories of their island nations’ cultures. Performers dressed in traditional garb, changing each time the audience “traveled” along to another island.

According to founders Va’alele and Leautea Faiai, the PCA’s vision is to see the Pacific Islander Community at North Park connected, empowered, and cared for academically, spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

The event was sponsored by the Office of Diversity and the Student Government Association. A portion of the proceeds from the $7 admission price went toward NPU’s tuition assistance fund for Pacific Islander students.

SGA Vice President, Anosh Wasker, said the event showcases the best of NPU.

“Events like these bring out what North Park stands for, which is being multi-cultural,” Wasker said at the end of the night. “They show their own culture, they preserve their own culture, but also help others experience their culture.”

Author Ellen AlmerPosted on Categories News, StoriesTags , , , , , ,

Committed to Faculty and Student Diversity: University Dean, Dr. Liza Ann Acosta

As University Dean, Dr. Liza Ann Acosta’s hope is to facilitate the work of faculty development—with a student body comprised of a diverse population and mirrored by a diverse faculty.

Portrait of Dean Acosta

“I am invested in the wellbeing of my students and my colleagues. Being asked to do more with little is overwhelming, but my colleagues’ dreams for our students are on my mind every single day. My wish is to make those become real possibilities.  An investment in our faculty is an investment in our students.”

Facilitating Faculty Development

As University Dean, Dr. Liza Ann Acosta’s hope is to facilitate the work of faculty development—with a student body comprised of a diverse population and mirrored by a diverse faculty, so that all our students can see themselves reflected in the people who teach them. A new mentorship program for first-year and ongoing rising faculty and a partnership with the Faculty Senate and Office of Institutional Effectiveness for the inclusion of adjunct faculty development are among the initiatives supporting Dean Acosta’s vision of having a well-rounded, diverse faculty at North Park.

Retention and Recruitment of Faculty of Color

Dean Acosta has initiated efforts to more effectively recruit and retain faculty of color who can and do impact the student learning experience through expertise, mentorship, and role-modeling. In these efforts, Dean Acosta advises and serves on search committees, advocates for faculty and staff of color, and leads monthly meetings for faculty and staff of color for community-building.

Helping Students Have an Enriching Intercultural Experience

Dean Acosta is encouraged every day by North Park students as she observes them make connections between classroom and world. “Preparing students to contribute in real possible ways—through the arts, life sciences, technology—is what we seek at North Park, with faculty who have a passion for planting a seed and watching students grow.”

At North Park, Dean Acosta continues to teach, advise, and mentor students. She is also part of the Council on Diversity Equity and Inclusion whose central role includes bias reporting. “I am always thinking of ways that North Park’s faculty, as a collective, can be even better in their respective specialty fields, and how we can help students have an enriching, intercultural experience,” said Dean Acosta. Academic programs are structured in a way to reflect both a rigorous learning experience in the classroom and experiential learning opportunities outside the classroom when engaging how the diverse city of Chicago functions and thrives.

Core principles guide Dean Acosta: encouraging creativity, providing resources for continuous improvement and innovation, documenting and learning from best practices in research and teaching, advocating for a diverse faculty, and nurturing professional development for all faculty members. Meeting the needs of both students and faculty is an ongoing process—a role that for Dean Acosta is always evolving.

Author onlinemediaPosted on Categories Profile, StoriesTags , , , , , ,

Physics and Liberal Arts, An Educational Alchemy: Jonathan Almer C’91

Jonathan Almer C’91, utilizes both his liberal arts and physics education in research involving a 1,800-year-old mummy.

Jonathan Almer, C’91, recently welcomed a 1,800-year-old mummy to his office for the day.

Of course, Almer, a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory, doesn’t have your average desk job. As part of his work there running the Advanced Photon Source (APS)—a highly sophisticated X-Ray machine—he conducted an in-depth examination of the mummy, believed to contain the body of a 5-year-old Egyptian girl.

“We’re hoping our data will help us better understand details of her bone tissue, and her teeth,” said Almer, who majored in physics at North Park and received his PhD in material sciences from Northwestern University in 1998. “This kind of information will help us enrich the historic context of the mummy as well as the Roman period in Egypt.”

Almer’s expertise with Argonne’s APS allowed him and his partner, Northwestern Prof. Stuart Stock, to peer into the mummy at a high resolution, and “in a non-destructive way,” Almer said.

The mummy is one of only 100 so-called “portrait mummies” in existence. Such mummies feature life-like paintings of the deceased person’s face. This particular mummy is owned by Northwestern University and will be on display for several months in 2018 at the school’s Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. Almer and Stock’s fascinating research was featured in a recent Chicago Tribune article.

Almer credits his North Park education with sparking his sense of curiosity.

“My physics courses were challenging but sometimes even fun, thanks to Linda McDonald,” said Almer, of the longtime NPU physics professor.

“North Park provided an excellent basis for my career,” Almer said. “The strong overall liberal arts focus at North Park meant I took a much broader set of courses than most of my colleagues I’ve worked with since.”

Almer also joked, “Such broad-based knowledge helps personal development in a myriad of ways, but also provides practical benefits such as communication skills which, let’s face it, scientists could use more of.”

Well said, even for a scientist.

Author Ana FundukPosted on Categories Profile, StoriesTags , , ,

This Way To Greensboro

The excitement on campus continues to build as North Park’s men’s soccer team leaves Wednesday for their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division III Final Four in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The excitement on campus continues to build as North Park’s men’s soccer team leaves Wednesday for their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division III Final Four in Greensboro, North Carolina.

“What an amazing time for North Park,” said President Carl Balsam, who plans to make the trip to cheer on the team in person. “This Viking men’s soccer team has surpassed every milestone for their program, and they aren’t done yet.”

The 20-1-1 Vikings will face off against regional rivals University of Chicago on Friday at 6:30 p.m. NPU defeated the Maroons 1-0 in their one regular season match-up. The winner of that game goes on to face either Messiah College or Brandeis University in the National Championship game Saturday.

“The team has been training hard in practice and has had an amazing focus about them,” Head Coach John Born said. “They are an extremely close-knit and competitive group.”

While Born and the team respect the talent and experience of the other three squads in the tournament, the Vikings have a clear goal.

“We aren’t just pleased to be there, we intend to make our own history this weekend,” Born said.

Athletic Director Jack Surridge, who is also making the trip, says “this is a significant weekend in the history of North Park Athletics and another chapter in a series of achievements in men’s soccer.”

NPU is providing a fan bus for students who’d like to cheer in person for the team,  which boasts a diverse, international roster, with players from as far as Sweden, Norway, Germany, and England, and as close as Chicago, Michigan, and Minnesota. One player hails from neighboring Von Stuben Metro Science High School.

“We appreciate the fine way in which this team represents our university and we wish them every success as they pursue a national championship,” Balsam said.

Born said he and the team have been overwhelmed by the support of the North Park community.

“We are extremely humbled and grateful,” Born said. “We will do our best to make you all proud.”

Author Ellen AlmerPosted on Categories News, Stories

Vikings Headed to Final Four

The Vikings outlasted the University of St. Thomas Sunday 1-0 in a penalty-filled match that secured the squad’s first trip to the NCAA Division III Final Four in program history.

The Vikings outlasted the University of St. Thomas Sunday 1-0 in a penalty-filled match that secured the squad’s first trip to the NCAA Division III Final Four in program history.

For the second game in a row, the winning goal was scored by freshman Shatil Khoury, off a pass from senior Jason Gonzalez. The Tommie’s and their defense dominated the opening minutes of the half. But with 15 minutes left in the first half, Khoury struck, and the momentum shifted to the Vikings.

Each team played their trademark physical games, with the Vikings earning 26 fouls and the Tommies 20.

The win means North Park will head to Greensboro, NC, where they will face division rival University of Chicago on Saturday. The Vikings defeated the Maroons 1-0 during their one regular-season matchup.

The winner of that all-Chicago game will go to the National Championship, where they will face either Brandeis University or Messiah College. Reigning champion Tufts University was eliminated in semi-final action Sunday by Brandeis.

Watch the North Park–St. Thomas game recap on North Park’s Facebook and on the Athletic Department’s website.

Author Ana FundukPosted on Categories News, Stories

Vikings Advance to the Elite 8

North Park’s men’s soccer squad advanced to the third round of the NCAA Division III tournament for the first time in team history after cruising to a 6-1 victory against the Wis.-Platteville Pioneers Sunday.

Battling a stiff wind and driving rain, the North Park Vikings defeated Virginia’s Washington & Lee University 3-0 to advance to their first-ever NCAA Elite Eight soccer game Sunday.

Senior Shatil Khoury struck first for the Vikings, scoring just 1:47 minutes into the first half on a pass from sophomore Peder Nalum Olsen. The 25-mile-per-hour wind-whipped flags and made the ball difficult to pass, keeping the Vikings on the defense for most of the first half. But sophomore goalie Mathias Stulen was able to keep the ball out of the net the entire game, earning the shutout.

The Vikings scored on the Generals again with just 5 minutes left in the first half, when sophomore Gustav Ericsson deked a defender and passed to senior Mathias Warp, who booted the ball in. The Vikings final goal came in the second half off a sweet backward heel pass from Warp to senior Chase Lennartz.

Although the Generals had more shots on goal than the Vikings, they failed to capitalize on their best opportunity, with Stulen making a diving save on a line drive shot by the Generals with just 7:30 left in the game.

The Vikings will move on to the Elite Eight round of the tournament, where they will face the winner of Saturday’s matchup of Ohio’s Otterbein University v. University of St. Thomas of Minnesota. That game will also be hosted by North Park, at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Holmgren Athletic Complex.

If the Vikings win tomorrow, they will move into the Final Four, with a shot at the Division III National Championship in North Carolina in the beginning of December.

Sunday’s game will again be live streamed on North Park’s Facebook and on the Athletic Department’s website.

Author Ana FundukPosted on Categories News, StoriesTags , , , , ,

North Park Serves as Case Study for Diversity

North Park University is cited for efforts to diversify its student body and faculty in a recent book that examines the populations of 150 Christian colleges and universities across the country.

North Park University has been cited for its efforts to diversify its student body and faculty in a recent book that examined the populations of 150 Christian colleges and universities across the country.

The book, Diversity Matters: Race, Ethnicity and the Future of Christian Higher Education, cited North Park’s specific mission to “use Chicago as a classroom, a strategic effort to connect with the faith communities” in the city.

Diversity Matters, edited by Karen A. Longman, features North Park as a case study. The book notes that North Park promotes its city-centered, intercultural academics by requiring faculty candidates to demonstrate how they would use Chicago as a classroom.

The book finds that the percentage of nonwhite students attending schools that are part of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities had increased by about 10 percentage points between 2004 and 2014. However, most of that growth was at urban-centered universities such as North Park. Such schools tend to be more inclusive.

“It should be noted that despite the media’s painting of evangelicals with a broad brush, the tent of Christian views is quite broad,” Longman said in an interview with Inside Higher Ed.

For instance, Longman noted, 68 percent of evangelical Christians support a legal path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Earlier this year, North Park’s then-president, David Parkyn, joined 600 public and private colleges and university presidents in signing a letter supporting its DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] students.

Longman noted that many Christian universities, North Park included, are naturally inclined to see social justice issues as a Biblical imperative.

“Because of their mission and theological heritage, [Christian colleges] emphasize the practice of social justice and are intrinsically motivated to work for racial harmony and interethnic healing,” Longman said.

Author Ana FundukPosted on Categories News, StoriesTags

Catalyst On Campus: Health in the City

At a Catalyst on Campus event, representatives from the Lawndale Christian Health Center (LCHC) spoke on the importance of providing health care that is accessible to everyone, especially those who can’t afford insurance.

As part of the Catalyst 606__ program, North Park University hosts on-campus presentations and lectures in addition to classroom excursions. Catalyst on Campus events aim to broaden students’ experience of the city and enrich campus culture with relevant dialogue. This past week, the Catalyst on Campus event was sponsored by the School of Nursing and entitled “Health in the City.” Representatives from the Lawndale Christian Health Center (LCHC) spoke on the importance of providing health care that is accessible to everyone, especially those who can’t afford insurance.

Heather Duncan, Assistant Professor of Nursing, opened the Catalyst event analyzing what poverty means, and its cause and effect on healthcare. “Poverty is both a cause and consequence of poor health,” she described as the latest statistics on the correlation between wealth and health rolled on the screen. The stability of a neighborhood depends on the resources available. When those with resources leave neighborhoods, they take with them the resources which aid in the stability of that neighborhood.

Lawndale Christian Health Center’s mission is to bring some stability and resources back into neighborhoods where these are not present. In addition to providing health care, LCHC provides other services such as Christian Life leadership and, through partnerships, aquaponics. These services are especially impactful as over 30% of LCHC’s patients are uninsured. In total LCHC provides 12 different services to communities across their five locations in Chicago.

During the seminar, the three representatives were able to speak about their different experiences from in-clinic care to assisting patients and others acquire affordable insurance. Two of the representatives, Stacy Atkins and Bennett Csukor are North Park Alums who began working at LCHC for several reasons. Both described their journeys to working at LCHC and their most impactful memories. For Stacy, it was her mom who won bingo games to pay for Stacy’s education to get her in the position she is in now. For Bennett, it was one of the first times he witnessed what it was like for people to truly live without healthcare; he now works to insure as many patients as possible.

LCHC has worked to provide affordable healthcare to those who don’t have access to it, and has been doing so for over 30 years. LCHC keeps its doors open and serves the public through donors and staff who uphold their values and work to provide the healthcare everyone deserves. Lawndale Christian Health Center has opportunities for students and recent graduates in the form of internships and jobs for both students in the medical field and those who are not. Working in healthcare isn’t only about being a nurse or doctor—something the representatives emphasized—but places like LCHC need marketers, technicians, and more. Contacting LCHC for internships is as easy as emailing Jeffery Chen.

Learn more about Catalyst on Campus and other Catalyst events on the Catalyst home page. Catalyst on Campus happens every week on Wednesdays.

Learn More about Catalyst 606__   Video on LCHC

Author Ana FundukPosted on Categories Stories