By Michael Blankenship ’10

����ɬ campus physician, Dr. David Brubaker ’90, has been chosen as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar for the 2024-25 academic year. The Fulbright Scholar Program, administered by the U.S. Department of State, will allow Brubaker to teach at Bwindi Community Hospital in southwestern Uganda. Brubaker, an assistant professor of biology and the director of Health Services at ����ɬ, was drawn to this opportunity to contribute to Bwindi Hospital’s Christ-centered ministry focused on improving the health and dignity of the Batwa people, who were displaced when their forest home was designated as a protected habitat for mountain gorillas in 1991. The invitation to teach at Bwindi came from Dr. Scott Kellermann, co-founder of the Bwindi Community Hospital, during a visit to Houghton in early 2023. “His description of how they are strategically training health care workers to meet medical needs and increase access to care in an underserved area of Uganda was compelling,” said Brubaker. “I was excited by his suggestion that, given my 15 years of teaching Anatomy and Physiology and medical background, I could be involved in that work.”

Brubaker will support the Uganda Nursing School-Bwindi and Uganda College of Health Sciences-Bwindi training programs by teaching Anatomy and Physiology in collaboration with Ugandan faculty. This situation was made possible through the Fulbright award.

“Dr. Brubaker’s selection as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar is a tremendous honor and a testament to his excellence as a scholar and educator,” said David Davies ’01, provost at Houghton. “He is a blessing to the ����ɬ community, and I am confident God will use him to bless the people of Uganda in the coming academic year”

Brubaker expressed his enthusiasm for collaborating with Ugandan colleagues, broadening his understanding of tropical medicine and public health, and learning more about the Batwa story. His dedication to education and commitment to addressing healthcare inequities make him an ideal candidate for this prestigious fellowship. “Any time I have the privilege of engaging in a cross-cultural context, it opens my eyes to the needs and lives of others, broadening my perspective and opening unexpected doors. It makes my world larger and deepens my understanding of others, and in doing so enriches my life, often in ways not easily articulated or even specifically recognized in the moment,” continued Brubaker. “Mostly, I feel grateful–for the honor of being selected, for the chance to share this experience with my family, for supportive and encouraging colleagues both here and in Uganda, for the privilege of collaborating with brothers and sisters in the Lord who are dedicated to seeing and advocating for a people group which has been marginalized over the years, and for the way I can see the Lord’s hand at work in my life through what has been an unconventional career path to prepare me for this particular work.”

By Amanda (Shine ’05) Zambrano

Embracing the enduring question of humanity.

By Joshua Carpenter ’24

Questions. Some people ask more than others, but everyone, at some point in their life, has asked themself what the meaning of life is, and if to die is to die at all. What if there is an afterlife? Is there a God and does He love me? These questions are profoundly human, and since the dawn of creation, humanity has been wrestling with itself to arrive at the truth.

“Perhaps the most important thing Christians can learn from studying the humanities is a humility sadly needed in our loud, proud, arrogant culture,” says Professor Emerita of English, Dr. Linda Mills-Woolsey ’74.

When Mills-Woolsey entered Houghton as a student in the fall of 1970, the college had a set of core requirements focused on humanities, arts, and sciences that included two semesters of history, or “Western Civilization,” two semesters of writing, a two-semester survey of English and American literature, Old Testament Survey, New Testament Survey, and a course in ethics along with requirements in math, science, and social studies.

“It was basically a Christian version of the core curriculum pioneered by Harvard and other Ivy League Universities,” says Mills-Woolsey.

The origins of Houghton’s humanities program date back to the earliest days of Houghton Seminary but developed into prominence in the early 20th century. It emerged as part of the university’s broader commitment to a liberal arts education that fostered a well-rounded understanding of the world and effectively prepared the Seminary for college accreditation in the 1920s. The program was initially conceived as a means of providing students with a strong grounding in the essential areas of literature, philosophy, history, and the arts.

In 2017, Houghton switched to a new general education sequence, which was strongly influenced by the success of the London Honors Program.

“We [the faculty] all thought the [London Honors Program] was pretty good and did good things for students,” says Dr. Peter Meilaender, Houghton’s Dean of Religion, Humanities, and Global Studies and Professor of Political Science. “So, when the occasion came up to revise the [general education] curriculum, we deliberately decided to build something that was patterned after the London model and offer a version of it to students on the main campus.”

The current humanities core program is a three-course sequence combining the areas of literature, philosophy, history, the arts, and presenting them in chronological order throughout three eras of history. HUM (humanities) 101: Enduring Questions: Ancient & Medieval World, the first course, focuses on the period from ancient Greece up to about 1450 before the Renaissance Reformation; HUM 102: Enduring Questions: Early Modern World, explores roughly 1450 to 1800, the Renaissance Reformation up to the French Revolution; and then HUM 201: Enduring Questions: The Modern World, focuses on the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Faculty from history, philosophy, and English take turns teaching different sections of the sequence. Syllabi are developed collaboratively across course sections and the overall sequence.

Each course in the humanities sequence is accountable for three credit hours and is one part of the general education program. Other general education requirements include three Biblical and Theology courses (ex: BIBL 101: Biblical Literature), one Abstract and Quantitative Reasoning course (ex: STEM 140: Reason & Abstraction), two Natural Science courses (ex: STEM 141: Science as a Human Endeavor), two Writing courses (ex: WRIT 101: Writing in the Liberal Arts), a Transitions course (ex: INTS 102: Transitions: Succeeding at ����ɬ, an Art and Music course (ex: ART 115: Foundations of Digital Communication), a Wellness course (ex: SRWM 105: Wellness for Life), two courses in Global Competence (ex: HEBR 101: Beginning Hebrew Level 1), and two courses in Social Sciences (ex: POLS 205: In Search of Justice). At least 124 credit hours are required for students to graduate, and general education requirements account for approximately one-third of those credit hours.

“The Humanities,” says President Emerita Shirley Mullen ’76, “particularly when they are done in a Christian context, remind us of the shared humanness that grounds our experience as children of God, and ultimately, are going to bring us all together at the throne in heaven.”

“These enduring questions [such as why bad things happen to babies] are ones that we wrestle with regardless of our faith,” says Professor of Psychology, Dr. Paul Young ’76, “and I’ve particularly benefited from seeing similarities in the ways that people of faith and people without faith try to wrestle with the same questions as well as the differences.”

One of the differences that stands out to Young is that people of faith who address these questions tend to see the limits in how human beings can answer them. This realization then inspires a dependence on trusting a sovereign God to work things out or trusting a loving God to ensure that even if someone may answer incorrectly, that God’s love is not contingent on them being a good student.

����ɬ is committed to helping students learn to ask the right questions, ones that not only unite us as men and women of humanity, but also as brothers and sisters in our Holy Father. In each humanities classroom lies endless opportunities for students to challenge themselves in the search for truth, shaping not only their intellectual, moral, and ethical development but the very way we come to understand the Creator as He presents himself in life’s enduring questions.

By Amanda (Shine ’05) Zambrano

As Kaylee (Haller ’19) Fisher moves through her week, she encounters a stunning cross-section of society. Serving as Global Operations Director for IRF Roundtable, a program of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Secretariat, Kaylee may spend her Monday hearing from the Yazidi people who have survived the horrors of genocide. On Tuesday, Kaylee might meet with officials from the US State Department, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), or the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Wednesday could bring opportunities to work with Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar or Egyptian Coptic Christians. By Thursday, Kaylee could be on Capitol Hill meeting with government officials to encourage them to be accountable for how the United States relates to countries that violate human rights. On Friday, Kaylee might even hop on a plane to the Czech Republic or Berlin, Germany, to organize an event drawing together non-profits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government agencies from around the region to inspire them toward partnerships that can address issues of religious persecution.

So how did an aspiring missionary from a small town in Maryland end up in Washington, D.C., crossing paths in influential ways with both the most powerful and the most vulnerable people in our society?

“My life started at Houghton,” Kaylee shares. “Houghton gave me two of my greatest gifts. My husband, Zach Fisher ’18, and a faith that God has big things in store for me–big things in the sense that they’re important to the Kingdom, even when I don’t understand how.”

When Kaylee started down the path of obtaining her Bachelor of Arts in Intercultural Studies she sat in Professor Marcus Dean’s class, Missions and the Global Church. “I’d never heard the term ‘ethnocentric’ before,” Kaylee recalls. “That class was the first time I understood that my reality is not at all close to the reality of most of the world.  I was wearing rose-colored glasses and needed to take them off to see God through the eyes of others. That class called me out of my self-centered views to discover who God is to the suffering.”

Kaylee’s time in former Houghton professor, Rev. Sarah Derck’s Bible class on the historical books reinforced this lesson. “There is so much tragedy in the Old Testament and we have such a lack of understanding of how God could let it happen. But Professor Derck didn’t sugar-coat things for us, she allowed us to sit with the tragedy and grieve it. Out of that grew a deep trust in God even when I don’t understand how He works or what He’s doing.”

These experiences, and other classes like Women in the Bible with Professor Kristina LaCelle-Peterson ’82 and Religious Movements with Professor Jon Case, helped Kaylee discover a passion for justice, a longing to care for the oppressed, and a desire to live out the Gospel in a nontraditional way. Through the challenge of confronting tragedy, God prepared Kaylee to walk alongside the victims of religious persecution. She’s able to trust in and speak about God’s goodness and faithfulness in the midst of life’s most significant challenges.

Kaylee didn’t limit herself to global studies at Houghton. She completed a minor in biblical studies and dove into Houghton’s liberal arts offerings. “I almost had enough credits for an art minor, too,” she laughs. “I took weird classes. Houghton allowed me to explore other interests in ways I didn’t imagine possible. Curiosity is a huge opportunity for growth.”

Kaylee’s curiosity prepared her to interact in many social spheres and take on work in unique sectors. “I discovered I don’t have to be one thing. I was encouraged to be creative and discerning, wise and spontaneous. It gave me comfort to be okay with changing careers.”
Kaylee spent a semester abroad studying at Vesalius College in Brussels, Belgium, while interning with the European Disability Forum.  After graduation, she worked with a local church, World Relief, the Institute for Global Engagement, and The Orchestra of the Americas. “God is very purposeful. He’s been putting together my giftings and strengths to lead me to where I am today.”

When Kaylee joined her experiences with her solid Christian convictions and a Gospel-informed worldview, she became an ideal fit for her work in an interfaith context. As she works alongside and befriends people who practice faiths other than her own, Kaylee’s faith isn’t threatened. “I know what I know to be true. I know Jesus is the only way,” she remarks. “But, I’m also humble enough to recognize that I don’t know what I don’t know. There’s so much about what others believe that I don’t yet know and there’s nothing wrong with learning about other religions. It makes me seriously contemplate what I believe and ultimately strengthens my own faith.”

By David Davies ’01

We’ve all heard the jokes, “How do you get a liberal arts graduate off your porch?  Pay him for the pizza!”  or “I don’t know why people say that no employer will be interested in your liberal arts degree; I would love to hire someone who has clearly shown they don’t care how much money they make!” Or perhaps you’ve heard comments like, “I’m going to get my ‘Gen Eds’ out of the way so I can focus on my major, which is what I’m really here to study anyway.”

Jokes and comments like these are nothing new in higher education. On the one hand, I understand this perspective. Students looking to become graphic designers may feel that their natural science courses are distracting. Similarly, students looking to major in Criminal Justice may feel that their time could be better spent on something other than a course on Art History or Writing in the Liberal Arts. However, I believe this perspective reveals two fundamental misunderstandings, the first concerning the essential benefits of receiving an education and the second concerning the fundamentally Biblical character of the liberal arts.

Dear Friends,

The demise of the Christian liberal arts institution has been tremendously overstated. ����ɬ remains strong and exceptionally well-positioned to prepare students for fruitful living today and for generations to come. This is good news for Houghton students and their families, and for the communities, ministries, organizations, and corporations where Houghton graduates will serve. The need for graduates of Christian liberal arts and sciences universities has never been greater.

Like Houghton alumni, I continue to personally experience the benefits of an undergraduate experience grounded in the liberal arts. I began my undergraduate experience as a jazz studies-saxophone major, with dreams of traveling and performing on stages all over the world—the next Kirk Whalum or Branford Marsalis. That dream was not to be. In my sophomore year, I changed my major for the first time. I would change it once or twice more before earning my degree. Throughout my undergraduate experience, I never imagined I would ultimately find my vocational calling in education—first in K-12 schools and eventually in higher education.

While none of my undergraduate majors align with where and how God would eventually call me to serve, my undergraduate liberal arts curriculum provided the broad-based, interdisciplinary foundation I would draw from throughout my career as a thinker, a learner, a leader, and a problem solver, in areas as diverse as curriculum, finance, statistics, writing, management, and politics. Central to my passionate advocacy for Houghton’s Christ-centeredliberal arts and sciences core is that it not only prepares graduates for a particular job or career—but even more importantly—it equips them for living life to the fullest, as faithful, God-honoring scholar-servants.

For some Houghton graduates, their undergraduate degrees will align perfectly with their vocational callings. Some graduates will have career trajectories that look more like mine, with an undergraduate degree in a field seemingly unrelated to their vocation. Most Houghton graduates will experience enormous change throughout the course of their careers. Thankfully, they will have had the gift of a Christian liberal arts and sciences education—where regardless of their major—they were educated through a decidedly Christian worldview to think and work across disciplines, to serve selflessly, and to lead fearlessly. Challenges and opportunities will await them, but they will be well-prepared.

This issue of Houghton Magazine is a celebration of Houghton’s longstanding commitment to the Christian liberal arts. With this issue, we reflect on Houghton’s rich history of equipping faithful scholar servants through the Christian liberal arts and celebrate the ways God is using this vine of God’s own planting to prepare a new generation of scholar-servants.

Yours in Jesus Christ our Lord,

Wayne D. Lewis, Jr.