by Katie Bianchini | Sep 2, 2016 | News Slider
While Nashville sits over 2,000 miles away from the wildfires burning on the West Coast, many Lipscomb students from California who are living on campus feel the heat from afar. Due to historic drought, wildfires have charred over 306,000 acres of public and federally-owned California land this year. Not long after arriving on campus, freshman Courtney Brenner received a call that she hoped she would never get from her parents about the fires. Fire officials had directed her family to evacuate their home in San Bernardino County due to the raging Blue Cut fire. “There’s been a lot of wildfires. During one a couple months before this, my family didn’t evacuate, but the other half of the town did,” Brenner said. “It’s just made things stressful.” Brenner has grown up living in a hazard zone in Southern California, and she said wildfire threats and damage impact her profoundly every year. “Realizing that we live in an area where there’s going to be wildfires, we just have to prepare for the high chance that one day our house could burn down. It’s [a reality] of living in California.” While Brenner’s family and house escaped the flames, her friend’s family was not so lucky. The Blue Cut fire, fully contained as of Aug. 26, consumed part of his house and garage. Fortunately, his family evacuated safely. “They were able to save a lot of things, thank God, but it [the fire] went around and burned his neighbors’ houses, too,” Brenner said. Senior Taylor Romine from Orange County, California, has also dealt with wildfires since her childhood. Her aunt, uncle and grandmother’s...
by Katie Bianchini | Apr 12, 2016 | News Slider
Student Government Association candidates offered their ideas from decreasing the cost of summer internships to increasing availability of gluten-free food options at the debate on Monday night in Stowe Hall. Moderator Becca Risley opened up the night by introducing each candidate and allowing them to share their platforms. Running unopposed, Treasurer candidate Sarah Lavoie greeted the audience with a wave and a smile, while Secretary candidates Caroline Hensley and Vince Law shared a few ideas they would each implement or continue if elected. Vice Presidential candidates Matt Gibson, Carson Panovec and Sinny Chan Chan shared their passion for Lipscomb’s unique campus. Each candidate spoke about the ways he or she would pour into the student body through food service improvements, library hour extension and events to foster relationship building. Risley posed the following questions to the three presidential candidates Jackson Smith, Katie Scholl and Anna Cannone. Q: “What would be your main priority to support student life on campus? What is most lacking on campus and how would you address it?” A: Jackson Smith said he wants to improve communication between student life offices and campus ministry to encourage more student participation in events. “I’d like to bridge a gap between the Joshua Project and student life to make a mentorship program for students who have gone through disciplinary procedure,” Smith said. “I’d like to plant seeds to actually be able to help them in the future.” A: Katie Scholl said she hopes to merge the different “pockets” of students on campus through advertising and mixers. “People are always going to have their closest group of friends, but I think through...
by Katie Bianchini | Mar 30, 2016 | News Slider
Usually, Lipscomb students attend classes on Wednesday afternoons, but next week, they have the opportunity to make a difference throughout Nashville. On April 6, students will head out for the 10th annual Service Day. Lucas Allen, Service Day coordinator, said he thinks the day opens doors for both students and the many non-profit organizations across Nashville. “We believe that it is the perfect opportunity to reach out to members in our community that need help,” Allen said. “There are so many amazing non-profit organizations around Nashville that are making a huge difference every day, and we want to be a small part of that.” While many students choose to serve at an organization on service day alone, others participate in on-going volunteer work throughout the city. Lipscomb sends student-workers year-round to the American Red Cross, Radnor Lake, Exile International, the Nashville Public Library, Churches of Christ Disaster Relief and Glencliff High School. “By volunteering together as the Lipscomb community, we strive to serve in ways that will best provide the organizations with the help that they need,” Allen said. “We also hope that this opportunity will be an introduction to various non-profit organizations that Lipscomb students can serve at in the future, and not just on Service Day.” Sophomore Kacey Kemper said she believes that Service Day helps remind students to find joy in serving others. “I think it’s cool that we can make a reputation for Lipscomb in the community,” she said. “It’s something that should be a normal part of life as a Christian.” Beyond the day, service is integral to Lipscomb’s environment. Each student must complete a minimum of...
by Katie Bianchini | Mar 8, 2016 | News Slider
Grinning ear to ear and sporting his self-proclaimed “party” socks, author Bob Goff greeted Lipscomb students on Monday evening in Swang 108. “Not only is he a kid at heart, he’s also a kid in real life who just happens to have a big kid job as a lawyer,” said an email from Lipscomb’s Student Government Association on Monday morning that encouraged students to attend the event. Author of the popular Christian novel Love Does, Goff tries to motivate others to discover a secretly incredible life in an ordinary world by living passionately. “When I think of passion it’s like, well we all know what it’s felt like to touch knees with somebody that you liked a lot,” Goff said. Goff said a purpose-filled life includes stepping out of one’s comfort zone and loving others unconditionally. “If you don’t understand cowboys, go to Texas,” he said. “I used to not understand vegetarians. I was like, ‘have none of you had a burger?’ But once you get to know them, they’re great.” Several students recently read Love Does and said they found encouragement in listening to Goff’s presentation. “Being able to see him in person makes the words that we read in his book feel a lot more sincere,” junior Brooke Gordon said. “Knowing that he actually lives the way that he writes is really awesome to see.” After hearing Goff in person, sophomore Kinzie Icayan said she is convinced that it’s possible to live a life on the edge for God. “I thought maybe that those were the six times he’d done something, but he explained so many other situations that weren’t in the book,” she said. “And those were book-worthy, too.” At...
by Katie Bianchini | Feb 22, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
Ominous burlap giants loom over the stage and stare facelessly at guests as they enter Shamblin Theater. These statues set the mood for Lipscomb University and Blackbird Theater’s combined performance of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which opened Friday night. The controversial play, set in 1690s Salem, Massachusetts during the witch trials, tells the fictional story of the town’s reaction toward a group of teen girls caught participating in an innocent conjuring. The girls soon name other women involved in the “satanic” behavior and the court convicts many for hanging. Producer Beki Baker shared in her director’s note that The Crucible’s dark portrayal of the early American event still provides relevant themes that “continue to reverberate throughout time.” “This play serves more than to point fingers at religious figures and political systems for over 300 years ago,” she said. “On both macro and micro-levels, we all behave like the Puritans did that fateful spring. And the truth is, we all pay the price.” At Sunday’s show, Lipscomb students had their first of three opportunities to earn chapel credit for attending and staying afterward for a post-play discussion. Dr. Randy Spivey, Academic Director for Lipscomb’s Institute of Law, Justice and Society, joined the audience for the question and answer session to shed light on the play’s narrative on current American law and society. “We are always the brink of this hysteria,” he said, relating the chaos in the play to the nation today. “And we almost always condemn, crucify and isolate the things that we are afraid of and the things that we don’t understand.” Just as characters in the play find fault in...
