HoneyRock—Outdoor Center for Leadership Development of Wheaton College
Director: Rob Ribbe ’87, M.A. ’90, assistant professor of Christian formation and ministry
HoneyRock’s reach is expanding: HoneyRock will launch the new Vanguard Gap Year in August 2015, a program for 18- to 20-year-old high school graduates seeking a formative educational experience prior to enrolling at college. HoneyRock also recently renovated Loberg Lodge for staff and Vanguard Gap Year student housing, received a grant toward building a new HoneyRock health center, and hosted a research symposium on “Exploring the Power of Camp” in March 2015.
Learn more on HoneyRock's website.
Humanitarian Disaster Institute (HDI)
Co-directors: Dr. Jamie Aten, Dr. Arthur P. Rech and Mrs. Jean May Rech Associate Professor of Psychology, and Dr. David Boan, associate professor of psychology
The Humanitarian Disaster Institute (HDI) is an interdisciplinary research center devoted to addressing relief and development needs around the globe. HDI sends both undergraduate and graduate students to global locations for research and relief efforts ranging from trauma healing training in Kenya to community mental health in Japan. HDI is also involved with teaching safety skills to refugees in the United States, developing a church-based disaster ministry in the Philippines, and rehabilitating child restaveks in Haiti with the University of Notre Dame of Haiti. HDI hosted their third disaster ministry conference on campus this June, and InterVarsity Press will publish the Disaster Ministry Handbookby Dr. Aten and Dr. Boan in January 2016.
Learn more on HDI's website.
The Marion E. Wade Center of Wheaton College
Interim Director: Marjorie Lamp Mead ’74, executive editor of SEVEN: An Anglo-American Literary Review
The Marion E. Wade Center, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2015, gathers and publicizes the works of seven influential British authors. Throughout this year, the Wade Center released The Pilgrim’s Regress: Wade Annotated edition by C.S. Lewis (Eerdmans, October 2014), hosted a reading group on The Hobbit, provided Advent reflections based on Dorothy Sayers’ work, hosted its first Fulbright scholar, Dr. Olga Lukmanova, helped Wheaton’s Tolkien Society put on a children’s drama of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and launched a blog.
The Wade Center’s new Bakke Auditorium will be dedicated on October 29, where Dr. Lyle Dorsett HON, former Wade Center director, and Dr. Leland Ryken HON, professor of English emeritus who is writing a history of the Wade Center, will speak. The Bakke Auditorium’s Hansen Lectureship will begin November 12 with an inaugural lecture by President Philip G. Ryken ’88 on J.R.R. Tolkien and the concept of kingship.
Learn more on the Wade Center's website.
Opus: The Art of Work
Director: Dr. Chris Armstrong; Assistant Director: Ben Norquist
Opus: The Art of Work is a new initiative within the Vocation and Alumni Engagement department intended to facilitate a more robust understanding of the integration of faith and work among students and faculty at Wheaton College. Toward this end, Opus has hosted lectures and roundtable discussions, provided grants for professors and students to attend conferences including Q Commons and the Story Conference in downtown Chicago, and co-sponsored a vocationally-oriented BreakAway trip to Chicago in spring 2015. They also facilitated undergraduate vocational discernment groups, wrote curriculum for a new vocation seminar for students pursuing internships, supported the 2014-15 Wheaton Shark Tank competition, developed a faith and work resource library, and gave professor fellowships in disciplines from within the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
Learn more on Opus' website.
The Center for Urban Engagement at Wheaton College
Director: Dr. Noah Toly ’99, M.A. ’12, associate professor of urban studies and politics and international relations; director of urban studies program
Wheaton’s Center for Urban Engagement (CUE) helps educate Wheaton students to lead and serve in Chicago and the rest of today’s increasingly urban world. CUE welcomed the largest undergraduate cohort to date through the Wheaton in Chicago program last fall and hosted lectures related to urban issues, including a conversation with Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff titled “Journey Toward Justice,” co-sponsored by Wheaton’s Center for Applied Christian Ethics, Center for Global and Experiential Learning, and the political science department. CUE also hosted a faculty colloquium highlighting faculty work addressing cities and urban life, co-sponsored a BreakAway spring break trip to Chicago for undergraduates, and started a student essay competition.
Learn more on CUE's website.
Wheaton College Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy
Director: Captain David Iglesias ’80, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, United States Navy (Ret.)
The Wheaton College Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy exists to facilitate understanding of the interactions between economics and public life for students and professionals. In the past year, this has been accomplished through guest lectures, including Chuck Rosenberg, the FBI’s chief of staff and senior counselor to FBI Director Jim Comey; Ali Soufan, former FBI counter-terrorism agent; a panel on “Immigration: The Good, the Bad, and the Possible,” and more. The center also sponsors “Iron Sharpens Iron,” an undergraduate program traveling this year to Latin America to study the interaction of political and economic policy, as well as funding for internships and research with a political economy focus both here and around the globe.
Learn more on the Wheaton College Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy's website.
Center for Applied Christian Ethics (CACE)
Director: Dr. Vincent Bacote, associate professor of theology
The Center for Applied Christian Ethics (CACE) serves Wheaton faculty and students, as well as the broader public, by providing resources to help inform contemporary moral decisions with biblical ethics. Recent initiatives have included hosting lectures with guests ranging from Canon Andrew White, Vicar of Baghdad, for a “First Hand Report on Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Israel,” to author and editor Andy Crouch for a lecture on “Redeeming the Gift of Power.” CACE also hosted a documentary film screening of Gideon’s Army and subsequent lecture with producer Dawn Porter. CACE has also launched a YouTube channel with over 90 videos to make their resources available beyond Wheaton’s campus.
Learn more on CACE's website.
The Billy Graham Center for Evangelism (BGCE)
Interim Executive Director: Paul Ericksen
The Billy Graham Center for Evangelism is dedicated to equipping followers of Christ to share their faith. This year, the BGCE has done so through hosting Evangelism & the Public Square events and lectures on topics including “Christianity on Trial: The Gospel in the Public Square” with attorney Mark Lanier; providing online evangelism training and inspiration via its YouTube channel and blog; developing the Evangelizing Churches Initiative to help churches grow through conversion and transformed lives; and co-sponsoring conferences pertaining to prison, Muslim, and ethnic ministries.
Learn more on the BGCE's website.
The Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies
Director: Dr. George Kalantzis, professor of theology
The Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies exists to facilitate systematic study of patristics and early Christian literature. The center does so by offering courses and a certificate in early Christian studies for undergraduate students, as well as courses on early Christianity at the graduate level. In addition, the center engages faculty fellows in research, publishing books, and more. Each year, the center offers the Papatheofanis Lecture on Early Christianity and sponsors conferences and colloquia with international appeal. This year the center co-sponsored a colloquium and hosted a public lecture by the Very Rev. Dr. John Behr, Dean of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminar, on divine simplicity in Saint Irenaeus.
Learn more on WCECS' website.