Civic Engagement Lecturer
Dr. Lamar Nisly professor of english, will present “Faith and Memory in Challenging Times,” for the spring 2025 Civic Engagement Forum.
Civic Engagement Day
2025 Civic Engagement Day Wednesday, april 9
List of events for 2025.
All Day |
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| Walking the Labyrinth - Focus on Faith and Memory | ||
| Campus Ministries (Chalsi Campbell) | Prayer Labyrinth (Located behind the Houshower House along the Little Riley Creek) | |
| Reflect on your own faith story through a self-guided walking of the prayer labyrinth, using a pamphlet with questions tied to the topic of Faith and Memory. This is an open, come and go experience throughout the day. Materials will be available by the labyrinth from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. | ||
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8 a.m. |
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| Resilience-Memory-Faith of Bluffton Science Faculty-Students-Alumni | ||
| Steve Harnish | Stultzman Lecture Hall | |
| Through archival sleuthing, many stories emerge of H.W. Berky, M’Della Moon and many other science faculty and students that can inspire our own resilience in the face of today’s challenges. | ||
| Do different approaches to memorizing material really work? | ||
| Brad Potts | Centennial Hall 211 | |
| In groups, participants will try out four memory techniques to evaluate their helpfulness in supporting memory. From these experiences, participants will gain new memory techniques to use in their lives | ||
9 a.m. |
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Faith and Memory in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 with Letter Writing |
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| Campus Ministries (Chalsi Campbell) | Centennial Hall 211 | |
| Drawing on the Anabaptism at 500 project, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, and the way receiving letters helps us remember about our faith journeys, this session on Faith and Memory provides time for reflection and action. After a presentation, participants will write letters to those people who have had impacts on their faith or life journeys. | ||
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Land Acknowledgement: Recognizing Our Place on Formally Native Grounds |
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| Peace Club (Ellie Shemenski and Logan Daugherty) | Stutzman Lecture Hall | |
| Participants will learn about the loss of Native culture and reconnect with spiritually important lands that came before Bluffton. | ||
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Theatre for Social Change - Gender Discrimination |
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| Theatre for Social Change Class - Gender Discrimination (Marissa Blake) | Kreider Room (Marbeck Center) | |
| Students from the Theatre for Social Change class will demonstrate how to overcome difficulties during challenging times. This workshop focuses on the challenges of gender discrimination using interactive theatre techniques. Join us for a highly-participatory interactive workshop involving theatre games, scenes and discussion about gender discrimination. | ||
10 a.m. |
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Writing as Political Expression |
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| MSO (Edward Haraway) | Centennial Hall 113 | |
| Inspired by a conference focused on Damascus Road/Justice training and efforts toward anti-racism, this session allows participants to work in small groups to write a short poem expressing their feelings about the current political climate. Each group will allow individuals to collaborate and share various perspectives, fears and dilemmas related to recent political events to create an expressive piece of writing. Additionally, participants are welcome to work individually if they prefer. | ||
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Coping with Music |
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| Social Work Practice 2 Class (Kelley VanGilder) | Stutzman Lecture Hall | |
| The Social Work Practice 2 class will give a presentation on how music can hold deep spiritual meaning and can be a tool to engage with memory and faith during challenging times. We will have people create playlists and share how those songs help them. | ||
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The Mandala, Faith and Archetype |
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| Philip Sugden | Sauder Visual Art Center Lab | |
| A mandala and its central point are a collective archetype of perfection, universality, wholeness and interconnection. This is why we find the circle used in psychology and most belief systems as a vehicle for healing and spiritual awakening, especially during challenging times. This presentation and discussion will explore how the circle is used in this context throughout world religions and in psychology. Several original, hand painted Tibetan mandalas will be available to view up close. | ||
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Sanctuary Movement: Yesterday and Today; In a time of uncertainty, walking faithfully and giving voice to the suffering of immigrants/displaced people. |
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| Paul & Laurel Neufeld Weaver | Centennial 211 | |
| Laurel and Paul will share their lived experience of being part of the Sanctuary movement in the 1980’s where their small Mennonite church, which was part of a larger national network of churches, provided refuge and advocacy for the rights of immigrants fleeing persecution in Central America. The workshop will explore the question, is there a renewed vision for the Sanctuary Movement today? How can we walk humbly in faith in this time of uncertainty and hear the voice of suffering? | ||
11 a.m. |
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Strength and Stillness: The Physiological Power of Meditation and Trusting God |
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| ReviveU (Amanda Beard) | Stutzman Lecture Hall | |
| This experiential session will offer participants some instruction and then a time of quiet reflection to practice meditation. | ||
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Queer Solidarity: Finding Safety and Community in Fearful Times |
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| Brave Space (Logan Daugherty) | Centennial Hall 113 | |
| Participants will learn how queer acceptance has risen and fallen in recent times, concerning trends and legislation, and what we can do as a community to protect each other. | ||
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Exploring Mental Health in Challenging Times |
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| Theatre for Social Change Class - Mental Health | Kreider Room (Marbeck Center) | |
| Students from the Theatre for Social Change class explore overcoming difficulties during challenging times. This workshop focuses on mental health using interactive theatre techniques. Join us for a highly-participatory interactive workshop involving theatre games, scenes and discussion about the issues of mental health for college students. | ||
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How Faith and Memory Weave the Story of You |
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| Jonathan Andreas | Centennial Hall 211 | |
| Faith and memory are the invisible building blocks of our identities. Imagine swapping not just your memories but also your deepest beliefs with someone else—your body would no longer house ‘you.’ In essence, you’d have traded places. We will examine faith and memory by trekking across the boundaries of fields like economics, psychology and philosophy. By the end of the hour, we’ll return home with new memories and fresh insights. While there is little risk anyone will significantly change their faith, I expect you’ll have a deeper understanding of what makes you, you. | ||
12 noon |
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Sand Art Memory Jar |
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| Hall Association (Michael Bryan) | Bob’s Place (Marbeck Center) | |
| Individuals will engage in a reflective activity where they choose colored sand that represents their life experiences and pour that sand into their provided jar. Once they have poured the different types of sand in their jar, they will have a jar that represents memories of faith, growth, friendship and challenges. Individuals who would like to share why their jar may look the way it does may do so if they feel called to. | ||
1 p.m. |
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Faith, Memory and Music |
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| Darryl K. Nester | Gilliom Room (Mosiman Hall) | |
| We’ll look at some of the ways that music has played an important role throughout Bluffton’s history. | ||
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Resilience Through Faith: A Social Worker’s View |
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| Social Work Club | Meet in Sommer Center Lobby | |
| Meet at Sommer Center lobby. Then, Social Work Club officers will help walk students, staff and faculty to the Mennonite Memorial Home. There, we will be talking to one of our officer’s mother about how faith and memory ties into her job as a social worker. If we have time, we could also talk to one or two Bluffton alumni there, to tell their stories of Bluffton when they were students | ||
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Game on!: A Collection of Game Show-Style Games about US Immigration |
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| TESOL: Theories & Issues (Jordan Hemmelgarn & Tianna Galbraith) | Kreider Room (Marbeck Center) | |
| One of the biggest challenges of our times is immigration, but how much do you really know or understand about this topic? Test your knowledge and your memory in a series of game show-inspired activities about the people, countries, cultures and languages that make up our beautiful nation. Participants will move through a cycle of several different games, earning points and collecting prizes as well as information. So, come on down and be our next contestant! | ||
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Personal Knowledge Management: How and what to do with notes, memories, photos and all the information we accumulate! |
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| Tobias Buckell | Stutzman Lecture Hall | |
| We’re all told to ‘take notes’ to try and help us learn. We all have phones with bookmarks, pictures of things that interested us, notes we tap out when someone says to check out a new show/song/book. But what do we do with all that information? You could turn it into an archive. But you could also create a second brain to help you level up creativity, learn more and run your life. Find out about how organizing and note-taking systems that can create a second brain, and make your life a little less... complicated. | ||
2 p.m. |
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Faith and Grit: Exploring the Mental and Spiritual Health of Student Athletes |
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| Leadership Communication Graduate Students | Stutzman Lecture Hall | |
| Students from the Leadership Communication course in Bluffton’s Master of Arts in
Business Administration program discuss the mental and spiritual challenges faced
by student athletes today while identifying personal and community resources for facing
these challenges. Evan Kujawa, “Understanding mental health challenges faced by student athletes” Ethan Stearns, “Relating our physical health to our spiritual health” Ja’Qway Janvier, “Supporting the mental and spiritual health of student athletes” Hazem Sobhy, “Distinguishing destiny from dream” Tanner Blyly, "Athlete identity" |
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How Can I Keep From Singing? Making Music in Challenging Times |
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| Melissa Friesen | Gilliom Room (Mosiman Hall) | |
| How has music-making impacted you during challenging times? What impacts have choir, band, worship music, musicals or other music-making had in our lives, and what would we like to see for the future of music at Bluffton? Join this highly-participatory session for conversations about the role of music in our lives and at Bluffton University. | ||
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MCC United Nations Student Advocates: Discussing our impacts on peace |
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Baylee Constance, Vixen Hurts, Ellie Shemenski
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Kreider Room (Marbeck Center) | |
| We will share our experiences during our trip to the United Nations seminar. We’ll share what we learned, appreciated and took away from this trip. We will have the students who attended and potentially a staff member share at this presentation. We’ll show pictures that were taken there and speak on specific things that occurred during our time there. We'll have an open discussion as well to hear from the audience, their opinions on the United Nations and the impacts on peace. | ||
3 p.m. |
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Ecosystem Restoration as Guidance and Inspiration |
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| Jacob Buchanan | Meet in Front of Musselman Library | |
| Dr. Jacob Buchanan will give a brief talk about how ecosystem restoration relates to the theme, with the context of restoring pre-existing, native vegetation (a “memory”). Accomplishing physical work to restore that “memory” can guide us and inspire us to take further action (the “faith”). The active portion will include removing woody invasive species, hand pulling non-native herbaceous “weeds” and sowing native seeds where invasive species are removed. | ||
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Understanding and Respecting Indigenous Spirituality |
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| Georgia Adams | Stutzman Lecture Hall | |
| A general overview of basic indigenous spirituality and practices, how they have been maligned and misunderstood, and how there can and should be understanding and respect for indigenous spirituality and practices as a form of faith and memory as relevant as Mennonite Christianity. PowerPoint presentation of Native American practices and beliefs, followed by a guided Q and A. | ||
6:30 p.m. |
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Crafting memories: Shadow box workshop |
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| Student Senate (Madisyn Sheppard) | Bob's Place (Marbeck Center) | |
| In this workshop, you'll have the opportunity to craft beautiful shadow boxes that showcase your favorite memories, mementos and artistic flair. Shadow boxes are a creative way to display cherished items, turning them into unique pieces of art that can decorate your home or be given as heartfelt gifts. This activity is not only fun and relaxing but also a great way to express your creativity and preserve meaningful moments in a visually stunning way. Come unleash your imagination and take home a personalized treasure! | ||
7:30 p.m. |
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Engaging Bluffton’s Past (A&L credit) |
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| Perry Bush and Lamar Nisly | Kreider Room (Marbeck Center) | |
| Using archival documents, participants will enter into a role play exercise to consider how various constituents responded to Bluffton University’s actions during WWII and the Cold War. | ||