Page 2 – The Waltonian

Hector Davila and Stephanie Rodriguez, President and Vice President of Watchmen Prayer ministry respectively, have made the decision to host the Watchmen Prayer Ministry group in different dorms this year, instead of the Chapel in Walton as the ministry has done in previous years.

“Our goal is to make it to every dorm at least one time,” Hector Davila said.

Rodriguez, when asked about the reasons for this change, responded that the majority of the group, who graduated last year, wanted to find ways to expand the ministry.

“[We] wanted Watchmen to break out more; we wanted to expand from just the core,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez expressed that many of the “core” members of the ministry graduated last year, so the leaders are trying to build the group back up “from scratch.”

Davila chimed in, saying that the group could now have more “fun with games” in bigger spaces, and observed that the group “had more flexibility, time-wise, in the dorms.”

The Watchmen Prayer Ministry meeting did have a heavy focus on prayer, but also on community and fellowship. Davila played worship music at the meeting using his electric ukulele, and attendees had ample time to talk and get to know each other. Pizza and drinks were provided, giving the meeting a casual and friendly feeling. The leaders allowed time for intercessory prayer for global concerns, and also for personal prayer requests. Davila gave a short talk toward the end of the meeting, focusing on a passage from Acts and gave an inspirational talk about the Christian journey, using Paul’s journey as an example.

During the meeting, Rodriguez shared that this was her third year in the Watchmen Prayer Ministry, and her second year as Vice President, while Davila revealed this was his first year as President.

“We want to focus on connecting the community through prayer,” Davila stated.

The leaders of the ministry hope to eventually raise enough funds to support a spiritual formation event, or to attend a religious conference together. Their next event will be Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. in Gallup Hall.

“Through activities, through worship, through prayer, we hope to bring different people together,” Davila said.

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The new dean of the Templeton Honors College, Dr. Bryan Williams, gave a talk at Windows on the World on Friday, Oct. 6, about reading towards moral virtue. He began the lecture by asserting that young people — including college students — aren’t able to be fully virtuous. Agreeing with Aristotle, Williams cited many reasons for this defect in youth, some relating to brain development, but others relating to a young person’s role models, friends, moral imagination, and lack of life experience. Reading “tropologically,” that is, for moral insight, unfortunately cannot do anything to speed up the developmental processes of the brain. However, Williams argues that reading can help make up for a young person’s lack of life experience by providing “shortcuts to life experience” when readers “submit their minds to the immediacy of the story.”

Williams referenced a protestant German reformer, Philip Melanchthon, who recommends that all young adults should read Homer, calling “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” the “workshop of humanity.” Philip Melanchthon taught that reading Homer with attention to moral truths could actually help formulate virtue in a young person’s mind. Williams and Melanchthon argue that Homer “gives readers what they didn’t earn”; that is, life experience that they didn’t actually have to live. Williams extends this argument and suggests that, when reading any great book, readers and young people in particular can gain moral knowledge and grow in virtue by reading good books in a particular way, with an eye toward moral virtue. When a reader allows himself or herself to inhabit the mind of a good character, he or she becomes morally edified.

Williams acknowledged, however, this does not always happen when one reads. He asserts that readers need to take a “posture of humble receptivity” towards great texts to receive all the benefits of tropological reading. “This reading isn’t complete simply when you close the book,” Williams explains, “but when it changes you.” When a reader allows himself or herself to become friends with the characters in the story, and continues living life with them even when the book is closed, that is when real progress towards virtue takes place.

The Eastern University women’s soccer team settled for a 0-0 draw in double overtime against the Cabrini Cavaliers on Sept. 6. As a tie, this game sustains the Eagles’ 14 game-winning streak against the Cavaliers. Nicole Weenink, a sophomore on the women’s soccer team, elaborates on the rivalry between Eastern and Cabrini. “We call it the battle of Eagle Road,” she explains. “It is also a lot of fun being so close together, because fans can just walk across the street to cheer their teams on. For a lot of the sports teams, the rivalry sets who ‘controls’ Eagle Road. It serves almost as bragging rights.” The Eagles’ winning streak against Cabrini began in 2003, and hopefully will not be broken anytime soon. Weenink shared that the rivalry “adds more hype and adrenaline” before the game and helps the team get mentally ready to play.

Weenink also offered some insight as to why the game ended in a draw, explaining that the game took place at the beginning of the season while the team was still adjusting to a new coach and learning how to work well together. New coach Brandon West, a graduate from Messiah University, is the sixth women’s soccer coach in Eastern University’s history. West played in 78 games during his college career and graduated with Jeremey Payne, the women’s soccer interim coach. Coach West reported that one of the highlights of the game was that the Eagles created opportunities to score and chances to win the game. Unfortunately for the Eagles, Coach West described that the Cavaliers were “more disciplined on the defensive side of the ball.” West also cited Cabrini’s strong defense as the reason the teams were evenly matched. Luckily for Eastern, the goalie, Adrianna Rowlands, kept Cabrini from scoring with eight saves.

The Eagles were forced to make some lineup adjustments for the game. Weenink explains, “We were missing a couple players due to injuries, but we still came out and fought… Of course a win would have been nice, but we fought hard and gave it our all and came out with a tie. Each and every player left their all on the field and that’s all we could have asked for.”

The team is looking forward to a great season working with Coach West and learning to play under his different coaching style. Weenink shares that she’s excited to learn how to play better under a new coach and looking forward to “growing as a team on and off the field.” In the next “Battle of Eagle Road” against Cabrini, the Eagles have a great chance of emerging victorious.

Sources: goeasterneagles.com

Eastern’s new golf coach, Andrew “Drew” Patterson, is a recent graduate from West Chester University. Originally from Hummelstown, Pa., Patterson earned a PING Division II All-Atlantic Region recognition and was appointed to be team captain throughout his college career. Patterson shot three rounds under 70 during his final season, and recently won the Jake Gittlen Memorial Golf Tournament at the East Course at Hershey Country Club.

Patterson’s love of golf, however, extends much further back into his past. “I have been playing golf since I was four years old (18 years),” Drew recounts, “I started on the driving range with my grandfather. He would take me out on the course when I was about eight years old, and ever since seeing the course and being with him I fell in love with the game. He made it very enjoyable for me and was a great partner to go play with.” His love for golf later in his career is also strongly connected to those whom he played with. “One of my favorite parts about playing at West Chester was the companionship our team had,” he explains, “We were all best friends with one another and made great memories on and off the course together.”

Patterson goes on to recount some of his favorite memories with the team, specifically referencing traveling with his team. He explains, “Our spring break trip each year with the team was always a great time. It doesn’t get better than playing golf for a week with your best friends in North Carolina.” He also gives a nod to his coach, Harry Hammond, crediting him with a lot of his success. Outside of golf, Patterson says, “I enjoy spending time with my friends and family. Any time I can go home and visit my parents and grandparents, I do.” He also mentioned a love of music, and attended a Florida Georgia Line concert over the summer with friends, which he called “a blast.”

On the topic of friendship, Patterson was also attracted to the community among the Eastern coaching staff, elaborating, “I knew that if I got the job at Eastern I would make many friends along the way. Eastern has several fantastic coaches and faculty. After meeting the staff, I knew Eastern would be a very welcoming and friendly place to coach.” Patterson was drawn to work at Eastern for several reasons, the biggest being its emphasis on Christianity. “I knew I would be able to talk and relate to my players and other coaches about Christ,” he explains. “Working in a Christian environment not only makes it easier for me to grow in my relationship with the Lord, but also help other players as well.”

Addressing his vision for his golf teams this year, Patterson reports that he wants to grow both the men’s and the women’s team. The men’s team currently has seven players, including three freshmen students, and the women’s has six, with one freshman. Patterson also asserts that he wants to improve his players’ “mental side of the game.” He continues, “I know both teams have tons of talent and potential and I am very excited to push them to become better on and off the course.”

Patterson expresses his high hopes for both the women’s and men’s teams, asserting, “I plan on getting the women’s team… to repeat their conference championship they won last year. It would be very special to have the men’s team standing with them as well.” Last year, the women’s team won the MAC Championship with a 16-stroke lead, and the men’s team finished in second, after passing four teams on the final day of the championship. Patterson’s ultimate goal would be to make it to the National Championship this year, concluding, “Hopefully with my expertise, we can all make it down and compete for the National Championship.”

Sources: eastern.edu

Politics do not belong in the classroom. Nearly every political debate turns into a heated, and sometimes downright ugly argument, but the classroom should be a refuge from political discrimination and intimidation. In a perfect world, professors would be able to stand up for their political values while maintaining a classroom environment of acceptance, decorum, and objectivity. In reality, students with dissenting political opinions are often pressured to remain quiet and pretend to agree with the person in power, the professor. The professor wields an extraordinary amount of power over her students. Students all too often approach assignments for the class with the intention of writing what the professor wants to hear, which is problematic in itself. When the professor obviously favors one political opinion over another, students with differing opinions are suddenly put in the tough spot of deciding which is more important: pandering to the professor’s opinion, or staying “true” to their political values, and in turn, risking a lower grade. Regardless of gender, age, likeability, or political identity a professor should only grade the student with regards to their performance in a specific class. Even when grading a paper that argues for an idea the professor disagrees with, he ought not to mark down the paper simply because he disagrees with it. If the argument the student presents is truly unintelligible, than it should be graded as such, but the professor should never give a lower grade simply because he disagrees with the argument the student is presenting. Though hopefully very few teachers approach grading in this way, even if a professor has no intention of marking down a paper or assignment that challenges their personal beliefs, it can still appear this way to a student when the teacher is extremely vocal about her political stances.

There is a place for professors to share their political opinions with students. When students approach the professor and ask about his specific political beliefs, the professor should by all means share his opinion. In a more personal and private environment, where fewer misunderstandings are likely to occur, a conversation about personal political beliefs can be beneficial and good. Professors should have opportunities to have more personal conversations with students. In class, however, the professor’s job is not to impart their own beliefs or agendas onto the student. A good professor ought to teach the students how to think critically and discern for themselves what is true.

Charitable and lively political debates should be encouraged on college campuses. Professors asserting their own political beliefs during class time does not contribute to a healthy political environment, and in fact, detracts from it by alienating all students in the class who disagree. Though it is impossible to have a completely unbiased professor, the teacher should foster an environment where every student feels comfortable to argue for their ideas and engage in true discussion.

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As I sat down to interview with Sarah Todd and Joanna Craig about the new job finding website Handshake, their excitement was palpable. “We’ve been prepping for a baby!” Todd jokes, “And next week is the due date!” The Handshake launch has been in the works since June 2017, but Todd was made aware of the program when she did a demo in 2015. Ever since then, they were both hooked. “They were a brand new product,” Todd explained, “but I was worried the price was just too much.” Craig shared they originally hoped they’d find that Handshake wasn’t worth the money, but after looking into the program further, Todd and Craig soon realized this was a program they “needed to get for [Eastern] students.”

Handshake is built for smaller schools, making it easier for employers to advertise jobs to schools they otherwise might never be aware of. “We are a small school,” Todd acknowledges. “I feel like what we’ve done is set up a massive lighthouse on top of our school.” Handshake allows employers to post job advertisements to all schools registered in the program at the click of a button, instead of forcing potential employers to physically visit Eastern in order to post job advertisements on Eastern’s career site. “Within a week, we had a thousand employers,” Todd shares, and the list is only growing. Todd and Craig plan on featuring all sorts of jobs and internships on Handshake, not just specialized job advertisements. “We’re going to have jobs from the neighborhood posted in here,” Craig reveals. Todd adds, “Every student’s need is different… there’s all different stages of experience.”

Handshake not only puts Eastern on companies’ radars, but also helps students make sure the jobs being advertised are from trustworthy businesses. Each company has to be approved by the Talent and Career Development office, so students can be certain the job offers on the site are legitimate and worth pursuing. Todd shares that Handshake gives each company a “trust rating” so the Career counselors can make sure they are only allowing authentic job offers onto Eastern students’ feed. Students also have the ability to customize their job search, with the opportunity to filter jobs by interests, skills, and more. Even if students have no idea what job they want, Craig explains, “Handshake can even be helpful for people who don’t know what they want to do. It can just be a way to explore what kind of jobs are out there, what kind of employers are out there. Just poke around, look at the different job duties.”

Ultimately, Todd and Craig are not only excited about all the features Handshake provides for the students, but also about the increased opportunity for students to connect with the Eastern Talent and Career Development office. “You have a tailored system that is going to do a lot of heavy lifting for you,” Todd shares, “but you also have the benefit of our office behind you.” Todd and Craig hope that Handshake will prove to be a bridge between the students and their office. The dates for Eastern career fairs, practice exams, grad school information sessions, and more will all be posted on Handshake, and students will also have the ability to schedule an appointment with Todd or Craig through the website, as well. Acknowledging mindlessly searching the internet for job advertisements can make students feel hopeless, Todd expresses her expectation that Handshake will make this process “a little less painful,” and hopes that her and Craig’s office will be a place students are able to come for help. “That’s one reason why Joanna and I love this work,” Todd emphasizes. “We love being encouragers and champions for people.” They certainly have high hopes that Handshake will make life a little easier for the Eastern student body and encourage students in their job search and hopes for the future.

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Education is a foundational, yet significantly undervalued, pillar of society that ought to form young people into excellent citizens, leaders, and most crucially, excellent human beings. Teachers and professors are integral to creating a school environment that encourages not only memorization of the facts and figures, but also virtue and growth as people; yet these essential members of the learning community rarely receive recognition, especially teachers who educate at the primary and secondary education levels. The Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year Award, an accolade that intends to “celebrate excellence in teaching” and “honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the young people in Pennsylvania” focuses specifically on these exceptional teachers who might otherwise go unnoticed. Eastern University Alumna Lara Owlett is a finalist for this award.
Lara graduated from Eastern in 2009 with a B.A. in French, and again in 2013 with her Masters of Education. This coming fall will be her eighth year teaching, and she currently teaches in Wellsboro, Pa., where she lives with her husband. In an interview with EU, Lara explains that her passion for teaching arose from a trip to France.
“When I came back from that,” she recalls, “I couldn’t help but want to share it with other people.”
Her passion for France carried her all the way through her undergraduate studies at Eastern, where she majored in French. Elaborating more on her time at Eastern, Lara describes how her own education played a major role in her decision to become a teacher. Referencing her theology class, Lara shares how she has kept the notes and still revisits them from time to time. Lara returned to Eastern after earning her undergraduate degree and obtained her MEd in 2013. Focusing more specifically on her teaching techniques, Lara elaborates on the type of classroom environment she wants to foster, observing that, “when a classroom is a safe space, students can start taking risks; start learning a language.”
Lara’s clear passion about teaching and the opportunity she gives young people to learn is a gift worth recognizing. When speaking about her career, Lara expresses, “As a teacher, I feel like I’m answering a call on my life.” The Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year Award should honor teachers such as this.

With the introduction of new staff members across Eastern, faculty and administration acted in the trend by electing a new provost who firmly believes in the school’s ability to grow every year as he did throughout his life.
Dr. Kent Sparks was recently elected as Eastern’s new Provost. however, he has been working for the university for years. Students who know him assume that his path to Eastern was a straight shot, but it was one filled with endless opportunities.
Originally, Sparks aspired to be a medical doctor when he was very young; he changed his career goals quite drastically when he felt a calling in his life to become a pastor.
“That decision at a church camp when I was just 14 is why I’m here now,” Sparks confessed. He explained that, while he was at a church camp one summer, he was given the opportunity to consider a career in ministry. “And I thought,” Sparks explained, “‘so, the world needs the gospel; somebody’s got to do it. Why not me?’”
After preaching his very first sermon the following Sunday, Sparks went on to earn a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Chapel Hill in North Carolina after receiving numerous other degrees from universities all over the South. Out of all the places he’s lived, Sparks expressed a particular affiliation to the Tarheel State, elaborating: “I think I identify more with North Carolina, because I lived there the longest, even though it was later in my life.”
After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill, Sparks remained in Raleigh, N.C. for 10 more years as a pastor at Providence Baptist Church. While he did eventually become a preacher as he had planned when he was 14, Sparks also struggled with his faith and considered a different career path.
“I wanted to do psychology,” Sparks said.
However, after a discouraging conversation with a professor in the graduate program in which he was interested, he decided to apply elsewhere.
Sparks describes his mindset during that time, explaining, “I thought, ‘well, I love ministry, and psychology is apparently too hard, so I’ll go to grad school and do Biblical Studies.’”
He wanted to help people, and he recognized that psychology and pastoral work are both valid ways to do that; however, he did express his concerns that some people might be flocking towards psychology because seminaries lack some of the skills psychology programs equip students with to take care of others.
Sparks does not have regrets about his career path, however, though he later realized psychology could have been an attainable career path for him as well. Advocating for the use of counseling, Sparks declared, “I’m a believer in counseling, in therapy; whatever it takes to uncover the darkness and the brokenness in my soul, so it can be laid bare, and we can work on it.” His belief in the importance of acknowledging the sinful nature of the human soul is strongly correlated to his goals for Eastern, as well.
“I would love for Eastern to be a place where we confront the brokenness of our human condition,” he shares, “and not just Justice writ large in the sense of society, but in my soul itself.”
Dr. Sparks expresses his hope that Eastern University will be a place that inspires students to have courage, and a place that “inspires movement on Faith, Reason, and Justice.” Elaborating on his ideas for the future, Sparks wants to shift the focus in the administration back to the students.
“I’m trying to turn things on their head,” he announced frankly. “Start designing things around what students want and need.”
Eastern University is indeed a special place, and Sparks’ presence has been integral to the University for years. As he takes on the position of Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, let us hope that Eastern continues with, and increases in, its cultivation of Faith, Reason, and Justice for years to come.

The idea of an “inner turn” as the prelude to discovering the awesomeness and wonder of God has always made me uncomfortable. It always seemed so self-involved and egocentric to claim that there is nothing greater than the soul and that we must therefore look at nothing else but ourselves to find God. As someone who finds great delight and comfort in the beauty of nature, I am still not convinced that we have nothing, or very little, to learn about the majesty of God through nature or things outside of us. However, reading Metropolitan Anthony Bloom’s book, “Beginning to Pray,” in my Eastern Orthodoxy class reconciled me to the idea of an “inner turn” and how this practice and view of prayer is not simply discounting everything outside of oneself but is actually a sincere way to find God, though I do disagree with some of the specifics of his ideas.

Bloom first introduces the question of where we are to direct our prayers. “You cannot focus on things which are less than God,” he writes. “The moment you try to focus on an imaginary god, or a god you can imagine, you are in great danger of placing an idol between yourself and the real God.” After outlining the danger of circumscribing God to our own ideas and images of Him, Bloom writes that the Gospel proclaims that “the kingdom of God is within us first of all.” He then continues, “If we cannot meet God within, in the very depth of ourselves, our chances of meeting Him outside ourselves are very remote.” Bloom concludes by explaining what he means by turning inwards, clearing up many of my misconceptions about this idea. “I am not saying that we must become introspective,” he writes. “I don’t mean that we must go inward in the way one does in psychoanalysis or psychology. It is not a journey into my own inwardness; it is a journey through my own self, in order to emerge from the deepest level of self into the place where He is, the point at which God and I meet.”

This idea of “turning inwards” seems much more accurate. We ourselves are not God; we must first go through ourselves to find God. Though we must turn inwards, we still need to make it through all of the very un-Godlike qualities we possess. One main issue I had with the idea of looking into yourself to find God is that I myself am most definitely not Godlike at all. I know this firsthand. However, Bloom acknowledges this in a way that makes it possible to turn inwards despite that. A crucial part of the inward turn is, in fact, making it past all of the sinful parts of myself.

I wholeheartedly agree with Bloom’s idea of the inward turn and how this affects our prayers and our awareness of God. However, I don’t think that this is the only way to pray, as he seems to imply. This idea of an “inner turn” and an increased awareness of where God meets our souls is beautiful and good but also very hard to attain. Simply because it is almost unattainable doesn’t make it less correct, but I don’t believe that the only people who truly pray are the few who have reached this consciousness of God inside of them. Many Christians, myself included, have not come to the “point at which God and I meet.” Whether we should come to this higher understanding of prayer is another matter, but I don’t believe that our prayers go unheard. I would even venture to say that these inexperienced prayers can be just as heartfelt as the prayers of more spiritually-mature Christians. If and when we come to experience God in the way Bloom describes, our prayers will still never be perfect. However, we have the Holy Spirit, Christ and the Saints to intercede and pray for us as well; there is no reason this should be different for one more inexperienced in prayer. As Bloom writes earlier in his book, “We should think rather in terms of an increasing progression from depth to depth, from height to height.” Even when we approach God without this cultivated inward awareness, we are still involved in a beautifully deep and meaningful relationship with our Creator.

Reflecting on my first year here at Eastern, I realize I have had some of the best experiences of my life since coming to school here. I have been so fortunate to have built relationships with amazing professors who truly care about not only my academic skills but also my soul and myself as a person. I have encountered new and challenging ideas which have changed the way I see the world and other people.

The biggest thing I am thankful for, however, is studying alongside people who have become some of my closest friends. My friends and I frequently find ourselves laughing in disbelief at the fact that we haven’t even known each other for a whole year. At Eastern I have been welcomed into a community filled with love and care for one another. Upperclass students have welcomed me with open arms and taught me so much about what it means to be a true friend and to love well. But now the graduation robes are on sale, the due dates for final papers are fast approaching and my friends are escaping to places where they can drink, smoke and park where they like without fear of heavy fines. I will begin the long eight-hour drive back home, far away from the wonderful people I have been so fortunate to share my life with this year.

So how does one stay in touch with friends? Keeping up with people has never been my strength, and even when I do remember to respond to a text message, it’s never the same as seeing someone face-to-face. Of course group messages will hopefully stay alive, and Snapchat streaks will be preserved, but is this the same as really staying in touch? While I am ashamed to say that I don’t know this by experience, the more I think about staying connected with my friends this summer, the more I think about prayer. Texting, Snapchatting and even talking on the phone can never be the same as actually living life with the people you love, but perhaps prayer can unite us to people even when they are far away.

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, in his book “Beginning to Pray,” writes about the mystery of being united to God’s divine love for people through prayer. Quoting from Father Silouan’s experience with prayer, he writes, “In the beginning I prayed with tears and compassion for Nicholas…but as I was praying the sense of the divine presence began to grow on me, and at a certain moment it grew so powerful that I lost sight of Nicholas…and I could be aware only of God, and I was drawn by the sense of the divine presence deeper and deeper, until all of a sudden, at the heart of this presence, I met the divine love holding Nicholas, his wife and his child, and now it was with the love of God that I began to pray for them again.”

Though we might not know all of the problems and joys our friends will face during our time apart, we can still pray for them and be united to them through the love of God. Texting and Facetiming are still useful ways to talk to our friends and stay updated about their lives, but the only way we can truly love our friends well, near or apart, is by loving and praying for them with the divine love of God.