Update on The 2015 Big Idea: Reducing College Student Debt

Update on The 2015 Big Idea: Reducing College Student Debt

Last year I shared that my big idea for 2015 was to put a dent in college student debt. We have made a small beginning.

This past fall, 45 students became our test group for the Trevecca iWork program. To date, we are retaining all of them into the spring semester and they have paid $61,000 on their college bills as a group. In addition, each student has received basic training in workplace habits. All of our supervisors have been trained to mentor students toward workplace success. We will be adding more students to the test group this semester before aiming at 200 jobs this fall. We have companies lined up to provide jobs for our students.

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Merry Christmas Greetings!

Merry Christmas Greetings!

Each year, I’m pleased to share with all of you our Trevecca Nazarene University Christmas card. This year, we focus on Jesus as the Light of the World.

From our family to yours: May you have a blessed Christmas season!

2015 Trevecca Nazarene University Christmas Card

 

Click below to see our Christmas cards from past years:

 

 

All I Want for Christmas

All I Want for Christmas

I’m old enough to remember the cheesy song of a child wishing for two front teeth so he could wish us all a “Merry Christmas.” If you are too young to remember that one, lighten up a Christmas party by asking someone to sing it for you. In the cheesy vein, I suppose I could wish for hair, since I still have my teeth.

For ten years, I rounded the curve at the top of the hill on the way to work. The Trevecca campus was visible just over the horizon, beyond the Volunteer Express trucking company. Often, as I took in the sight, I repeated a prayer: Lord, bless the business of these people so much that they will need more land to operate and will sell us theirs at a reasonable price.

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They Also Teach Who Only Serve as Dean

They Also Teach Who Only Serve as Dean

I got a letter with a check in it the other day. The writer was contributing to the endowment scholarship fund of Wayne and Wilma Gallup.

They served as deans of students at Trevecca for a couple of decades. They lived near the campus, raised a bunch of football players who had two little sisters, and knew everybody. The whole family attended the campus church and pretty much filled the youth group. Wayne had a remarkable voice that was like ocean waves quaking when they came ashore. He and Ed Whittington sang many a heavenly duet in the old College Hill sanctuary.

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Remembering Faye Speer

Remembering Faye Speer

If you’re young, you should know I’m writing about a time long before when you were born. But if you’re a little bit old (like me), you remember the singing Speer Family, the first family of gospel music. They were to early Christian music what Billy Graham was to evangelism crusades.

Faye Speer was born into a Nazarene preacher’s family, came to Trevecca when she was 15, and married the son of the Speers, Brock. They traveled the country singing gospel music to thousands. They were early versions of Christian rock stars, but never carried themselves that way. They were quite humble—except for cut-up younger brother, Ben.
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Against the Odds – Why a Christian University in the Heart of Nashville is Thriving

Against the Odds – Why a Christian University in the Heart of Nashville is Thriving

As we go into the fall season, I am grateful for the strength of the university that I serve. We are seeing triple digit growth and are breaking all-time records for freshman enrollment, undergraduate enrollment, and total enrollment. The high-water marks of last year will soon trail the new numbers for this year.

Why? If you read articles about colleges, you’ll recognize that this pattern is not the norm. The pundits predict the demise of private Christian colleges. Tennessee has made community college free. Yes, we are competing with free. Everyone says tuition is skyrocketing and is out of control.

Church support for the Christian mission of a university is down. States are trimming funding for college. Many are declaring that a college degree is not worth what it costs, especially in terms of the number of years it takes to pay back a college loan. Liberal arts degrees are under attack as “too general” and “too vague” to offer a skill set that is marketable.

I read this stuff all the time. Most of it has been challenged statistically (and correctly) in studies done by the Council for Independent Colleges (CIC).

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$1000, Farmer Jason, and the Trevecca Urban Farm

$1000, Farmer Jason, and the Trevecca Urban Farm

OK, you’ve been given $1000 and are required to spend it somewhere that will make the most difference.

How would you spend it or give it away?

I’d give my $1000 to Farmer Jason who manages our Urban Farm at Trevecca.

A little background on Farmer Jason for you.

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You Can Afford a Trevecca Education

You Can Afford a Trevecca Education

Summer means vacation and camps and family reunions. If you’re the parent of a high schooler, it may also mean touring college campuses in order to find that home away from home for your child.

I hope you’ll consider Trevecca Nazarene University. We offer academic programs based on Christian values that promote scholarship, critical thinking, and meaningful worship for students in preparation for lives of leadership and service to the church, the community, and the world at large.

“But,” you may ask, “Isn’t a private Christian university education expensive?”

Actually, I’m pretty sure you can afford a Trevecca education; it’s more affordable than you think. I love this video that explores three common myths about paying to attend Trevecca.

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My Top 10 Events in the Last Two Weeks

My Top 10 Events in the Last Two Weeks

Sometimes you have a stretch of events that just makes you glad to be alive and doing what you do. The past two weeks has been that kind of stretch. In no particular order, here’s my list of:

The Top 10 Events in the Last Two Weeks

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That Teacher

That Teacher

I think we all have one. A teacher who impacted us in a way that we are forever different than what we would have been. A teacher who thought we could do more than we believed we could do. A teacher who inspired a bit of fear in us that we later came to call respect. A teacher who set a high standard and then helped us meet it. A teacher who taught more than the required material—because information came second to wisdom in their thinking. A teacher who forever lives in the balcony of our mind and always calls us upward.

I went to the funeral of such a teacher the other day. His name is Michael Moredock. I never sat in his classroom. But I heard what students said about him for 8 years before brain cancer forced his retirement and then took his life 3 years later. They complained to me, the university president, about how hard he was in the classroom. Demanding, they said. Unreasonable, they said.  Tough as nails, they said. Doc Moredock was an administrator and teacher in our Physicians Assistant program, a graduate program that fills the world with emergency room physicians, primary care office doctors, and surgical assistants. Trevecca established the first PA program in TN and regularly has 800 applications for 50 seats. The program is rigorous, demanding, and not for the faint of heart.

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