Eight Mennonite high school Bible teachers from across the nation spent March 17 and 18 at Bluffton University to learn about its curriculum and to attend seminars led by Bluffton religion department faculty.
Seminar topics included religion curriculum, adolescent development and youth ministry, and church history.
Dr. Randy Keeler, an associate professor of religion at Bluffton, led the religion curriculum seminar, where he shared the department’s mission for Bluffton students pursuing a degree in biblical and theological studies or in youth ministries.
Bluffton University’s Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR), an educational program for retirees, is offering nine courses on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays this spring, beginning March 31.
Each course costs $35; the cost to take three or more is $100. Registration and, if applicable, course fees are due at the time of registration. Most classes will meet in the ILR classroom, located in Shultz Hall of Riley Court on campus.
Incorporating student chanting and movement into language instruction may help children learn words faster.
An innovative phonics instruction program created by an Ohio first-grade teacher in 1999 compared favorably to a popular, more traditional program in recent research conducted by Dr. Amy Mullins, assistant professor of education at Bluffton University.
While some college students migrated to Florida beaches for spring break, a group of Bluffton University students braved zero-degree temperatures in Illinois to serve others.
Members of Shining Through, Bluffton’s music ministry team, spent a day sorting through snow-covered debris from a home destroyed by a November 2013 tornado in Washington, Ill.
Ashley Litwiller, a Bluffton junior and student coordinator of Shining Through, is an Illinois native who knew of the devastation the tornado had caused. “I knew that there was still some work to be done,” she said.
Jeff Gundy, a professor of English at Bluffton University, will present a program on Thursday, March 27, on his newly published book, “Somewhere Near Defiance.”
Beginning with refreshments at 3:45 p.m., the event—also featuring student participants—is free and open to the public in Bluffton’s Musselman Library Reading Room. Afterward, Gundy will sign copies of his book, which will be available for purchase.
Dr. Brian Bantum, an assistant professor of theology at Seattle Pacific University and Seminary, will address the question “Discipleship: What’s Race Got to Do with It?” in a Bluffton University forum on Tuesday, March 25. Free and open to the public, the event will begin at 11 a.m. in Bluffton’s Founders Hall.
