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Feature: Art: Sports: Art: Galentines The XFL Green day untold Day stories Album page 6 page 4 page 8 page 8 Febuary 21, 2020 Issue 3 Follow us online Make it okay Evangeline Colarossi — Staff Writer Middel, Sarah Krysl, and Levi Jungling, along with the Dordt Psych Club has been spreading Tuesday night found the West Commons awareness, raising funds, and organizing crowded with packed tables, sweet snacks, and this event since the end of November 2019. important topics to discuss. Approximately Funding for the event came from Student Life, two hundred attendees, both students and Human Resources, Dordt Administration, Co- professors were randomly assigned a table to sit Curricular Committee, and the Psychology at, awaiting deep discussion of mental health. Department. Dordt is known for its aspect of community, and “The Psych Club normally plans smaller, the Psychology Club wanted to use this to open more low-key events, so this was a whole new up topics that may normally be avoided. task and step up in responsibilities than what “When I looked around, there was never a we were used to,” said Middel. “We were happy table that had a lull in talking and I think that and excited to plan such an important event as speaks to how needed this conversation was,” this.” said senior psychology student Megan Middel. This was the first time Make It Okay has “People are willing and wanting to talk about it, been held on a college campus, but psychology and that’s beautiful to me.” professor Luralyn Helming hopes that this will Shelly Rock, the speaker from Make It Okay encourage students to personally help with this presented several ideas, played supporting campaign. videos, and then used audience participation “While the Psych Club could do this again, to gather polls displaying the general climate I think it would be more effective if future towards mental illness. This process was efforts were dispersed across the student body, repeated throughout the evening, broken up by as mental illness touches everyone,” said discussion at each table to “take down barriers Helming. “Treating those with mental illness in order to foster a climate in which our call and with respect is not only in the hands of future discipleship of loving our neighbor becomes a psychologists, but rather is the business of all.” part of who we are on and off campus,” said If you would like to become involved with Middel. Make It Okay, contact Professor Helming or topic and understanding that mental health is Contributed Photo Students and professors come from a variety Dr. Vermeer. For someone to talk to regarding just as vital as physical health is how the Psych Illness) North West Iowa Board, along with of backgrounds, ages, and locations. All of these mental health questions, contact counseling@ Club hopes to eliminate stigma about this topic. Shelly Rock, the speaker at Make It Okay. He factors can affect a person’s understanding and dordt.edu, campus ministries, or a trusted friend Psychology professor Bruce Vermeer serves approached the Psych Club with this event feelings towards mental illness. Discussing this or mentor. on the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental after Rock told him of the program. Megan Blauw nurtures musical Koerner prepares for first gifts show Jaclyn Vander Waal— Staff Writer Sam Landstra —Staff Writer After a word of prayer, Dordt University A fragile atmosphere lingers in the 4th Avenue senior Anna Blauw opened her senior harp Theatre classroom. Student actors Dakota Klein recital Saturday with Tournier’s “Etude de and Sofia Bouma stand at opposite sides of the Concert (Au Matin).” room with pained expressions on their faces. The audience silently leaned into the music They stepped out of character after playing a she played, and only rustling of programs could heated exchange between husband and wife be heard in the still auditorium during her for the upcoming production Everything is hourlong performance. Wonderful. As a daughter of a music teacher, Blauw was “How was that?” Director Laurel Koerner surrounded by music from a young age. She asks. A script and notes lay in front of her on the began by learning the piano, and when she wintery afternoon. Photo Credit: Emi Stewart reached the sixth grade, she was encouraged “I just wasn’t in the right head space,” Klein members will do the same. to begin learning another instrument. At the says. “I think these are people we can see ourselves suggestion of her father, she chose the harp. Koerner probes her students for what in,” Koerner said. “It’s important to me that the Eleven and a half years later, Blauw is happy worked well from previous rehearsals and show is hosting conversations students want to to share the culmination of all she has learned challenges Klein to consider the pauses during have.” with friends, family and community members his monologues. With less than a month away Throughout the production process, the at the B.J. Haan Auditorium. Contributed Photo from opening, most practices consist of fine- Everything is Wonderful team has maintained “It’s really exciting that I’ve gotten to this Blauw describes her relationship with Vorhes tuning dialogue. They run the scene again. “early and ongoing dialogue” about the mature point,” said Blauw, a choral music K-12 as a partnership. Everything is Wonderful tells the story of content on display. Koerner and the cast have education major with a music performance “She has a wealth of knowledge about what Miri, an excommunicated Amish woman who connected with professors, the Family Crisis minor. “I’ve been planning this moment since makes a good and varied recital,” Blauw said. returns to her people after the death of her two Center, and Campus Health. After the shows, I got here.” Together, they created the list of songs for brothers in a traffic accident. Upon arriving, they hope to hold a discussion panel on the Music adjunct professor Anna Vorhes, who Blauw’s senior recital. In addition to pedagogy however, Miri finds herself still unwelcome in topics seen onstage with counsellors available has taught harp at Dordt for about 30 years, and historical music works, they kept the her family while the man responsible for the on standby enjoys developing Blauw’s musicality. audience in mind. death of her siblings lives in their barn. It’s “What I hope for is a system that aids the “God gives us a gift,” Vorhes said. “It’s our “Music is ultimately communication,” Vorhes far from your grandmother’s Amish romance integration of what’s happening in the arts job to nurture it.” said. “We look for pieces that connect to her and books. on campus with what’s happening in the In their eight semesters together, Vorhes has the audience.” “I love how honest it is,” Koerner said. classroom,” Koerner said. worked to grow Blauw as a young woman and Blauw said she picked songs her audience “These are not two-dimensional representations Klein and Bouma stand in their strained Christian in addition to a musician. would enjoy because she wanted them to feel of idealized, romanticized, Amish people. It’s positions again after the second run through. “It’s important to know how to live in the included in her performance. messy and ugly.” Koerner asks them how their characters feel world while being God’s child first,” she said. “I want the audience to walk away and be Ideas of forgiveness and reconciliation towards each other in the argument. Vorhes recognized from the beginning that impacted as well as have an appreciation about surrounding trauma and abuse fill the play. “Things are bad,” Klein says. “Things are Blauw had incredible technical skills, so their a song they never heard of before,” she said. “I In Amish communities, sins are treated as really not good. Things are DEFCON 1.” time together primarily was spent developing want the audience to feel like the performance if they never happened upon confession. As Klein, a sophomore transfer student from the characters onstage wrestle with how to Blauw’s sight-reading and ensemble skills. continued on page 4 continued on page 4 approach wrongdoing, Koerner hopes audience · News· page 2 Are the humanities dying? that faced sharp declines included English, Tess Hemmila— Staff Writer major. ‘you’ll have to eat rocks’” said Belicia. philosophy, and religious studies. In December, Northwestern College In another effort to respond to the low After her parents warning, Belicia chose her On the other hand, Forbes reported that health announced that they will reduce their staff enrollment in humanities, most humanities major at Dordt carefully. Rather than simply professions more than doubled, shooting from by 11 faculty positions, five of which will be departments at Dordt have fewer faculty pursuing a major in English, she decided to 91,973 to 228,896 graduates in the ten-year through retirement. Northwestern’s humanities members than their STEM and social study English education in hopes of having period. Many other STEM fields and social are taking the hardest hit, as the college is also science counterparts. With the exception of more stable job prospects after college. science fields increased by more than 60%, planning to drop its majors in philosophy, the education department, most humanities Despite the foreboding enrollment trends, including criminal justice, agriculture, and writing and rhetoric, and literature. The cuts departments have less than five full-time history professor Scott Culpepper predicts biology. will only affect ten Northwestern undergraduate faculty members, some have only one. that the humanities are not going anywhere At Dordt, education is one of the top five students.

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