Shanell Percy knew she was a good student, but she didn’t know that she loved learning until she got to Gordon. With an interest in the sciences, she enrolled in biology and chemistry her first semester at Gordon and was captivated by her studies—particularly chemistry.
“In my chemistry courses at Gordon I’m challenged to venture beyond the surface and put the pieces together to pin point how text book concepts have real life applications,” says Percy, a freshmen chemistry major from Windsor, Connecticut. “The challenge and discoveries in my courses have really made learning fun.”
In March of 2011, Oxford University Press published Professor Tal Howard’s most recent book, God and the Atlantic: America, Europe and the Religious Divide, a study of transatlantic differences.
For those who might miss Howard’s lecture at Salem’s Old Town Hall, there will be a book signing held at Gordon College, 255 Grapevine Road, Wenham, Massachusetts, on Thursday, March 31, 2011 from 4-5 p.m. in Chester’s Place in the Lane Student Center. For further information about this event, please email ccs@gordon.edu.
“God and the Atlantic looks at how and why Americans have maintained much friendlier ties with traditional forms of religion than their European counterparts,” says Howard. “It’s an historical exploration of what journalists and sociologists are calling ‘the transatlantic religious divide’.”
Though there are many polarizing issues in this complex debate, scholars such as Harmut Lehmann, former Director of the Max Planck Institute for History in Germany, praise Howard for giving historical depth to the topic. “Everyone interested in finding a way through the labyrinth of transatlantic comparisons and prejudice is well advised to read this book,” says Lehmann.
For information about God and the Atlantic, or to reach Professor Howard, please email jaf@gordon.edu or call 978 867 4227.
With the start of spring break the end of this week, Gordon's spring sports teams will go in search of warmer weather and wins on their respective spring training trips.
The men's lacrosse team is planning to travel coast-to-coast to San Diego, California, where they will take on both Fairleigh Dickinson University and Whittier College. In their last matchup with Whittier in 2006, the Scots carried an early lead to an eventual 12-11 upset win.
The women's lacrosse team will head to Florida for the annual Spring Fling Tournament in West Palm Beach. They plan to play non-conference Smith on March 14 and will face either Curry or Mt. Saint Vincent on the 16th. Additionally, the women will be teaming up with a program called Paint Your Heart Out with the Solid Waste Authority, painting and helping with beach clean-up service projects during the week.
Visiting Lake Myrtle, Florida, for the week, the men's baseball team will get its first taste of outdoor play when it opens with Washington (Maryland) on March 13. From there, the men will go on to a double-header with Becker on the 14th, Sewanee on the 15th, and a double-header with Dickinson on the 17th.
Women's softball will once again visit Myrtle Beach, South Carolina--their spring break home away from home for the past 10 years--to play eight non-conference games in four days beginning with Gettysburg on March 14.
Joining women's softball in South Carolina, the men's tennis team will set up camp in Hilton Head for the fourth consecutive year. While there, the Scots will play a match per day starting with Shepherd on March 13, followed by Edgewood, Spring Arbor, Dickinson and Heidelberg, and closing with Messiah on the 18th.
Members of the Gordon track and field program together with others from the Gordon community teamed up on Tuesday to take on snow removal on the Brigham Athletic oval. Wielding shovels and donning t-shirts on an unseasonably warm afternoon, the group worked for several hours to clear a significant section of track in an effort to facilitate outdoor training and prepare for the coming track and field season.
Where is Inn Gee Kim on a Monday afternoon? Playing wallyball, of course! But why is this busy senior, studying political science and philosphy and an intern with Gordon in Lynn playing walleyball?
Spring break mission trips are just around the bend and students are gearing up for time away from Gordon’s campus. From March 12-20, over 80 Gordon students, on seven teams, will serve in the U.S. and abroad.
Through U.S. Exposure, teams will be located in Detroit, rural Mississippi, Portland, Maine, and Yakama Native American Reservation in Washington State. In addition, three teams will travel to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua.
“Students will serve through construction projects, after school programs for children, facilitating vacation Bible school, and many other ways that meet the needs in their particular location,” says Laura Carmer, director of missions. “The willingness and enthusiasm of our students is always encouraging to the long term missionaries and organizations they serve with, and our students get to experience how God is working in the broader world."
All teams raised support through fundraising letters and some through selling fall semester finals survival kits.
For more information on ministries, service and outreach at Gordon click here.
Gordon College’s Frost Hall had some sleepy visitors perched on a fire escape this week. Two raccoons spent most of Wednesday huddled outside a third floor window. By dusk they’d found better things to do.
Photo credit: Jon Williams, software architect and strategist
