new staff

Here She Belongs: Alumna Returns to SAU as Lowell RD

By Caralyn Geyer

Lowell Hall is one of three female residence halls on Spring Arbor University’s (SAU) main campus. Built in 1970, it is known for zero air conditioning and a lobby that routinely smells like burnt popcorn. Lowell houses nearly three-hundred girls every year, each of whom are learning to live in community more and more each day. As of 2017, the Hall has undergone a leadership change by gaining a new Resident Director (RD). This year, Hannah Sinkovitz has succeeded the former RD, Kelly McGraw. This is Sinkovitz’s first year being an RD and says she has big plans for Lowell Hall this year, and for the many years to come.

Sinkovitz is an SAU and Indiana Wesleyan Universtiy (IWU) alumna. She obtained her Bachelor’s Degree at Spring Arbor, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Global Missions, and then proceeded to continue her Psychology education by gaining a Masters in Clinical Health from IWU. During her time as a student at SAU, Sinkovitz played on the soccer team. At IWU, Sinkovitz continued her soccer career as a coach, which helped to pay for some of her Master’s schooling. This time is also when she and her husband, Jake, began to gain experience in the field of being an RD. During their years at IWU, Jake was an RD for a men’s dorm, so Sinkovitz got to live with and experience everyday RD life first-hand. After finishing her Master’s program, Sinkovitz moved her family back to SAU, this time to work as an RD herself.

sinkovitzfamily — Hannah with her husband, Jake, and son Leo. From Facebook.

“It’s surreal to be back,” Sinkovitz said. “It’s definitely sooner than we thought, but it was always a dream for us to come back. We have relationships here and plan to invest here for a long time.”

Starting this year, and for the years to come, Sinkovitz hopes to make Lowell known for being a welcoming and safe place. She believes in making a residence hall somewhere students can deal with the uncertainties of life that college brings, including figuring out where one is going, learning how to live and preparing for the outside world. Sinkovitz’s main hope for her dorm is that it would be a place to belong. Part of Lowell lobby’s decorations are three painted pictures with the words, “Here We Belong.” These signs represent her hope that residence life will be a place to call home, a place to reside and grow alongside other women through these years of learning.

“College is a unique time,” Sinkovitz said. “It should be a time where we can let our guard down and give grace where it is needed the most.”

Sinkovitz has been learning alongside Lowell residence this year as students enter the new school year and as she starts her first RD job. Already, Sinkovitz says she has “learned a lot about herself and how people interact, how to deal with ‘spur-the-moment’ occasions and especially about having grace and patience.”

In the end, everyone is learning how to create his or her own “Here We Belong” space, whether it is senior year, freshman year or the first year on the job. This year, Sinkovitz wishes that, if nothing else, Lowell Hall can hold this meaning for all of its residents. A place where everyone comes as stranger, leaves as friends and knows that it is “Here We Belong.”

Stats and Facts

Harry Potter?: All the way, and she’s in Gryffindor house

Favorite TV Shows: Grey’s Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, Parks and Rec and New Girl

Favorite movie: Currently Moana, because of her 18-month-old, Leo (go ahead and give him a highfive if you see him!)

Favorite drinks: Loves coffee with chocolate and sugar and is a fan of the Pumpkin Spice trend

Favorite memories from SAU soccer: team bonding trips to Puerto Rico and Hawaii, as well as team service projects.

Home Sweet Home: Her favorite place where she stayed on campus as a student was Delta 3

New Campus Safety Specialist Arrives at SAU

By Kayla Kilgore

They walk around campus wearing proudly their blue and black uniforms with a yellow stripe across their hearts. They protect students from harm, are on call for emergencies and enforce parking regulations. They are the campus safety officers. Only a handful of souls brave this career path at Spring Arbor University (SAU), and one of them goes by the name Peter Breckner.

Breckner joined the SAU force this year as a Campus Safety Specialist. He is the head over parking regulations, students of Campus Safety and reporting information directly to the Director of Campus Safety.

Peter Breckner and his wife, Laura. From Facebook.

Before coming to SAU, Breckner worked at Davenport University. Davenport is about two hours away from SAU, where his wife Laura Breckner works in the Student Success and Calling Center on campus. The position at SAU offered him better hours and an administrative role and higher position than his previous job. It also allowed him to be closer to his wife. Now, the couple’s offices are across the hall from each other, which allows them to enjoy lunch together.

Breckner said he is excited about is the opportunity to incorporate his faith into his new career as a Campus Safety Specialist. He said his faith was not encouraged in his past positions, and SAU has provided for him a unique platform to share his beliefs with faculty and students alike. Now that Breckner works on a campus where his faith is encouraged, he says he is awaiting the opportunity to share his testimony to better the lives of those he encounters.

Stats and Facts:

Hobbies: swimming, biking, relaxing on the lake

Off the job: He volunteers as a Reserve Sheriff Deputy for his local county over summers and weekends

Squirrels and Spiritual Life: SAU’s New Biology Professor Katie Weakland

By Grace Archer

Spring Arbor University’s (SAU) newest associate professor of biology Cathy (Katie) Weakland has arrived, bringing with her an enthusiasm for both spiritual life and the campus squirrels.

While serving as a professor at Bethel College in Indiana, Weakland was involved in projects like landscape ecology, studying owls and fox squirrels. She often spent her class periods trapping and tagging the squirrels to find the density of their species on campus. She also spent time incorporating discipleship into her lessons and participating spiritually in the campus.

“I was involved in the spiritual atmosphere and I loved going to chapel,” Weakland said. “In fact, I went to every single one.”

KathyWeakland — Katie Weakland. From Facebook.

After teaching at Bethel College for ten years, she decided to take a break from teaching and follow God’s call for her life in Tajikistan, where she lived for three and a half years. Eventually, she found and joined a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), researching and proposing projects to raise funds for the group.

“I always wanted to live overseas and learn a new culture and language,” Weakland said.

Although Weakland spent a great deal of time overseas and away from home, she had always taken an interest in Michigan. In her time at Bethel College, she often took camping trips up to Michigan on the weekends as a getaway.

One thing that attracted Weakland to the task of teaching at SAU was the spirituality on campus.

“I appreciate a campus that has chapel,” Weakland said. “I love that I can talk about Jesus in class and do devotions all while incorporating science and research.”

Weakland is excited to teach Environmental Science. In it, she hopes to expand on views of evolution and creationism and other diverse views on that topic. She wants to look at what Scripture says about evolution as well as ideas outside of Christianity and compare the two.

“I see God’s fingerprints all over creation and I encourage students to take a step back (from) what they’re observing and stand in awe of it,” Weakland said. “Creation is how God reveals himself to us.”

Stats and Facts:

According to her: The owls she studied at Bethel sounded like “women screaming.” Sounds spooky.

Not her first time in the state: While at Bethel, she took weekend camping trips up to Michigan as a getaway.

A goal as a teacher: to challenge students as image bearers and stewards of creation and their responsibilities as followers of Christ.

Education professor and basketball coach: John M. Williams IV

By Crisilee DeBacker

To a Spring Arbor University (SAU) student, the name “John Williams” could mean two things: “Associate Professor of Education” John Williams Jr (also known as Biggs), or “that guy who composed the Star Wars soundtrack” John Williams. Now, there is a third.

John M. Williams IV fills three roles at SAU. He is the Coordinator of Elementary Education, an Assistant Professor of Education and the Assistant Womens Basketball Coach. Despite not wanting to come to SAU at first, he says he is a proud SAU alumnus.

“It was just a good, safe, familiar place,” he said, concerning why he finally committed to SAU.

During his time at SAU, he studied music, pre-med and elementary education and played on the soccer team for two seasons. After he completed his undergraduate program, he continued studying at SAU, and went on to get his master’s in education and then a post-graduate certification in K-12 administration. After he was certified, he worked seven years as an elementary school principal.

JohnandCarrieWilliams — Williams IV and his wife, Carrie. From Facebook.

“Being an elementary school principal, there’s always something crazy going on,” he said.

He also coached basketball, and worked with the same girls from fifth grade on. Seeing them grow and improve as high schoolers was something he said he loved, especially since one of his players is now a freshman here at SAU and is serving alongside him as the manager of the womens basketball team.

Williams briefly taught math and science classes before he was a principal. When he was a principal, he evaluated teachers regularly, so to him, evaluating students in class is not much different.

Williams’ faith is something he strives to model to his students. He begins every class with a time for prayer requests and a short devotional, and concentrates on being a good example for his students and living “unapologetically Christian.”

“Before talking about prayer, you have to live and model faith first,” he said.

He also focuses on faith outside of the classroom by taking it to the basketball court. Currently, the whole basketball team is reading the book “Love Does” by Bob Goff. He says it is a great example of putting both faith and love into action and illustrates the message, “don’t be afraid to love extravagantly.”

Through both the teaching and the modeling of faith, Williams hopes to influence his students for their future.

“I’m making them prepared before they’re on their own,” he said.

Stats and Facts:

Hogwarts House: Gryffindor

Favorite TV shows: Stranger Things, Longwire and Madame Secretary

Favorite classes to teach: “Math and Science Methods for Upper Elementary and Middle School Teachers” and “Effective Classroom Management Assessment and Instruction”

Fun Fact: When he was a principal, he let students duct tape him to a wall to raise money for a local child with cancer.

He’s Not Done Yet: He’s currently in a doctorate program with Trevecca Nazarene University.

If you didn’t already know: He’s married to Carrie Williams, the director of student success and first year programming at SAU.

Chemistry and the fingerprints of God: How new chemistry professor found SAU

By Caralyn Geyer

For college students, it can be typical to wonder, “How in the world did I get here?” Many students question life and seek answers to thought-provoking questions, searching for purpose and meaning throughout those first few years. It can leave many students asking themselves, “Does anyone else feel the way that I do?”

Michael Nydegger asked himself these same questions as a college student at Southwest State University in Minnesota. Looking back, he said he never would have pictured himself where he is today as an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Spring Arbor University (SAU). He started his higher education by getting a Bachelor’s degree at Southwest State University, though he did not pick chemistry as a major until his junior year.

“They forced me to pick a major, so I picked chemistry so I could still finish in four years,” Nydegger said.

Michael Nydegger, the new assistant professor of chemistry at SAU.

Nydegger particularly liked physical chemistry, and took many courses in this area his senior year of college. He was also good at math, so a chemistry major seemed like a logical choice to him. His parents also inspired him to pursue chemistry because of each of their differing beliefs concerning evolution and creation.

He continued in his schooling to get a Master’s degree from the University of Nebraska and did his doctoral work at the University of Iowa, focusing on New Probes for 2DIR Spectroscopy for his dissertation. According to NASA, spectroscopy is a scientific measurement technique that measures light emitted, absorbed or scattered by materials, which is then used to study, identify and quantify those materials.

After his schooling, Nydegger began his teaching career by working at community colleges, which eventually led to his job at SAU. Nydegger said he had never wanted to teach at a Christian school before coming to SAU because he wanted to share the gospel with people who have not heard it. But his friends encouraged him to apply to Christian universities, so he decided to apply to SAU.

“[My friends] offered a new perspective and thought that maybe this is where I should be,” Nydegger said.

After working at SAU so far, Nydegger said he enjoys the community the campus brings and feels like his co-workers are his family. Throughout his various classes, Nydegger said his goal is for his students to get outside their comfort zone within the framework of chemistry.

“I want [students] to see the fingerprints of God on the periodic table,” Nydegger said.

Stats and Facts

Favorite Class to Teach: CHEM200, because it is more detailed and the “fingerprints of God” are more visible.

Favorite Experiments: Ammonium fountains and esterification reactions.

Favorite Movies: “Jaws” and the “Lord of the Rings” series.

Hobbies: Trout fishing, hunting and traveling.

Something New: He’s trying out making maple syrup for the first time this year.

Something Interesting: He once saw a humpback whale from about twenty feet away while in a sixteen-foot boat.

Sioux spears, Curious George poems and a scary-looking dissertation: an inside look at Carol Green’s office

By Kayla Williamson

Across from the President’s office and past three cubicles lies the office of a Texan who likes snow.

Inside, you can find an array of history books including an intimidating leather binder-bound version of a dissertation. Leaning against the shelves of books sits a Sioux spear. Framed on the desk are pictures of three girls and a Curious George quote about adventuring into the unknown.

After moving from Longview, Texas this summer, the new Vice President of Academic Affairs, Carol Green, found Spring Arbor as a new adventure for her and her family. Last year, she had a feeling God was calling her north, so when she saw Spring Arbor University’s (SAU) job posting, she applied.

New VP of Academic Affairs, Carol Green, speaks about caring for her husband after he was diagnosed with cancer in Convocation.

After working five years at LeTourneau University, Green took a step back from high education to care for her husband who was diagnosed with cancer in 2013. She told her story about her husband and the struggle to work through grief at Convocation.

Although she did apply for more jobs in higher education after her husband John passed away in 2015, she felt like the time was not right to move. Her second eldest daughter, Amanda, had two more years of high school.

“I really felt that the girls needed more stability at that point,” Green said. “They had a really strong youth group. And I had a lot of good friends who were helping me through this too.”

Green journaled a lot during that time, and now four years later, she said she is 80 percent finished with a rough draft of a book about her experiences.

As for Spring Arbor, she has been an official SAU employee for three weeks, and she is still trying to figure out which buildings to go to for meetings.

“There may be funny stories once the snow hits,” Green said. “I think I like the snow, but we’ll see.”

Stats & Facts

Which Hogwarts House would you be in? Gryffindor.

How many years have you taught? 17 years.

What’s your Myers-Briggs? ISFP, though I fall in the middle for most of them.

What’s the last book you read? “The Lighthouse Chronicles” by Flo Anderson. And I reread “Lightning” by Dean Koontz and “Waking the Dead” by John Eldredge.

Last TV show you watched? America’s Got Talent.

Favorite judge? Simon.

Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter? Lord of the Rings.

Anything else? You should probably know I’m very competitive and I love a challenge. I like doing fun, quirky things. I like surprising people too.