Seminar Presentations
Kuyper Scholar seminars, which occur weekly, enable students to have meaningful discussions with one another. Students must write and present eight papers, attend and engage with eight of their classmates' seminars, and facilitate discussion for two seminars during their time as a Kuyper Scholar. Personally, I love attending seminars because both my perspective on world events and my understanding of my classmates/friends is widened. I always leave a seminar stimulated, wanting more information, more research, and more conversation.
Flannery O'Connor once said, "How Do I know what I think until I see what I say?" Similarly, I used these seminars to help myself figure out what I believe about storytelling.
My eight seminar papers are listed in reverse chronological order below. Six explore stories told by others and, in turn helping me glean truths from those stories to incorporate into my own story. The other two examine social issues that I find pertinent to the story I'm living.
A Three Part Response to Thirteen Reasons Why
Fall 2017
I first read Jay Asher’s novel Thirteen Reasons Why over my 2016 Christmas break, unaware that Netflix was working on turning the book into a thirteen-episode series to be released in March 2017. Several friends had recommended the title to me immediately after it came out in 2007, but I was nine years late to heed their advice. These friends warned me before I began that the book was not one I would “love.” It would move me. It would change me. It would stretch my empathy, but I would not enjoy it. Knowing this, I started reading at about 7:00 one evening, and like Clay (from the book, not the show), I stayed up all night to experience Hannah’s story in a single sitting. I couldn’t put the book down, not because I was enjoying the plot, but because I was engaged by the sheer honesty bleeding from every page.
The Netflix series was equally as engaging, though perhaps for the wrong reasons. My first paper, entitled "An Important Story and an Impertinent Public Response," details the public's response to the show, which I found entirely inappropriate. In this essay, I unpack my theories behind why the public "loved" Hannah's story rather than being irrevocably changed by it.
My second paper, entitled "Not a Question of Power, But of Responsibility," addresses mental health professionals' theories as to why the Netflix series accomplished the opposite of its intent, namely contributing to several suicides.
My third paper, entitled "Responsible For or Responsible To," may seem heartless, as I argue that Hannah's thirteen reasons were not in fact responsible for Hannah's death. In doing so, I don't intend to question Hannah's grief; Hannah was undoubtedly bullied severely, and her sense of hopelessness derived from that bullying proves both logical and heartbreaking. Rather, I question whether those bullies are solely responsible for her death by differentiating between being responsible for another and being responsible to another.
Mental Health Trends in College Students: Does Correlation Equal Causation?
Fall 2017
I served as a resident assistant my sophomore and junior years, which was both the most challenging and most rewarding experience in my life thus far. Because of my leadership position, my peers were more inclined to seek connection with me-- that was my job, after all. In developing those connections, I was allowed into some of my residents' most overwhelming joys and vulnerable hurts. Consequently, my first intimate experiences with mental illness were directly tied to my role as an RA.
In walking alongside my residents throughout those years, I noticed a startling trend: most of my girls had not struggled with mental illness during high school; their respective conditions emerged during college. I wondered if any conclusive research had been done on this phenomenon, and this paper was born as a result.
Throughout this essay, I seek to explain the comprehensive scope of mental health and identify specific facets within that comprehensiveness that have primed today's college students for mental health issues. Further, I offer my personal evaluation of how colleges should respond to the mounting issue of mental health decline, ultimately arguing that empathy is the only solution.
Redefining the Cultural Narrative of Biblical Womanhood
Fall 2016
I had been confronted with the controversy surrounding women in church office prior to attending college, but the issue was far less pressing at home than in Sioux Center. Moving to college required me to find a new church home, and the church-hopping process required me to think about a lot of the nonessentials of faith. Accepting Christ as my savior, understanding that His grace is the pardon for my sins, and consequently living to glorify him? That's the essential. Issues like infant baptism, types of music used in worship, and women in office? Those are the nonessentials, but they certainly play an important role in the church-searching process.
As I was engaged in this process, I came across Sarah Bessey's Jesus Feminist, read it twice, and fell in love with her philosophy. Bessey sees the Bible not as a book of black and white, not as a book of grey, but as a book of colors that become vibrant when a life is lived in pursuit of God's communication with his people, whether that be through the written word, prayer, teaching, art, etc. And in living into all this color, Bessey saw ties between the cultural movements Jesus enacted and the less-extreme feminist movements modern revolutionaries are enacting. Hence, she deemed herself a Jesus feminist, a woman who hopes to see women validated in church ministry for the sake of the Kingdom.
This essay is a culmination of the best points from Bessey's book and the best points from the further research Jesus Feminist spurred me towards, ultimately explaining why I too am proud to call myself a Jesus feminist.
Vulgarity in Narrative Storytelling: Is What's Inappropriate Ever Appropriate?
Fall 2016
As a theatre and English major, I'm constantly taking in stories and writing stories of my own -- whether for class or simply to indulge my own passion. Either way, the battle over how to approach the use of vulgarity in the stories I read/watch and the stories I write/act is one I'm constantly struggling with.
If I'm a Christian who keeps vulgarity out of her own language to honor the Creator of language, is it okay for the characters I create, many of whom are not Christians, to use vulgarity? Is there a distinction between those fictional characters and the mind that created them? If I'm a Christian who deems murder a sin because it involves taking away time, the most precious commodity God gifted to another, is it okay for me to watch a movie about a murderer who is never punished for his recklessness? If I'm a Christian who believes that God hasn't designed our hearts for premarital sex, is it okay for me to play a character who has had premarital sex? Perhaps only if the sex happens offstage?
These are not easy questions, and they're ones I'm confronted with daily. Thus, as somebody who thinks best through writing down and organizing her thoughts, I used this essay to explore and attempt to answer whether what's inappropriate can ever be appropriate in narrative. Ultimately, I argue that vulgarity does and should have a place in God-glorifying narrative.
Following a Failed Relationship through Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years
Spring 2016
About a year before writing this paper, I was sitting outside the theatre offices with one of my theatre friends. He was going on and on about a new musical that Spotify recommended for him: Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. He had listened to the album the night previous, and he couldn't stop oooooing and aaaaahing about how innovative the piece was, about how the structure was novel and effective, about how the final song tore his heart out, about how Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan would soon be starring in a movie rendition. So when the movie finally premiered, my friend and I watched it together, and I too caught the bug. I was obsessed.
So since I was already watching this musical over and over and over again, since I was already doing research to find out more about Brown and how his experiences shaped the work, since I was already reading reviews to see what other critics thought about the musical, I figured a seminar paper could help me collect my thoughts. I didn't figure that writing this essay would make me question my entire understanding of the musical, though.
As a female, I found it easy to put myself in Cathy's shoes, to blame Jamie for their failed relationship, since he was the one who cheated and walked out without blatantly telling Cathy that he was leaving. As I wrote from Jamie's perspective for this paper, though, I began to understand that his actions, though ultimately immoral, were somewhat justified by Cathy's behavior. In writing this paper, I found myself caught in the intricacies of their relationship, unable to detangle myself, much less detangle the plotline. In turn, I found that this complexity is precisely what had been compelling my passion for the piece; this complexity is what will make this musical a classic with time.
Thematic Development in Sondheim and Lapine's Into the Woods
Winter 2014
Christmas Day 2014 was an especially anticipated holiday for me because of both Jesus' birth and the premier of Disney's rendition of my favorite musical Into the Woods. I played the narrator in my high school's rendition of this show. During that performance, I fell in love with the story's ability to captivate, with the songs that replay over and over in one's brain without growing weary. However, it wasn't until I was seated in the movie theater, years removed from my own performance, that I began to understand just how many important topics this musical touches upon.
Ultimately, Into the Woods skews the contrived "happily ever after" that much of the world associates with these well-known tales. Each deviation from the stereotypical plot serves to develop a series of dichotomies, of contradictions that coexist: What is nice is not necessarily what is good. What is exciting is often scary, too. Most importantly, what is bad can often harbor bits of good. The plot line as a whole reveals that one end of these spectrums does not completely describe any given individual, experience, situation, etc. Further, much benefit comes from navigating these ambiguous dichotomies, a task that cannot be completed alone. Though a Christian cannot accept each of the dichotomies in their entirety, Christians gain from grappling with these questions and from doing so in community with others (in the Church) as the movie suggests.
I purchased my own DVD copy of this musical the day it was released, and I've watched it dozens of times since. So much complexity is packed into this short musical, and I never weary of seeking the thematic elements, the symbolism, and the truth present in each scene. If nothing else, the length of this essay proved my passion for story's depth -- I simply could not stop writing, could not stop analyzing! I hope that, through my essay, I have spurred a similar passion (or at least a curiosity!) for my readers.