Jewell students spend months and sometimes years planning and researching for their Colloquium presentations, which can vary from intricate biochemical studies to original musical compositions to investigative political research. After submitting an abstract of their proposed presentation, the Duke Colloquium Committee, composed of an assortment of Jewell’s professors, approves the abstract, and the students are given approximately a month to assemble their presentations.

This year, over 70 students presented research, either alone or in teams of two or three students.

Elliott Yoakum

One of these students was Elliott Yoakum, sophomore Oxbridge Literature & Theory major. Yoakum presented his research of white control over the writings of marginalized people in a presentation titled “Illuminating a Pattern of White Supremacy in American Authorship: Control of Texts by Pontiac, Tecumseh, and Phillis Wheatley.” The presentation was based on a research paper he delivered at the National Undergraduate Literature Conference.

Tiffany Eldridge

Tiffany Eldridge, senior psychology and Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry (ACT-In) major, presented a psychological study she conducted among female psychology students. 

In her presentation titled “Female Perspectives of Traditional Gender Stereotypes,” Eldridge explored the extent to which women on Jewell’s campus hold gender-based stereotypes. Though not to a statistically significant extent, Eldridge found that women involved in Greek life may tend to hold more traditional gender stereotypes than their independent counterparts.

Seki Anderson

In Seki Anderson’s, senior biochemistry and ACT-In major,  presentation titled “The Exploration of the Number of Chromosome Copies in Cyanobacteria,” she presented research into cyanobacteria’s unique genome-copying process. Anderson’s research aids in the exploration of cell division and diversity.

Valerie Yeutter, senior mathematics major, presented mathematical research in her presentation, titled “A Probabilistic Analysis of the Card Game ‘Lost Cities.’” By analyzing patterns of chance and strategy in ‘Lost Cities,’ Yeutter derived mathematical formulas that could increase a player’s chance of winning.

Valerie Yeutter

Luke Lockhart, senior biology major, presented two original compositions in his performing arts project titled, “Compositions from New Orleans.” These, among others, were written in and inspired by his time spent during his Journey Grant trip in New Orleans, Louisiana. In a slideshow, Lockhart showed pictures of the jazz clubs he visited and their influences in his composition. Then, with three clarinetists from the Jewell community, Lockhart performed two of his pieces.

Luke Lockhart

These five projects are only a sampling of the Jewell talent and mastery that was on display April 20. Abstracts of each of the 82 projects can be viewed here.

Photos by Christina Kirk. 

The Faculty Award is a time-honored tradition at Jewell, given to one senior each year who best exemplifies the ideals of a liberal arts education.

Thirty-seven seniors had the required 3.75 GPA and were consequently eligible for the Award. Still, the application requires much more than good grades.

Dr. David McCune, assistant professor of mathematics and the 2018 Faculty Award Committee chair, outlined two main qualities the Committee looks for in applicants.

“First, academic excellence … Past recipients have done things like present their work at conferences, receive significant scholarships based on academic achievement, be a co-author on a publication, etc. Second, as part of the application process an applicant must write an essay stating what she thinks the selection criteria for the Award should be and how she fulfills those criteria. Since the Award goes to the senior who ‘most exemplifies the ideals of a liberal arts education,’ we are interested in seeing an applicant think through what that means,” McCune said.

The Award is extremely well-respected on campus, and each of the applicants kept this in mind when deciding to apply. The sacredness of the Award was a driving factor for finalist Seki Anderson, senior biochemistry and Applied Critical Thought & Inquiry major.

“I decided to apply for the award as soon as I found out I was eligible because Jewell takes this award seriously, and I like the mission behind the award. I learned about the Faculty Award and what it meant to be a Faculty Award finalist my second year of college,” Anderson said. “At previous Honors Convocations, I was awestruck hearing about all the versatile accomplishments the finalists had accumulated in just four years. I was (and still am) not sure if I was involved enough to have equivalent academic accomplishments, but I set myself the goal of reaching the GPA requirement to be eligible to apply for the Faculty Award.”

While Anderson anticipated the application since her sophomore year, Erin Melton, senior Oxbridge Literature & Theory major, didn’t foresee herself applying for the award.

“Honestly, when I first saw the email, I was almost certain I wouldn’t apply. I didn’t think I had any of the qualifications I needed other than the GPA. But when I read the application essay prompt, I realized it would be really fun for me to write on that topic. So I decided to apply to write a fun essay,” Melton said.

The application process for the Award is rigorous in order to discern the best recipient. After a thorough review of the paper applications, which include the applicants’ leadership positions, awards, service activities, career goals and essays, the Committee picks six to ten semifinalists. The semi-finalists must get two letters of recommendation and go through an interview process. After considering the letters of recommendation, paper applications and interviews holistically, the council picks five finalists and, later, one winner.

For Caris Boegl, senior Oxbridge Institutions & Policy and international relations major, the application process has given her a way to reflect on her journey at Jewell.

“Articulating to the award committee what changed in me as a result of my time at Jewell was enjoyable,” Boegl said. “It helped me remember all the ways I have grown intellectually and as a leader while here on the Hill.”

The interview process was nerve-wracking for the finalists. Anderson was intimidated by the six-professor board of interviewers and felt the questions that tested her thought process were the most difficult part. Aware of the intensity of the interview process, Grace Miller, senior psychology and Spanish major, entered the process intent on not letting her anxieties inhibit her.

“Right before I received the email that said I had made it onto the interview round, I had this calming thought of ‘I just need to try my best.’ What this meant for me was that no one else’s opinions, nor thinking about what someone would ‘want’ to hear was going to affect my answers or what I said during the interview,” Miller said.

After they received the email that informed them that they were finalists, most were shocked. Each finalist was honored to be chosen among other accomplished students. Jesse Lundervold, senior chemistry and studio art major, described the strangeness of being selected, since she has admired the Award and its significance since her first year at Jewell.

“It’s very surreal to know that I have been selected as a finalist. I still very much remember seeing the Faculty Award finalists on stage my freshmen year and hearing about the variety of achievements each of them had earned,” Lundervold said.

 “To know that I am now in that same place is very weird because it definitely does feel like I am a senior in college. Being a finalist has been one of my personal goals since I was a first-year at Jewell and I am so honored to be a finalist with four other outstanding women.”

All finalists are female, as Melton proudly pointed out.

“I think this is an important platform from which to note how rare it is that any group being thus celebrated is all, or even mostly, women, so, again, that is what I’m most excited about with regard to being part of this group,” Melton said.

The five women intend to pursue ambitious and diverse paths after their graduation from Jewell. Accepted as a City Year AmeriCorps member, Seki Anderson will be mentoring local primary or secondary students. Interested in working with refugees from the Middle East, Caris Boegl plans to attend a two-year program at Georgetown University, pursuing a degree in Arabic studies and with the aim of achieving fluency in Arabic. Jesse Lundervold, still unsure of which school she will attend, plans to attain a Ph.D. in chemistry. Erin Melton will be accepting an AmeriCorps position doing fundraising and marketing for Habitat for Humanity in La Crosse, Wisconsin, until 2019. Afterward, Melton will attend the London School of Economics and Political Science where she will study International Social and Public Policy. While Grace Miller has no concrete plans now, she wants to apply her interests in psychology and statistics to one of her passions – helping her community.

The winner of the Award will be announced April 20 during the Honors Convocation in Gano Chapel at 7 p.m.

Photos by Sofia Arthurs-Schoppe. Feature photo courtesy of William Jewell College. 

“I don’t know what the language requirements are currently at Jewell,” Dr. Hoffman begins, as he proceeded to share his story as to how learning Spanish transformed him to who he is today. When hearing this starting phrase, the current students looked at each other, some with smiles, some with concern. These looks were exchanged because in November 2017, we were told that William Jewell College will no longer offer foreign languages and art as majors, and perhaps, foreign language may not even be required for students earning a bachelor of arts. In most recent news, Jewell will still offer a few foreign language classes but not enough for students to earn a degree in their foreign language of interest.

Prioritizing certain majors over others creates a hierarchy, and we cannot allow this. STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is exciting and cutting-edge, but these fields are not enough. Business, accounting and education are directly applicable majors to jobs, jobs that are necessary for our world to be sustainable and innovative. However, these fields are, again, not enough.

The above majors answer how the world functions, but humanities give us purpose and the answers to why we care about the world. Art and foreign language vastly broaden our communication and relationships with people around the world. Emotion is universal, and we can build relationships with people through the expression of visual and audio art. Learning multiple languages directly increases the number of people with whom one can communicate. If we expect WJC students to leave the Hill open-minded and learn about other cultures and traditions, we first must have the skills to adapt to languages other than our own.

The decision to cut these majors is not unique to Jewell. According to the US News and World Report, “[f]unds have been cut in more than 80 percent of U.S. school districts since 2008. The very first programs to go are often disciplines such as music, art and foreign language” (Boyd 2014). However, this does not make it permissible or without consequences for Jewell to join this bandwagon. If primary and secondary public schools are already cutting art programs, this limits the number of students that will have the resources to achieve their artistic potential. When these few students reach the end of their high school careers, and they see that well-respected William Jewell College does not offer art or foreign language as majors, it will reinforce that their preferred field is “unimportant.” This is dangerous because without the opportunity to study the history and creation of language and art we develop a hierarchy of fields of study. The humanities give us purpose, help our world flourish and maximizes our global communication.

Jewell did not cut art and foreign language majors because they wanted to; they cut the courses because, unfortunately, they felt like they had to in order to keep WJC financially afloat. We, as students, have to trust this is the best option, and WJC will recover. Once Jewell overcomes this financial challenge, I hope to see Jewell re-establish prestigious art and foreign language curricula so that the school can reclaim its title: The Liberal Arts College of the KC Metropolitan Area, or as some say, the Harvard of the Midwest. Until then, Jewell students will be missing key resources and skills on how to pursue meaningful lives.