News and Notes from Mueller Hall
News and Notes from Mueller Hall
The Spillikin - SUMMER 2024
Hello Alumni, Parents, and Friends of CC,
Greetings from Mueller Hall where we are excitedly meeting the first-year cohort of Fall 2024 at FOCUS (summer orientation and registration). 
Here on campus, summer is a season both quiet and full. Most students go home or off to internships or work. Faculty are fueling their scholarship in libraries, coffeeshops, and workshops while refueling their energy for the next school year. In May and June in the dean’s office we catch our breath, slow down a bit, and start to plan for the next crop of students and events. In Valparaiso early summer is abundant green: we finally have flowers and sunshine and it isn’t too humid yet.
Recently, I started reading a poem a day from the Poetry Foundation. While I am not trained in poetry, it challenges me to cultivate a new way of close reading, one that doesn’t rely on immediate understanding. In this age of quick snippets, memes, and tweets (do you tweet on X? I’m not sure), poetry helps me pause even when I don’t “get it.” You can sign up for a poem a day here if you are interested in joining me. My favorite this month is More than Enough by Marge Piercy.
More Than Enough
BY MARGE PIERCY
The first lily of June opens its red mouth.
All over the sand road where we walk
multiflora rose climbs trees cascading
white or pink blossoms, simple, intense
the scene drifting like colored mist.
 
The arrowhead is spreading its creamy
clumps of flower and the blackberries
are blooming in the thickets. Season of
joy for the bee. The green will never
again be so green, so purely and lushly
 
new, grass lifting its wheaty seedheads
into the wind. Rich fresh wine
of June, we stagger into you smeared
with pollen, overcome as the turtle
laying her eggs in roadside sand.

CC in Pictures: 2024 Oxford Debates

Trading in Pardners for a full research squad, the Fall 2023 first-year cohort led us through another thrilling installment of the annual Oxford debates, tackling topics from the role and reach of government to ethical questions of innocence, guilt, and the increasing role of AI in society and the academy. The 2024 results are as follows:
March 26, 2024 – Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee the right to housing. 15-43 in favor of the negative.
April 2, 2024 – Resolved: The creation and protection of beautiful environments is a moral responsibility of just societies. 37-30 in favor of the affirmative.
April 4, 2024 – Resolved: When in conflict, the protection of the innocent is of greater value than the prosecution of the guilty. 50-18 in favor of the affirmative. 

April 9, 2024 (livestreamed on YouTube) – Resolved: On balance, the rise of Artificial Intelligence harms students more than it helps them. 19-35 in favor of the negative. 
Moderator Professor Ed Upton gestures to the CON team during the Christ College debate on April 2, 2024.
Moderator Professor Ed Upton gestures toward the CON team during the Christ College debate on April 2, 2024.

Save the Date: Homecoming & Family Weekend

Homecoming 2024 and Family Weekend are combined this year for a spectacular celebration October 4–6. In addition to the usual fare of sporting events, concerts, Chapel services, and reunions, we’re excited to have CC alumni and current student families (many of whom are one in the same!) join us for an open house at Mueller Hall on Saturday, October 5 from 3:30–5 p.m. Stay tuned for registration information coming this summer from the Career & Alumni Network office. We can’t wait to see you all.

Celebrating the Class of 2024

With the usual mix of laughter and tears, CC’s newest alumni enjoyed dinner together at a banquet on May 2. In addition to receiving their CC medallions to wear at commencement, graduates participated in a quiz about their classmates and professors and heard remarks from the deans and faculty.
In two ceremonies on May 11, 63 Christ College Scholars completed their honors journeys, finding themselves well-represented among baccalaureate and commencement speakers as well as campus award recipients. Maiah Deogracias ’24 received the VUAA Distinguished Student Award on behalf of Christ College at a May 10 luncheon, while fellow CC students and alumni received awards from their primary colleges: Grace Aurand ’24 (CAS), Cylia Srmek ’24 (CAS), Simeon Ehm ’24 (COE), Isabella Dietrich ’24 (CoNHP), and Caleb VanArragon ’23, ’24 M.S. (Graduate Studies).
Top left: Cylia Srmek ’24 celebrates at the senior banquet. Above right: College of Business graduate Allison Plachta ’24 receives her diploma from President Padilla.
From left to right: Ethan Storer ’24 waves from the stage at the College of Engineering and College of Nursing and Health Professions commencement ceremony. Carolina Bowen ’24 speaks at the baccalaureate service in the Chapel. Jillian Seeger ’24 speaks at the College of Arts and Sciences and College of Business commencement ceremony. 
Below: Christ College’s Class of 2024 poses together in the refectory after their senior banquet.
CC Scholars pose with their medallions at their Senior Banquet on May 2, 2024.
Are You Flourishing?
Your memories and advice are so important to sustaining our community of learning, and we always look forward to sharing them with our current students and our alumni. Participate in our new Christ College Alumni Spotlight and we will share your story on Christ College social media, here in our Spillikin e-newsletter, or on our website.
If you have other news you would like to share with the larger CC community or ideas for connecting with CC, current students, or alumni, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at christ.college@valpo.edu.
Lisa Miller Cook Class of 1996; Current occupation: musicologist; Are you living the good life? Yes
What is your favorite CC memory? Freshman Production is probably my favorite memory, but there are many classes and symposiums that stick with me as well. Dean Schwehn's habit of listening to a student stumble through an answer to a difficult question and then saying
How has CC informed your path since graduation? I've continued to wrestle with questions regarding vocation during different stages of life and have continued to engage in the same kind of inquiry and discussion on many different topics. Marrying a fellow CC alum helps, as we share thoughts and ideas from what we've read. (My current CC freshman informs me that being in CC isn't much different from our average dinnertime conversation at home.) What advice would you give to current CC students? Enjoy the journey. You'll only regret the classes you didn't take.
In Closing
I know that “summer time” is not a natural pause for those working outside of the traditional academic school year. Whether you are working or traveling, keeping on or facing something new, I hope this summer brings you some time to stop and notice the life around you. I am always heartened to know that all of you — CC grads with the habit and skills of reading closely, thinking deeply, and conversing compassionately even with those with whom you disagree — are out in the world doing great things. 

I look forward to connecting with you all again soon.



Jennifer Prough ’91, Ph.D.
Dean and Professor of Humanities and East Asian Studies

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Christ College, The Honors College

219.464.5022 - Mueller Hall, 1300 Chapel Drive, Valparaiso, IN 46383-6493 USA - valpo.edu/christ-college
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