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OC History Students Win National Award Once Again
OC’s history honor society was honored as a Best Chapter in the nation among smaller universities for the 15th consecutive year and 16th time overall.
“We continue to be incredibly proud of our students’ outstanding performance in chapter activities,” said John Maple, the group’s sponsor and chair of the department of history and political science. “The students truly earned this excellent achievement.”
OC’s chapter is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, an honor society for college history students and professors in the United States. The society hosts regional and national conferences in which more than 350,000 students from 860 chapters compete. The OC chapter, known as Tau Sigma, competed against other universities that had won five or more Best Chapter awards, and that have up to 3,000 students. The latter category has more schools competing against each other than any other Phi Alpha Theta division. The chapter engages in a number of activities for which it was recognized as a best chapter.
Five Tau Sigma members presented their scholarship at the Oklahoma Regional Conference and one took third place in the European History—Undergraduate category. Six students read papers at the National Conference in San Diego. According to Maple, president Emily Stites, vice president Kevin Anders, secretary/treasurer Ben Peterson and historians Leah Long and Rachel Helton provided excellent leadership.
Tau Sigma also entered volume 18 of the Oklahoma Christian University Journal of Historical Studies in the Phi Alpha Theta’s Nash History Journal competition. This year’s winners have not been announced, but the chapter placed third just three years ago.
“With Admissions contributing funds to help cover the costs, editor Kevin Anders was able to use student scholarship to produce an excellent journal,” Maple said. “Eight articles and a book review fill up the 141 pages.”
In addition, Tau Sigma also helps host History Day, an annual academic competition for 6th-12th graders on the OC campus.
The Best Chapter honor also comes with a $250 stipend.
“By winning this competition so many times, our history students have earned $4,000 to help fund library purchases here at Oklahoma Christian,” said Maple.
OC Secures Access to $170,000 Special Effects Software
OC’s Jeff Price, an art and design faculty member, has secured access for students to use $170,000 worth of special effects software known as Houdini. The high quality, 3-D animation effects package was developed by Side Effects Software out of Canada. It is highly regarded in the film and television industry and was used heavily in the “Transformers” movies.
According to Price, the program costs about $6,500 per seat for professionals.
“We now have 26 copies,” he said. “We’ll be the only school in the Midwest teaching this other than Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Our students are pretty pumped about it.”
Price secured the seat licenses by talking to a representative of the software company at a conference for video game designers and instructors.
Earlier this year OC’s gaming design program, which is directed by Price, was named among the top 50 undergraduate programs in the country by The Princeton Review and GamePro magazine. OC was the only school in Oklahoma and among just a few faith-based universities in the nation to make the list.
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Prayer Night 2010
Please join the Alumni Office and the greater OC Community in prayer for the upcoming school year on Sunday, August 29th at 7:30 pm in Scott Chapel.
God has blessed OC so much over her 60 year history. Let’s take time to stop and thank Him for the blessings and ask Him to lead and guide us through another school year.
Come for a short program and prayer followed by a time to walk about the campus individually and pray for the student body, faculty, staff, and administration.
If you cannot make it to campus that night (as many are too far to make the drive), please make plans to stop and pray for Oklahoma Christian at that time.
Here are some topics you may want to pray for:
The University and its mission
- Faithfulness to the mission
- Faithful and wise stewardship over the resources God has entrusted to us
- Boldness in setting the vision and humility as God gives the increase
- Spiritual, academic, and financial strength of OC
- That OC will be an effective instrument of peace
Students and Prospective Students
- For the spiritual and academic growth and the purity of the students
- Young people considering enrolling at OC
- That chapel will be beneficial in the growth of our students
The Trustees
- Thankfulness for the time and sacrifice of each trustee family
- Wisdom in selecting new trustees
- Trustee wisdom and insight in providing guidance for the University
Faculty and Staff
- Spiritual insight, wisdom, courage and health of faculty and staff
- Families of faculty and staff
- Spiritual development of faculty, staff, and administration
Our Community
- For the Christian Chronicle and its staff
- That alumni may be good examples and reflect the values of OC
- For OC and CCC Alumni
- For missionaries and those preparing to do mission work around the world
- Stronger relationships with the Churches of Christ
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Oklahoma Christian Welcomes New Faculty
Oklahoma Christian University is proud to announce the addition of two faculty members for the 2010-11 school year. Rebecca Briley has been hired as an associate professor of English and as coordinator of the composition/rhetoric program in the department of language and literature. Richard Trout has been hired as an associate professor of biology in the college of arts and sciences.
“Oklahoma Christian is excited to have such experienced and creative individuals to join our talented faculty,” said Allison Garrett, vice president of academic affairs. “Dr. Briley’s deep experience and Richard’s proven teaching abilities help enhance two of the strongest programs on our campus.”
Briley holds holds a doctorate in American literature and drama from the University of Kentucky, where she also earned a master’s degree in creative writing and British literature. She was awarded the English-Speaking Union Scholarship by the University of London in 1987, and was awarded the Fulbright Award to teach American literature at Wulfrun University in Wolverhampton, England from 1990-1991.
Briley was also awarded the Metroversity Instructional Award for a women’s prison project called “Piecing Together Our Mother’s Stories.” This writing/quilting project reconnected women prisoners with their mothers at the Pee Wee Valley Correctional Institute for Women in Kentucky from 1999-2000. Kentuckiana Metroversity, Inc., is a consortium of seven institutions of higher education in the Louisville metropolitan area. It offers annually awards to persons who present the best designs for instructional development in college teaching.
While most of Briley’s career has been spent at the University of Kentucky and the Jefferson County Community College, she has also taught at several other universities such as the University of Maryland in Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands; the Department of Defense American Schools in Bitburg, Germany; and Girne American University in the city of Girne, located in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus.
Briley has written and produced numerous plays such as Shakespeare’s Sisters, Oprah’s Book Club, Colors of Autumn, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Somebody Like I Am: Eula Hall’s Story, The Spiral & Arch, Of the Mothers and Scars. In addition, she published a book of poetry entitled Inside Out: Poems from a Workshop.
“Rebecca’s accomplishments and skills will help her department to continue to receive national recognition,” Garrett said.
Oklahoma Christian’s student literary publication, Soundings, was named number one in the nation in 2008 by Sigma Tau Delta, the National English Honors Society.
Richard Trout holds a masters degree in natural science from Oklahoma State University. He also did doctoral work in human ecology and environmental health at the OU Health Sciences Center. Trout recently retired from Oklahoma City Community College after 24 years as a professor of biology. He has also taught at Rose State College and the University of Central Oklahoma.
Trout has received numerous awards throughout his career such as the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from Oklahoma City Community College in 2007.
In addition, Trout has authored seven action novels for young adults published by Pelican Publishing. His latest book is to be released in January. Two of his novels were selected by National Geographic for the JASON Project curriculum. Trout was also selected as curriculum advisor the project’s “Resilient Planet” ecology section. While at OCCC, he participated in an Eisenhower Foundation grant to teach secondary science teachers new laboratory skills.
“Rick’s excellent teaching reputation and creativity will help our Biology Department continue to have one of the highest placement rates for medical school of any university in the state,” Garrett said.
