Staff Insights Archives - Sattler College

The Founding and Future of Sattler College – Episode 014

Sattler College — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 20:06:47 +0000

Don’t miss a future episode. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts! Dr. Finny Kuruvilla joins President Johnson to discuss his vision for Sattler College and the story behind its founding. He shares how childhood and college experiences inspired this vision. His father started a Bible college in India and Dr. Kuruvilla led Intervarsity Christian Fellowship on his campus. He describes how studying twentieth century revivalists and watching Harvard students lose their faith inspired Sattler’s distinctive 3 C’s (cost, core, and Christian discipleship). They also discuss mission drift in universities and how Sattler College can stay true to the original mission. Learn more about what makes Sattler College unique. Mentioned: Mentioned in this episode: Chapters: 0:04 Life Story of Dr. Kuruvilla13:59 Founding a Kingdom-Promoting College23:55 Preserving Mission and Discipleship in Education31:57 Investing in Biblical Studies for Life40:56 The Value of Sattler’s Christian Education Transcript This transcript has been auto generated and likely contains errors. Zack Johnson: 0:04All right, it is Thursday, April 18th and I’m here with Dr Finny Zack Johnson: 0:09Kuruvilla. Can you say your last name, just for the record. Finny Kuruvilla: 0:13I normally anglicize it as Kuruvilla, but Kuruvilla would be how you pronounce it in Malayalam, but Kuruvilla is fine, Kuruvilla, all right. Zack Johnson: 0:21I’ve had intense debates about how to pronounce your last name with many people, but I’m going to read your bio, sure, and then you’re going to add something. Finny Kuruvilla: 0:28No, I think it’s funny how a lot of names get used and misused and all pronunciation is kind of arbitrary anyway, right? So in the end I think we should be more chill with our pronunciation. So you don’t take extreme offense. Zack Johnson: 0:41Yeah, I don’t take offense at all. Great Well with that. Dr Kuruvilla holds an MD from Harvard Medical School, a PhD in chemistry and chemical biology from Harvard University, a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT and a bachelor’s degree from Caltech in chemistry. He is a co-founder and the lead portfolio manager for Eventide Funds, a socially responsible and values-based investing firm. Founder and the lead portfolio manager for Eventide Funds, a socially responsible and values-based investing firm. From 2008 to 2016,. He was a principal at Claris Ventures, a leading healthcare and life sciences venture capital firm. From 2005 to 2008, dr Kuruvilla was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard and MIT, the Broad Institute in medical genetics. Prior to his research, dr Curavillo was a resident physician and clinical fellow at two Boston area hospitals Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Boston, where he cared for both adult and pediatric patients. Anything to add or subtract or correct there? No, it’s good, pretty good, good, we’ve had corrections to bios at mid-pod there. No, it’s good, pretty good, good, I’ve had, we’ve had corrections to bios at mid-podcast here. So, okay, it’s good. Zack Johnson: 1:50So Dr Caravilla has been a practicing Christian for many years. He has a keen interest in biblical interpretation and church history for the purpose of fostering a strong and vibrant church. Today. His interests include anti-Nicene Christianity, Reformation and Anabaptist history and the great awakenings of the 18th and 19th century. He is the author of King Jesus Claims His Church and it doesn’t say this but also the founder of Siler College, which is what I would love to talk about today. But thanks for being here with me today. It’s great to be with you. Yeah, I was hoping to get you on eventually this year, so I’m excited to have you here. So usually I kick it off. Tell me about I mean, we just heard your bio, which is hard to condense your life into a bio. Could you share with us your general life story in like five or ten minutes and how you got here? Finny Kuruvilla: 2:40Sure, I’d love to. So I was born and raised in Southern California, in the LA area, los Angeles area. Probably the most significant influence on my life would be my dad. So my dad came to the United States a little bit after my mom. They both were born and raised in South India, came first to Minnesota, not far from where your family is, and I was conceived in Minnesota but born in LA, in the Pasadena area specifically, and my dad used to work for World Vision, which is a pretty large Christian humanitarian, relief and development agency, and life was pretty hard for us. We did not have a lot of money, life was very tight financially, and so a lot of my youth, my very young youth, was actually spent with my dad, who would go around doing part-time janitorial jobs while he was a student at Fuller Seminary, which is a seminary in Pasadena, and I would go around with him when he would clean the toilets and the bathrooms and all that. My mom was working a low-level job at Bank of America. She started off just as a teller clerk down in Pasadena as well, and I watched my parents work really hard and scrape their way up from pretty low socioeconomically up into the middle class. It took 10, 15 years or so, but I watched them and that made a big impact on me watching them go through that. Finny Kuruvilla: 4:15But more formatively, in the mid 80s, my dad decided that he was going to quit his job at World Vision and go back to India to start a Bible college in North India. So they grew up in the South, where there is a higher percentage of Christians, but they decided to go up to the North, to an area that is very, very unreached with respect to Christianity, and his idea was to start a Bible college that would train national Indian citizens to be trained to be effective at doing discipleship and church […]

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Working the Road – Episode 010

Sattler College — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 20:22:40 +0000

Don’t miss a future episode. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts! David Eicher loves learning. In this episode, he discusses his lifelong passion for learning and a newer passion for literacy. He tells President Johnson how he got into college, then teaching and educational consulting. The journey included dinner conversations about grammar, a blue-collar boss who encouraged his pursuits, and a realization of his life calling. Experience David’s storytelling and learn as they discuss Pascal’s wager and how “new atheism” reflects the religious reactions of the enlightenment. David has two roles at Sattler: Director of Student Services and Registrar. His job is to keep track of all the student records and documentation, oversee the work program, and develop class schedules that work for everyone. The most important part of his job is to support the success of every student by helping them get access to the resources that they need. David Eicher holds a BA in Pastoral ministries from Allegheny Wesleyan College and is pursuing an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership at the University of Mount Union. Learn more about studying at Sattler College. Mentioned in this episode: Chapters: 0:04 – Exploring the World of Board Games5:31 – Exploring Historical and Strategy Board Games11:44 – Family Culture and Life Trajectory19:53 – Faith, Family, and Blaise Pascal29:27 – Shift From Belief in God38:59 – Passion for Literacy and Dyslexia44:21 – The Importance of Literacy51:19 – The Importance of Literary Pursuits1:04:19 – Open House and International Student Deadline Transcript This transcript has been auto generated and likely contains errors. Zack Johnson: 0:04 It is 21 February 2024 and I’m joined by Mr David Eicher, future doctor. Maybe, hopefully, yeah, hopefully, hey. Thanks for being here with us today. So I’m going to quickly read your bio and then we’re going to have a conversation. David Eicher: 0:22 Okay, you ready for it? Absolutely Thanks. I look forward to it. Zack Johnson: 0:26 The calling to Christian service has been a part of David Eicher’s life for as long as he can remember. He graduated from Allegheny Wesleyan College in 2009 with a BA in pastoral ministries. After graduating, he taught middle school for a total of nine years, while also running an educational consulting business that helped small private religious schools throughout the United States and Canada develop intervention programs to identify and remediate children with dyslexia and other reading difficulties. He’s currently in a master’s program at the University of Mount Union for an MED in educational leadership. Did you finish that? Yeah, I did finish that. You got it. I’ll take your bio. All right. Coming to Sattler has been a long time dream for David and he is thrilled to be part of the team here. Any addition subtractions from that part? David Eicher: 1:18 No, it’s not everything I hoped it would be. So, yeah, I think I wrote this my first week here something like that and my feelings have changed since then. Being here has been everything that I hoped it would be. Zack Johnson: 1:30 So you started like a year and change ago now. David Eicher: 1:32 It’s been close to two years. June will be two years oh. Zack Johnson: 1:35 I knew that David and his wife Triva and his son Paschal is that how you say? Yeah, paschal moved from rural southeastern Ohio to urban Boston and they absolutely love it here in this busy, fascinating, fun city. They love sitting in the museum of fine arts, the Boston Aquarium, riding the Charleston ferry and experiencing the incredibly diverse culture here. David’s hobbies include collecting and playing strategy board games. He has over 200 of them we have to talk about this. David Eicher: 2:05 Yeah, let me talk about this. Zack Johnson: 2:06 He also loves singing theology and puns. All right, there’s a lot of me. Any addition subtractions before I move on? David Eicher: 2:14 No, so far, so good. Zack Johnson: 2:15 All right, so two roles here at Sattler director of student services and registrar. His job is to keep track of all the student records and documentation, oversee the work program for the students and develop class schedules that work for everyone. That’s a hard job, isn’t it? It really is. Yeah, the most important part of his job is to support the success of every student by helping them get access to the resources that they need. Thanks for being here. David Eicher: 2:42 Love being here. Zack Johnson: 2:43 So I’m going to start with the juicy part of your bio and maybe work backwards. But where did your love of strategy board games develop and where do you keep 200 board games? David Eicher: 2:56 Yeah, it’s kind of difficult. You know, 900 square foot apartment we have. I have a wall in the living room of bookshelves, so we have those here. I don’t think people become gamers. I think people are born gamers and they just discover it. David Eicher: 3:09 Then we read a yard sale when I was a kid probably, I’m going to say late I might have been in my late preteens, 12, 13, I might have been as old as 14, and there was this game there. I didn’t even know this kind of game existed. It was called Frederick the Great and it was about the campaigns of Frederick during the War of Austrian Succession. It had all these tiny cardboard squares now I know they’re called counters with numbers and pictures on them and then a map with hexagon-shaped spaces to move these pieces around. And as a you know, as a in my early teens I didn’t have anybody knew how to play these games. You know, I’m trying to figure out how to play it from the rulebook. I don’t think I ever played. I don’t think I’ve ever actually played the game and played it according to the correct ones. I can never get anybody to do it, but I discovered this whole world existed and […]

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Discipleship in College: Engaging Community

David Glick — Fri, 26 May 2023 16:52:24 +0000

One of my favorite parts of my experience as a student at Sattler College are the Tea Times. Since the college’s beginning in 2018, this daily event has been a staple of campus life. Every weekday morning during the academic year, Sattler students, staff and faculty gather for 30 minutes of fellowship and refreshment, sipping on hot tea or coffee, and on special occasions, nibbling on biscuits! We sing a song or two together, and then stay for fellowship. But Tea Time is more than just a fun social event (although it is that) – it is an integral part of our Christian discipleship. Different Aspects of Tea Time One of the main benefits of Tea Times is the opportunity they provide for community building. Academic study can often be a solo endeavor, and even at a small college, it can be difficult to find time to connect with other students on a deeper level. Some of the best conversations I can remember have happened at Tea Time. I enjoy digesting life and studies together with fellow students here. Sometimes, though, your conversation partner may be a faculty member, or even someone who is visiting campus for the day! The 10:00 AM time slot is the perfect balance between “just had breakfast bleariness” and “pre-lunch productivity peak,” and whether conversations are fun, somber, or prayerful, they all contribute to “iron sharpening iron.” Over the course of my years at Sattler, these encounters have shaped me profoundly. Tea Times are often inspirational too. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, our singing and socializing are complimented by a “pearl,” which is a short (usually 5-7 minutes) speech. Pearls are not sermons, although they sometimes strike a spiritual chord. Rather, they are short bits of wisdom, beauty, or inspiration, and are meant to be easily digestible. Sometimes they are fun, sometimes thought-provoking. Examples: What do Malcolm X, Ho Chi Minh, and Emeril Lagasse have in common? (Answer: they all worked at Boston’s famous Omni Parker House before they became famous). What can Homer’s Odyssey teach us about countering temptation? What is Parkinson’s Law (look it up!), and what can we learn from it about Christian faithfulness in the workplace? All of these facts and ideas I learned at Tea Time. No pearl is like another, and each is meaningful. What Do Tea Times Have to Do With Discipleship? How do Sattler Tea Times enhance our discipleship? First, because they are a moment to pause before the God of the universe. It’s hard to communicate just how important this is. Of course, I want to have all of my life at Sattler – including my academic study – be a way to worship and serve my creator. Worship is all-encompassing, or at least it should be. But sometimes, in the throes of the academic semester, its easy to lose focus of just how my Statistics and Data Analytics class is spiritually useful, or how God might be at work in my relationship with a certain roommate. Tea Time is a daily moment to center myself in what is important: God, the people around me, and life in the kingdom. There nothing like a short respite, a worship song, and maybe a bit of laughter to achieve this. I once heard a story about a man who was asked to describe the sermons he had heard over a lifetime of attending church. “Well,” he replied, “I think of it like eating a meal. I’ve eaten more than 14,000 dinners in my 40 years alive, but for the life of me, I can’t recall the contents of more than a handful of them!” “But I’m confident,” he continued, “that each of those dinners nourished me and gave me life, even if I can’t recall the details of each dish.” I feel the same way about Tea Times at Sattler. I remember the details of only a fraction of the 400-plus morning gatherings that I’ve participated in during my time as a student. Yet I know, without question, that they have all been vital to my mental health and spiritual growth during my years as a student. What We Believe Discipleship in College Should Be Christian formation is central to the vision of Sattler College, and our heartbeat for it is encapsulated in the phrase “relational discipleship.” Why this term precisely? Fundamentally, we draw inspiration from the life of Jesus, who invited his own disciples into deep relationship with himself, and inspired growth and obedience through love and belonging. Relational discipleship, at Sattler, is about health and growth in all the important relationships in our lives. First and foremost are our relationships with God. Jesus often “withdrew to lonely places” to pray, Luke tells us, and his connection to the Father was the lynchpin for his ministry on earth. Jesus also fostered close relationships with those around him, especially with his disciples. Finally, from his relationship with the Father, Jesus gave freely to those he encountered, especially the poor and disenfranchised. As followers of Jesus, we seek to emulate his vertical and horizontal relationships. We encounter God through prayer and worship. We open ourselves to those around us, and give unselfishly to the needs of others. Relational discipleship, for us, is about Christian life and growth in the manner of Jesus. One of the key facts about Christian growth is that it cannot be manufactured. Yes, there are methods by which we open ourself up to the Spirit, and submit to the guidance of Scripture. And there are helpful habits that we can cultivate. Worship, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines are key to the Sattler discipleship experience, just as they have been to Christians for over two millennia. But in the end, all that we can do is to give ourselves to the work of Christ, and to create space for him to move in our lives, to encourage, to convict, and to reform us into his own image. Tea Time at Sattler is just such a space. […]

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The Tender Mercies of the Wicked are Cruel

Dean Taylor — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 13:21:09 +0000

The cry for justice for George Floyd has spread around the world. George Floyd died when Derek Chauvin, a white officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, pressed his knee into George Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes in the presence of three other police officers.

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The Importance of Discipleship in Higher Education

Dean Taylor — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 16:32:50 +0000

Many young Christians are losing their faith during the college years but we believe that there is a better way: Christian discipleship.

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Color Vision of a Conscientious Objector

Zack Johnson — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 17:23:33 +0000

I explored different avenues to leave the military, but for a legion of reasons, applying as a conscientious objector and possibly taking on educational debt was my only option. Large cups of

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