A 2011 Linfield alumnus spoke about trials and triumphs during his year teaching on a Fulbright scholarship in his presentation, “From Festivals to Floods: A Year Teaching in Thailand” on April 29.

Craig Geffre, a recent graduate of Linfield from the anthropology department, taught in Thailand from October 2011 to October 2012. A big influence on his decision to teach abroad were his fond memories of the study abroad trip he went on while at Linfield, the Hong Kong program.

“I had an amazing time when I studied in Hong Kong,” Geffre said. “It was a big step out for me, and living in another culture, getting to know students from other countries and traveling around were all so much fun. When I got back to the U.S. I was actually a little bummed about being back.”

Once back, Geffre emailed the International Programs Office to see how he could get involved with the study abroad student activities on campus. Through helping the international students here, Geffre realized how much he loved intercultural education.

“That experience was a big part of what made me interested in applying to Fulbright,” Geffre said.

The Fulbright program was created after World War II to create intercultural bonds in the hope of avoiding future conflict. It promotes international education and exchanges between the U.S. and more than 155 other countries and awards 8,000 grants every year.

“The Fulbright objective is to make activists out of people,” Geffre said. “Seeing people from different countries humanizes them and makes them real, and you can break down those stereotypes. It helps to prevent war and exercise every possible option before going into a conflict.”

The application is challenging, but Geffre says it’s manageable if you commit early, stay motivated and utilize mentors.

“I wrote 12 drafts of my essay, and each mentor got three drafts,” Geffre said. “I’m sure they were sick of it, but they never complained.”

Geffre was interested in the Thailand program after working with a Thai monk for his senior thesis, but he explained how this program was a bit different from the others.

“For most Fulbright programs, being a teaching assistant means being an assistant. You’re there with a native teacher, and you help with pronunciation, lesson plans and things like that. For Thailand, Laos and a few other countries, you are the teacher. It’s a challenge, but you also learn a great deal.”

Geffre spoke about the difficulties of teaching in another country, including acclimating to a new school system, learning Thai and overcoming cultural stereotypes.

“Some people had ideas about Westerners from others they had met before,” Geffre said. “That you would be partying all the time, or wouldn’t be a good teacher, but you really have to show that you are serious, and the Fulbright scholars do a really good job of doing this.”

Geffre also spoke about the rewards of working within another culture and the lessons it taught him that he will continue to use throughout his life.

“I had so many failures the first semester, so many lessons that didn’t go the way that I wanted,” Geffre said. “But if you’re persistent and work to improve, you can achieve really great things. I made wonderful relationships with a lot of my students, and by working to understand the priorities of others I’m now a much better teacher, and I know so much more now than I did before.”

Geffre now works as the program assistant for Oregon University System for Programs in Asia, which works with students from the seven public Oregon universities, plus some private schools, like Linfield.

“I think the most important thing I learned was how to break down stereotypes, humanize people of other cultures, and understand the nuances of other cultures,” Geffre said. “While my students may not have learned a ton of English, they learned a lot about me and my life, and I learned a lot about them and their lives. We got to know each other as people, and that was what made my experience so amazing.”

Olivia Marovich

Staff writer

Olivia Marovich can be reached at
linfieldreviewnews@gmail.com.

Senior Mary Campbell won first place and $500 in Linfield’s second Frederick Douglass Forum on Law, Rights and Justice on May 2. Senior Aaron Good won second place and $250.

Campbell and Good participated in the undergraduate persuasive speaking competition along with seniors Leanne McCallum, Xavier Reed, Nick Rhoten and freshman Caleb Snodgrass.

Students delivered a five- to seven-minute speech answering the question of whether the United States should implement a compulsory 18-month service in either the military or civilian service.

The theme of the speech was drawn from Linfield’s Program for Liberal Arts and Civic Engagement theme of legacies of war, and the proposal of the forum derived from William Galston, a political theorist and political figure who focused on issues of citizenship and an advocate for universal service.

They were then judged by Patrick Cottrell, assistant professor of political science, David Sumner, associate professor of English and environmental studies, sophomore Megan Schwab and freshman Maggie Hawkins.

Schwab was the first place winner of the first Fredericks Douglass forum, and Hawkins was the second place winner.

McCallum spoke first, being the only student to argue for a compulsory universal service. She argued that civil service would also benefit society as a whole, as it would make citizens appreciate what it means to be an American.

“Universal service would create equality by helping bridge the massive socioeconomic gap that separates Americans today,” McCallum said.

McCallum argued that universal service would also make people care more about sending soldiers overseas.

“[The military] would no longer be predominately lower income or disadvantaged people making up the majority of the servicemen,” McCallum said. “The least privileged would no longer be forced to bear the burden of the political decisions of others. It would become a burden of society as a whole.”

Contradicting McCallum’s argument, the other five students argued that having compulsory service would not be American, and would also infringe upon citizens’ rights.

Campbell compared doing chores poorly at home to how 18-year-old citizens may respond when being forced to perform service that they otherwise would not engage in.

“Don’t [citizens] have an extra incentive to perform poorly merely as a form of resistance?” Campbell said.

Campbell went on to explain that only the most willing citizens should participate in such service because they would be more dedicated and hard working.

Also, having fewer citizens forced to participate in service would bring the costs down and more incentives could be created to influence citizens to join, such as creating grants that could be put toward a college education.

“Forcing our youth to serve will not revitalize citizenship,” Campbell said. “It will cause resentment and bitterness to the tune of billions of dollars.”

Samantha Sigler

News editor

Samantha Sigler can be reached at
linfieldreviewnews@gmail.com.

As a professor, if you had one lecture left to give, what would it be about?

This question was posed to Eugene Gilden, professor of psychology, and he responded with a lecture titled, “From Type A Behavior to Black Helicopters or Subtle Influences on Human Behavior.” It may sound far-fetched, but the lecture was a synopsis of his career at Linfield and his interest in psychology.

Gilden will retire at the end of this school year. He has taught at Linfield for 30 years.

The audience was engaged and entertained throughout the presentation. Gilden’s sense of humor was evident even before he began speaking.

Lee Bakner, professor of psychology, began the presentation saying Gilden wanted the audience to know three things he was proud of after his 30 years at Linfield:

“Thirty plus years with an extraordinary spouse, two successful daughters and professionals and dogs that come when called.”

Bakner ended his introduction and called for applause for Gilden. The applause was thunderous. Gilden, thanked everyone, and said, “First, I don’t know if I wish I was at a loss for words so we could all go home.”

Gilden urged the audience to think about the importance of relationships between people and situations. He repeatedly said that the way humans think about the world matters, and there are implications for how humans think. He related it to thinking about “the forest as a whole…not just the trees.”

Gilden’s career is a bunch of impressive trees that create a beautiful forest.

He received his bachelor’s degree from UCLA, his master’s from California State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Houston. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Oregon Health-Sciences University, he accepted a position at Linfield, where he has been ever since.

Gilden weaved his autobiographical story with these underlying themes for the crowded audience, and as he ended his lecture, he thanked everyone who had influenced his life. He closed with a smile, and what he said was the most important thing to take away from his lecture: “You might have built it, but if you did, you only did so because someone got you to the right set of circumstances to do so.”

After 30 years at Linfield, Gilden’s impact cannot be squeezed into one lecture. But judging by the response of the audience, his impact has clearly given students and faculty the best possible circumstances to succeed.

Tyler Bradley 

Sports columnist

Tyler Bradley can be reached at
linfieldreviewnews@gmail.com.

via Kelsey Sutton
A student holds a balloon with an inspirational message written on it while listening to speakers present poems and readings during the rally for Take Back the Night on April 30 in front of Walker Hall.

In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Linfield’s Health, Wellness and Counseling Center held its first Take Back the Night rally to break the silence and provide opportunities to speak out about sexual assault. Students, faculty and community members gathered in front of Walker Hall at 6:30 p.m. on April 30, followed by a march around campus.

As people filtered in, they received biodegradable balloons and a marker to write messages of hope, empowerment or pain to be released after the march.

Adria Godon-Bynum, coordinator for student health and wellness, began with a speech about the purpose of Take Back the Night and the importance of speaking up about the safety of everyone in the community.

“Women have the right to live without fear and should be able to move about the community day or night,” she said.

The sound of her voice in the microphone, echoing off nearby buildings attracted many people who hadn’t
previously been aware of the event. Students walking out of Dillin Hall made their way to the courtyard to see what was happening.

Godon-Bynum opened the stage for those sharing poems, excerpts, short stories or monologues about sexual assault, equality and women’s rights.

A few members of the Writing through Trauma group agreed to have their creative testimonials read aloud by Dawn Williamson, a counselor at Linfield.

Junior Brea Ribeiro read a piece by Eve Ensler, author of the Vagina Monologues, about rape culture.

“Rape culture is a context where sexual violence against women is reproduced and normalized in our media and popular culture by the objectification of women’s bodies, female devaluation language and glamorizing sexual violence,” Ribeiro said in an email. “Our rape culture disempowers females while also disregarding women’s rights and safety. Eve Ensler’s ‘Over It’ poem adequately puts into words my own frustration of our rape culture, which is ultimately the reason why I read it, because I am over it.”

Participants were given a piece of paper with chants to recite during the march. Godon-Bynum pumped up the crowd by reciting these chants.

“As the march went on, it seemed like people began to really feel what it is like to be an activist, which is hard to do on a college campus, especially one this small,” sophomore Sofia Webster said in an email.

After the march, participants released their balloons and then held a somber moment of silence for victims of sexual assault and violence.

“Beginning the planning earlier and getting the word out earlier would definitely benefit the event,” Webster said. “With the time given from the moment Adria arrived, she did an absolutely amazing job with such little time. It was truly impressive.”

Kesley Sutton/Managing editor

Kelsey Sutton can be reached at linfieldreviewmanaging@gmail.com.

A professor from the University of Puget Sound is set to discuss the influenza outbreak of 1918 and its social and cultural implications.

The presentation, on May 14, is one of the last PLACE events of the year.

“The event highlights the devastating influenza pandemic that occurred at the end of World War I and examines how these two major events impacted one another,” said Sara Coste, visiting assistant professor of health and human performances and coordinator of the event, in an email.

Fitting into the PLACE theme of war, the event will provide a common place for people of different academic focuses to discuss the science and health related issues of war and its aftermaths.

“While those of us in the sciences tend to focus on topics, such as viral strains, viral entry into host cells, immunological responses to a virus or the biological basis of the flu vaccine when discussing the pandemic, involvement in PLACE has provided an opportunity for science, health and nursing students to examine the pandemic from a social, cultural and historical perspective, Coste said in an email.

“Courses in human physiology and microbiology, as well as courses in sociology, history and English have studied the pandemic this semester.”

Nancy Bristow recently published a book “American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic” about her study of the influenza pandemic.

Bristow is a history professor at UPS, holding the position of Distinguished Professor of History since 2006.

She is also the great-granddaughter of two of the pandemic’s fatalities.

The event will be held at 7 p.m. in Jonasson Hall, in the lower level of Melrose and is free and open to the public.

Kesley Sutton/Managing editor

Kelsey Sutton can be reached at linfieldreviewmanaging@gmail.com.

A Linfield student studying in Ecuador this semester was robbed while at the home of his homestay family.

Invaders stole junior Sam Gauksheim’s laptop and cell phone, along with the homestay family’s various valuables. It is unclear whether any cash was stolen. Nobody was harmed during the incident, said Shaik Ismail, director of international programs.

Gauksheim declined to comment on the incident, saying “it was 10 minutes of my study abroad experience and hasn’t really had an impact on me.”

It was not clear whether the robbers were armed or when the robbery took place.

The International Programs Office offered to pay for Gauksheim’s ticket to return home for either the rest of the semester or for a short amount of time to help Gauksheim recover.

“As soon as we heard, we got in contact with him and asked him if he wanted help,” Ismail said.

Linfield also offered to pay for a hotel for Gauksheim to stay at while he finished the rest of his semester in Quito.

Gauksheim declined both offers and instead wanted to finish the rest of the semester with his homestay family.

“He is a resilient young man and took care of things himself,” Ismail said. “He probably felt he wanted to be with the [homestay] family and not desert the family.”

This is the first time a robbery to this degree has happened to a student while abroad in the past 10 years, Ismail said.

However, petty theft does happen to students occasionally while abroad.

“Bottom line is you have to be prudent,” Ismail said. “Any place is not more violent than anywhere else.”

Linfield does its best to educate students about how to be safe while studying abroad during student orientation. Students learn tips, such as not walking alone at night, having their backpack in the front of them while walking through crowds and how to be more vigilant while walking around.

“I’m glad he’s safe and nobody got hurt,” Ismail said. “Laptops and cellphones can be replaced.”

Samantha Sigler/News editor

Samantha Sigler can be reached at linfieldreviewonline@gmail.com