{"id":1146,"date":"2017-10-24T19:03:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T19:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/facultyhighlights\/?page_id=1146"},"modified":"2017-10-24T19:03:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T19:03:17","slug":"august-2017","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/facultyhighlights\/inthenews\/august-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"August 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

One-on-One with Scholar and Researcher Mark Silk on the Future of Religion, Especially Evangelicalism, in America<\/strong> <\/a>
\nChristianity Today<\/em>
\nMark Silk<\/strong><\/a> is Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut), where he directs the Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and serves as editor of Religion in the News. I recently talked with him over the phone about his book, <\/em>The Future of Evangelicalism in America, and what the data says about Evangelicals, Nones, and others.<\/em>
\nEd: Let\u2019s start with the obvious question since that\u2019s the title of the book: What is the future of Evangelicalism in America?
\nMark: I think it\u2019s pretty good as far as religious traditions go in America.
\nWe make the claim that Evangelicalism is now the normative form of non-Catholic Christianity in America. The question that immediately arises, however, is, if that\u2019s so, what are the norms? The contributors to our volume have somewhat divergent views of this.
\nIf we look broadly, we\u2019re talking fundamentally about white Evangelicalism, liturgical styles, a certain kind of approach to worship, and to thinking of oneself in the world. Evangelicalism does count as a broad tradition, which is holding its own in American society\u2026<\/p>\n

The complicated reality behind the story of the Somali community’s success in Minnesota<\/strong> <\/a>
\nMinnPost<\/em>
\nWhen Abdirahman Kahin came to the U.S. two decades ago, one of the first things he noticed about Minnesotans was their love for restaurants, especially those offering ethnic cuisine.
\nHe also noticed that though there were a lot of ethnic eateries in the Twin Cities, many tended to fall into one of several groups: Italian, Thai, Indian, Mexican or Middle Eastern. There were few, if any, places to get decent Somali food\u2026
\n\u201cMinneapolis is viewed around the world, particularly in Scandinavian countries where the Somali diaspora is growing, as a model for Somali integration,\u201d writes Stefanie Chambers<\/strong><\/a>, a political science professor at Trinity College, in her recently published book comparing the Somali-American communities in Minneapolis and Columbus, Ohio. \u201cOther American mayors, such as the mayor of Portland, Oregon, have visited Minneapolis to learn about policies that can help their cities better address the needs of Somali immigrants.\u201d
\nFor all the talk of success and integration, however, the more common reality for Somali-Americans in Minnesota is more complicated, if less comforting. \u201cFrom outside, the community seems to be doing really great,\u201d said Ahmed Yusuf [IDP \u201997], a Minneapolis Public Schools teacher who\u2019s written about Somalis in Minnesota. \u201cBut when you look deep down, we\u2019re struggling big time, except for a few individuals who have risen above as the cream of the crop\u2026<\/p>\n

Reexamining Our Approach to College Access<\/strong><\/a> – by Angel B. P\u00e9rez<\/strong><\/a>
\nThe New England Journal of Higher Education<\/em>
\nRecently, I read yet another higher education professional\u2019s case for standardized testing, specifically that making such tests free and universal would help level the playing field for low-income and minority students seeking access to top colleges. But while the SAT\u2019s hefty $57 fee contributes to the barriers low-income students face, eliminating it won\u2019t solve the problem. Access to higher education in America is much more complex.
\nThe problem is our nation\u2019s inability to offer consistent college preparation, academic rigor and counseling across varying socioeconomic communities. Data from the College Board show that the higher your family\u2019s income, the higher your SAT scores are. Standardized tests then do more to keep low-income students out of top colleges than to invite them in. There is no shortage of talent in America. The shortage lies in its cultivation\u2026
\nAt Trinity College, I have led efforts to rethink how we admit students, and we\u2019ve changed our admissions process to think differently about what it means to be \u201ccollege ready.\u201d One of the changes we made was to adopt a test-optional policy. Next month, the college will welcome the most diverse first-year class in its history. It includes the highest number of low-income and first-generation students in Trinity\u2019s history. In addition, the academic profile has increased tremendously. The Class of 2021 has twice as many students at the top of our academic evaluation scale as last year\u2019s entering class. We focus on grades, rigor, curriculum and all quantitative data high schools submit to us. But we also pay very close attention to personal qualities that we know will help students succeed in college\u2014qualities such as curiosity, love of learning, perseverance and grit\u2026
\nAngel B. P\u00e9rez<\/strong> is vice president for enrollment and student success at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. and a NEBHE delegate.<\/em><\/p>\n

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One-on-One with Scholar and Researcher Mark Silk on the Future of Religion, Especially Evangelicalism, in America Christianity Today Mark Silk is Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut), where he directs the Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and serves as editor of Religion in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1424,"featured_media":0,"parent":683,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/facultyhighlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1146"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/facultyhighlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/facultyhighlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/facultyhighlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1424"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/facultyhighlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/facultyhighlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1147,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/facultyhighlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1146\/revisions\/1147"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/facultyhighlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/facultyhighlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}