Cedars, March 2018

March 2018 7 CAMPUS Whole Heart and Whole Mind New communications professor enjoys opportunity to integrate content and faith by Hannah Day C edarville University recently wel- comed a new communication profes- sor who appreciates the opportunity to integrate class content with faith. Dr. Andrew Harris said he is excited to work at an institution that believes education and the Bible can be taught together. He said he hopes to contribute to this by bringing en- ergy and reflecting the values of the school. “I bring energy,” said Harris, “I’m just excited to be working on whatever I’mwork- ing on at any given moment right now.” Harris will be teaching a variety of courses, including both quantitative and qualitative research, narrative and cultur- al literacy, writing for the communications professions and speech. Harris grew up near the mountains of North Carolina. He was raised in a Chris- tian home and was saved at 12 years old. His father was a math teacher, and when he was 12, his family went through a big move for his father’s job. Because of this move, and his own curious nature, Harris said he struggled with his faith, having several doubts for a time. “Through some very understanding par- ents, teachers, a particular evangelist who took the time to take my doubts seriously enough and not to say ‘oh you need to get over that through that,” said Harris, “I was able to come to a much stronger faith.” Harris attended Pensacola Christian College, getting a bachelor’s and then a master’s degree in theater and theater ed- ucation. He went on to use this degree to teach at Pensacola, where he taught stu- dents about oral interpretation of poems, such as is done in Shakespeare plays. Later, he went on to Regent University, where he worked under a professor named Benson Frazier, who became his mentor and redirected him to focus on methodology and communication theory. After this, he went back to teach at Pen- sacola but just no longer felt that it fit any- more. So, he took some time to finish his dis- sertation, and ended up going to Minnesota to teach for five years. This eventually led him to Cedarville, where he is excited to be working now. “I feel like I’ve been looking for Cedar- ville my whole career,” said Harris. “Cedar- ville threads the needle very well between commitment to faith and to biblical inspira- tion, but also curiosity and research.” Dr. James Phipps, a Senior Professor of Communication at Cedarville, said he be- lieves Harris is a great fit for the department. “He’s got a skill set of courses in com- munication that fit right in with where our needs need to be,” said Phipps. “And even more than that he is dedicated to the Lord.” Phipps said he feels Harris brings skills and training that were necessary for the de- partment. He said the diversity in Harris’ experience, as well as his love of students and the Lord, make him the perfect addition to the school. Harris is currently working on several projects while at Cedarville. He is assisting the preparation for a presentation students will give at an upcoming national confer- ence, reviewing and revising a chapter for a book, and reviewing board paperwork he is completing concerning research papers that his students have written this semester. He is also looking into a new angle of understand- ing the writing of C.S. Lewis, especially the later works dealing with the grief of Lewis over the loss of his wife and Lewis’ later life comments on existential authors. Whatever project he is working on, Harris said he has a desire to do it with en- ergy and passion. “Just whatever I’m working on I throw myself into completely,” he said. Harris said he wants to work with the rest of the staff to make Cedarville the best school to come to for people who are want- ing to find a place where they can worship God by balancing faith and curiosity. He be- lieves many other schools struggle in find- ing a good balance between the two, often leaning sharply one way or the other, but that Cedarville has done excellently at real- izing that the two can go together perfectly. “We always talk about the whole heart and the whole soul, but we forget the whole mind,” said Harris. “Anything I can do in the communication department or any- where to make [the whole mind] a reality, I’m going to do that.” Harris expressed a desire to help his students improve on the work they are do- ing by giving both critiques and positive feedback. He said he wants to be careful not to disregard someone’s work just because they use the wrong wording in it. “When someone uses particular words they should be red flags, like wording warn- ing flags,” Harris said. “You should proceed with caution, but you should proceed.” Harris said he believes redirecting communications students who use incor- rect wordings is an important part of men- toring them and teaching them to find the truth in their readings. He thinks it is also important to remind them that truth is not only facts, but a person. “Christ says that he is the way the truth and the life, so that if you have all the facts if you don’t have Christ you’ll never reach the truth,” said Harris. “But if you only have some of the facts and you do have Christ with enough time and the wisdomof HisWord and your spirit and your heart you will find truth.” Hannah Day is a freshman forensic science major from Pennsylvania and campus re- porter for Cedars. She enjoys theater, mu- sic, and correcting people. Photo by Eman Nagib Dr. Andrew Harris’ childhood faith struggles led him to enjoy teaching students about faith.