Lawrence Brownlee, a graduate of Anderson University has won a 30-thousand-dollar award for singing. Brownlee makes his Metropolitan Opera debut next year. He’s the winner of this year’s Richard Tucker Award, named in honor of the great American tenor. Brownlee received a bachelor of arts degree from Anderson University and a master of music degree from Indiana University. He began singing professionally more than four years ago and has sung at La Scala; the Vienna State Opera; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; and the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain. He makes his Met debut next March in a new production of Rossini’s “Barber of Seville.”

Not all Anderson University students can wait until graduation to change the world. That’s exactly how Bound for Freedom, a student-owned business began. Audrey Mattingly explains that the project started with a conversation with six friends. “As we were talking with each other and dreaming together of how we could impact our world, … of our hearts for social injustice, and of our desire to see people set free and truth spread, we realized that our hearts were drumming complementary beats,” she explains. Mattingly along with Megan Barnett, Jamie Nigh, Melissa Oesch, Erin Sprunger, and Rachel White — who all attend a church called Mercy House together — launched a not-for-profit business together that produces, sells, and donates unique journals. Barnett attributes their pastor with first vocalizing the idea. “We were all in a meeting for the Mercy House internship, and Matt Conner said, ‘Megan, this is something real; you need to make these books and sell them this summer.’”

The young women did not immediately pursue the notion, but the seed had been planted in all of them. “The idea came back and with it a name, Bound for Freedom, and the prayer that God would use it to do something good,” Barnett explains. “The five other girls were brought into it one by one, each of them sharing the heart and vision and desiring to see other people set free.” Before long, Bound for Freedom was a reality.

Rachel White joined the business early. “I just asked if I could help,” she says. “Everyone is helping in their own expertise … each person has some talent or interest in a part of the business, so all our needs are filled.”

The business has grown dramatically from the initial concept. Now, the six owners and more than a dozen volunteers create journals to sell and donate. While the owners formalize the legal aspects, the journals are sold in Mercy House, AU’s bookstore, and a bookstore in Vincennes, Ind., called Offerings.

However, it’s not about the sales. The name Bound for Freedom has a double meaning for the owners. The books themselves are bound “in hopes that they will be a tool for freedom” for those who write in them, Barnett explains. But the name also refers to money from the sales. Because Bound for Freedom is a not-for-profit organization, the profits from the journals and some journals themselves are donated to other projects.

“Right now we have one project officially, which is creating memory books for AIDS orphans in Uganda,” says Barnett. The children will be given the books to preserve their stories and heritage. Pending projects include partnering with Word Made Flesh and supporting a group starting a trade school in Kenya.

“We want to support projects which would eradicate injustice, to provide hope, and to tangibly be the heart of Christ in the places that are broken, dark, and so desperately in need,” says Barnett.

Volunteers gather each week in Mercy House to create the journals and to fellowship with one another while they rip, glue, and sew. They share more than just a passion for Bound for Freedom, they also share their stories, their hearts, and themselves. “We wanted to provide a place for women (and sometimes men) to come together to fellowship,” says White.

Anticipation for the future of Bound for Freedom is high. “I hope to see us become more efficient while keeping our values and personal touch to it,” says White. “I hope that we continue to take on projects and impact as many people as we can.”

–Emily Race (Signatures: spring 2006)

Taking typhoid pills and tetanus shots, a few AU students traveled to Third World countries through the nonprofit organization Word Made Flesh (WMF), which enables people to serve the poorest of the poor in Third World countries through building relationships.Browsing online one day, Megan Barnett, a studio art major, had the idea to travel to Sri Lanka with WMF. With support from her friends and family, she raised $3,400 to go on the trip. “I got $300 in the mail from my little sister and other people who just don’t have the money to give,” she says. “It’s amazing to see God work.”With sufficient funds raised, Barnett left shortly after finals.

She took five flights from Ohio to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where she met her WMF team. Partnering with Habitat for Humanity’s tsunami relief groups, Barnett lived with a local family and interacted with the community while building houses. Bible and religion major Jennifer Brooks traveled to Nepal during the winter with WMF, also volunteering in Sri Lanka and India. During her stay in Calcutta, she worked at Kalighat, the Home for Dying, which she says was emotionally difficult. “I didn’t want to see the children dig through the trash pile,” she says. “I didn’t want to have to hold a dying person — even more so, feed a person who couldn’t help himself.” Family science major Linsey Higgins served with WMF for four months in Lima, Peru, beginning in February. In a crowded 2-bedroom apartment, she lived a simple life with a Peruvian family of five.

Higgins and her WMF team related with street kids three days a week in a drop-in center where she says most of the teenage girls brought babies or toddlers. “One of my favorite memories so far was watching 12-year-old boys color pictures of poodles with pink bows or purple fuzzy sheep, and giving them to us,” Higgins says. “They never had parents who hung their work up on the fridge like most of us did.” Taking local children sandwiches, bananas, and milk, Higgins and her team led worship on the streets two nights a week. “Our kids were, for the most part, deprived of any kind of childhood, so we spent a lot of time trying to restore that.”

Through her time in Peru, Higgins learned the difference between suffering with someone she cares about and simply sending some money out of guilt. “My insensitivity is gone,” she says, “because now these people that I used to only see on TV or read about in magazines are my friends.”

—Lindsay Thompson (Signatures: fall 2005)

It was cold even for December, and snow had piled up on the Anderson University campus. While most students prepared for final exams and Christmas break, for an audience inside Byrum Hall, it was still September — Sept. 11, 2001.

The Anderson School of Theology recently honored three persons during the recent North American Convention (NAC) of the Church of God in Anderson. Honored were Susan Hardman, teacher in Central Asia; Rev. Edward Bowman, senior pastor of the Southridge Church of God in South Charleston, West Virginia; and Dr. Theodore Stoneberg, professor emeritus of Pastoral Care. Susan Hardman received the Distinguished Alumna Award, Rev. Bowman received the Distinguished Ministries Award and Dr. Stonberg accepted the Distinguished Service Award.

When asked about their father’s message in his life and work, the three Sterner sisters answered almost in unison. “Love,” they said. The Anderson University Heritage Award honored the evangelical author, broadcaster and missionary Rev. Dr. R. Eugene Sterner Sunday. Though failing health prevented the 94-year-old Sterner from attending the ceremony, his three daughters talked about his life.

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The Anderson University School of Education has announced the launch of a dual licensing undergraduate program for Special Education and Elementary Education. The program will focus on skills needed to teach every child between birth and age twelve. The dual licensing program was created in response to the critical need for highly-trained professionals who know how to teach and work in the inclusive classroom and with every child. The program was created through cooperation with area teachers, parents, schools and the State of Indiana.

“The addition of the special education program will ensure that children our graduates teach have a highly qualified teacher,” said Dr. Diana Ross, dean of the School of Education at Anderson Unviersity. “The program is designed to prepare our students and teachers who would like to add a special education license to successfully teach students who have learning and/or behavior challenges. This is a great day for the School of Education.”

The dual licensing undergraduate program will combine regular Education and Special Education into one undergraduate program. Completion of the Special Education and Elementary dual licensing undergraduate program will enable teachers to be licensed in Indiana Special Education in Mild Interventions, Learning Disabilities, and Emotional Disabilities.

We are exceptionally pleased that Anderson University has chosen to make this a dual license in special education and elementary education,” said Mary Glenn Rinne, director of Pre-service Education for the Indiana Professional Standards Board. “This will prepare teachers for the full range of children that will be in their classrooms.”

Teacher education programs at the Anderson University, are accredited by the National Council for Accreditation in Teacher Education (NCATE), the most prestigious accrediting agency for teacher preparation programs and the Indiana Professional Standards Board (IPSB). For more information about the program, please contact the AU School of Education at (765)-641-4400 or visit the School of Education Web site at: www.anderson.edu/soe.

Anderson University is a private, Christian, liberal arts institution of approximately, 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, the university offers more than 60 undergraduate majors and graduate programs of study in business, education, nursing and theology.

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Everybody knows the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. But what if there was more to the story than meets the eye? What if the four characters were possible victims, witnesses and suspects to a bigger, more serious crime? The animated movie “Hoodwinked!” takes the simple children’s story to a far more complex, surprising and funny level. And maybe the best part is that it’s the work of four Anderson University graduates: Cory Edwards [BA ’90], Todd Edwards [BA ’94], Preston Stutzman [BA ’92], and Katie (Edwards) Hooten [BA ’96]. On Friday, “Hoodwinked!” — starring the voices of Glenn Close, Anne Hathaway, Jim Belushi and Patrick Warburton — will show in 1,800 theaters nationwide.