LCS to honor Dr. Wayne Shaw

[MAY 12, 2000]  Lincoln Christian Seminary, along with family and friends will honor Dr. Wayne Shaw for his 34 years of service at 7 p.m. tonight in the Earl C Hargrove chapel on the campus of Lincoln Christian College and Seminary.  After 26 years as the academic dean of the Seminary, Dr. Shaw will step into the role of Dean Emeritus July 1. I asked Dr. Shaw to look back and share with me the history of the vision with which he lives.

In 1974 Wayne Shaw was asked by the administration and trustees to assume the position of academic dean. On the faculty was a man of personal influence in Shaw’s life, Enos Dowling. Dowling was what Shaw described as a "spiritual father." Through his advisement, Shaw accepted the position of his predecessor, whose vision of heritage still continues in Dr. Shaw.

 


[Dr. Wayne Shaw]

 

Shaw said he viewed the position as a new opportunity and challenge. He believes that this started out to be a long ministry, and he wanted to provide stability, continuity, and the ability to unfold across a longer timeline the roles and vision that were given to the faculty of preserving another generation of leaders for the ministry.

Shaw said his vision is still the same as when he started teaching. He believes that when it comes time, people must choose what it is they want to be. They can either be doers or multipliers. Shaw believed he could be a multiplier. He came to Lincoln with the vision of equipping students with the ability to preach and be multipliers.

He strives to "find balance between the practicalities of ministry and the need to think, to research, and live biblically and theologically."

Shaw has not given up this vision. He continues and will continue to be a part of it after his retirement as academic dean. Shaw is still a teacher at heart and plans to keep on teaching homiletics at the seminary. He sees preaching as a vital part of ministry and will not only teach it but practice it. This Saturday, he will continue his vision as he preaches during the commencement ceremonies, using what was also his first sermon at Lincoln.

 

 

One of the greatest areas in which Shaw has grown as a person would be his vision. He now sees a greater need for world ministry. He has spent time in Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States teaching and preaching to needy people. Shaw hopes that his faculty and staff can take up that vision and have a "global view of their work and ministry, and that carrying out the great commission of Christ is the prime task of the church."

 

 

His experiences and time at Lincoln Christian Seminary will not be soon forgotten. Shaw says all the experiences he has gone through have been valuable, but he would not be where he is if there were not faculty and students. Shaw considers every one of his faculty a personal friend. All but one of the faculty members of Lincoln Christian Seminary have come to be there under Shaw’s deanship. He feels that one of the strongest assets of the faculty he will leave is the sense of cooperation they have with one another. He feels that they are free to continue the vision by expressing their views and helping one another grow as they do now.

Concerning his students, Shaw said he has realized you can never teach a student anything, that you can only help them learn. He says that over his years of experience, this has helped him not only in teaching students but also in learning and growing as an individual.

 

 

The legacy Shaw hopes to leave behind is one that will grow. He would like students to grow and have essential key values. He wants to leave behind a "climate where faculty, students and administration can grow, a legacy of commitment to world vision, a passion for preaching and teaching the gospel, and a concern for developing Christian leaders who have both Christian character and competence."

As he leaves, he said he wants to finish well. He believes it is easy to start out well, but only few finish well. His position will be taken over by Dr. Tom Tanner, dean of the college, who will be assisted by a number of associate deans in both the college and seminary. Shaw has great confidence in the leadership of the appointed men. He said that he would like to leave this experience with a positive transition.

Dr. Shaw will continue to teach at the seminary and plans to read, write, mentor faculty and students at an informal level and spend more time with his seven grandchildren.

 

[Rachael E Shelley]


LCHS journalism class 
publishes in cyberspace

[MAY 10, 2000]  When the Lincoln Daily News published its first edition at the end of January, some people thought it was the first online newspaper in the area.  But that honor goes to the Railer Review, the online newspaper of Lincoln Community High School’s journalism class, which beat LDN into cyberspace by 14 months.

It all started before the 1998-99 school year began, when English teacher Rita Vaught saw an ad in a professional publication for a service that would allow high school students to publish an online paper.  The service, called Highwired.net, is offered free.  Vaught has always been interested in computers, so she decided to try it.

Lincoln High offers a year-long journalism class as an English elective whenever there is enough student interest, and the interest was there in the fall of 1998.

“The first part of the year we spent learning how to do it.  Our first edition went up in November.  That year was a little rocky, but this year is much easier,” Vaught said.  “This year, after a few weeks, I could say, ‘Here is your deadline,’ and they would go to the computers and get to work.”

Lincoln High is part of a fast-growing movement.  In 1998 there were only a couple of hundred schools that had online newspapers.  “Last year it was something unique.  Now there are thousands,” Vaught said.

 


[Students in the journalism class at Lincoln Community
High School post copies of articles and editorials from
the Railer Review on their classroom bulletin board. Shown here are Trenaty Gonzales, Molly Donnelly,
Becky Mammen and Amanda Snyder.]

 

She sees a lot of positives about the Highwired.net program, which she describes as student-friendly.  It provides a format for students to use when submitting articles and the layout is done automatically.  “We decide what will go on the front page and what our section lead stories will be.  We have unlimited space for articles, but there are parameters for the size of pictures and clip art,” she explained.

 

 

The students not only learn news writing, they learn a lot of technology.  “They have a high comfort level with technology and absorb it quickly,” Vaught says.  “They can work at home or on any computer in the school.” 

The Railer Review, like LDN, is read by people all over the country.  Relatives of students read the Review to see what their Lincoln grandsons or granddaughters have written.  Alumni members have found the Review and sent e-mail, and students not in the journalism classes have occasionally submitted articles.

Journalism students themselves often read other school newspapers to find out what is going on far from home.  For example, Vaught says, they learned that students in Alaska were raising funds to continue the search for another student who had been lost in a whiteout, a blinding snowstorm.

A well-written story of universal interest can be submitted for use in the Highwired.net’s national edition.  Last year an article by student Chelsie Slack, about a model whose father died of lung cancer, appeared in the national online paper.

Eleven students are in the 1999-2000 journalism class, all seniors except one.  They use a basic journalism text and have story assignments and deadlines.  They spend half their time in class, the other half in the computer room.  Articles are assigned about classes, about the school as a whole and about the community. 

The students write their stories and file a draft.  Then they proofread it and add graphics.  Vaught reads each article and decides if it is ready to run or needs revision.  “In two years I’ve only had two articles that I considered unacceptable because of content or inappropriate language,” she said.

 

(To top of second column)

This year’s students are a diverse group, but they work well together, Vaught says.  Mike Williams knows he wants to be a writer, probably a sportswriter, and is going to Illinois State University to major in mass communication.  Trenaty Gonzales, on the other hand, would like to skip the writing assignments, but is so good with graphics and layout she helps other teachers and staff members put out flyers and newsletters.

 

 

Joseph Rosenthal likes sports writing but isn’t sure he would want it as a career.  Becky Mammen is interested in advertising and mass communication.  Ashley Brinner likes photography.

Molly Donnelly has come up against the dilemma facing every reporter.  “I want to be the person out there asking the questions, but I don’t like deadlines.”

The students’ many interests have resulted in a variety of articles, including sports, makeup and prom dresses, school security, depression, a boy who had a heart transplant, the state testing, the baby-think-it-over program, and even the controversy over tearing down Lincoln’s Central School.

One memorable lesson in journalism came through a computer program on the ethics of the profession, “Decisions, Decisions.”  The class played the role of an ad director who had to decide how to deal with a television program high in violent content but geared for 12- to 13-year-olds.  They had to consider the legal aspects, the possibility that their advertisers wouldn’t stay with them and the question of rewriting the show.

They finally made the decision to keep the show as it was but change it from a 7 p.m. to a 9 p.m. time slot.  When they entered the decision into the program, the computer told them they had lost their target audience and gave them the consequences.

 

 

“We got fired,” Amanda Snyder said.

Although the Railer Review is running smoothly this year, getting between 150 and 200 hits a day, Vaught has plans to widen its coverage.  “We can never know everything that goes on in this school.   What we need to do now is encourage departments and clubs to submit articles to us or just give us information and let us write it up.”

The Railer Review can be reached at www.highwired.net/LincolnComm/railer or from the Lincoln High home page, www2.ccaonline.com/LCHS/.     

 

 

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