Transferable credits, in theory
Oklahoma Wesleyan University’s Everett Piper became a hero to some as quickly as he responded to last fall’s campus protests by stating OKWU was “not a daycare” that would certainly “offer you precisely exactly what you want.”
Now the university president is taking aim at one more popular induce among academics: abortion rights.
OKWU is launching an “applied bioethics” certificate program this July that will certainly train students in pro-life activism and pregnancy focus management. It’s a partnership along with the Life Training Institute and Care Net.
The “applied” focus is exactly what separates OKWU’s program from various other Christian schools along with bioethics programs, such as Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Cedarville University.
OKWU is likewise studying the “feasibility” of expanding the program in to a full-blown bachelor’s degree that prepares students for “vocational job in pro-life apologetics, political consulting, or for an executive role” in pregnancy recommendations centers and medical clinics, according to the program website.
Piper justified the program by citing the Wesleyan Church’s “explicitly and unequivocally pro-life” position. “We humbly acknowledge that God defines life and that men do not,” he said in an email offered by Media Relations Coordinator Megan England.
Making a case for life ‘in one moment or less’
While OKWU says applied-bioethics credits made by students will certainly be transferable, it’s still exercising the details due to the fact that the program is “in the fairly early stages,” England told The College Fix.
It ran a pilot session last summer after “a group of highly-respected pro-life voices put the curriculum with each other and began looking for a university to take the tip and run along with it,” she added.
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One of those voices was Scott Klusendorf, founder and president of the Life Training Institute.
If Christian students hope to merely preserve their faith through college however not make a larger cultural impact, “after that we are in trouble,” Klusendorf told The Fix in a phone interview.
Students “have to have the ability to make a case for the pro-life view in one moment or much less if necessary,” he said: “There is no significant out there anywhere that is teaching people to do this.”
Klusendorf teaches an ethics and abortion path that examines “the toughest critics of the pro-life view, the academic critics,” and equips students to answer their objections, he said.
Credits from his path will certainly be transferable as philosophy while those from one more instructor, Speaker for Life founder Marc Newman, will certainly count as speech credits, Klusendorf said: “Virtually any kind of institution could check out the syllabus and say that it qualifies for one more location of study.”
Most of the students in last year’s pilot session took the courses “for their careers” as pregnancy focus directors, Klusendorf said. simply one student, from Houston Baptist University, has actually picked to receive credit for taking a pilot course.
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“Our target is to train up powerful advocates for the unborn and focus and clinic directors that can easily persuasively mount a case for their work, improve financial, volunteer, and prayer support, and be of service to location churches, civic groups, and schools,” Newman, whose organization trains pro-life advocates in public-speaking spills, told The Fix.
He said the 14 students in last summer’s pilot ranged in age from 17 to 60 years old.
“Within weeks of the completion of the summer session we had reports of students using their newfound skills to conduct training sessions, improve support for their organizations, and successfully speak in churches, schools, and civic organizations,” said Newman.
This summer there are four courses being offered; Klusendorf estimated they would certainly lure 14 to twenty students. “We knew the initial three to four years we would certainly be operating a pilot program and we would certainly be obtaining word out concerning it. We are right where we hope to be right now.”
OKWU did not clarify if any kind of students have actually attempted to transfer credits from the pilot courses offered last year, or exactly how easily the credits can easily be transferred.
“however the courses are incredibly rigorous, and as a former department chair that has actually had to evaluate requests for path equivalency, I have actually little doubt that the courses will certainly transfer,” said Newman.
Teaching students ‘in methods that are A lot more compared to abstract’
The program will certainly offer two summer tracks.
The initial is focused on pro-life training, along with an ethics path by Klusendorf and a public speaking path by Newman. He told The Fix his path “covers audience analysis, the psychology of attitude change, a number of persuasion models, organizational structure, delivery, image management, and exactly how to regulate presentation anxiety.”
The second monitor covers “ministry essentials” – pregnancy care – along with a “foundation of life” training path by John Ensor, president of PassionLife, and a non-profit organization path taught by Wendel Weaver, assistant dean of OKWU’s school of business.
Weaver declined to comment on the program and courses; Ensor did not respond to a request for comment. Care Net declined to comment on the partnership.
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Media spokeswoman England emphasized that the program’s focus is to have actually “leaders that are ready to defend and protect the innocent in methods that are A lot more compared to abstract.”
OKWU features testimonials from students that participated in last summer’s pilot.
“Applied Bioethics at OKWU is the crucial pro-life training you will certainly ever receive,” said Jody Ward, student and project manager of Women’s Care Center.
Beckie Perez, one more student, said she “was challenged and stretched in Brand-new methods as I became much better equipped to defend the unborn.”
“The small, intimate structure of the program allowed for thoughtful discussions along with an remarkable community of instructors and peers,” said Perez.
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