Carlin, Fischer wrap up year as Refuge leaders
For some Christian studies majors, coming in to Ouachita freshman year brings with it the desire to preach and speak at every opportunity and maybe, someday, landing the role of “Refuge speaker.”
For this year’s leaders, however, that was not how things happened.
Kyle Fischer, a senior Christian studies and Biblical languages double major, began his Ouachita career with the intention of moving on to law school and becoming a federal judge. But in the beginning, he had his sights set on a different aspect of Refuge.
“When I first came to Ouachita, I had done some music stuff at my church and loved what they were doing at Refuge,” he said. “I honestly wanted to be the worship leader for Refuge for a while”
After majoring in political science and mass communications during his first semester, Fischer changed his major to Christian studies.
“I was raised in a pastor’s home and I began to reflect on that as I was deciding to change my major,” he said. “I have always really enjoyed studying the Bible and learning. I switched over my second semester and it’s been really neat to just dive into that and allow those classes to prepare me to graduate, but also to draw from for Refuge.”
The other speaker, Jared Carlin, a senior accounting major, always had a desire to speak at Refuge, but that didn’t lead him to change his major to Christian studies.
“I love Jesus and I love people and I think there’s a calling on my life to preach,” Carlin said. “I remember going into James Taylor’s office freshman year and saying I felt called to preach at Refuge. It was cool that God gave me that opportunity three years later. It was such a fun journey.”
Both Fischer and Carlin were chosen by the same process to be regular speakers at the weekly worship service. However, before time came to apply and choose the leaders for the 2013-2014 school year, both gentlemen had the opportunity to try their hand at Refuge preaching.
“After LJ (Brooks) passed away, James came to a few people and asked if we would consider speaking for the remainder of the year, just as a way to honor LJ and not try to shove someone in his spot,” Fischer said. “Obviously I was sad about the loss of LJ, but I was given a great opportunity and avenue to get involved with Refuge.”
After going throught the application and interview process, Fischer and Carlin were chosen to be the regular speakers for Refuge during their senior year. For Carlin, this meant doing some extra prep work.
“I’m not a Christian studies major, so in a lot of ways I felt inferior in my knowledge,” he said. “I spent the summer reading a lot of books by dead guys with deep theology and just wanted to know deeper thoughts about the Bible. During the first few sermons, I felt I had all these deep truths and knowledge pent up that I just had to share. But as the semster went on, I noticed that my sermons got more simple. I would still rely on those deep truths, but present it in a much more personal way.”
Speaking frequently at a student-led, student-attended worship service is a unique opportunity that both say have greatly impacted their time here at Ouachita.
“This whole experience has changed my senior year in a number of ways,” Fischer said. “It has given me a platform to speak to the younger students here. I’m also naturally an introvert, so it allows me to connect with other people who it would be hard for me to just come out of my shell and talk to.”
Carlin had very similar opinions when it came to the experience of that leadership position, saying his favorite thing about being a Refuge speaker wasn’t actually speaking.
“My favorite thing was being able to use that as a platform to be involved in and invest in other people’s lives,” he said.
Carlin said it was an espeically interesting opportunity because of the proximity of him to the people to which he spoke.
“Refuge is unique in the fact that you’re speaking to your peers,” Carlin said. “It’s cool that 90 percent of the crowd you’re speaking to is between the ages of 18 and 22. The fact that I’m the same age as everying in the room is different.”
Carlin and Fischer both agreed that their leadership roles and the specific positions they were in added a certain level of pressure to their lives around campus.
“It’s made me think about my own walk with Christ,” Fischer said. “If you’re going to be telling other people what to do, it needs to be directed at you as well. A lot of people I speak to, I’m in the same boat as they are. I want to see other people and myself changed.”
Carlin recalls the respect and admiration he had for Refuge speakers during his first few years at Ouachita and says stepping into that role was a humbling experience.
“I just looked up to them and you just assume they’re different,” he said. “I remember my first sermon. I stepped off stage and it hit me that I was the same person before that sermon that I was after. I still had the same struggles. It was just a really good reminder that there’s nothing different about me and there never will be. There’s a certain level of responsibility with any position of leadership, but unless you approach that with complete humility, you’re gonig to have problems.”
Fischer said one of his favorite memories of Refuge involved a girl that he and Carlin never actually met or talked to.
“This girl came to Refuge for the first time with a friend and she wasn’t a believer,” Fischer said. “Through that experience at Refuge, she came to know Jesus. We didn’t know or talk to her, but her friends at Ouachita helped her become a Christian. God doesn’t need me or Jared, but he chooses to use us.”
Carlin echoes that same idea, noting that God uses lessons that aren’t even spoken to touch people’s lives when they come to Refuge.
“I’ve had people come up to me and tell me what they’ve gotten out of the message I preached and I never actually said those things,” Carlin said. “It’s cool to see how the Spirit uses you and how it impacts people, despite what you might say. God’s in the business of using us in our weaknesses, not when we think we have it all together.”
Carlin says God’s ability to speak despite their human flaws is one of the biggest takeaways from the year.
“God moved, despite our inadequacies and that is the message of the Gospel,” he said. “I’ve seen that so clearly. I wanted to look back and say we did the best we could, but I think the fact that I can’t look back and say that makes for an even better story, because God still worked in people’s lives.”
After graduation, Fischer and Carlin plan on continuing to be instruments for the Lord, but in slightly different ways.
Fischer will begin seminary at Dallas Theological Seminary in the fall to pursue a master’s degree, which means another four years of school. He then wants to get a doctorate degree from a university overseas and teach at a place similar to Ouachita or a seminary.
Carlin will not be attending seminary in the fall, though he hopes to someday. Instead, he has a job with an accounting firm in downtown Little Rock.
“I’m not about accounting and I’m not about preaching – I’m about Jesus,” he said. “I know that I’ve got a good opportunity with this accounting firm right now and I’m excited to really make the most of that. Even if I never make it to seminary, God still sits on the throne.”
Wooten, Strossner prepare for married life, school
For many, Ouachita can be a breeding ground for the coveted “ring by spring.” But what lies between the lines is much more interesting. For some, finding a lifelong friend and companion can begin in high school. For others, that comes later. For Will Wooten and Laura Strossner that relationship spark came in the summer before their senior year of high school. As they, graduating seniors, leave Ouachita, the spark is burning brighter than ever.
Wooten and Strossner’s story begins eight months before they came to Ouachita. Through mutual friends, Strossner and Wooten met at church. Over four years later, they’re still together.
“We actually met at church through mutual friends,” Strossner said.
“Summer of senior year, we met and started dating that December. We dated around eight months before we came to Ouachita,” Wooten added.
For Strossner and Wooten, their journey through high school could not have been more different. Wooten grew up in the small confines of a private school.
“I grew up in a private school so I was already geared more towards the private school atmosphere – it was what I grew up in and what I was comfortable with,” Wooten said. “I went to a school where I had known everyone for 13 years. Growing up, I played sports, and going to a small school, if you were even semi-athletic, you played everything.”
Strossner’s high school experience was much different.
“I went to the public school in Conway,” Strossner said. “I had a much different high school experience than Will, because you had so many different people at school and so many different things you could get involved in. I was friends with different types of people.”
Wooten knew ahead of time that he wanted to come to Ouachita, becoming a regular at Tiger Tunes and learning more about the campus. Strossner had yet to hear about Ouachita until her senior year.
“Over the years, I would come to every Tiger Tunes with one of my friends because he had older siblings in it. I was exposed to Ouachita early on and I always knew I would end up here one day.”
“I didn’t know about Ouachita until later in my college decision process,” Strossner said. “I heard about it maybe sophomore or junior year of high school, but I never really thought about going. I always thought it was for someone else.”
In fact, Strossner wasn’t even considering Ouachita until Wooten mentioned it to her during their senior year of high school.
“I was becoming discouraged because I couldn’t find anything that I liked, so I decided to visit one Friday and fell in love with it,” Strossner said.
As Wooten and Strossner began their first semester at Ouachita, transition was something they had to learn individually, and as a couple.
“Growing up watching Tunes, I knew I wanted to try and do it as a freshman,” Wooten said. “I roped her [Strossner] into it and convinced her that it would be a great time. Tiger Tunes is a great experience as a freshman because it gives you the opportunity to meet other people and get adjusted to life at Ouachita.”
“I really enjoyed getting to know the upperclassmen,” Strossner said. “Three hours a night of practice forces you to talk to all different kinds of people. We both came in as science majors, so we always were worried about getting A’s. Tiger Tunes was a way that we were able to make sure that we devoted ourselves to social time, which was really beneficial to us for our first semester at Ouachita.”
For Strossner and Wooten, studying science was something they had decided independently.
“I had always been interested in the medical field,” Strossner said. “My dad is an eye doctor and Will and I both worked at his clinic the summer before we came to Ouachita. So I grew up thinking something like that would be interesting. When I came here, I wasn’t completely set on being a biology major, but I ended up becoming one anyway.”
“I knew I wanted to purse science coming out of high school,” Wooten said. “I had the opportunity to work at the eye clinic and work with patients doing write ups and exams. So decided to go to college with that plan and ended up sticking with it.”
While Strossner and Wooten agree on many things, they each are quick to talk about their favorite professors.
“I really appreciated both Dr. Knight and Dr. Jeffers’ classes,” Wooten said. “Dr. Knight asked me to do research under him this past summer and I really got to know him through that experience and I really enjoyed it.”
“I’d also have to agree about Dr. Jeffers teaching style,” Strossner added. “I also would say Dr. Hensley. I got to work under her this past summer so I got a lot of my experience with her and got to know her really well.”
For Strossner and Wooten, much of their social life came from being involved in the Women of Tri Chi and the Men of Kappa Chi.
“Pledging a social club was one of the best decisions I’ve made at Ouachita,” Wooten said. “There are so many people that I’m friends with that I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.”
“It almost lightened us up a little bit,” Strossner said. “Because we were so concerned with our grades as science majors, over the years we have learned that while school is very important, it’s also important to enjoy your time here and to make friends and have a social life.”
After a few years, Strossner and Wooten began preparing for life after Ouachita.
“We took a whole summer and studied for the MCAT,” Strossner said. “But we started to imagine what being doctors would be like – especially being on call and how that would effect our families. We wanted to be able to be at our children’s events like sporting events, so we decided to take the OAT, which is for optometry school and we both did very well.”
“Halfway through September, we both got the call, actually on the same day,” Wooten said. “We realized that we were both going to get to go to graduate school together.”
From there, Wooten began to make plans of his own, preparing himself to ask Strossner to marry him. As Wooten began to plan, he meticulously thought through the perfect proposal.
“Call me a bit of a romantic,” Wooten said. “But I took a long time planning the engagement. I wanted it to be special for Laura and the biggest caveat was that I wanted it to be a complete surprise.”
So on a cloudy and cold Sunday in November, Wooten and Strossner headed to Garvan Gardens for an afternoon at the park. As they were touring the park, Wooten walked Strossner into the infamous glass chapel in the far corner section of the park and proposed in front of their friends and family.
“I was thinking soon,” Strossner said. “But I wasn’t expecting it that particular weekend. It was fun because I really did want to be surprised and it worked.”
For people like Wooten and Strossner, strong academic people, Ouachita became a place for them to develop lifelong friendships and memories beyond the classroom.
“I came in focused on grades,” Wooten said. “But if I had one piece of advice it would be to make time for school, but also make time for others and nurture friendships. Make sure to get involved in the social aspect of Ouachita. It is rewarding and everyone should take advantage of all the opportunities you are afforded here.”
As the Wootens close their chapter at Ouachita, they leave behind many close friends and memories. But together, they steadily ready themselves to take on the world together. With the support of their friends and family, they bravely take the first step into the real world, subsequently leaving the bubble. They’ll rely heavily on each other, on their close relationships and many of the lessons they’ve learned during their four years on the campus of Ouachita Baptist University.
Stewart heads to full-time ministry
Many students leave Ouachita and go on to work in a church and attend seminary. However, for many students, this was not the original plan when beginning his or her Ouachita journey.
One of these students is Jessica Stewart, a senior Christian media/communications and mass communications double major from Mansfield, Texas.
“When I was a freshman, I probably thought that I would be graduating and working in Christian magazines or something really cliche,” she said. “I think I really thought I would be working for Lifeway, probably.”
fter graduation, she won’t be working for a magazine, but she will be communicating in a Christian environment in a full-time ministry internship at Prestonwood Baptist Church close to her home in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
“A few months ago, I decided I should probably start looking for something to do after graduation,” she said. “My problem was that I was really torn between doing ministry and doing communications because I love to do both.”
Stewart has worked with OBU grad Clay Cunningham as a student ministry intern at First Baptist Benton for the past year and a half. During that time, she has grown her passion for working with students in ministry.
“I didn’t intend to do full-time ministry,” she said. “I thought ministry would always be a part of my life and I would always work with students, but I never thought it would be the main thing I did or my main calling. I still felt drawn to communications in ministry, but right now it’s just ministry.”
After applying to three different churches around DFW, Prestonwood quickly became a frontrunner in the job search.
“Prestonwood was so cool about pursuing me to work for them,” she said. “A Ouachita grad interns with them right now and the head of their intern program is an alum of Ouachita as well. Another Ouachita graduate is the student pastor at their north campus. So through those Ouachita relationships, they really pursued me.”
In addition to landing the internship, Stewart will also have the opportunity to attend seminary at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary while working at Prestonwood.
“I never even dreamed of going to grad school or seminary or anything,” she said. “Not until recently have I thought it would be a great experience.”
Stewart says one of the most incredible parts of her journey to her new job has been watching God’s hand at work in her life, directing her in ways she never thought she would go.
“It has been so cool to watch God perfectly orchestrate everything. He has really shown me how big He is through it all,” she said. “It’s like He’s saying, ‘Oh, you don’t think you’re smart enough? Well, joke’s on you; I think you’re smart enough.’ He is showing me that He can work out every situation and all of these awesome things are now a possibility because of that fact.”
Despite all of the changes and new experiences she will be facing in the coming months, Stewart says she is most excited about being able to serve in a church in an area with which she is familiar.
“It’s close to home. The culture is one I really identify with,” she said. “I think I’ll be able to identify with the students well and communicate with them and say, “Hey, I’ve been exactly where you are.’ Being able to relate to them and mentor them in their spiritual journey a lot better than if I were in a place where I maybe couldn’t relate as well.”
One way she hopes to relate to the students is by taking what she’s learned at Ouachita and helping to make Jesus and the Gospel real to the students she encounters.
“We can learn about theology and all these other things, but for me, knowing Jesus and making Jesus and the Gospel central to every part of my life is what’s most important to me – not just making it this crazy theological debate that really doesn’t matter,” she said. “Just to love people and really see them and be present and be 100 percent wherever I am and be the best friend or mentor I can be is so important.”
During her time at Ouachita, the class that made this idea stand out was Life of Christ with Dr. Scott Duvall.
“It’s been my favorite class at Ouachita,” she said. “That’s kind of where this whole idea of Jesus being central came about. We talked a lot about how Jesus was a real person and that made Jesus so much more real to me. He was real and he really did all of those things and making Him central in everything is really important because He is legit.”
In addition to looking back on influential classes, Stewart will certainly reminisce on the relationships that have been a key factor in her time at Ouachita.
“I’m going to miss the people I’ve met here,” she said. “God really made this idea of friendship huge to me. Having the friendships and relationships at my fingertips at all times is what I’m going to miss most.”
As she reflects on her time at Ouachita, Stewart says her advice to her freshman self would be to not get too busy and to be flexible and make the most of the time here without worrying too much about the future. After all, her future plans fell into place just a few weeks before graduation, proving there is no benefit in worrying.
“I think I tried everything when I got here and was so busy. That kind of took away from people and learning for a while and I had to slow down and take a step out of some things I was involved in and pick a few things and do them well,” she said. “Also, don’t come in with such a black and white plan. Things are going to change. Don’t feel like you have to have a plan the whole time. I think I was so quick to put God in a box, in a sense, and say I had my plan and knew things were going to be. Have fun and don’t worry about it until you need to worry about it.”
Barnard, Young partner with Pitza42
As this school year comes to a close, the class of 2014 will be moving on to the next stage of life. For some that means grad school, for some marriage, some will enter the mission field, some will enter the job market and others will devote their lives to ending world hunger.
After graduation, seniors Justin Young and Kristen Barnard will be partnering with a Christian nonprofit organization called Feed My Starving Children, with the goal of opening a restaurant in Fayetteville dedicated to helping end world hunger.
The two will marry in July and then move to Conway, Ark., to start training with Austin and Ashton Samuelson, Ouachita alumni and the owners of Pitza42 and Tacos4Life in Conway, to prepare to open their own branch of Tacos4Life within the next year.
“18,000 children die per day due to starvation, and our goal is to open 76 restaurants, because based on the numbers, 76 of these restaurants could end world hunger,” Barnard said. “Fayetteville is a great place to open a restaurant like this because there is such a large population of college students that likes to support causes like this.”
For every meal sold at Pitza42 or Tacos4Life, 22 cents are donated to Feed My Starving Children. This money pays for one of the meal packets that Feed My Starving Children distributes, so for every meal sold in one of these restaurants, another meal is given to a child in need.
According to the Pitza42 website, a total of 513,563 meals have been provided.
The couple is passionate and excited about this next stage in their journey, but this was not always the plan they had in mind for themselves.
“I spent my entire college career building my resume and working towards landing a corporate job, but, over this last year, I felt tremendous unrest about that,” Young said. “As I began to think through things and pray, I started to feel called to use my business skills in a mission-minded way.
“Seeing that I’m getting married in a matter of months, I knew it was my duty to provide for my bride-to-be, so that corporate job I had lined up seemed really easy, but, as time went on, I knew that God was calling me to something else.”
After feeling this call, Young contacted the Samuelsons, whom he knew through connections with the Hickingbotham School of Business, about opening another restaurant with them. The Samuelsons had been praying for a young couple that could open another store and were very receptive.
As a business administration and mass communications majors, respectively, Young and Barnard are excited to use all they have learned in college for this next phase in life.
“My time in Enactus has really opened my eyes to my passion for using business to solve problems and meet tangible needs in the world and my work with Dr. Jack’s has shown me how social entrepreneurship really works and how God can use my talents to help those in need,” Young said.
Though they cannot wait to marry and spend the rest of their lives together working for this mission, the two only started dating their junior year after much perseverance on Young’s part. Months of pursuit finally ended in success with ice cream.
“I sent Beau Dagget with her favorite ice cream to her work and on the ice cream it said ‘Will you go get more ice cream with me next week?’” Young recalled. “We went on the ice cream date and we were playing Make it or Break it. I said ‘He’s perfect in every way but he can’t figure out how to ask you to the Beta Valentine’s dance,’ so then I asked her and she said yes and then it was hook, line and sinker. She’s pretty infatuated.”
After the fateful ice cream date (and a very public announcement of their couple status during Miss OBU), the two dated for the rest of their junior year and got engaged this past fall. Now they are ready to begin this new journey to which they have been called.
“I would encourage everyone to always lay your plans on the alter before the Lord because you never know where you’re going to end up and usually our plans don’t work out the way that we hope for them to anyways,” Barnard said. “I think that if we hadn’t listened to the Lord, we wouldn’t be on this exciting roller coaster ride we’re about to enter.”
Schroeder returns to WalMart headquarters
Buck Schroeder, a senior accounting major, has already secured a spot on board of the mega-corporation Wal-Mart. But Schroeder’s success at Wal-Mart all started with a visit to the campus of Ouachita.
For Schroeder, coming to Ouachita wasn’t a decision that he had originally planned on making.
“I didn’t even know about Ouachita until senior year of high school,” Schroeder said. “I was torn between UCA and the University of Arkansas. Both my brothers had gone to UCA, but I wanted something different. I didn’t get much scholarship money from Arkansas. When I came down to Ouachita to visit, I loved it and knew for sure that I wanted to go here.”
As Schroeder arrived on campus, he began to get involved in various organizations. One particular organization that he fell in love with freshman year was SIFE, now known as ENACTUS. Schroeder took an active role in leadership for the organization.
“It was a great thing to get involved with freshman year,” Schroeder said. “I got the opportunity to be the project leader for Southern Good Faith Fund.”
At 18 years old, Schroeder was given the opportunity to teach many different people about various areas of financial investment and opportunity.
“I got to teach these classes at Southern Bancorp to people that ranged from 18-year olds to families with 50-year olds,” Schroeder said. “Basically, the requirement was to come to all of the classes, and Southern Bancorp gave you a $2,000 grant for going back to school or doing a project on your home or something similar to that.”
During his second semester on campus, Schroeder joined another organization, one directly related to helping students.
“I joined OSF my second semester on campus. I got pretty involved in that as well,” said Schroeder. “I was on student recruitment at first, and I loved it. Then, I got to be the communications director my sophomore year and that was a very unique experience.”
But Schroeder was planning ahead for something beyond the tables of the business classrooms.
“Early fall semester, I sat down and began searching for places to intern,” Schroeder said. “I applied for a number of different places, but Wal-Mart was the only place I really heard back from. I was excited, though.”
Schroeder began the grueling interview process with Wal-Mart to try and land a job as a summer intern in the Wal-Mart home office in Bentonville, Ark. As he interviewed, Schroeder was never quite sure if he would get the job.
“Over fall break I was doing my second round of interviews and I thought it was over after my video interview,” Schroeder said. “It was a panel and kinda awkward the entire time. I leaned on my OSF experience a lot in that one. But I learned what type of questions they were going to ask me and I got a lot of confidence after it.”
Schroeder, after multiple interviews over the phone, Skype and in person, was offered an internship in early December of his junior year. He would be working in Bentonville the following summer as an intern for the nourishment and replenishment department of Wal-Mart.
“It was nice for that spring semester knowing that I already knew I was going to be there,” Schroeder said. “I felt some relief knowing that I had a job and I didn’t have to continue searching for one.”
Schroeder began his work at Wal-Mart in late May. While not working with accounting, Schroeder was able to learn about the Wal-Mart system.
“Replenishment is the idea of getting and producing products from the farm to the store,” Schroeder said. “It’s one big balancing act of having enough of the product in the store for people to buy, but not having so much that it is going to go bad and lose us money.”
Another unique feature of Schroeder’s internship was his ability to cross-network within the Wal-Mart corporate system. Wal-Mart specifically encouraged Schroeder, along with the other interns, to network across all departments of the store in order to make contacts within the home office.
“Half of your time as an intern at Wal-Mart is spent networking,” Schroeder said. “You can really network with whoever you want. You can look at other people’s calendar and set up a one-on-one meeting with them or even just touch base with them and have a few of your questions answered.”
The last week of Schroeder’s internship, he was offered a job to work for Wal-Mart after he graduated college. For Schroeder, having a job before even beginning his senior year of college was a tremendous blessing.
“It was really awesome getting to know going into my senior year that I would have a full time job,” Schroeder said.
But Schroeder never fell on his schoolwork. In fact, Schroeder felt a greater weight to do better in the classroom.
“Coming back with a full time job awaiting me, I never felt I could just coast,” Schroeder said. “I realized that I needed to learn now more than ever so that I’m prepared for Wal-Mart and prepared for whatever career I might have. So it really encouraged me to get a lot more out of my classes and to finish strong.”
For Schroeder, graduating from Ouachita will be a tremendous honor. Following his internship at Wal-Mart, Schroeder felt the urge to become even more involved in the community. During his senior year, Schroeder joined the Tiger Serve Day Leadership Team.
“One of the things I love about Ouachita is the life of service aspect that they try to instill here,” Schroeder said. “Coming in, I had no idea that was even important and it certainly wasn’t on my radar, but I realize now how important service is. Being a part of the leadership team was probably the highlight of my senior year. I’m thankful Mrs. Judy [Duvall] let me come in as a senior and serve two semesters.”
Schroeder says that the internship has emphasized the importance of his education, rather than keep him focused on other things.
“As far as a real world perspective, I’ve learned to appreciate my professors and classes a lot more,” Schroeder said. “I feel like Ouachita culture really translated well into Wal-Mart culture. Wal-Mart is a really neat and very welcoming and encouraging atmosphere and I feel like Ouachita is much of the same. Ouachita prepared me well for Wal-Mart because I had experienced such a similar culture at OBU.”
As Schroeder, like many others in the outgoing class, leaves Ouachita behind, he is reminded daily of a principle he learned early on in his college career.
“At Ouachita,” Schroeder said. “You get out what you put in. I feel like I’ve gotten so much out of Ouachita. I’m glad that I got involved over the years here and I’d encourage anyone else to do the same.”
