A pair of students will perform hip-hop in attempt to reach students at this year’s Summit Sept. 20-23.
There are several musical performances included in this year’s Summit, something Dr. David Wray, interim director of Summit and professor emeritus of Bible, missions and ministry, and his team hope will attract and resonate with students.
One such performance is by the Christian hip-hop collective No Face, comprised of Javan “Ki’Shon” Furlow, the area coordinator for Edwards Hall; and Darren “KNUOrigen” Hagood, a graduate student. The duo has been making music together for almost five years.
“We make music for 16- to 25-year-olds trying to figure out love, identity, life and humanity,” Furlow said.
When it comes to the content of the lectures, Furlow said he thinks the university has been moving in the right direction.
“I appreciate placing spirituality over popularity,” Furlow said. “I think the university has made great strides in making sure it was a place where people from all walks of life could feel accepted and a part of.”
The structure of Summit differs each year, but there is usually at least one undergraduate student speaker, typically a senior. That has changed this year.
Wray said this was not planned or predicted, but the quick planning his team had to execute resulted in lower student involvement.
“There was no intentionality to exclude anybody, it was just a matter of timing,” Wray said. “In the past, Dr. Bryce would meet with the Student’s Association, have groups come together and get a student from that, but we were just scrambling so much.”
Furlow said he was not aware there was less student involvement in Summit this year, but thinks in the future more students should be included in the lineup.
“I do think more students would connect better with workshops led by people their age, who they can resonate with,” Furlow said. “Another thing that would help is workshops that are focused on issues that are truly relevant to the college student.”
Wray and his planning team agree.
“If we had to do it over again, I wish we had more students involved,” Wray said. “In future Summits, that will be the expectation.”
