A generous grant from the Hoghton Family Charitable Trust enabled Dr. Susan Emmerich to conduct a Creation Care practicum on May 17 in conjunction with the 2014 Institute. Attended by 14 students, including 13 recipients of the Richard Aker Scholarship, the practicum featured instruction about the biblical principles of creation care, documented in the Center’s film When Heaven Meets Earth.
One of the students who participated in the 2011 Creation Care practicum and Institute was Sarah McCormack, then attending Wheaton College. Although Sarah had been accepted into a prestigious overseas study program, she felt led to attend the practicum and Institute instead. As she recounts below, this decision changed her life and put her on a path to pursue a career in environmental law, specifically in the natural resources and water division.
“The practicum and Institute helped make me who I am today. I arrived with no real direction or passion for what I would do after my undergraduate studies and came out with a renewed worldview that set me on a path to discovering God’s plan for my life as a lawyer. The concepts of biblical justice and the rich American heritage of law that Professor Charlie Emmerich taught made me realize that I had a passion for the law and how it affects people today. It was powerful for me to be reminded that there is Absolute Truth in the midst of our wish-washy culture and to discuss with other students what that means for legal practice. After the Institute, both Professor Emmerich and his wife, Dr. Susan Emmerich, mentored me through my application to law school and have mentored me even now as I prepare to graduate. I will graduate from the University of Oregon School of Law in December 2014 and will join a law firm in Boise, Idaho, in January 2015. The practicum and Institute helped set me on this course and gave me the tools to seek justice for those I will serve as an attorney.”
