For the 2023-2024 HNGR Symposium, we will consider how borders figure into our thinking, imagining, relating, and living. How does our bordering - our actions of border-making - shape our practices of belonging? How might our anticipated future of new creation influence our present-day border practices?
Spring 2024 Human Needs and Global Resources Symposium
Matt Soerens - '06 | International Relations & Geology | Vice President for Advocacy and Policy, World Relief
Matthew Soerens serves as the Vice President for Advocacy and Policy at World Relief and as the national coordinator of the Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition that World Relief co-leads along with the National Association of Evangelicals, the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, the National Latino Evangelical Coalition and several other organizations. He is the coauthor of several books, including Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion and Truth in the Immigration Debate (InterVarsity Press, 2018) and Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis (Moody Publishers, 2016). Matt did his HNGR internship with World Relief Nicaragua in 2005 and graduated from Wheaton with a double major in Geology and International Relations in 2006. He also has a Master’s degree from DePaul University’s School of Public Service and now lives with his wife, Diana, and their four children in Aurora, Illinois.
Alexandra (Allie) Trujillo - ‘15 | Anthropology | Senior Associate Attorney, Baker & Hostetler
Allie Trujillo is a senior associate attorney with the law firm Baker & Hostetler. Her legal practice focuses on international litigation and arbitration, as well as global asset tracing and recovery. She works closely with domestic and international companies in courts and arbitral tribunals around the world, including the ICC International Court of Arbitration and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution. She has co-authored an article in the New York Law Journal and a treatise on cryptocurrency disputes. Allie graduated from Wheaton College in 2015 with a degree in Anthropology before obtaining her Juris Doctorate from the University of Houston Law Center in 2018. She did her HNGR internship at the legal foundation Paz y Esperance in Guayaquil, Ecuador in 2014. She now lives with her husband and two daughters in Houston, Texas.
Joseph Choe - 19' | International Relations | Paralegal, National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC)
Joseph Choe is a paralegal on the Children’s Protection Project at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC). Before working at NIJC, Joseph served as the Legal Intake Coordinator at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest in Tacoma, WA in 2020-2021. Joseph graduated from Wheaton College in 2019 with a degree in International Relations and a minor in English. He did his HNGR internship in San Salvador, El Salvador, with ENLACE, a faith-based community development organization, in 2018. His main interest is immigration law and is planning on attending law school in the near future.
Haleigh Olthof - '23 | English Writing & Spanish | JD Candidate, University of Chicago
Haleigh Olthof (English & Spanish ‘23) is a first-year law student at the University of Chicago and plans to practice immigration law after graduating. She spent her HNGR internship working at Justapaz, a peacebuilding organization in Bogotá, Colombia.
Fall 2023 Human Needs and Global Resources Symposium
The Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR) at Wheaton College presents "Borders, Belonging and New Creation: Fall 2023 Symposium in Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR) on October 3-5, 2023. Join us for the Symposium plenary panel Thursday, October 5, 2023 at 7:00 PM, in Meyer Science Center, Room 145 Buyse Lecture Hall. The plenary panel will include theologians, climate activists, and artists from Memoria Indígena, an organization that works to recognize and record the voices and histories of Indigenous Christians in Latin America. Light refreshments will be served following the event. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Laura Atkinson at 630.752.5199 or hngr@wheaton.edu.
Jocabed R. Solano Miselis
Jocabed Solano is the director of Memoria Indigena and from the Guna of Panama. She is an indigenous theologian and climate change activist who is currently working on a PhD at North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies (NAIITS). She is also serves as the coordinator for the “Identity, Indigeneity, and Interculturality” of the Latin American Theological Fellowship (FTL). She will be sharing on themes related to Guna spirituality and Christian theological borders. She is also available to talk about her work with indigenous climate change activists in the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Julián Guamán
Julian Guamán is a Quechuan theologian and historian from Ecuador, and serves as the national coordinator for Memoria Indígena. His research and publications explore the histories of encounter between North America evangelical missionaries and indigenous peoples in Ecuador. One of his talks will recount indigenous histories and narratives of Jim Elliot and other North American missionaries in Ecuador.
Yaneth Solano Miselis de Brown
Yaneth Solano Miselis de Brown is a visual artist, painter, and social worker from the Guna of Panama. Her artwork depicts the faces of women of Indigenous and African ancestry and she teaches about Molas, which are hand-made textiles produced by Guna women. She will be leading a workshop on Guna art and textiles to consider the role of creative arts in transcending borders and expressing new creation.
Drew Jennings-Grisham
Drew Jennings-Grisham (HNGR 2006/Anthropology 2007), is the assistant director of Memoria Indígena, and will be helping to translate and give talks on his work with Memoria Indígena. Drew earned a Master’s degree in Agroecology, Culture, and Sustainable Endogenous Development from the Universidad Mayor de San Simón (Cochabamba, Bolivia) and a Master of Arts in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary.