On a borrowed bookshelf, where a collection of my husband’s college textbooks and my own have accumulated, sits a Greek New Testament. I remember discovering the leather-bound copy in the basement of the Dellenback Center, then home to the CCCU’s American Studies Program (ASP) in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 2009.

The CCCU had completed a major renovation of the Dellenback Center over the summer, converting the room that used to serve as a library into a computer lab. The library’s books were stored in the basement, where I found them still in scattered boxes and misshapen piles. I was a junior from Oral Roberts University (Tulsa, OK) studying at ASP for the semester, and the program director invited me to take whatever books I wanted. I shipped several boxes of books home that semester. Over the last 15 years, those books have scattered: some given to friends, some donated, some lost. But I’ve held on to a few of them, including that leather-bound Greek New Testament. Sometimes I still grab it off the shelf for study and personal devotions. Every time, the book serves as a reminder of my semester at ASP, a season that launched my career integrating faith and public policy.

To this day, “Hatfield Library” is stamped on the deckle edge of that Greek New Testament. The library that once filled the front room of the Dellenback Center was named after Senator Mark O. Hatfield (1922–2011) from Oregon, a longtime supporter of the CCCU and a lifelong believer in the need for Christians to bring their faith to bear on public policy and the public square. Eventually, that library was replaced with computers, the American Studies Program closed, and the Dellenback Center was sold when the CCCU moved to its new office in D.C.’s Navy Yard, but vision lasts longer than the passing of seasons.

The CCCU continues to honor Senator Hatfield’s vision through the Mark O. Hatfield Leadership Award, presented to individuals who have demonstrated uncommon leadership that reflects the values of Christian higher education. Recent recipients of that award include New York Times columnist David Brooks (2023), Senator Ben Sasse (2020), and the late Michael Cromartie (2017).

Our friends at the Center for Public Justice (CPJ) also advance Senator Hatfield’s legacy through an annual grant called the Hatfield Prize. According to CPJ, this grant is awarded to three student-faculty pairs to conduct a semester-long research project “on social policies that impact vulnerable children, families, and communities, and explore the impact of these policies in their local communities.” The prize aims to remember the legacy of Senator Hatfield, inspiring a new generation of undergraduates at CCCU institutions to pursue his vision of working across differences to locate better answers to policy problems. The Hatfield Prize is funded by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The 2024 Hatfield Prize was awarded to student-faculty pairs from Baylor University, Grove City College, and Wheaton College. Emily Crouch, program director of shared justice at CPJ, shared, “Our student-faculty pairs… have spent countless hours writing up excellent reports that will help to inform discussions around immigration, food security, and workforce development among policymakers and faith-based organizations alike. The reports touch on three incredibly relevant questions to our current political discourse: With so much immigration to the U.S., how can faith-based social services respond to the increases in demand? In a time of rapid technological development, how do we equip people for not just a job, but a lifetime of meaningful work? What lessons have we learned from COVID-19 aid and how do we adjust these policies for the post-pandemic world we live in? Megan, Jackson, and Addison provide detailed suggestions for each of these questions in the reports.”

Below we are pleased to share brief articles that each pair wrote summarizing their reports, and we encourage you to read the full research reports published by CPJ. As you read on, I encourage you to see this work not just as the interesting research conducted by your peers (and students) in Christian higher education, but as markers along the road.

We are living through a season of tremendous change, not just for the CCCU and its institutions, as many articles in this magazine have explored, but also for our nation and the world. Senator Hatfield’s legacy and vision live on through these changes in the work of the Mark O. Hatfield Leadership Award recipients, the research of the Hatfield Prize grant recipients, and, in a small way, through the well-worn and much-treasured Greek New Testament on my bookshelf. Each is an Ebenezer, a marker of progress made in a particular season by God’s grace, that lives on when old chapters close, and new ones open.

Read the full reports at the individual links below.

Pittsburgh’s Cloud of Witnesses: Caring for the Unaccompanied Children

Building a Better Waco: CTE Programs for the Future

Reforming SNAP: What’s at Stake in the New Farm Bill?

Jacqueline Isaacs, MBA, is the guest editor of ADVANCE Magazine. She is the president of Bellwether Communications and formerly served as faculty for the American Studies Program.