The Clarion

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Featured Writers

Angela Gonzalez

I'm an English and journalism major at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. I enjoy writing adventure and fantasy fiction, reporting on interesting people, creating digital art and doing photography. …

Sierra Beilby

Taylor Hanson

I'm a sophomore communications major with a journalism minor at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. I love to report on people and sports and I believe that everyone has …

Emma Harville

I am a senior communications major and journalism minor at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. I am currently the editor-in-chief for The Clarion, Bethel's student newspaper. Previously, I worked …

Jasmine Johnson

Hello there! Here's a collection of stories I've written for the Alexandria Echo Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press and Bethel University's student newspaper The Clarion. Whether covering city council meetings …

Alanna Voelker

I am a PSEO student majoring in journalism and pre-law studies at Bethel University. I love writing stories that allow me to give a voice to those who may not …

Latest Articles

Six thousand miles to snow

The Robertson Center Gym melted into a mixture of squeaking sneakers, laughs and bluegrass fiddles as Japanese intercultural students do-si-doed across the polished court. While the speakers blared Bobby Osbourne’s “Old Joe Clark,” a cowboy-hat-clad square dance instructor yelled out moves he’d taught just minutes ago. “Wagon!” Everybody found a …

By Taylor Fruetel
24th July 2024 • The Clarion

Cheer Night kicks off Homecoming Week

Bethel University students dressed in an array of colors flooded through the doors of the Robertson Center Gym last night for the kickoff of Bethel’s Homecoming events. Flags waved above them as the gymnasium echoed with screams, cheers and claps of students who had anticipated this moment for days. Cheer …

By Taylor Fruetel
24th July 2024 • The Clarion

A faith found outside the home

Editor’s note: This story mentions an eating disorder. Danielle Buckenmeyer turned to her desk neighbor Jonah at the prompt of their seventh-grade teacher. It was a Monday, and they were told to share what they did over the weekend. “I went to church yesterday,” Jonah said. A simple statement, but …

By Sarah Bomhoff
17th July 2024 • The Clarion

Johnson’s final game epitomizes legacy

[Editor’s note: The headline has been changed for clarity] Six NCAA Division III national championship flags pointed northeast as the orange streamers above each field goal post at Perkins Stadium in Whitewater, Wisconsin fluttered in the 13-mile-per-hour wind Saturday. The Bethel University Royals made the nearly five-hour drive to take …

By Sarah Bomhoff
17th July 2024 • The Clarion

Pinching pennies: On versus off-campus affordability

Upperclassmen have four different housing options: live off campus with their parents, live off campus with friends or live on campus in North Village or suite-style housing. Matthew Berezowski is a junior business major who lives in a house in Roseville. Berezowski makes the seven-minute commute to campus every day, …

By Sarah Bomhoff
17th July 2024 • The Clarion

Worship isn’t reserved for Vespers

Joshua Hahn played piano in a room of seven people. Coming and going when they wished, Bethel University students got a taste of one-on-one worship with the Lord. Students listened while they sat praying with their eyes closed, singing their own song or reading their Bibles. This was the start …

By Sarah Bomhoff
17th July 2024 • The Clarion

An emphasis on empathy

As Logan Moe goes from patient to patient in his clinicals, he encounters a lot of strange stuff. A lumbar drain: Yellowish-orange cerebrospinal fluid gets drained from the back to relieve the patient of pressure in the brain. And yet, Moe can’t help feeling awe and fascination in them. “I …

By Aiden Penner
23rd May 2024 • The Clarion

Mini plants for mental health

Be Well at Bethel hosted an event to equip students with succulents to improve their well-being.

By Lily Noonan
21st May 2024 • The Clarion

Growth through grief

12-year-old Lydia Gessner knew something wasn’t right. Her father couldn’t stop shivering and nothing, not even the many blankets wrapped around him, could keep him warm. The panicking family called an ambulance and went to the local emergency room. For hours, Gessner nervously waited for the diagnosis in the hospital …

By Benjamin Walls
21st May 2024 • The Clarion

Skating to connection

Daniel Parkin strutted out onto the stage, microphone in hand and fake tattoo saying “90s” on his face. The Underground was full of students skating, singing and laughing. The song “The Anthem” by Good Charlotte came on over the speakers and Parkin starts to belt out the lyrics shown on …

By Alanna Voelker
21st May 2024 • The Clarion

Mini plants for mental health

Be Well at Bethel hosted an event to equip students with succulents to improve their well-being.

By Sadie Buteyn
21st May 2024 • The Clarion

Four laps, four girls, one team

Kelsie Sealock laces her neon pink spikes. She lifts her hands and says a prayer for clarity and guidance. It’s one lap. The sun is shining, the sky is blue for the first time in weeks and her team is on the sidelines. It’s one lap. She looks straight ahead …

By Taylor Hanson
20th May 2024 • The Clarion

More than the wins

The warm weather brings more than sunshine to the Ona Orth tennis courts of Bethel University. For the Royals’ women’s tennis team, it brings change, new opportunities and a chance at the MIAC championship title. Last season, the Royals got knocked out of the playoffs in the semifinals by Gustavus …

By Taylor Hanson
20th May 2024 • The Clarion

More than meets the eye

It’s 7:00 in the morning. Most people are probably still in bed, but not Lois Cordes. As she arrives at the Print Services desk, she flips on the lights, turns on her computer and goes through the printing queue, cranking out all the work as early as possible. When she’s …

By Samantha Wurm
15th May 2024 • The Clarion

Life after the Christian Ivy League

No one wants to be a transfer student. Especially not a mid-year, upperclassman transfer student. But even so, there I was, officially ending my gap year since leaving Wheaton College, the place I’d dreamed of since I was 13. My parents met at Wheaton. My brother went there. I can’t …

By Amy Holmberg
14th May 2024 • The Clarion

Leading Ladies in Film || The Perch Episode 1

By Kenna Jenkins
8th May 2024 • The Clarion

Embracing the challenge

Bethel University freshman Nainoa Hayashi fields the two-hop ground ball at third base and fires it toward freshman second baseman Loren Owan. Owan completes the around-the-horn double play with a throw to first during infield drills. It’s 8 p.m. on a Friday night, but instead of hanging out playing video …

By Cj Wrzesien
19th April 2024 • The Clarion

Johnson’s final game epitomizes legacy

[Editor’s note: The headline has been changed for clarity] Six NCAA Division III national championship flags pointed northeast as the orange streamers above each field goal post at Perkins Stadium in Whitewater, Wisconsin fluttered in the 13-mile-per-hour wind Saturday. The Bethel University Royals made the nearly five-hour drive to take …

By Cj Wrzesien
19th April 2024 • The Clarion

Chasing history

Chris McKelvie looks on from behind the bench as his Royals take a 4-0 lead over 10th-ranked St. Scholastica in their Feb. 2 matchup. At the west end of Bethel University Arena McKelvie sees the gold banner of the 2006-2007 Royals, the only team in program history to win a …

By Cj Wrzesien
19th April 2024 • The Clarion

Royals’ season survives, Johnson’s legacy kept alive

Steve Johnson paced around a huddle of Bethel University football players following the team’s 31-14 win over Concordia College. Johnson announced to his team Monday, and later to the Bethel community, that this season would be his last. While his career as a whole lives on for one more week, …

By Cj Wrzesien
19th April 2024 • The Clarion

Royals’ hockey earns sweep at the ROC

The Bethel women’s hockey team ended its weekend series against Marian University 2-0 with its 3-1 win Saturday at the Recreation Outdoor Center in St. Louis Park. The Royals came out strong offensively, outshooting the Sabres 14-2 and 1/3 on special teams in the first period. With three minutes left …

By Cj Wrzesien
19th April 2024 • The Clarion

Letting the past lead me

As I watched these stories of people sharing a Coke over a surprise birthday party, pregnancy announcement and proposal on a hot air balloon, I cried over how life felt so big and beautiful and wondered where my place was when I felt like such a mess.

By Anna Pearson
5th April 2024 • The Clarion

The language of swing

Christian Swenson finds both solace and opportunity in jazz music with the help of a good ear and a wide array of instruments.

By Anna Pearson
5th April 2024 • The Clarion

Gen-Z: The future of the church

“I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” After taking a ministry class at Wheaton College, Johnson couldn’t see herself in any other profession. But when people told her that they couldn’t support her ordination because of her gender …

By Samantha Wurm
3rd April 2024 • The Clarion

Facing the unexpected in Ecuador

Bethel’s longest-running January study abroad trip experienced stress during a national emergency.

By Anna Pearson
26th February 2024 • The Clarion

Feeling in color

Jayden Richards sat with his friends in the Monson Dining Center and observed fellow students grabbing meals and conversing with peers. People-watching – something that most students at Bethel University are guilty of. But not everyone sees people the same way. “It’s really funny when their colors don’t match,” Richards …

By Samantha Wurm
23rd February 2024 • The Clarion

Opening the conversation

Hailey DuPrée, Ilene Amayarapalo and Spencer Vang pull their chairs closer to one another. They just finished watching the 1955 Disney movie “Lady and the Tramp” in the Underground, and because the first Real Talk event of the spring semester is on Valentine’s Day, they have a discussion surrounding interracial …

By Samantha Wurm
23rd February 2024 • The Clarion

Football, family and C.S. Lewis

Oct. 30, 2023, six-time MIAC coach of the year and 252 game-winner Steve Johnson announced he would retire from coaching Bethel University football at the end of the season. Upon hearing this, one major question regarding the future of the program immediately arose around the Bethel community: Who will replace …

By Aiden Penner
22nd February 2024 • The Clarion

The widening path

Olga Lah took a few steps back. Her arms crossed and head tilted as she examined the extra cable wire hanging on one of the white walls of the Olson Gallery at Bethel University. For the last couple of days, she had been working on setting up her exhibit, “The …

By Angela Gonzalez
22nd February 2024 • The Clarion

Healing Cupid’s wound

I must warn you: I’m about to be cynical. A party pooper, if you will. I’m going to say it: I’m a Valentine’s Day hater. I think the only time I remember genuinely enjoying the frigid day in the middle of February was when I was in third grade and …

By Samantha Wurm
14th February 2024 • The Clarion