Professor Laura Holland challenges students
By Tasha Goode

The Faculty Member of the Year Award for 2001-2002 from the School of Arts and Sciences was awarded to drama professor Laura Holland for her contributions to the lives of her students.

While in high school, Holland believed she would become a singer. "I focused all of my high school career on music," she said. "As a senior in high school I attended a symposium at the University of Nebraska and was hand-picked by two professors. When I got to Nebraska, I made an elite singing group and I
really thought I was something."

Then came an event that changed her life. "A guy in the group came home from a vacation and told us his mom was freaked out on Jesus and he got saved too. Soon God got a hold of me and I became a Jesus freak."

After going to a piano lesson for which Holland had not prepared, her teacher told her to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. Soon after, someone showed Holland ORU as an option, but she was not convinced that this was where she needed to be.

"I prayed and I told God I wanted a letter from ORU by Friday if He wanted me to go there. A friend's mom sent in my name, and I got a letter that Friday inviting me to College Weekend," she said.

Holland arrived at ORU as a sophomore majoring in religious education. "I was miserable and it was because I was an artist. I asked God what He wanted me to do, and my next thought was [to playwrite]. I was interested in using theatre as an evangelistic tool."

Involvement with ORU's drama ministry team, Manna, helped Holland achieve that goal. "It expanded my definition of worship to include all that I do. It made me see that what God deserved was my best for worship." Holland received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Arts Education from ORU in 1974 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatrical Design from the University of Oklahoma in 1978. Holland has been teaching at ORU for 26 years.

Raised in a family of teachers, Holland originally wanted nothing to do with the profession, but soon discovered the joy of teaching when finances and her husband Bob's job relocation pushed her to enter the classroom.

"I practically had to be a teacher to make a living," Holland said. "I swore I would never be a teacher, but when I encouraged the spark for that first student, I was hooked. There's nothing better than using your tools to lead someone to enlightenment. That's what teaching is all about; to encourage someone to inspired learning. You are trying to lead them into their own discovery."

As Holland leads her students, she tells those who are thinking about an acting career to be prepared to make sacrifices. "It is a life that has to be an obsession, because it is not family-friendly or stable…If it challenges them, good. If I feed them anything else, I am teaching a pipe dream and it's a lie. Anyone who goes into the acting field without looking at it as a mission field is going to fail."

As a chair on the Board of Directors and the Southwest Regional Representative for Christians In Theatre Arts (C.I.T.A.), Holland said that Hollywood is ready for what Christians have to say, and Christians in the arts have an obligation to use the evangelistic talent God gave them.

"People want the answer. They want someone real enough to tell them the answer. We sin by not using our minds and the thought process…If I have one crusade, it is for people to discover that worship is the whole enchilada. We bury our thoughts instead of using them for the glory of God."

Throughout the years, Holland has successfully challenged her students to reach beyond the ordinary and the obvious to uncover the unknown. For Holland, teaching is more than a profession. "It is common sense, logic and discovering the inherent order that is already there, that God has put there."

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