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Professor accepts position in Indonesia
By Sarah Doughty
J-Lab Freelance Writer
Matt Lucas, Corban’s Dean of Education, will be moving with his family from Sublimity, Ore., to join the faculty in Jakarta, Indonesia, at the University Pelita Harapan (UPH).
Lucas visited UPH last October with President Reno Hoff, Provost Linda Samek and Director of Undergraduate Admissions Heidi Stowman to explore the option of Corban’s affiliation with UPH.
During their visit to Indonesia, Lucas spoke with the president at UPH and began to think about working at UPH himself. This wasn’t the first time Lucas considered the idea.
“We’d been talking before,” Lucas said. “I’d been kicking this idea around.”
Lucas has accepted a position as the Dean of Liberal Arts at UPH. In his new position, he will supervise philosophy, ethics, religion, leadership and humanities classes. He will also do some teaching, although he hasn’t been told which classes yet.
“I don’t have a lot of a clue about what is going on,” he said. “I’ll have some teaching responsibilities, but mostly administration.”
Lucas, his wife Tammy, and four daughters—aged 10, 7, and two 4-year-old twins—will move to Indonesia at the end of June.
“I grew up in Taiwan; I wanted to give my daughters the opportunity to grow up in a foreign country,” Lucas said.
The girls will be attending the K-12 school associated with UPH.
“They’re all ready to go,” Lucas said. “My wife is excited about the opportunity to be in a cross-cultural setting. We want to have a flexible enough schedule. That is one of the appeals of the job—to be able to travel in Southeast Asia quite inexpensively.”
Tammy Lucas has applied for a dorm-parent position, but the family won’t know whether she has the position until after they move to Indonesia. The family will be living in a house first.
“For her [Lucas’ wife] the biggest task is going to be getting our girls acclimatized to Indonesia,” Lucas said.
When asked how he feels about leaving Corban after four years of teaching, Lucas said, “I love what Corban stands for---my colleagues are wonderful. I’ll miss that. It’s home; I know it. But, I’ve been praying about this for quite some time.”
Lucas plans to further the relationship between UPH and Corban College. “I’ll be looking to bring people from here over there. Hopefully, I’ll be able to facilitate some of those faculty exchanges,” Lucas said. He noted that Dr. Jim Hills had mentioned interest in coming to teach at UPH.
Lucas is excited about the mission of UPH and his future involvement. “I’m going to see a different model for Christian education,” he said. He explained that there are two models—a Christian school which admits only Christians and a Christian school which admits some non-Christians.
“The university’s mission to change Indonesia for Christ excites me,” he said. “And they’re doing it.” Lucas explained that although it is a Muslim country, a majority of the students are Christians.
“It excites me to have Muslim students in my class, to stand for truth,” he said. “I just threw my hat in and it developed into us going. I’m glad to be going to do something different.”
