DEFELIX PRESENTS PAPER AT OXFORD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 3, 2010

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While most students headed home to spend time with family or to the beach to enjoy the sunshine during Spring Break, the Writing Center Director for The Baptist College of Florida (BCF) in Graceville, Deanie DeFelix, traveled to England.

Even though she was able to get in a little sight-seeing with her husband, DeFelix was in Oxford, England, to present a paper at the Oxford Round Table symposium. There are six different symposiums held each year, and this is the 20th year they have been held. According to their website, "The Oxford Round Table is an international educational organization whose purpose is to promote education, art, science, religion and charity." The spring event was held Sunday, March 28 through Friday, April 2.

This was not the first time DeFelix has attended the Round Table, but it was the first time she was a presenter. "I submitted an abstract in November of 2009 and it was accepted," stated DeFelix. The topic of her paper was "The Forgiveness Factor in the Lives of Various Literary Characters." It was a topic that she had been mulling over for years and has even encouraged her students to write on. There were 25 participants and all were given 15 minutes to present their papers before discussion sessions were opened.

This opportunity became a chance to share Christ with a very intellectual crowd who was open to listening to ideas about God, His Son, and the availability of forgiveness. Even though the Oxford website defines the Round Table discussion as "free-standing, apolitical and non-denominational," the topic of forgiveness could not have been presented without giving an explanation of how the characters understood and received it in their particular stories. According to DeFelix, the discussion opened an avenue for great debate among the professionals gathered in Oxford and was a very humbling and exciting experience for her.