Congratulations to Summertime and Springtime author, Ruth Van Reken, on her honorary degree — a Doctor of Letters — from Wheaton College for her lifelong and visionary advocacy for third culture kids.
Ruth seeks to help cross-cultural sojourners navigate their own paradoxical stories of pilgrimage, including the challenges of multiple cycles of separation and loss, while at the same time welcoming with joy the many gifts also received. With David C. Pollock and Michael V. Pollock, Ruth coauthored Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, widely considered the “TCK bible.”
Ruth Van Reken is the author of Letters Never Sent, and co-author of Third Culture Kids and Life in Motion.
Congratulations to Barbara-Anne Puren. Her delightful poetry book for children, 
Italy, a Romantic Journey is Award Winning Finalist in the Travel: Guides & Essays category of the 2018 International Book Awards. Well done to author and photographer, Rochelle Cheever.
Italy has always been a destination for travelers. For centuries, Rome was the caput mundi, center of the known world. Even after the fall of the empire, all roads led to Rome, the seat of the Catholic Church, a place of pilgrimage. In the 17th century, Italy became the primary destination of the Grand Tour, a trip essential for educating young men of means to experience Italy’s antiquity, art and architecture. But they saw more than they were sent to find. They saw sunlight, passion, a hunger for life. Why Italy? Because it is breathtaking. They say on the seventh day God didn’t rest, he created Italy.