Columbia College Affinity Magazine Winter 2018

Winter 2018

THE COLUMBIA COLLEGE ALUMNI MAGAZINE

a f f i n i t y

E H T UING

N O I T I TRAD

r nearly o f r e b m . monies to reme r e r a e e c y t 2017 a cemen e n d e a m m m College nationwide co ia b m lu 5 Co tes at 2 a u d a r 2,000 g

N I T N CO

THE COLUMBIA COLLEGE ALUMNI MAGAZINE

a f f i n i t y

FROM THE PRESIDENT Since the last issue of Affinity, Tina and I have met a number of alumni as we’ve continued our second tour of CC’s locations across the country. We have attended some great alumni events in 2017 and look forward to more in the upcoming months. If there is an event in your region, I hope you’ll attend.

a large event center. The upper three floors will house 150 students in a modern and comfortable residence space, with inviting lounges on each floor. It’s an innovative design that will serve us well for generations.

Back in Columbia, the Day Campus continues to grow — so much, in fact, that we no longer have enough space to house our students.

It’s clear that we need another residence hall, but there’s another need, too. The School of Business Administration is housed in Williams Hall, the college’s first building, built in 1849.

We love Williams and it’s not going anywhere, but it no longer seems fitting for a growing 21st-century business program.

If you can, I hope you will contribute to this exciting project. We’re grateful for help at all levels. You can engrave a brick on the building’s sidewalk for just $150. There are also opportunities to name various rooms and spaces for yourself or a loved one. If life has been super good to you, we can even talk about naming the building itself. See page 14 for details on how you can create a lasting legacy — and thank you.

There isn’t room on campus for two new buildings, but Cougars are not easily deterred.

We’re building one right on top of the other.

This spring, we will break ground on a new Academic and Residence Hall. The first floor will contain our School of Business Administration, six classrooms, two conference rooms and

Until next time,

Dr. Scott Dalrymple Columbia College President

Columbia College Board of Trustees 2017-2018 Chair Walter E. Bixby III ’82

Trustees

Mitchell R. Humphreys, MD

Lynne Stuver Baker ’64

Vice Chair Helen Dale Coe Simons ’65

June Viner Hurdle ’83

Lex R. Cavanah

Reverend Brad Stagg

Treasurer George W. Hulett Jr.

Jerry D. Daugherty

Gary A. Tatlow

Daisy Willis Grossnickle ’66

Matt Williams

Lt. Gen. Richard C. Harding

Carol J. Winkler ’93

David M. Hardy Jr.

Janet Carter Wright ’58

Secretary Jolene Marra Schulz ’61

CCAA Alumni Representative William J. Johnston ’82 Faculty Representatives Christina Ingoglia Ahoo Tabatabai

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22 4 2017 Homecoming Festivities

Inside the Gate First-Year Mentors lend a helping hand to new students, campus improvements continue with a new Academic and Residence Hall, and Cougars come back to Columbia for this year’s homecoming festivities.

My CCAA Christian College ladies convene for annual alumnae luncheon, and graduates show perseverance in the face of this summer’s hurricane season.

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Taking a Leadership Role in Health Care Ryan Frazier ‘02 takes a leadership role in health care through his new post at the American Hospital Association.

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Brothers in Brewing Kevin Lemp ‘02 and Judson Ball ‘07 are each flourishing at the Missouri craft breweries they helped found.

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We Are CC Columbia College holds year-round commencement ceremonies at its different Nationwide locations, but they all share the same CC flavor.

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Cougar Sports Zone Cougar Athletics welcomes in the Hall of Fame class of 2017, and all five fall teams earn AMC championships.

38 Celebrating Our Newest Alumni

48 No Place Like Home

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CC Notes Classmates share personal and professional updates.

a f f i n i t y Winter 2018 Managing Editor, Production & Design Carolyn Preul

On the Cover:

Snapshots from some of the 25 different commencement ceremonies Columbia College held in 2017 show the diversity of the school’s student body, which is on full display during its year-round graduation ceremonies.

Cover design by Carolyn Preul

Editorial Review Board Dr. Scott Dalrymple Sam Fleury Ann Merrifield Dr. Jeff Musgrove Suzanne Rothwell Dr. David Starrett

Lead Writer David Morrison

Photo Editor Kaci Smart ’09

Contributing Writers Drew Grzella ’01 Maria Haynie Beth McWilliams Bradley Meinke ’14 Barry Moffat Ann Muder Cindy Fotti Potter ’05

Contributing Photographers Kim Coke Cindy Fotti Potter ’05 Josh Rowan Patty Thompson

Affinity magazine is published biannually by the Columbia College Advancement Division (1001 Rogers St., Columbia MO 65216). For assistance, please contact Alumni Relations at (573) 875-ALUM (2586) or ccalum@ccis.edu. © 2017 All rights reserved.

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Inside the Gate

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THE COLUMBIA COLLEGE ALUMNI MAGAZINE

a f f i n i t y

A Helping Hand First-Year Mentor program matches upperclassmen with new students

BY DAVID MORRISON



PHOTOS BY KIM COKE

Freshman Hannah Ricketts is the oldest sibling in her family, so she’s the first to leave home for college.

Even though Columbia College’s main campus is just down Route B from her home in Hallsville, it’s still a different world. And, even though Ricketts’ mother, Shawn, graduated from Columbia College in 1992, things have changed a bit around campus since then.

So Hannah is happy to have her First-Year Mentor, senior chemistry major Leah Hoveln, to lean on.

“I already look up to her, and I just met her a couple months ago,” Hannah says. “I have no idea how anything works. It’s really nice talking to her about simple things.

It’s nice having an older sibling, I guess you could kind of say, who knows the ropes around here.”

Hoveln is one of eight upperclassmen who serve as FirstYear Mentors for new Columbia College students. Each First-Year Mentor is responsible for co-facilitating at least one Introduction to Columbia College (INCC) class — Hoveln and another mentor co-facilitate two — as well as arranging a half-hour meeting with each member of their new student cohort in the first weeks of the fall semester.

In the past, Community Consultants handled both the orientation events and the INCC classes. This year, for the first time, the group of student leaders split up into Orientation Leaders and First-Year Mentors. Ricketts is one of 33 students that Hoveln has in her group.

“I love Columbia College, and I want everyone to have the best experience they can have while they’re here,” Hoveln says. “I think it’s really important students know

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there is someone you can always go to. There are always resources available on campus. I just wanted to be a part of that and help make their transition to college and, hopefully, their next three or four years here better than they would have been otherwise.”

Kim Coke, who served as director of new student programs in the Student Affairs office before recently transferring to Student Support Services as an advisor, says First-Year Mentors come from two main sources.

Student leaders identify younger students in their groups who they think would make good mentors and recruit them. Freshmen and sophomores also approach Coke and ask for ways in which they can get involved.

Each student applies for a position and goes through an interview process to see where their skills would be best utilized. They also go through a preparatory course in the spring that primes them on topics such as peer advising, community building, active listening and handling crisis situations. By the fall, they’re ready to be role models for the new students.

“Between the Orientation Leaders and the First-Year Mentors, they really set the climate on campus as far as how our culture is going to be. We definitely want it to be a caring culture,” Coke says. “I think they’re phenomenal.

They put themselves out there quite a bit and really do great work.”

The new students get a built-in support structure as soon as they arrive on campus. The mentors, too, get to learn skills that will help them in their careers.

Hoveln says that her time in the FirstYear Mentor program has given her valuable experience in contributing to a cohesive group of mentors, as well as taking a leadership role with the students she helps guide.

Coke hopes that all of the mentors are getting a multifaceted experience that they can build on for the rest of their lives.

“It’s all the non-tangibles of being in a position where you’re helping others, growing through that process, where you truly are role-modeling for other students on campus,” Coke says. “There is the part where they’re “I love Columbia gaining skills that they College, and I want can apply into their career, everyone to have then there’s the other part that’s really about the best experience the relationships they they can have while build and the growth that they’re here.” comes from that.”

— Leah Hoveln

Hoveln took the LSAT in the fall and plans to go to law school to study patent law.

Ricketts, a member of the Cougars track team, is a biology major on a pre-med track. She is interested in pediatrics, but says that could change in the future.

They’re developing a bond through the First-Year Mentor program, one that Ricketts hopes she can duplicate as an upperclassman in a couple of years.

“It’s just kind of cool because I was a senior mentor to the incoming freshmen [at Hallsville High School], so now it’s reverse roles,” Ricketts says. “I’m glad I have Leah as someone to talk to.”

Inside the Gate

Eight upperclassmen serve as FirstYear Mentors for new Columbia College day students. From left: Kristin Tatters, Caroline Kelly, Reagan Paterson, Marina Heard, Stephanie Layton, Leah Hoveln, Chris Harris and Ethan Veit

Inside the Gate

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Retrace your

TRACKS

HOMECOMING OCTOBER 7, 2017

PHOTOS BY KIM COKE & KACI SMART ’09

Current and former Day Campus student leaders were invited to “Donuts with Dynamos,” hosted by the Columbia College Alumni Association and Columbia College Student Affairs. The breakfast gave students and alumni the chance to find out how today’s student leaders are making a difference for the next generation.

Becca Kunce ’11, Austin Miller ’11 & ’12, Nollie Moore (director of the music program) and Derrick Carson ’14 Jillian Wilson ’14, Jessica Houston ’14 and Anni Villeme ’13

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From left, Cougar Club members Bob and Judy Bryant and Judy and Rick Schwentker (parents of former Cougar volleyball player Sarah Schwentker ’15) take in the alumni scrimmages.

Cougar fans celebrated victories for the men’s and women’s soccer teams.

Seniors Ethan Veit and Rachel Sullivan were crowned the 2017 homecoming king and queen. Veit was sponsored by the Honors Student Association and PreHealthcare Professionals Club. Sullivan was sponsored by the Student Government Association.

Cougar Athletics hosted team scrimmages and alumni games for men’s basketball, women’s basketball, softball and baseball throughout the day.

Inside the Gate

The homecoming festival included inflatables, caricature artists, face painting, henna tattoo artists, a photo booth and live music for students, alumni, family and friends.

Inside the Gate

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Fall Artist Reception

BY ANN MUDER



PHOTO BY KACI SMART ’09

An artist reception on the Friday afternoon of Homecoming Weekend celebrated the work of two Columbia College alumni. Alexis Dwyer ’11 and Dan Gemkow ’05 both spoke about their artwork on display at the Greg Hardwick Gallery and Sidney Larson Gallery on Columbia College’s main campus.

“Casey Land Rambles”

Dwyer’s exhibition, “Casey Land Rambles,” is a collection of art that explores the outdoors. Her artwork depicts nature found in a plot of undeveloped land at Iowa State University in Ames. She uses a variety of mediums that bring the audience fully into the experience, including plaster casts of animal footprints, plates imprinted with plant life and large hanging prints of forest scenery. The exhibition also includes audio recorded from nature, with birds singing and the crunch of leaves underfoot, to give the audience the experience of being at the site.

BY ALEXIS DWYER ’11

Dwyer received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and Printmaking at Columbia College in 2011 and a Master of Fine Arts from Iowa State University in 2016.

Dwyer says she was inspired by nature as a child when her grandparents and parents would take her camping at state and national parks. “It helped me recognize the “Fleabane-Intaglio” (2016)

“UnknownIntaglio” (2016)

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BY DAN GEMKOW ’05

importance of going outside,” she says. “There’s so much noise today, but there’s a humbling feeling of being present in the moment. Each of us is important, but we’re part of something much bigger.”

Dwyer’s prints have also been exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Hong Kong Graphic Arts Fiesta and the annual Paper in Particular National Exhibition.

For Gemkow, inspiration came from long bus trips and the passengers he met along the way. In his last year of graduate school, he was looking for a new project and decided to buy a bus pass and head west. His exhibition, entitled “In Transit,” is a collection of photographs taken of fellow passengers, particularly those traveling over a long distance with frequent stops for breaks and layovers.

Melbourne, Australia

“At first, I imagined the project would be a series of landscapes seen while traveling by bus,” he says.

“However, I met many people along the way who physically expressed the human experience of a multipleday bus trip. The portraits embodied a quality that I think more effectively communicated the experience.”

Gemkow received two degrees from Columbia College — a Bachelor of Science in 1997 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography in 2005.

Sajjad, Adealide, South Australia

Since he started in 2011, Gemkow estimates he has traveled 50,000 miles in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Australia to take portraits for the project. He is planning to continue the project in Europe in 2018.

Gemkow’s photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, including the Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, Oregon, and the Kaunas Photo Festival in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Explore the artists’ work online at www.alexisdwyerstudio.com and www.dangemkow.com.

Raylene, South Australia

Inside the Gate

“In Transit”

Inside the Gate

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Saluting Our Veterans

BY DAVID MORRISON



PHOTOS BY KACI SMART ’09

Columbia College served more than 9,400 active-duty servicemembers, veterans and dependents during the 2016-17 school year. During Veterans Week, from November 6-10, 2017, the college community wrote “thank you” notes to veterans and decorated Bass Commons on main campus with nearly 3,000 miniature American flags, one for each victim of the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

On November 10, the day before Veterans Day, director of Veterans Services Keith Glindemann led a remembrance ceremony in which the names of the 33 servicemembers who lost their lives in the past year were read. Behind him, ceiling-to-floor banners displayed the names of all 6,930 American servicemembers who have been killed in the 16 years of war since the 9/11 attacks. The college also held a flag-raising ceremony on Bass Commons, participated in a national moment of silence and turned on the lights on the Military Service Tree.

College News Partnership works to make education and home ownership a reality for veterans Columbia College and Veterans United Home Loans announced a partnership designed to assist Veterans United’s clients further their education while helping members of Columbia College’s veteran population achieve their aspirations of owning a home.

Through the partnership, Veterans United now offers Columbia College veteran students, alumni, faculty and staff the opportunity to utilize the company’s Home Buyer Select Program, which offers savings on the total amount of their home loan. Columbia College is also offering a tuition discount to Veterans United’s borrowers, employees and their spouses.

“Columbia College and Veterans United are truly at the forefront of serving veterans and their families in two important areas: education and home ownership,” Columbia College President Scott Dalrymple says. “This partnership can make a major impact on our alumni, faculty, staff and students who have served our country. It also allows us to work with an entity that provides a much-needed service to veterans and is one of the most philanthropic-minded businesses in the country.”

Based in Columbia, Missouri, Veterans United is a full-service national lender.

Its mission is to help veterans and service members achieve the dream of homeownership. For more information, call (573) 875-7643.

Matt Williams named to college’s board of trustees Matt Williams, the newest member of the Columbia College Board of Trustees, has served as the regional president of Landmark Bank since October 2014, a role in which he oversees the bank’s Columbia market while also managing its Columbia commercial lending department. Before coming to Landmark Bank, he worked more than 20 years in the banking industry.

“Matt’s business savvy and feel for the economic climate in mid-Missouri will certainly be a welcome addition to the board,” says board chair Web Bixby, who announced Williams’ seat on July 1, 2017. “He brings more than two decades of experience in the banking industry to the table, and we are excited have him join our team.”

“During my 25 years in the Columbia community, I have marveled at the evolution of this extraordinary institution,” Williams says. “I am honored to serve on the Columbia College Board of Trustees and look forward to working with each of my fellow trustees and President [Scott] Dalrymple.”

Inside the Gate

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More Knowledge, A Deeper Understanding The 2017 Schiffman Lecture in Religious Studies highlights complications of religion in war

BY DAVID MORRISON



PHOTOS BY KACI SMART ’09

Lt. Gen. Richard C. Harding circled behind the lectern on the stage at Columbia College’s Launer Auditorium and gazed out into the crowd before him.

“They say that there are two things you shouldn’t talk about in public: politics and religion,” Harding told the more than 350 students, faculty, staff and community members gathered for the 16th annual Althea W. and John A. Schiffman Lecture in Religious Studies on Oct. 3, 2017.

“Guess what we’re going to talk about today?”

Harding’s lecture, titled “Religion Goes to War,” expanded on his experiences over a 34-year Air Force career that ended at his retirement in 2014, as well as a childhood spent

Lt. Gen. Richard C. Harding, a retired 34-year Air Force veteran and Columbia College trustee, gave the 2017 Schiffman Lecture in Religious Studies.

living all over the world as the son of an Air Force officer.

He’s seen it while huddling in a trench as a child, listening to bombs fall around him in the Peshawar province of Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. He’s seen it while investigating a suicide bombing as the Judge Advocate General of the Air Force at an airfield in 2011, during the still ongoing war in Afghanistan. Religion and armed conflict don’t mix well.

“Religion in war is a troublesome concept. It aggravates the conflict,” Harding said. “It’s difficult to negotiate over religious differences, particularly when both sides have declared war against each other in the belief that they’re defending their own religion. [Religious wars] don’t end. The fighting stops with a ceasefire, but the feelings and the hatred tend to remain.”

Harding, who is a member of the Columbia College Board of Trustees, spoke for nearly 45 minutes, mostly on the current conflict between the Western world and the Middle East and how the injection of Christianity and Islam has complicated matters.

about these things,” Alioto said. “It’s refreshing to hear someone with the observational powers that he has and the keen mind that he has, but also adds a bit of reason to these issues of religion and war.”

Harding said it’s foolhardy to refer to terrorist organizations such as alQaida and the Islamic State group as examples of “radical Islamic terrorism,” because these groups are criminal organizations that use a perversion of Islam to justify their means.

“There’s a silent majority in Islam, 1.6 billion people, where we’re at war with less than 1 percent of that.

The rest don’t want to see this violence.”

– Lt. Gen. Richard Harding “The message gets back to the Middle East that this is a war against some portion of Islam, when it’s not. It’s a war against a criminal cartel,” Harding said. “There’s a silent majority in Islam, 1.6 billion people, where we’re at war with less than 1 percent of that. The rest don’t want to see this violence.

They want to see it go away.”

Dr. Anthony Alioto, Columbia College’s Schiffman Chair in Ethics, Religious Studies and Philosophy, said Harding is a worthy addition to the pantheon of speakers who have helped the college community generate discussions on religion’s role in the world during the history of the lecture series.

He ended with a bit of advice from the teachings of all “people of the book:” Christian, Jewish and Muslim.

“Not only does he have observations that many of us have not, but he has a keen mind in the way he thinks

Learn more about the Althea W. and John A. Schiffman Lecture Series at www.ccis.edu/schiffmanlecture.

“The message is always the same. Listen to the message. Love one another,” Harding said. “Wouldn’t the world be a better place if the ‘people of the book’ actually honored that message?”

Inside the Gate

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Forward Progress Dr. Peggy Wright shares her passion for ichthyology, research design and the future of General Education

BY MARIA HAYNIE



PORTRAIT BY KACI SMART ’09

There are more than 14 zoos and aquariums in the state of Missouri, and Dr. Peggy Wright, assistant professor of biology, shares stories about her personal experiences at each one with her Columbia College students.

It doesn’t take long for her students to realize which creature their professor is most interested in: fish.

“I firmly believe that fish are the most fascinating organisms,” Wright says. “I try to offer ichthyology, the study of fishes, at least every other year, and this is the course I’m most passionate about. I also really enjoy teaching zoology, where I can explore all animal life and weave in concepts of evolution.”

“I firmly believe that fish are the most fascinating organisms.”

– Dr. Peggy Wright

Her own career evolution has taken turns that surprised her. While her love of fish and animals was clearly strong enough for her to pursue bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in fisheries and wildlife from the University of Missouri-Columbia, she did not expect to spend her career as a professor.

“I came to Columbia College in 2002, originally as the science lab coordinator,” says Wright. “I was soon teaching part-time for the

department. Right around the time I completed my Ph.D., I was hired on as full-time faculty. Although I never planned on teaching being my career, now I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

The committee’s research included a survey of faculty, staff, students and administrators. Armed with this feedback, they set out to define goals and outcomes that will define the new General Education program.

After 15 years with Columbia College, her interest in fish survives, but so does her other passion: research design. For the past several years, Wright has been researching with students about the effect of bisphenol A on organisms including fish, fruit flies, tiny crustaceans and plants. Bisphenol A is commonly found in plastics and household products, but it “has the potential to disrupt normal hormone function in a wide variety of organisms, including humans,” according to Wright.

Then, the committee moved forward in two directions. Faculty used the new goals and outcomes to revisit their department’s courses and propose which courses might serve those goals. At the same time, the committee was working with a larger group of faculty and staff to develop the overall curriculum model for the program.

“As I lead students through designing and implementing a semester-long research project, I can fully explore my love of statistics,” says Wright.

“We showcase the results of this work each year as part of the Science Symposium in the spring.”

Outside of the classroom, Wright is currently serving as the co-chair of the General Education Steering Committee. The committee has spent more than a year developing potential revisions to the General Education program “with the hope that we can suggest a new, innovative curriculum that will serve Columbia College into the future,” explains Wright.

The first step was defining which skills and abilities all Columbia College graduates should possess.

“It has been a challenge to address the many concerns from our diverse learning community, especially how to develop a program that works for all venues and for transfer students,” says Wright. “The conversations about General Education and how we can provide all students with the skills they need to succeed in the world today have been a focus for me this past year.”

The interest in research and animal life extends into Wright’s family life and hobbies as well. This year, Wright celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary with her husband, Ray, who is a research specialist with Mizzou’s Agricultural Experiment Station. Together they have four children: two daughters, both juniors in college studying Japanese and physics; another daughter who is a junior in high school; and a 12-yearold son. In addition to raising their children, the family raises wheat, milo and sheep on their 60-acre farm in Cooper County, Missouri.

Inside the Gate

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Campus Life Columbia College’s new Academic and Residence Hall is a sign of the college’s continued growth and commitment to the student experience.

Classroom

Commons Area

Lobby

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Naming a classroom, office or other space on campus honors your legacy and demonstrates the power of alumni, faculty, staff, community and friends’ support for the next generation. Contact the Office of Development at (573) 875-7563 for details on how you can make a difference in the lives of our students!

Event Space

Terrace

Inside the Gate

Columbia College’s Day Campus enrollment has grown nearly 20 percent over the past two years, making additional student housing a priority. The approximately 60,000-square foot Academic and Residence Hall will serve as a home for our students for years to come. The four-story building, which will also house our School of Business Administration, will be located just north of Brown Hall and south of R. Marvin Owens Field. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held in May, and the building is scheduled to open in August 2019.

Inside the Gate

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Giving Back

eScholarship: A $1,000, one-time scholarship helps students with the cost of tuition, books and fees

BY BETH MCWILLIAMS

The eScholarship is designed to reward outstanding achievement in online study at Columbia College. Consideration will be given to those applicants who, in addition to meeting the minimum criteria, demonstrate a history of academic excellence and personal growth as a result of taking online courses with Columbia College.

Requirements include: • Successful completion of three online courses with Columbia College within the current academic year • Minimum of 21 credit hours completed with Columbia College (online or in seat) • Minimum 3.5 cumulative Columbia College GPA

Antione Comer ’17 was one of 51 Columbia College students to receive a $1,000 eScholarship in 2015.

A retired hospital corpsman first class in the United States Navy, Comer completed a Bachelor of Science at Columbia College-Lake County.

Pictured from left: Captain A.C. Newton, Christine Angel ’13 (Columbia College academic advisor), Comer, Jessica Stidham (Columbia College academic advisor) and Captain Jim Hawkins (commander, Naval Station Great Lakes).

“I am pleased to be a regular contributor to the Columbia College Student Scholarship Fund. It’s a great feeling knowing I may have helped a student attend Columbia College who otherwise may not have had the financial resources to do so. I would encourage all faculty, alumni and friends to give at least something each month in helping to make a difference in students’ lives and the continued success of Columbia College. Your contributions do make a difference.”

— Eric Oglesby, adjunct instructor and donor

$21,440.75 Total given to the online eScholarship

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Total number of donors to the online eScholarship

32

Number of student recipients during the 2016-17 academic year

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Inside the Gate

President’s Society

BY DAVID MORRISON



PHOTOS BY KACI SMART ’09

Columbia College honors its donors and philanthropists whose contributions support our mission and help advance our vision. The President’s Society recognizes our major benefactors, whose commitment aids both current students and future leaders.

This year’s edition of the annual President’s Society Dinner and Induction Ceremony, held Sept. 21, 2017, honored 26 members, who were inducted into the President’s Society or upgraded to a higher giving level, in front of 130 attendees during a memorable evening. The Columbia College Chamber Choir, conducted by Nollie Moore, performed.

Through vision, leadership and consideration for the future of Columbia College, members of the President’s Society have joined the institution’s hallowed tradition of providing a quality education to a diverse student body. These contributors have proven their philanthropic partnership with Columbia College, setting a standard for commitment and providing a lasting legacy to the college.

New and upgraded members of the President’s Society were recognized at this year’s annual dinner and induction ceremony. Honorees included: (top row from left) Dr. Sarah Vordtriede-Patton, Mary Bell Stixrud ’72, Nollie Moore, Tim Ireland and Warren and Karen Harms; (bottom row from left) Drs. Scott and Tina Dalrymple, Web Bixby ’82 and Tracy Bixby, Gary Tatlow and Dr. Joyce Gentry.

Inside the Gate

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Dr. Walter M. Brown Jr. He’s not done learning.

BY MARIA HAYNIE   

PHOTO BY PAT TY THOMPSON, ONE:EIGHT PRODUCTIONS

A half dozen associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees complete Dr. Walter Brown Jr.’s collection, but he’s still not done learning.

He knows a thing or two about books. The foundation for his own studies began at a young age, as he drew inspiration from his father’s carefully curated personal library.

The difference is that now he learns through teaching.

“I developed my passion for education from my now deceased father, Rev. Dr. Walter M. Brown Sr.,” says Brown. “His attic contained over 5,000 books, and I declare he knew every one of them. He was a lifelong learner and earned two masters’, earning his Ph.D. after the age of 60.”

“Every time I teach, and in every class, I learn just as much from them as they, hopefully, learn from me,” says Brown, adjunct faculty instructor of the Religion and the Human Experience course at Columbia College-Jacksonville in Florida.

“They teach me just what people are willing to sacrifice to earn important academic affirmation,” Brown says.

“They have taught me not to judge a book by its cover.”

Brown Jr. set off to earn his first degree from Atlanta Junior College.

After achieving his associate in science, he went on to Georgia State University. He graduated with his bachelor’s degree in social work before embarking on what

would become a trio of master’s degrees: a Master of Divinity from the Interdenominational Theological Center, a Master of Theology from Emory University and a Master of Arts in Counseling from Webster University. Lastly, his sixth degree, a Doctor of Ministry, came from Columbia Theological Seminary.

Brown holds a deep reverence for growing in knowledge and capability.

“I, like my father before me, love learning,” says Brown. “My degrees also confirm my dedication to my profession. I believe the more I give God to work with, through my degrees and training, the more God can use me in teaching and preaching. Finally, I want to be taken seriously about the topic so near and dear to my heart: religion!”

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Inside the Gate

“I love the exchange with prepared students and the ‘newness’ of each beginning class.”

– Dr. Walter Brown Jr. His enthusiasm for religion and teaching is evident in his interactive teaching style and the lively discussions he facilitates with his students. His teaching philosophy is to empower students to form and articulate informed, respectful opinions through research and study.

He then invites students to challenge him as the teacher. He places a great emphasis on preparation for each class, for both himself and for students.

“I love how much I learn from preparing to teach,” says Brown. “I am required to study in order to present with integrity. I love the exchange with prepared students and the ‘newness’ of each beginning class.”

Brown also applies his interest in people, teaching and religion to his work beyond the classroom. He is the pastor and founder of a Jacksonville church, Bethany Ministries, and is the senior pastor and founder of an association of ministries. He also serves as the associate chaplain for the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies.

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Learning, Thinking, Doing Computer science graduates position themselves for a place in the tech workforce

BY DAVID MORRISON



PORTRAIT BY KACI SMART ’09

Coming from his background as a mathematics major, Ryan Ellebracht ’05 & ’07 was used to arriving at solutions in one predetermined manner. You have the numbers, you plug them into the equations, you get the correct answers on the other end.

He took that approach in his Introduction to Programming class with the Computer Science department as a senior in 2005.

He would write code that yielded the right functions, but he’d seek advice from Associate Professor of

Computer Science Dr. Yihsiang Liow on the “correct” route to the finish.

“He was like, ‘Does it work?’ I was like, ‘It does work like it’s supposed to, but I took a weird way to get there.’ And he was like, ‘It’s correct, then. It works,’” Ellebracht says. “It was kind of a mind-blowing way to think, coming from math.”

After graduating with a degree in math, Ellebracht took classes part-time over the next two years to earn his computer science

degree in 2007. Now he’s the data solutions manager at Alight Analytics, a marketing metrics data aggregation company based in Kansas City.

The technical aspect — the nuts and bolts of programming — is one part of a computer science education.

What Columbia College’s program allowed Ellebracht to do, though, was deeper than that.

“It’s more about developing the way to problem-solve and think

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faculty members and department alumni, so they could get a little glimpse into their future.

about a certain thing,” Ellebracht says. “Dr. Liow and [former department chair Dr. Larry] West were really good at this. It’s learning where you don’t really think you’re learning stuff, but then you’re like, ‘Oh, I get it now! That makes sense!’”

Liow took over as head of the computer science program at Columbia College when West retired in 2010. He says the school’s course offerings are centered on teaching students how to critically think through the type of situations that would face them in a work environment, as well as equipping them with the verbal skills to interview for jobs, work as part of a team and explain their work in a way that anyone can understand.

At the department’s fall welcome luncheon in September, students got the chance to interact with

“It allows the students to connect with the graduates. [Alumni] know what they’re going through, the difficulties they’re going through, and they have advice for them,” Liow says. “It’s partly for networking, partly for the students here to see the light at the end of the tunnel and to see that our graduates are successful. It helps them to push themselves and apply themselves to their studies.”

Liow says graduates of the computer science program are currently working at such prominent companies as IBM, Google, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, HP, Cerner and Microsoft.

MidwayUSA, the outdoor products store based in Columbia, Missouri, has one of the largest tech staffs in area. Five of its six information technology managers are Columbia College graduates.

“People who have degrees from Columbia College, they have learned how to learn instead of just answering questions, like we see from a lot of other schools’ graduates,” says Dan Stokes, MidwayUSA’s development operations manager and a 2007 Columbia College alumnus.

Liow says the main focus of his department is training software developers and engineers. Nearly all of the students in his upper-level classes are required to complete a major programming project as part of the curriculum, then present it to the rest of the computer science students during finals week.

The department provides opportunities to learn for students of all ages. It hosts a game day in which the students gather to play games programmed by fellow students, a daylong programming contest for local high school students, an Intro to Programming crash course for middle school students and a summer computer science camp for elementary schoolers.

The career prospects for computer science students are virtually limitless, especially for those who can troubleshoot and communicate in addition to developing software.

“One day, if they’re a manager, they need to manage people and express themselves clearly,” Liow says. “They need technical skills from a [computer science] program, the ability to interact and work in a group effectively, the ability to lead, get in front and talk and give a public presentation.”

Inside the Gate

“[The fall welcome luncheon is] partly for networking, partly for the students here to see the light at the end of the tunnel and to see that our graduates are successful.”

– Dr. Yihsiang Liow

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THE COLUMBIA COLLEGE ALUMNI MAGAZINE

My CCAA

a f f i n i t y

A Time for Change The cover story of this issue features the graduation ceremonies and traditions of Columbia College. I participated in my first Columbia College commencement back in 1999 after completing my bachelor’s degree at main campus. I clearly remember lining up with other graduates on Bass Commons for the Ivy Chain ceremony and the sharing of “rose notes” with family and friends who helped me along the way.

As Columbia College alumni, we all have our own graduation experiences.

Since becoming an active member of the CCAA, I have had the opportunity to participate in many ceremonies nationwide. I am continually impressed by how well our alma mater brings unique Columba College elements to each celebration.

Columbia College-Patrick Air Force Base, located near Cocoa Beach, Florida, conducted its graduation at a beachside hall. Graduates had the opportunity to share rose notes, and they were each given lapel pins to symbolize the Ivy Chain ceremony. It was a great experience to meet the graduates,

staff and faculty, and to offer the alumni charge at the end of the ceremony.

Columbia College-Orlando hosted an equally impressive ceremony at a large auditorium downtown. I could feel the energy and decibels generated by family and friends as their graduates crossed the stage.

I am honored to have participated in the commencement receptions hosted by the CCAA, where everyone can celebrate together and take pictures to remember this special occasion.

As the college expands and our community of alumni grows, we will continue to celebrate our history and traditions. Regardless of where we make our journey, our diplomas declare the same message: We are all graduates of Columbia College.

Columbia College Alumni Association Advisory Board President Joshua Muder ’99 Day Campus Vice President Jonathan Dudley ’10 Day Campus Board of Trustees Alumni Representative Bill Johnston ’82 Day Campus Advisors Sonya Garrett ’96 St. Louis Marjorie Thomas Gutelius ’69 Christian College Bill Leeper ’04 NAS Jacksonville Chris Lievsay ’09 & ’11 Kansas City Lollie Zander Reed ’68 Christian College Ed Sasan ’11 Redstone Arsenal Lisa Kowalewski Sweeney ’05 Day campus Norris Tanner ’10 Kansas City

Joshua Muder ’99 CCAA Advisory Board President ccaaprez@ccis.edu

Carol Winkler ’93 Evening Campus Director of Alumni Relations Ann Merrifield Executive Director of Advancement Suzanne Rothwell

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Career Corner

Stand Up & Stand Out

BY DAN GOMEZ-PALACIO

In today’s competitive job market, use these tips to break through the crowd and get noticed by potential employers.

Meet recruiters in person.

Build your network.

Part of the frustration in the job hunt is the dehumanizing aspect. You are reduced to a sheet of paper or online profile. One way to overcome this is to meet recruiters face-to-face, where you can expand on your experience and make a stronger impression.

Look for local career fairs in your community or at colleges that are open to the public. Additionally, virtual career fairs are becoming much more common and can be a unique way to speak with employers.

I always recommend strengthening your LinkedIn account as a way to connect with professionals. Build up your personal network and see what connections you have in your aspired field. Invite contacts to coffee or request a short phone call or Skype chat to learn more about their employers. If you have contacts at a specific organization, touch base individually to see what suggestions they can give you to make yourself stand out.

Get involved in a professional association.

Most industries have a local chapter of a professional association where you can get involved. Organizations such as the Society for Human Resources Management, Association of State CPAs and Public Relations Society of America have regional groups that you can join, become a volunteer and attend events.

Depending on your field, there may be ways for you to volunteer to gain experience. Contact your local United Way to find organizations that need help.

Everything from event planning, accounting, mentoring, teaching: chances are an organization could use your help. Personal experiences will expand your network and build up your resumé.

Register for Handshake.

Handshake is a new online tool available to all Columbia College alumni and students. On average, users can find over 2,500 job, internship and fellowship opportunities with employers from every state! Learn more at www.ccis.edu/handshake.

Practice interviewing.

If you have been going on interviews but they are not resulting in offers, try practicing your interviewing skills with a professional or even a friend.

You need someone who can give you honest feedback on your responses, body language and confidence levels. You can also record yourself answering questions and gauge your behavior. Is negativity creeping into your answers? Do you stay on point and highlight your skills and accomplishments? Interviewing is a skill that takes repetition and practice; the more you work on it, the better you will be.

Dan Gomez-Palacio is the director of the Grossnickle Career Services Center. Career counseling, networking and resumé assistance are available free of charge to all students and alumni. To get started, contact Career Services at (800) 231-2391 ext. 7425 or visit www.ccis.edu/careercenter.

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Time. Talent.

Treasure.

Volunteer Spotlight

Chris Unnerstall ’14

BY ANN MUDER

Chris Unnerstall ’14 is used to giving financial advice as part of his job. Now, he’s helping give advice to Columbia College students interested in a financial career.

Chris, who earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration through the Columbia College Evening Campus, works as financial advisor and assistant vice president at Commerce Brokerage Services in Columbia, Missouri. In 2016 he reached out to the Office of Alumni Relations to find ways to volunteer. “I really wanted to help out fellow students and find opportunities to give back to the school,” Unnerstall says.

The first volunteer opportunity came at the college’s annual Speed Networking event. Chris and other professionals paired up with students, sitting down one-on-one to talk for a few minutes about career advancement questions, such as preparing for interviews and learning skills for the workplace. The event helps students make new business contacts through short meetings. “We advise [the students] to ask us questions so they feel like they’re here to interview us, rather than the other way around,” says Unnerstall.

School of Business Administration Advisory Council.

The council, formed in 2017, meets two or three times a year to discuss ways to enhance education and career opportunities for students in the school.

The council acts “as a sounding board for the dean and faculty as they develop and implement a strategic plan,” says Dr. Shanda Davis, dean of the School of Business Administration. “It provides another set of eyes and ears as goals are developed.”

The professionals on the council use their expertise to connect the school with the surrounding Columbia-area business community. One of their goals is to encourage interactive learning for students. “With the further advancement of technology and people glued to their screens, it’s important to know how to communicate,” Unnerstall says. “We hope to bring in more professionals to interact with the students in a space that doesn’t feel like a classroom.”

For Columbia College alumni looking for ways to volunteer, Unnerstall suggests contacting the Office of Alumni Relations. “Ask about the opportunities,” he says. “For instance, if you hear about ‘Speed Networking,’ you might think of speed dating but have no idea what they’re trying to do. Don’t just go by the title on the website. Ask Alumni Relations to put you in contact with someone like myself to ask questions.”

volunteer Unnerstall took on an additional volunteer opportunity when he was asked to join the new

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A Kansas City Tradition PHOTOS BY CAROLYN PREUL

Originally founded as Christian Female College, Columbia College was the first women’s college west of the Mississippi River to be chartered by a state legislature. In 1970, it changed from a two-year women’s college to a fouryear coeducational college and changed its name to Columbia College. For 17 years, Christian College alumnae in the Kansas City area have gathered for a luncheon to reconnect with friends and celebrate the college’s heritage. #1

Christian College Alumnae Luncheon, Oct. 12, 2017

#2

1. From left: Barbara Rathbun Tucker ’59, Dolores Easley and Suzanne Wann Holdren ’59

#3

2. Historical presentation by Archives Collection Manager Bradley Meinke ’14

#4

3. College update by Provost David Starrett and board of trustees member Lynne Stuver Baker ’64 4. From left: Karen Hockaday Avery ’57, Janice Bodenhausen Simpson ’58, Nancy Miller ’57 and Cheryl Elbe Ward ’57

Christian College

REUNION WEEKEND MAY 4–5, 2018 Main Campus • Columbia, Missouri

Honor Classes: 1938, 1948, 1958 & 1968 www.columbiacollegealumni.org/reunionweekend

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Supporting Our Own Positivity and perseverance are two words that come to mind when I think about Columbia College alumni, especially those affected by hurricanes in Florida, Texas, Georgia and Puerto Rico. Read some of the responses to an email we sent expressing our concern, and I think you’ll agree.

“Thank you for your prayers. We are survivors!

We have minor damage, but a lot of people have a lot of damages. Thank you and God bless America.”

“Thanks a lot on behalf of my family and me. We didn’t have serious damages, some other folks unfortunately did. We helped our neighbors to overcome this catastrophe and the entire community was very helpful, the most important thing was that we [are] all alive, and that’s what matters. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, from my family to my Columbia College Alumni family.”

“We treasure the prayers and appreciate you thinking of us. All of our family and friends survived and are safe. Our home flooded, our cars were totaled, and it will take us nine to 12 months to restore and rebuild. We have been greatly blessed throughout this challenging time. Many people came to help us with the demo — friends, family, co-workers, church family, my son’s church family, men from a prison ministry I have been involved in, men and women from an international bible study we have been involved in and even strangers from as far away as Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, etc. Our blessings include the resources to rebuild and to help some others do that.”

“Thank you for thinking of us here in Jacksonville, Florida.

We did not get a lot of damage, thank you, but the west coast of Florida took the brunt of the hurricane. I was praying too (!!!), believe me, especially when the red sections were getting close to my house. God is good, and he protected us.”

These alumni lost so much, but they kept positive attitudes and shared how blessed they felt.

Humbling, isn’t it? And doesn’t it make you even prouder of your Columbia College family?

I know it does to me. According to Dr. Scott Healy with the Annapolis Institute, “Life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we react to it. It is in our reaction that the challenge lies for us every day of our lives.” Let’s continue to send well wishes to all of our family members that are reacting with positivity and perseverance, because as you know ... We are CC! Ann Merrifield Director of Alumni Relations amerrifield@ccis.edu

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alumni awards N O M I N A T I O N S TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THE 2018 ALUMNI AWARDS, NOMINATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY MARCH 2, 2018.

Columbia College alumni are special people who do amazing things, and we want to celebrate them.

Whether they demonstrate outstanding service to Columbia College, contribute to their community or excel in their profession, all CC alumni are eligible to be nominated for the awards. Read about previous award winners at www.columbiacollegealumni.org/nomination.

DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Attained regional or national recognition in his/her field, rendered service to Columbia College or service to his/her local community.

PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Attained outstanding success in his/her chosen career field within the last 10 years.

COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD Demonstrated outstanding contribution in serving his/her community.

COLUMBIA COLLEGE SERVICE AWARD Promoted and served Columbia College, made significant contributions and has maintained a relationship with the college.

JANE FROMAN COURAGE AWARD Demonstrated perseverance to overcome personal obstacles while continuing to better himself/herself personally or professionally, displays a spirit of courage in daily life.

HONORARY ALUMNI AWARD For outstanding leadership and service to Columbia College.

WWW.COLUMBIACOLLEGEALUMNI.ORG / NOMINATION

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Alumni Events Alumni and friends gathered at Schlafly Brewery in St. Louis on July 20, 2017.

Guests enjoyed networking with fellow alumni in the area and received college updates from Alumni Relations director Ann Merrifield, St. Louis location director Erika Thomas and college president Dr. Scott Dalrymple.

Front row, from left: Brandyn Chambers ’16, Felicia English ‘11, Missy Montgomery Carberry ’06 and Travon Green ’17; Back row, from left: Matt Bear, Neecy Howard ’03 and Ann Merrifield

St. Louis, Missouri

Bekki Miller and Roger Miller ’78 with Sarah Peck ’12 and Adam Peck

The CCAA hosted a Professional Development and Networking Social at Columbia College-Rolla on Aug. 23, 2017. Guest presenter Dr. Sean Siebert shared his experiences as founder and CEO of the strategic management firm Invent Yourself, LLC. Siebert strives to educate communities and organizations on how to create “cultures of innovation.”

Former Columbia College adjunct professor Dr. Sean Siebert addresses the audience at Columbia College-Rolla.

Rolla, Missou ri

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Alumni and friends enjoyed the 3rd annual Alumni Social at Boulevard Brewing Co. in Kansas City. Guests enjoyed a barbecue dinner and beer tasting while getting to know fellow alumni in the Kansas City metroplex and learning about what’s happening at the college today.

Mark your calendar for these 2018 alumni events!

Alumni Appreciation Day with Cougar Basketball February 3, 2018 Columbia, Missouri

sas Kan y, Cit uri o Miss

Joshua Finch and Rosalind Finch ‘06

Quintin Totta ’11 and Cole Leon ‘09

Alumni Socials February 20-22, 2018 Savannah, Georgia Jacksonville, Florida Melbourne, Florida Alumni Socials February/March 2018 Fort Worth, Texas Mesquite, Texas Schiffman Ethics in Society Lecture: “Ethics in Neuroscience: What Makes Us Human?” with Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran March 6, 2018 Columbia, Missouri Alumni Social April 2018 Denver, Colorado Christian College Reunion Weekend May 4 – 5, 2018 Columbia, Missouri Alumni Social May 2018 Jefferson City, Missouri

Above, from left: Daniel Faubion ’85, Lisa Faubion, Lyndsay Robinson, Christopher Dryden ’17, Amanda Merryman, Shane Merryman, Melian Grant and Tony Grant

Alumni Awards Banquet & Presentation June 1, 2018 Columbia, Missouri

Register for an event and view photo galleries at www.columbiacollegealumni.org/alumnievents.

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Search.

Share.

Connect.

Welcome to the new www.columbiacollegealumni.org.

BY CAROLYN PREUL

The offices of Alumni Relations and Development joined forces to launch a new website. It’s out with the old and in with the new as we work to better serve our alumni and friends.

Guests now have the opportunitiy to create a unique user log-in with personal access to managing contact information, submitting Class Notes, sharing Scootergraphs and controlling email preferences.

The new site has a refreshed look and more ideas on how to get involved and stay connected with Columbia College.

We are most excited to offer the easiest user experience from anywhere. The site is fully responsive and designed to function perfectly on desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Users can register for an event, make a donation and order new Cougar gear with the scroll of a mouse or tap of a screen.

With the implementation of this streamlined content management system designed by industry leader Blackbaud, Inc., these changes will help us vastly improve services to alumni and donors and provide sophisticated infrastructure necessary to connect with them in the future.

Take a look around at what has been done. We value feedback as we continue to strengthen the alumni experience.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE! Search: “Columbia College Alumni”

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Travel the World with Fellow Alumni!

SHADES OF

IRELAND June 11 – 20, 2018 Karen Munson ’04 of California, Ronald Machuga ’94 of New York and Gloria Palmer ’15 of Illinois met aboard the MS Amadeus Silver. The trio traveled the Dutch Waterways Cruise from Antwerp to Amsterdam in April 2017 as part of the Alumni Travel Program.

For more information or to book your trip, contact Collette at (800) 581-8942.

Refer to Booking #826823.

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Speed Networking Annual event matches students with professionals in a job-hunting crash course

BY DAVID MORRISON

Orvil Savery still has vivid recollections of his jobhunting days: fidgeting in a chair as the interviewers look over your resumé, holding your breath in anticipation of the next question, palms sweating more than you thought humanly possible.

Now that he’s on the other side of the table as a human resources generalist and diversity recruiter at Veterans United Home Loans in Columbia, Missouri, he tries to make the process as painless as possible. He has a go-to joke for these situations.

“Want to hear a joke about pizza?” Savery says.

“Nevermind, it’s too cheesy.”

Savery was one of 13 professionals to participate in the fall Speed Networking event on main campus, all of whom used a variety of icebreaking tactics to help put the 33 Columbia College students who cycled through their tables at ease. Each group of two or three students got seven minutes with a professional before it was time to move to the next table.

But if the students at the event were nervous, they didn’t show it. They all were well prepared with resumés, business cards and questions.



PHOTOS BY KACI SMART ’09

“It’s so intimidating when you’re job hunting for the very first time, just the idea of doing something that is totally new but so incredibly important for your future. It can be scary and confusing,” says Sean Spence, CEO of the Columbia-based company EveryEventGives and a Master of Business Administration student at Columbia College.

“These were great students that we met: very smart, very on top of things. They were asking good questions, and I feel like we had a chance to be helpful to them.”

The event, a collaborative effort between Columbia College’s Alumni Relations office, the Grossnickle Career Services Center and Nationwide Insurance, started off with a dinner seminar for students with tips on how to conduct themselves in an interview setting, as well as the gift of a business-card holder and the opportunity to have professional portraits taken for free.

Among the professionals, seven Columbia College alumni returned to campus to donate their time and insight to current students: Judson Ball ’07, Chris Bass ’15, Mitch Gosney ’13, Larry McDaniel ’03, Jerome Rader ’79, Taylor Schulte ’16 and Jim Yankee ’04.

Once the students met the professionals in Dorsey Gym, it was off to the races.

“It was really good to get the chance to talk to all the different employers and get their tips on how we should maneuver the professional world right after college,” says Prince Chingarande, a sophomore communication studies major and music minor. “I feel like, as much as you can learn in undergrad and going through Career Services and all that stuff, it’s more beneficial when you get information from someone who’s actually looking for people.”

Orvil Savery (left), from Veterans United Home Loans in Columbia, Missouri, interacts with Columbia College students at the main campus Speed Networking event.

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Above: Columbia College Admissions counselor Dan Schwab (left) greets a student networker.

Right: Columbia Public Schools math teacher Cassidy Urie (center) was one of 13 professionals to take part in Columbia College’s Speed Networking event.

Chingarande also attended the event as a freshman last year. He and fellow sophomore Abigail McCracken, an elementary education major, made the rounds together this year. Aside from the pizza joke, Chingarande got to hear from Savery about the multiple summer internships Veterans United offers for students with communications and marketing backgrounds.

McCracken said she attended the event because it was “highly encouraged” to her and the rest of the Emerging Leaders Institute (ELI) members, and she thought the lessons learned would be useful for the future. She had an especially fruitful discussion with Cassidy Urie, a sixthgrade math teacher from Jefferson Middle School.

“That was really nice, to kind of talk to her about her experiences in the classroom so far,” McCracken says.

“She’s a little bit of a younger teacher, so that’s kind of nice to see how that has happened.”

Senior Austin McBee, another attendee, is a member of ELI as well. He is a biology and secondary education major, and his ELI “vision project” deals with access to food and nutrition education for children who have “food insecurity,” meaning they don’t have reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food on a daily basis.

“Studies have shown that, if students are not getting proper nutrition, they start falling behind on their education, which is going to start affecting them more in the long term,” McBee says. “My program is to get students access to food, as well as teach students who

are teenagers who may have younger siblings how to make cheap, easy, affordable meals.”

Through Speed Networking, he made connections with three people who can help him find resources for his project: Urie, to connect with local educators; McDaniel, founder and CEO of the Coyote Hill children’s home, to connect him with local children in need; and Spence, whose company helps promote events, with portions of the proceeds going to charity.

One student, Lance Petre, even scored an internship with Rader and MBS Textbook Exchange after meeting him at Speed Networking.

“It was a fun night for me, because I just got to talk to the students about what they want to do. They were really great and clearly wanted to get the most out of the experience, which I thought was really great to see,” says Urie, who at the time of the event was completing her final courses in a Master of Education in Educational Leadership from Columbia College. “One of the main things that I told them was to dive in to every opportunity. You could have a chance to meet people who could really change your life and open doors for you that you didn’t know about.”

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The summer of 2017 was a season of change for Ryan Frazier. The 2002 Columbia College-Denver graduate spent the past 20 years in the Denver area, but he recently made the move to Chicago when he was named a senior VP at the American Hospital Association.

Taking a Leadership Role in Health Care

BY DAVID MORRISON



PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION

After career paths that included councilman for the city of Aurora, Colorado, and senior advisor to the CEO of an air medical transport company, Ryan Frazier ’02 took on the role as the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) senior vice president of member relations in June.

It’s a post that allows him to interact and advise on a regular basis with “C-suite” executives — such as CEOs, CFOs, COOs and CIOs — in America’s hospitals and health systems.

Frazier and his family relocated to Chicago for Frazier to begin his work at the AHA headquarters. He’s been rather busy lately.

“It’s been drinking from the proverbial firehose,” Frazier says.

“There is so much to learn and so much to understand.”

Frazier first met AHA president and CEO Rick Pollack when Pollack was the organization’s executive vice

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When Pollack sought out Frazier to join the AHA, Frazier jumped at the opportunity.

“I believe that the AHA does some of the most meaningful work in the country to advance health care in America,” Frazier says. “It was such a big opportunity to come do meaningful work in an area that I care about deeply. I decided this was a really good move for me to go help make a difference.”

It is a continuation of Frazier’s life work since graduating 15 years ago. In addition to his post at Air Methods Corporation and serving as a city councilman from 2003 to 2011, Frazier is a former member of the Business Advisory Council of the Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care and a former Heath Research & Educational Trust senior fellow.

He has fostered a keen interest in government, public policy, health care and business.

“Ryan is a highly capable and well-respected leader with great communication skills, and his diverse background in business, community service and public service will be an asset to our association,” Pollack said in a June press release. “We are very excited to welcome Ryan to the AHA team, and look forward to his leadership in developing innovative and creative approaches for continuing to engage our membership and other key partners in working to advance health in America.”

Frazier attended a semester of college straight out of high school before deciding to follow an interest in military intelligence and withdrawing to join the Navy. He was assigned to the National Security Agency and stationed in Colorado, where he resumed his college education.

Looking around the Denver metro area, he couldn’t find a better fit for his budgetary and military needs than Columbia College.

“I think Columbia College is one of the most militaryand veteran-friendly colleges I know of,” Frazier said.

“The staff and the team were so customer-friendly and accommodating. I knew I had the ability, with their support and my drive, to complete my bachelor’s degree and continue to move forward with my life.

They really made a military veteran like myself feel right at home.”

“Columbia College is one of the most military- and veteran-friendly colleges I know of.” – Ryan Frazier ’02 After taking a combination of in-seat and online classes to earn his bachelor of arts, with an emphasis in marketing, from Columbia College, Frazier went on to receive a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Regis University in Denver. “[Columbia College] really does enable people of all backgrounds to get a good education and complete their aspirations for an undergraduate degree or even a graduate degree,” Frazier says. “I was just really impressed with the fact that the team there was so focused on us and helping us to get there. I think that was what made it stand apart. You didn’t just feel like a number, another person at the school. You really felt like you were someone to the people at Columbia College.”

In his first months at the AHA, Frazier is undertaking a “listening tour.” He’s going around the country and speaking with the stakeholders — health system and hospital leaders, state hospital association executives and members of his own staff — so he can get a handle on what has been working and what needs to be augmented.

The goal: to help take the AHA to the next level.

“This is about making a difference in the lives of people,” Frazier says. “The American Hospital Association is doing that each and every day. I intend to take this opportunity to really just lead in the field of health.”

Alumni Profile

president and Frazier was head of government relations and senior advisor to the CEO at Air Methods Corporation in Englewood, Colorado. Frazier worked with the AHA through the Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care, an advocacy group founded in 2000 that speaks for the importance of hospitals in American communities.

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Brothers in Brewing

BY DAVID MORRISON



Two Columbia College alumni are seeing their craft brews boom.

PHOTOS BY KACI SMART ’09 AND JOSH ROWAN

The mile-and-a-quarter run from the Columbia College campus to Stephens Lake Park starts off with a jaunt through some of the old, industrial Columbia hugging the railroad tracks.

Judson Ball ’07 used to hoof it along that route with the rest of his Cougars soccer teammates in the mid-2000s,

taking in the aging warehouses that dotted the landscape.

One of those buildings, in particular, holds a specific resonance for him now: the old Diggs Packing Co. building on the corner of Fay St. and Hinkson Ave. Now it houses the Logboat Brewing Company that Ball, a 2007 Columbia College alumnus, helped found and for which he currently serves as head of marketing and distribution.

From the upstairs windows, he can see the lights of R. Marvin Owens Field, where he used to play. The facility is notably nicer since the 2014 renovation.

“I’m so happy for all the players now, but I am a little jealous,” Ball says. “They’ve got it made over there. The campus has come a long way. It’s been fun to be so close and watch the growth of Columbia College.”

In the three years since it opened alongside the Columbia College campus, Logboat has become a fixture of the Columbia community. It brewed 27 core and seasonal beers last year and has a cast of six selections that it produces year-round.

Ball and his co-founders, Tyson Hunt and Andrew Sharp, are following much the same craft brewery business model that another Columbia College graduate employed in St. Louis in 2011, three years before Logboat got its start.

Kevin Lemp ’02 worked at the Glazer’s Midwest beverage distributor for nearly a decade after earning his degree in psychology and marketing from Columbia College, before deciding it was time for him to branch out on his own.

Judson Ball ’07 is a co-founder of Logboat Brewing Company in Columbia, Missouri.

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He founded 4 Hands Brewing Company — named in honor of he, his wife, Maegan, and their two sons — which now distributes its 37 beers in Missouri and Illinois.

A couple of years ago, Ball overheard Lemp talking about how he went to college in Columbia. Assuming Lemp meant the university, Ball told him that most of Logboat’s staff went to the University of Missouri as well.

But Lemp didn’t mean the university. “Small world,” he says.

The crews at 4 Hands and Logboat have worked together frequently. Logboat used 4 Hands as an example when it was just getting on its feet, the two companies have brewed three beers together, and they plan to team up on more in the future.

Lemp says the craft beer brands only hold about 12 percent of the market share right now. It makes more sense to work together and grow that share to, say, 20 percent than it does to engage in factionalism.

“We’re not fighting against each other. We’re fighting to raise education for the people who are still drinking the big beers,” Ball says. “We’re trying to convert them to craft beer drinkers, let them know that there are other options out there. That’s a big part of the job for us: not fighting each other, but working with each other.”

There’s also the fact that Ball and Lemp followed similar paths to where they are today, with some variations.

Ball, originally from Rolla, Missouri, spent his first two years of school at St. Louis Community College-Meramec and would have been content to stay in the St. Louis area if not for the recruiting efforts of Cougars soccer coach John Klein. Lemp, a native St. Louisan, also started out at Meramec before coming to Columbia, where he took classes at both the university and Columbia College.

Both found the small, intimate setting at Columbia College suited them.

“I didn’t want to be in a class full of 200 people. I wanted to be in a small class where the teachers actually knew

Kevin Lemp ’02 is the founder of 4 Hands Brewing Company in St. Louis, Missouri.

my name,” Ball says. “It was a really great school. I’m so happy that Coach Klein was so persistent.”

Both also feel strong connections to the communities that have helped their businesses grow and prosper.

In Columbia, Logboat holds charity bingo events twice a month and has nights in which it donates 10 percent of its bar sales to local organizations. In St. Louis, 4 Hands donates a dollar to a nonprofit organization for each case of City Wide American Pale Ale that it sells, as well as donating a dollar to an entrepreneurial incubator fund for each case of City Wide Pilsner that it sells.

“Our big thing is not just being a brewery but trying to be a pillar of our community,” Lemp says. “How do we make St. Louis better? It’s investing in nonprofits and making sure they have the resources in order to be successful, and investing in entrepreneurs who really have some awesome stuff going on. It’s not just beer to us. It’s much deeper than that.”

Continuing the Tradition

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Columbia College hosted 25 graduation ceremonies in 2017.

While each celebration had its own unique flavor, they’re all part of one Columbia College.

We Are CC.

BY DAVID MORRISON



PHOTO BY KACI SMART ’09

For the directors at Columbia College’s four locations in Illinois, planning the next commencement ceremony begins before the previous one even takes place.

There’s a venue to reserve, a date to lock down, a roll of students eligible to graduate that needs compiling. The staffs at Crystal Lake and Elgin take on the heavy lifting for the Illinois locations’ spring commencement, while the Lake County and Freeport staffs provide support. The roles are reversed for the fall commencement that takes place just three months later.

“It does kind of feel like we’re in commencement season yearround for different ceremonies,” says Debra Hartman, director of Columbia College-Crystal Lake and Region II. “We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to talk about commencement.

We’re constantly promoting it with our students. It’s not just for them. It’s also for the people in their lives who have supported them through their educational journey. I tell them to think of commencement as an exclamation point on this very big accomplishment.”

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Rachel Kurz, who earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from Columbia College in 2013, received her Master of Arts in Military Studies at the main campus commencement ceremony in April 2017.

Cross-Country Celebrations

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Top: On May 13, 2017, graduates of Nationwide locations in Crystal Lake, Elgin, Freeport and Lake County, Illinois, walked together in a ceremony at Elgin Community College.

Even Scooter the Cougar (above) attended the celebration and helped congratulate the 127 graduates who took part.

Taking in the annual winter and spring graduation ceremonies at the main campus in Columbia, Missouri, can give a little insight into how Columbia College handles the pomp and circumstance of the occasion, but it doesn’t even get close to the full story.

College Admissions contact coordinator and former member of the CCAA Advisory Board. “We serve a multitude of students at a lot of different campuses.

It’s nice to see how far we’re able to touch the students.”

In 2017, Columbia College had nearly 2,000 graduates walk across the stage at a total of 25 different commencement ceremonies at 24 different venues, all with different scopes, different feels and different characters of their graduating classes.

VENUES WITH CHARACTER

One thing remained the same throughout all the ceremonies: Scores of people teamed together to provide a special day for the graduates, their friends and families and everyone else in the room. It just so happens that room was situated in a hotel ballroom, a ship docked in California’s Queensway Bay and all points in between.

“Columbia College is Columbia College to me. There isn’t any difference in the quality of education,” says Janette Roberts Nichols ’00 and ’02, a Columbia

Columbia College-Los Alamitos director Carl David has a standing order to be the first mate on the Queen Mary for one day a year.

For the past nine years, David has boarded the ship — a 1930s-era ocean liner that is now a hotel and events center docked on Long Beach, California, — the night before the Los Alamitos commencement ceremony and stayed until around 10:30 that night in order to get everything prepared.

The next morning, he rises well before the afternoon event, antsy with anticipation.

“I’m a retired Army lieutenant colonel, so I have to make sure everything is perfect,” David says, with a laugh. “My wife puts up with that.”

David keeps coming back to the Queen Mary for a couple of reasons. One, the

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uniqueness of the venue draws online students from all over the Los Angeles area to join the Los Alamitos graduates.

Students and faculty in regalia are greeted by other ship patrons on the promenade deck, they get to occupy the same stage Bob Hope once performed from in the Queen’s Salon, and they get a breathtaking view of where the Pacific Ocean meets Long Beach.

Two, the ship holds a special significance for his Army graduates. It served as a transport vessel for troops heading off to World War II. “It’s very, very intimate, even with the regal setting of this place. So that warms my heart,” David says. “It doesn’t get old.

It really doesn’t. It’s really special. And knowing that a lot of them are vets and they’ve been putting this off, and they’re finally doing something about their education, it’s even more special.”

along with an old theater,” Hartman says. “We save expenses with flowers at the Genesee because it’s so beautiful.

Something really neat is that we are able to use the marquee outside to congratulate our graduates. It is a great informal photo opportunity for graduates and families.”

For the Orlando ceremony, one of the largest among Nationwide locations, director Aaron Williams faces the challenge of making sure the day goes smoothly when it comes to logistics, while still providing a unique experience for the sizable crowd that shows up.

Think of commencement as an exclamation point on this very big accomplishment.”

— Debra Hartman

That task gets even taller in 2018, when the Jacksonville and NAS Jacksonville locations join Patrick Air Force Base for the Orlando event. This year’s ceremony served 205 graduates. Next year, with two added locations, it could serve more than 300.

Illinois location graduates get the same sort of grandeur in their fall ceremony, just without all the waves. The Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, a 1920s-era concert hall and movie theater, usually holds the fall event.

Williams held the 2017 event at the historic Bob Carr Theater in downtown Orlando. For next year, he’s thinking bigger: the Orange County Convention Center on International Drive, a half-hour outside the city by Sea World and other tourist attractions.

“The theater is very ornate, with a balcony and all the trimmings that go

“When you step up to that podium, it’s pretty intimidating,” Williams says.

Columbia College graduates get to celebrate commencement in such unique venues as the Queen Mary (left) a former ocean liner that’s now a hotel and event center docked on Long Beach, California, and the Genesee Theatre, a 1920s-era concert hall and movie theater in Waukegan, Illinois.

Continuing the Tradition

42

“Knowing there’s going to be a lot of folks coming in, even though it’s kind of chaotic, it’s a glorious day. You’re happy for the students, and the staff is happy we could get to this day so we could get the excitement over with.”

Every location has its own special way to honor the achievements of its graduating class and the people who have helped them get to this point. It can be securing extra help for students with special needs, rearranging the walking order so that family members who are graduating in the same class can have their picture taken up on the stage together, or sending out special commencement invitations to online teachers who live within a radius of the ceremony.

“It’s fabulous to see it all come together,” Hartman says. “Very often as I stand there as a director and my assistant director is calling names, I think to myself, ‘How could they possibly have graduated already? When did that happen?’ I recall what they were like when they started with us. Oftentimes, even as adults, they were scared and unsure of themselves, while being excited all at the same time. And here they are walking across my stage, and I’m shaking their hands and talking to them about graduate school or their promotion at work. It really is a wonderful day and an honor to be a part of it.”

Hartman says Dr. Edith Bell, an online business faculty member, has come to

For those who can’t walk in a ceremony, Columbia College has a

HONORING ACHIEVEMENT

Both the Lake Ozark and main campus locations hold Nurses’ Pinning ceremonies. The current pin was designed in 2012

by Kaci Smart ’09.

Illinois location commencements the past four years through that process.

Aside from main campus, the Lake of the Ozarks location is the only one to hold its own Nurses’ Pinning Ceremony.

It’s an event steeped in tradition, in which the location’s Associate in Science in Nursing graduates are honored and presented with pins in front of friends, family and other well-wishers. The candidates hold candles and recite the Florence Nightingale Pledge to do all in their power “to make and maintain the highest standards and practices” of the nursing profession.

Last April, Karl Brandt, the only male in the nine-student ASN class and the one his classmates chose to address them during the pinning ceremony, told his fellow graduates that “when any employers see Columbia College on our resumé, they will have confidence in our knowledge base.”

Nurses’ Pinning Ceremony

“Their whole ceremony is unique, and it is special,” Kim Bonine, director of the Lake of the Ozarks location, said this spring. “I think it’s awesome that a lot of them already have jobs and are ready to go. That just speaks a lot for our program and reputation.”

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Graduates at the main campus’ spring commencement ceremony in April decorated the mortarboards on their graduation caps to stand out on their special day.

way to honor them as well: the “virtual commencement” webpage (www.ccis. edu/virtualcommencement).

The site hosts video addresses from the main campus commencement speaker and the provost, as well as giving the students an opportunity to fill out an information form about themselves to be featured as their own personal page on the website.

Students can scroll through locations and majors, find their page, then hear their name and degree read while traditional commencement music plays in the background, all from their computer.

“That’s when you get most of your gratification, to see those students find the intestinal fortitude to work through it and get to that day,”Williams says. “All the people who don’t care about their education, they’ll get weeded out. They’ll start figuring out that everyone here is taking this seriously.

Those are the students I see walking across the stage at commencement, those who are serious and know what they want to do with their diploma.”

Every ceremony, right before the closing remarks, benediction and dismissal, an

alumnus or alumna leads all the newest graduates in the “alumni charge.”

It’s often a notable graduate from the location’s area, like Rhomello Saddiq, the 2015 San Diego graduate who gave this year’s charge at his home location. He thought he was done with school until he got to graduation day and director Diana Schriefer asked him, “What’s next?”

The answer, it turned out, was a master’s degree and a job with the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Sarah VordtriedePatton, the Columbia College Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics who gave the San Diego commencement address this year, says he led one of the most energetic “We are CC!” cheers she’s ever heard.

“I don’t think I’d have accomplished what I have today without all I’ve received at Columbia College through the years,” says Nichols, who has given the alumni charge at the Lake of the Ozarks, Rolla and Springfield locations.

“It’s an emotional experience to see the look on their faces when they accomplish this,” Nichols says. “If I could do this full-time, at all the locations, I would be in heaven.”

[Graduation is] when you get most of your gratification, to see those students find the intestinal fortitude to work through it and get to that day.”

— Aaron Williams

44 Left: Phyllis Grant and Fautua Thompson ’17 Right: Jesenia Rosales ’17 and Dr. Sarah Vordtriede-Patton

A Special Trip

A necklace made of Kit Kats hangs behind the desk of Human Resources payroll manager Phyllis Grant at the Columbia College main campus. It traveled nearly 2,000 miles to get there.

This past June, Grant won a trip through the college’s Customer Service Committee to attend the San Diego location commencement ceremony. While at the Corky McMillin Event Center that day, Grant saw graduate Fautua Thompson wearing a multitude of candy necklaces over his gown.

because a guidance counselor told her she wasn’t “college material.” When Vordtriede-Patton started going to college, her mother joined her, and both earned their degrees within a year of each other.

She appreciated the opportunity to get a taste of the Columbia College experience away from main campus and hear their stories of success. One of the graduates, Jesenia Rosales, who also serves as a student support assistant at the San Diego location, was a longtime caregiver for her mother, who suffered from chronic heart disease.

She asked if he would take a picture with her. He agreed, with one stipulation: She had to take one of his necklaces home with her.

Rosales’ mother passed away recently. Rosales wore a picture of herself with her mother on her mortarboard.

“I just thought that was so sweet,” Grant says. “He didn’t know me from Adam. It was just a very nice feeling: warm and fuzzy.”

“I stood up on the stage that day thinking, ‘I don’t know, if we weren’t here, if this group of people would’ve gotten a degree,’ because of the accessibility and support,” Vordtriede-Patton says.

“It’s important to put the idea in people’s heads and say, ‘Yes, you can do it.’ It’s just the personal touch we bring, planting the seeds for people, showing them that it’s possible and meeting them physically, location-wise, where they are.”

Along with Grant, computer programmer/analyst Leah Allen, former assistant director of campus support for Adult Higher Education Suzanne Hickman and Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Dr. Sarah Vordtriede-Patton made up the main campus traveling party to San Diego. Vordtriede-Patton gave the commencement address and got to help congratulate students as they walked across the stage.

Vordtriede-Patton’s speech centered on the fact that her mother didn’t go to college out of high school

It was like meeting old friends you’ve never seen before.”

— Dr. Sarah Vordtriede-Patton

Grant also won a trip to the Whidbey Island and NS Everett/Marysville ceremonies through Customer Service a decade ago. They had much the same intimate, military-friendly feel as San Diego. The memories still hang around, like a wreath of Kit Kats behind a desk.

“People in my office probably got tired of me saying how great it was,” Grant says, with a laugh. “I felt like I knew every single graduating student. I was so happy and so proud of each one of them.”

CCAA MEMBER REWARDS PROGRAM

Columbia College Alumni Association members can explore the benefits, valuable resources and opportunities to stay connected with Columbia College.

For assistance accessing member benefits, contact ccalum@ccis.edu or (573) 875-2586 (ALUM).

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Cougar Strong

BY CINDY FOT TI POT TER ’05

Columbia College Athletics annual fundraiser provides assistance to 70 percent of student-athletes The Columbia College Athletic Department hosted the 2nd annual Week of Giving in October. Contributions supported the Buy-A-Book program, which provides textbooks and academic resources for the Columbia College student-athletes.

With the support from nearly 100 individual gifts, including those made by the entire 2017-18 men’s basketball team and coaching staff, the department collected more than $25,500. In addition, two major gifts added $60,000, bringing the total for the week to more than $85,500.

“I am thrilled that so many people joined together to support the Columbia College student-athlete experience,” Associate Director of Athletics Drew Grzella ’01 says. “Even though our department has grown immensely in recent years, our goal of supporting our student-athletes at the highest level possible hasn’t wavered. Thank you to each of our athletic alums, parents, families and friends for your generosity and loyalty.”

Cougar fans can continue to support the program at www.chooseCC.org/athletics.

Columbia College athletic director and head men’s basketball coach Bob Burchard was inducted into the Missouri Western State University Hall of Fame as part of the 1981-82 men’s basketball team. Just one month later, on Nov. 21, 2017, Coach Burchard led his 1,000th game as head coach of the Cougars.

All In! The Cougars had a history-making fall season! All five teams competing this fall qualified for their respective national championships and claimed a conference title.

The men’s and women’s cross country teams swept the American Midwest Conference meet and collected 13 conference awards, including women’s runner of the year, women’s newcomer of the year, men’s freshman of the year and a pair of coach of the year accolades.

The men’s and women’s soccer teams doubled it up this year, winning the regular season and postseason tournament titles, a feat that has not been duplicated in the conference. The championship squads took home player of the year honors and 12 firstteam all-conference members.

Chasing after another title, the volleyball team claimed the conference regular season crown and positioned itself to be one of 20 teams to automatically advance to the national tournament final site. Veteran coach Melinda Wrye-Washington ’95 collected her 11th coach of the year award in 18 seasons.

At press time, the fall programs finished 70-9-2, with a conference record of 32-2-1. Now that is something to cheer about. Go Cougars!

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BY BARRY MOFFAT



PHOTOS BY KACI SMART ’09

Columbia College hosted the first “Girls Who Game” event at main campus, for middle school girls with an interest in gaming and game creation. The one-day event, hosted on Sept. 30, 2017, brought together 11 girls for a game creation workshop and a tournament on the hugely popular Overwatch game.

The event was designed in part to address the gender gap in competitive eSports, where players skew overwhelmingly male, and to help girls further develop interests in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, especially at an age when many start to lose confidence about pursuing these areas. The opportunity for participants to meet others who share similar interests was equally important.

Building on Columbia College’s status as a premier eSports destination, the hope is that the event will become a fixture on the college calendar, along with the Midwest Campus Clash and Gaming Expo.

Cougar Sports Zone

Girls Who Game

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No Place Like Home

Laurie Frew makes a mark for her hometown Cougars.

BY DAVID MORRISON

If Laurie Frew had stuck with her original college plan, she’d be in her senior year playing soccer and attending classes at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg right now.

Instead, after leaving her hometown following high school, the Columbia native decided it wasn’t the right fit for her. Frew wanted to be closer to home, and she couldn’t get much closer than Columbia College.

“I was just going to come back and be a student at Mizzou. But Coach [John] Klein reached out to me and asked if I would like to come play here,” Frew says. “I didn’t really have any expectations, I guess. But I gave it a chance, and it’s worked out.”



PHOTO BY CINDY FOT TI POT TER ’05

That’s a bit of an understatement.

Over her four years playing for the Cougars, Frew has set the program record for goals with 71 and has been a four-time first-team All-American Midwest Conference player, including her 2015 and 2017 conference player of the year awards.

Frew is a key part of the nucleus of native mid-Missourians that have helped Columbia College go from new program to national quarterfinalist in just five seasons.

“We’re just building a very positive culture that good players from everywhere are wanting to be a part of,” Frew says. “But it’s also really cool that the core group of our team is from Columbia.

Everyone just buys into wanting to win championships. Everyone is very close, including the coaching staff. It’s just a really cool thing to be a part of.”

Frew, who was a first-team academic All-American last year, is on track to graduate in the spring with her education certification. She will spend her final semester student teaching and hopes to work with elementary school children in her career.

“I knew I wanted to work with people, and I really like kids,” Frew says. “I think teachers really impact other people’s lives. Coaching is something I want to get involved in, too, so I thought education would be a good route to take.”

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Cougar Sports Zone

From Colombia to Columbia College Gabriela Walton succeeds more than 2,000 miles from home.

BY DAVID MORRISON PHOTO BY CINDY FOT TI POT TER ’05

Columbia, Missouri, is a bit different from where Gabriela Walton grew up in Cartagena, Colombia.

For one thing, Cartagena is situated on the Caribbean Sea, so Walton was never very far from the beach.

Columbia, Missouri? Well … it’s a little more landlocked than she’s accustomed to. “[Cartagena] is so different from here,” Walton says.

“The weather and the culture are way different. I’ve had to adapt myself to these changes.”

Walton, one of Columbia College’s 27 international athletes from 14 different countries, has found a way to acclimate herself herself to her new surroundings and succeed both in the classroom and on the volleyball court for the Cougars.

On the court, Walton is Columbia College’s defensive specialist — the libero. She leads the team with 4.33 digs per game and also passes at an impressive 94.9-percent clip. It’s her job to be the team’s main communicator.

“For us to make our system work, it has to start with the passing. I have to do a great job passing and

encouraging the other players to make a good pass,” Walton says. “So I have to talk a lot all the time, being a leader on the court. I talk to the blockers about doing good at block set so I can dig and we can do a better defensive job.”

Those skills will prove beneficial in her career after college as well. Walton is a senior majoring in international business and marketing. She says her favorite classes have been Consumer Behavior and a Principles of Marketing class she took with School of Business Administration Dean Shanda Davis.

Walton, an academic all-conference selection last year, plans to graduate in the spring and use her work visa gaining experience for a post-graduate year before applying to graduate school close to family members in New York City. She aims to attend New York University or an Ivy League school with an academic scholarship sponsored by her country.

“Marketing is all about persuasion and how we can influence people,” Walton says. “I like the idea that we can shape people’s perception through specific strategies.”

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Athletics Hall of Fame

BY CINDY FOT TI POT TER ’05



PHOTOS BY KACI SMART ’09

The 15th class of the Columbia College Athletics Hall of Fame became part of history on Oct. 6, 2017, as the 55th and 56th individuals and eighth team were inducted into this elite group. Congratulations to women’s basketball player LeAnn Fossum ’07, softball player Valerie Teter Smith ’12 and the 2008-09 men’s basketball team.

2008-09 Men’s Basketball Team While the men’s basketball program at Columbia College has a storied history, no other team has embraced togetherness, in-season changes and momentum like the 2008-09 men’s basketball team. Following a sluggish start to the conference season, the team made an important change to substitution patterns and roles that allowed it to rattle off 10 wins in the final 11 regular-season games. Anchored by six seniors, the Cougars won the conference tournament by defeating longtime rival McKendree University on their home court.

The Cougars carried that momentum into the NAIA National Tournament to win four games in five days and advance to the national championship game. The team finished the season as the NAIA national runnerup, advancing three rounds further than any other team in program history. With a 30-8 overall season record, the team was only the fourth Columbia College men’s basketball team at the time to win 30 games or more in a season. The 2008-09 team will be remembered for its balance, patient offensive play, physical team defense and the ability to find different ways to win. Its magical run at the end of the season captured the spirit of the college and the Columbia community.

Coach Bob Burchard (left) and Dr. Scott Dalrymple (right) congratulate players from the 2008-09 men’s basketball team.

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LeAnn Fossum ’07 addresses the audience during her induction into the Cougar Athletics Hall of Fame.

LeAnn Fossum ’07 LeAnn Fossum ’07 came to Columbia College in the fall of 2003 following an impressive career at Harrisburg (Missouri) High School. Even though she joined a veteran group of basketball players at Columbia College, LeAnn found herself in the starting lineup 32 times during her freshman year. That team won 28 games and advanced to the second round of the NAIA National Tournament for the first time in school history.

LeAnn continued to develop her skill and display consistent play throughout the next three years.

She played in 134 of the team’s 136 games during her four-year career and was named first team allconference each of her final three seasons. During her junior year, she led the team in scoring, registering at least 20 points 11 times, and was an honorable mention All-American.

Valerie Teter Smith ’12 was one of the most impactful four-year student-athletes in Columbia College softball history. The 2007 high school graduate from Bevier, Missouri, wasted no time in making her mark at Columbia College. In her first full season with the Cougars, Valerie was named both conference freshman and player of the year, a feat that has not been duplicated. She was a four-time first-team allconference selection and was twice named conference player of the year. She was honored as the conference pitcher of the year in both 2009 and 2010 for her efforts in the circle.

In 2009, Valerie led all NAIA softball pitchers with a 0.57 earned run average, the third-best mark in Cougars history. During the 2010 campaign, Valerie set a program record by striking out 413 batters. While many remember her for her incredible pitching exploits, she also excelled at the plate and in the field. In each of her first three years as a Cougar, her batting average was at least .345 and, in her final season, she set another school record by batting .484.

During her career, the Cougars were a combined 138-59 and won three regular-season AMC titles. They made the NAIA National Tournament in 2008 and 2010, both times finishing in a tie for ninth place. Valerie was a four-time NAIA All-America selection, twice named to the honorable mention squad, once named to the second team and finally named a first-team All-American in her senior season.

During her senior year, LeAnn scored a career-high 30 points versus Harris-Stowe in a 91-76 victory. In a nearly perfect showing, she went 11 of 12 from the field and six of seven from the free-throw line. LeAnn scored in double digits in 25 games of her senior season.

LeAnn finished her incredible career scoring 1,544 points and pulling down 786 rebounds. She holds the program record for most free-throw attempts in a career with 424 and, with a total of 103 Columbia College wins in games she played, she is one of just 10 players in program history to be named to the Cougars women’s basketball Century Club.

Dr. Scott Dalrymple presents Valerie Teter Smith ’12 with her Hall of Fame award.

Cougar Sports Zone

Valerie Teter Smith ’12

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THE COLUMBIA COLLEGE ALUMNI MAGAZINE

CC Notes

a f f i n i t y

Class Notes COMPILED BY LEAH HOVELN & CAROLYN PREUL

’50s

Dayle Selby Mixer ’59 retired in January 2017 after working as a medical technologist since 1962.

She worked full and part time over the years in Kansas, Illinois and Missouri.

’70s

Penny Rafferty Hamilton ’76 was presented with the honor of Volunteer of the Year by the Grand County Historical Association in Colorado. She fights strongly for aviation and Grand County history.

She has produced a book of historical photos from the Granby area and a children’s book about Grand County history.

’80s

Collins “C.D.” Rice Jr. ’80 received a Certificate of Volunteer Excellence in recognition of his exemplary volunteer service to the United States Air Force Community. He also received a Quilt of Valor and honorary certificate from the Quilts of Valor Foundation for his service.

For 15 years, C.D. has served as a veterans service officer for the Retired Enlisted Association.

Kenny Green ’82 was recognized as the Outstanding Volunteer in

the Arts and Humanities category during the 16th Annual Columbia Daily Tribune Hero Awards ceremony. Kenny has worked as an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College since 2012, where he has taught jewelry making in the art department.

Melanie Karrick ’88, a former Cougars softball player, is now proudly cheering on her daughter, Michaela, a freshman on the 2017 Columbia College volleyball team.

’90s

David Corley ’91 was named to the State of Missouri Tourism Commission

by Governor Eric Greitens.

Col. Timothy Williams ’93 was promoted to colonel in December 2016 and was assigned as the deputy director of Air, Space and

Information Operations for the 1st Air Force at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida.

Sara Faurot Crowley ’98 serves as the director of Alumni Affairs at Stockton University in New Jersey.

Lance Kellogg ’98 has a successful wood carving business in Camdenton, Missouri. A 20-year Army veteran, Lance also serves as junior vice commander of the Missouri Veterans of Foreign Wars.

’00s

Christine Lauri ’00 recently began working as the new manager for Christ the King Retreat and Conference Center. She lives in Clay, New York.

Kelly Morriss ’02 was promoted to warden with the Missouri

Mary Helen Parks ’61 of Austin, Texas, donated a photo of the 1961 Ivy Chain ceremony. The image was digitally restored and added to the Columbia College Archives collection.

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CC Notes

Department of Corrections at Algoa Correctional Center in April 2017.

Colin Comer ’03 has served as the director of the Central Missouri Police Academy at the University of Central Missouri since 2013. He received a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from Columbia College Evening Campus and has taught as an adjunct instructor since 2004.

Surprise!

Pamela Kelly ’03 was honored by the St. Louis Business Journal as a recipient of the Diverse Business Leaders Award. She currently serves as director of talent and inclusion at Illinois-based Dot Foods Inc., the nation’s largest supply chain redistributor.

What appeared to be a typical lunch with friends quickly became an afternoon to remember. In a surprise flash wedding on May 7, 2017, Mara Roberts ’02 & ’11 married Loren Woody at Les Bourgeois Vineyards in Rocheport, Missouri. Reverend Dr. David Roebuck, Mara’s longtime friend and dean of Columbia College’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, officiated the ceremony.

Anna Munson ’05 was named the next chief financial officer for Columbia Public Schools.

Munson has more than 14 years of experience in business and financial management within education. Since 2014, Munson has been the chief financial officer at Riverview Gardens School District in St. Louis. Before that, she was the executive director for federal grants at St. Louis Public Schools for seven years. Working with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for seven years, Munson was the director of business management for Missouri Schools for the Severely Disabled as well as a supervisor for compliance in special education.

Ron Stallworth ’05 & ’07 will soon see his life played out on the

A Wedding In A Flash

After lunch, Mara slid rings across the table to friends Jeannie and Jim Simmons and asked them to stand as the couple’s best man and woman. Jeannie, a 2002 graduate of Columbia College-Fort Worth, is director of the college’s Evening Campus. Her husband, Jim, received his degree from Columbia College-Fort Worth in 2000.

“Jim had no idea that Loren and I were planning to have a flash wedding,” Mara says. “He was always asking when we were going to get married, so we really wanted to surprise him!”

Also in on the surprise was Dr. Roebuck’s wife, Lynette, and the winery staff. A professional photographer pretended to be a winery employee, and another friend, Duong Pham (head coach of the Columbia College eSports team), was hidden within the crowd.

Pham played “Here Comes the Bride” on his phone as the couple walked to the A-Frame stage.

“Random people sat around the stage and watched the wedding,” Mara says. “They even laughed at the jokes!”

After the ceremony, the winery staff loaned the couple a golf cart to take pictures in the vineyard.

CC Notes

54

big screen. Filmmakers Spike Lee and Jordan Peele are creating a movie, Black Klansman, about his experience infiltrating the Colorado Springs, Colorado, chapter of the Klu Klux Klan in 1979. Working undercover, Ron was able to sabotage many cross-burnings and other activities planned by the hate group. Ron is a 2010 recipient of the Columbia College Alumni Association Community Service Award.

Sara Walsh ’05 serves as the state representative for Missouri’s 50th District. She resides with her husband, Steve, in Ashland.

Jeanine Woyner ’06 joined Blackhawk Bank as the vice president of Human Resources.

Cynthia Hawk ’07 is the owner of Right Road Counseling. She works with people aged 6 and older to help with various mental health areas such as substance abuse, PTSD and mood disorders.

After two seasons as a Spartans baseball assistant coach, Dale Heimann ’07 was named the head varsity coach for the Moberly, Missouri, high school team.

Allie Marrone ’07 was awarded the 2017 Emerging Professional of the Year Award by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. Marrone has been a role model for local young professionals through her volunteer efforts and work in planning the chamber’s annual business showcase. She is

employed at Roto-Rooter Drain Cleaning & Plumbing.

Jennifer Poppen ’07 is hosting a Business Credit and Access to Capital workshop through the SCORE organization. She is currently a financial advisor in Tampa, Florida, for Wells Fargo.

Dan Stokes ’07 was promoted to a development operations manager at MidwayUSA. Terrance Hartmann ’08 was named a certified physician’s assistant at the Carroll Health Group Primary Care in Mt. Airy, Maryland.

Latisha Mayes ’09 was profiled by a local publication for her role as executive assistant to the University

Meet Our Future Cougars!

Sean Matheis ’10 and his wife, Lauren, welcomed son, Kingsley Sean, on Dec. 5, 2016.

Dustin Johnson ’12 and his wife, Kyla, welcomed a baby girl named Emily Marie on May 26, 2017.

Andrew Davis ’16 and his wife, Maribeth, welcomed daughter, Avery Jean, on Aug. 26, 2016.

Emily Kay was welcomed by Patrick and Lisa Kowalewski Sweeney ’05 and big sister, Skylar, on July 11, 2017.

Submit photos of your future Cougars to www.columbiacollegealumni.org/thecubclub.

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CC Notes

of Missouri men’s basketball team.

She has been with the program since the 2011-12 season.

Amanda Renn ’09 was promoted to assistant director of the Human Resources division with the Missouri State Highway Patrol at its general headquarters in Jefferson City, Missouri.

’10s

Heather Cole ’10 was profiled by a local publication for her career in the city manager’s office for the City of Columbia. She has held the executive assistant position since 2011.

Jonathan Dudley ’10 has taken a new position with the Missouri Army National Guard, working at the State Joint Operations Center as the Current Operations officer. Before that he worked as the Training officer for the 835th CSSB Logistics Battalion. He has been with the National Guard since 2005.

Luana Fields ’10 is the new head coach of the Stephens College volleyball team. Luana, who was inducted into the Columbia College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015, earned a master’s degree in strategic leadership from Stephens College in 2017.

Libby Johnson ’10 was named associate director at the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. A third-generation Navy veteran, Libby served as a Chinese linguist and intelligence analyst and received the Joint Service Commendation Medal and Navy Commendation Medal for her work with the National Security

Agency and Cryptologic Security Service.

Sean Matheis ’10 launched the Agency Alliance Insurance University and has served 1,250 insurance agencies across the country. A joint venture with national best-selling author Grant Cardone, this is the first online sales and marketing university offered to insurance agents.

Jessica Prock Barron ’11 celebrated her fifth anniversary with Peoples Financial Services at Peoples Bank.

An active member of the Cuba and Rolla communities, Barron lives with her family in Rolla, Missouri.

Donna Osborne Bradley ’11 is the director of Graduate Criminal Justice Programs for the Office of Accelerated Degree Programs at Lindenwood University-Belleville (Illinois). In her new position, Bradley oversees the entire graduate criminal justice program, is a faculty advisor to undergraduate and graduate criminal justice students and teaches in the graduate and undergraduate criminal justice programs.

Randall Ashcraft ’11 and ’14 wrote and published his own book titled On the Trail of a Human Being, A Call for Racial Healing. The book is a personal story having to do with growing up in the prejudiced South and becoming an Army cook, where he was able to connect with people from all nationalities.

Catherine Hutson ’11 was promoted to colonel in the New York Air National Guard. She is the commander of the 174th Maintenance Group and was promoted during a ceremony at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base.

Jennifer Toelle ’11 authored Kansas Wesleyan University, The Campus History Series, a pictorial history of the university published in honor of its 130th anniversary.

Brittany Berk ’12 became a fiscal assistant at the Mizzou Alumni Association in Columbia, Missouri.

Martina Bentley ’10 posted a photo to the CCAA Facebook page from Zugspitze Mountain in Bavaria, Germany.

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David Pepper ‘12 was recently commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy.

Cooper Price ’12 partnered with three fellow outdoorsmen to launch a website called Huntclub to give landowners and outdoor enthusiasts a place to lease private property for hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreational activities.

Tracy Simmons ’12 was named the executive director of clinical operations at Bothwell Regional Health Center. A licensed practical nurse, Simmons received a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Columbia College-Lake of the Ozarks. “My goal is to use my experience to help build a strong clinic network for BRHC,” she says.

Andrea Tapia ’12, director of housing programs for the Columbia

Housing Authority, received the 2017 Emerging Businesswoman of the Year in Columbia, Missouri.

The 9th Annual Women in Business Awards was hosted by the Columbia Daily Tribune.

Holly Kite ’13 received an American In-house Design Award from Graphic Design USA. Holly, a digital marketing specialist for Fresh Ideas in Columbia, Missouri, was recognized for her work on the “Be Green, Be Healthy, Be Bold” marketing campaign.

Avery Bourne ’14 was featured in a Marie Claire article, “How I Did It: Advice from Real Women Who Campaigned (and Won).” Avery is a member of the Illinois House of Representatives.

Shane Johnson ’14 was nominated by a patient’s family and received a 2017 DAISY Award for compassion

by MU Health Care. Shane is a staff nurse in the Medical Intensive Care Unit in Columbia, Missouri.

Robert Kocik ’14 & ’17 was named center director at the Central New York Technology Development Organization (TDO). A twotime alumnus, Robert received a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2014 and his Master of Business Administration in 2017.

Julia Montgomery ’15 married Connor Thompson ’13 in Kansas City, Missouri, on Sept. 30, 2017. The couple met in a music appreciation class at Columbia College.

Paul Lovern ’14 has a recurring column in the business section of the Columbia Daily Tribune. He works as a data analyst in Columbia, Missouri.

Dylan Caldieraro ’15 graduated from the Law Enforcement Training Institute and was sworn in as an officer with the Columbia Police Department in Columbia, Missouri.

Shannon Belton Donaldson ’15 authored and published a children’s book titled Pete the Adventurous Elephant.

Melissa Dooley-Embrey ’15 earned a master’s degree in psychology from Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Heather Gieck ’15, a CCAA Jane Froman Courage Award winner, was recognized at the Zonta Women of Achievement Luncheon in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Erica Ramirez ’15 is an Admissions counselor at Columbia College. She received a Master of Education in Athletics/Activities Administration in 2017.

Aisha Ahmouda ‘16 was awarded the Columbia College Academic Excellence Award for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Aisha completed the RN to BSN program in December 2016.

Brandyn Chambers ’16 recently created a new animated series all about the days of the week called The Weeklings.

Morgan Pingel ’16 opened Fringe Boutique in Columbia, Missouri, with her mother and sister, Riley Smarr, a senior business major at Columbia College.

Amaryllis Rivera ’17 serves as staff sergeant in the Air Force Reserve and sergeant over the Community Service Officers Division with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office in Kissimmee, Florida.

We’ve made it easy for you to share your good news. Turn to page 64 for a Class Notes form.

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CC Notes

Scootergraphs It’s a big world out there.

Check out where Scooter has traveled lately.

While on vacation with her husband in Los Angeles, Bobbette Claxton ’06 visited the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum.

From left: Margaret “Meg” Sneed, Judith Northrup, Barbara “BD” DeMunck, Suzi Knaus Alexander and Mary Bell Stixrud (sitting) reunited in Kansas City. It has been 45 years since these friends lived in Hughes Hall and graduated together in 1972.

Michelle Frey ’12, a criminal justice information services trainer and auditor, attended the 14th Annual Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee Conference in Jefferson City, Missouri.

In May 2017, the Cougars traveled to Clermont, Florida, to compete in the NAIA Softball World Series.

Send your #Scootergraphs to ccalum@ccis.edu.

CC Notes

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In Memoriam Helen Streeter Putnam ’30 December 12, 2002 Carolyn Kimball Greider ’32 January 6, 2002

Geraldine Mattingly Holsclaw ’44 March 28, 2017

Nita Sparks Browning ’49 March 5, 2017 Alice Ann Chandler Graham ’49 August 28, 2017

Barbara Sears Murdock ’44 January 13, 2017

Kathryn Monson Hergenrather ’36 April 14, 2014

Maurine Holt Shoaf ’44 April 17, 2017

Ernestine Clifton McCarty ’38 November 27, 2010

Nola Terrill Wahle ’44 June 11, 2012

Willa Sue Higgings Snider ’38 April 3, 2017

Anna Glenn Lee Grone ’45 June 4, 2017

Mabel “Mae” Lohnes Thompson ’38 April 4, 2017

Mildred McHaney Johnston ’45 March 13, 2017

Barbara “Betty” Lett Rau ’39 June 6, 2016 Virginia Owens Fine ’41 May 18, 2017 Judith Stimson Lyons ’41 October 1, 2008 Phyllis “Ruth” Shambaugh Watkins ’42 February 28, 2017 Barbara “Barby” Houston Pelot ’43 September 23, 2017 Margaret “Muggs” Powell Tidd ’43 December 28, 2014 Phyllis Whitney Allan ’44 June 23, 2017

Jacqueline Lindley Rohn ’45 January 17, 2014 Patricia “Pat” Head Hinton ’46 August 30, 2016 Lois Jean Fiege Boring ’47 January 30, 2017 Vera J. Jacobs Coats ’47 August 27, 2017 Sarah Medlen Fraley ’47 May 17, 2017

Dolores Ford Grober ’49 October 31, 2015 Anna Fahrmeier Hammond ’49 December 4, 2012 Ann Louise Allen Jake ’49 May 3, 2013 Dorothy McDonald White ’49 June 14, 2017 Phyllis Snyder Pendery ’50 June 29, 2016 Betty Lou Wharton Connell ’51 June 3, 2016 Mary Cleveland Robinson ’51 May 25, 2017 Patricia N. Furbeck Farris ’53 December 14, 2016 Bonnie Jo Twilling Grim ’54 February 18, 2008

Mary W. Dalton Futter ’47 July 13, 2017

Evelyn Mayden Young ’54 February 12, 2016

Jean Gordon McDill ’47 April 5, 2016

Ardeth Jones Ainsworth ’57 April 20, 2017

Jocelyn Swartz Palmer ’47 December 7, 2014

Marilyn Armstrong Brand ’57 April 19, 2016

Anna Dimmel Shrock ’47 April 2, 2017

Carol “Susie” Dunn Farmer ’57 January 28, 2012 Beverly Burr Frederick ’57 July 26, 2017 To notify the CCAA of Columbia (Christian) alumni who have passed recently, please send an email with the link to the obituary to ccalum@ccis.edu.

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CC Notes

Mary Evans Woods ’57 November 30, 2015 Sharon Lugar Garvin ’60 July 20, 2017 Carol Ferguson DesCombes ’61 June 16, 2017 Catherine Sheets Holland ’61 December 31, 2016 Norma Lou Maloney Spengeman ’62 June 23, 2017 Claudia Garton Burris ’63 January 1, 1994 Beverly Wentzel Berkey ’64 May 1, 2017 Jan E. Dulaney ’65 March 25, 2016 Barbara Comba Enberg ’70 May 7, 2017 Eva Trefz Laitner ’70 June 29, 2017 Michael L. Dorman ’74 September 15, 2017 Willard Tolson ’74 April 4, 2017 Edgar Ater ’75 February 25, 2017 Ervin D. Erdahl ’75 March 10, 2017 Charles E. Fuller Jr. ’76 June 5, 2017

Dr.John Keeney

1947-2017

Dr. John Keeney, who served as the director of Columbia College-Lake of the Ozarks for 25 years, passed away August 7, 2017. He was 70 years old.

Keeney was more than an effective administrator.

He was an active member of the Lake of the Ozarks community, a student advocate who always took time to meet and discuss topics outside of the classroom and a leader who inspired compassion and loyalty in his staff.

In 2015, former Columbia College President Dr. Donald Ru thenberg congratulated Dr. John Keeney on 25 years of service to the college.

Keeney was the first director at the Lake of the Ozarks location, getting it started in 1990 with a table and two chairs in what used to be a church building. That first session had 45 students enrolled.

Through the hard work of Keeney and the rest of the Lake of the Ozarks staff, the location has grown to the point where it had graduated nearly 1,400 alumni by the time he retired in 2015.

In the years after his retirement, Keeney took joy in spending time with his family and working the nearby family cattle farm in Eldon, Missouri. He will always be a valued member of the Columbia College community, and the years of service he put into starting and growing the Lake of the Ozarks location will be felt by generations of Columbia College students.

The Dr. John Keeney Scholarship was created by Dr. Shirley Watkins, his colleague and friend, upon Keeney’s retirement in 2015. You can donate to the Dr. John Keeney Scholarship Fund by visiting my.ccis.edu/givenow, or by sending your contribution to the following address: Columbia College Office of Development 1001 Rogers Street, STC 107 Columbia, Missouri 65216

CC Notes

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John Foley ’77 September 15, 2015

Rex Reeder ’84 March 25, 2016

Barbara Kay McClure ’94 September 1, 2017

Michael L. Pyle ’77 February 16, 2016

Albert Rampone II ’86 July 23, 2017

Terrie Wilkerson Pyke ’94 May 12, 2014

Karl Spry ’78 June 30, 2017

Amy Dixson McBride ’87 December 21, 2014

Richard “Rick” Mizer ’99 June 4, 2017

Donald B. Birchmier ’79 May 10, 2014

Robert “Bob” Pieper ’87 June 6, 2016

Keith Abernathy ’00 May 28, 2017

John Burruss ’79 July 13, 2017

Mark Hulse ’88 August 17, 2017

Sonja Barnes ’02 April 12, 2017

Sarah Hickam Adams ’82 May 7, 2017

Charles Anthony Sr. ’89 March 24, 2017

John Matteson ’82 May 21, 2017

Tami C. Williams Hoskins ’89 September 20, 2017

Joan “Joanie” Hardaway Miller ’05 March 6, 2017

William “Bill” Sword ’82 May 2, 2017

David Bruhn ’90 December 27, 2014

Norma J. Henson ’83 September 4, 2017

Frederick Race ’90 September 12, 2016

Nancy Graham Douglas ’84 June 9, 2016

Charles E. Stout ’91 August 6, 2017

Gabriele “Gabi” Lasher

1959-2017

Gabriele Lasher, who served as student support assistant and the veteran administration certifying official at Columbia College-Redstone Arsenal, passed away Aug. 3, 2017, at the age of 58.

Jose Galvez Avila ’06 November 15, 2013 Michael Orendi ’06 July 27, 2017 George Ashton ’09 May 26, 2017 Robert Wing ’09 December 27, 2016 Nefertiti K. Horton ’11 May 19, 2017 Rick Moore ’12 July 16, 2017 Milton Parton ’15 March 2, 2016

Lasher worked at the college for nearly 19 years. In that time, she forged a special relationship with the students at the Redstone Arsenal location, where her husband, Frank, is assistant director. She knew almost every student at the location and loved working with them as they strove to meet their academic goals.

Brad Roark ’16 January 6, 2015

Lasher was also instrumental in the coordination of the Alabama-based location’s annual commencement ceremony, playing a key role in an important rite of passage for the students about whom she cared about so deeply.

*Notifications received as of September 30, 2017

Christopher G. Ottinger ’17 August 7, 2017

The CC Alumni Collection

62

Holiday ornament, Blue and gold; $10

Cougar Gear The online CC Alumni Merchandise Store features a variety of apparel and accessories available 24/7.

NEW ITEM !

Women’s Polar Fleece Vest Brand: Crossland Women, XS-XL: $30 Women, 3X-4X: $32

CCAA Woven Polo Brand: Zorrel; Navy Men, Medium-XL: $15 Women, XS-XL: $15 Women, 3X-4X: $17

Lamis tote bag Stylish faux leather with CCAA logo embossing.

Gray or navy; $15

CCAA Satin Polo Brand: Port Authority; Gray or navy Men, Small-2X: $20 Women, XS-2X: $20 Women, 3X-4X: $25

Solid baseball hat “ALUMNI” embroidered in navy on back.

Navy, khaki or pink; $14

“Nationwide” T-shirt Brand: Gildan Softstyle; Light gray, heather gray, navy or black Small-2X: $12 3X: $15

Visit www.columbiacollegealumni.org/alumnistore to view the entire catalog of Christian College and Columbia College merchandise. Proceeds benefit the CCAA.

Stitched baseball hat Navy and silver hat with white stitching and block letters; $20

“Block CC” Alumni T-shirt Brand: Gildan Softstyle; Charcoal gray or navy Small-2X: $12 3X: $15

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The CC Alumni Collection

W NE M! E IT Umbrella Navy and white with navy imprint; $15

#5

#1 / #2

BE SELLST ER!

Columbia College Alumni license plate covers White plastic with navy imprint; $5 Metallic with navy and white imprint; $10

#3

#4

1. Future Cougar onesies Navy, gray, pink – 6 mo-24 mo; $12 2. Future Cougar infant lap shoulder T-shirt Navy or gray – 6 mo-18 mo; $12 3. Future Cougar infant basic T-shirt Navy or gray – 6 mo-24 mo; $12

Christian College picture frame 6” x 4” glass frame with silver base featuring blue engraved logo; $15

CCAA picture frame 4” x 6” brushed metal with etched logo; $8

Make check payable to Columbia College Alumni Association or charge to:  MasterCard

 VISA

 Discover

Account number _________________________ Expiration date: _____/________ CVC ______ Order Total _____________________________ FREE shipping is provided on all orders. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. U.S. postage paid only. You will be contacted if an item is out of stock and no longer available for purchase.

4. Future Cougar navy toddler T-shirt 2T-4T; $12 5. Columbia Cougars navy T-shirt Juvi 5/6 & 7; $12 Youth XS-XL; $12

Download Scooter-approved coloring sheets at www.columbiacollegealumni.org/thecubclub.

Name____________________________________________________________________ Class Year __________________ Address ______________________________________________________________________________________________ City________________________________________________ State _________________ Zip ______________________ Phone number____________________________ Email address _______________________________________________

Item description___________________________________ Color _____________ Size _________ Cost ______________ Item description___________________________________ Color _____________ Size _________ Cost ______________ Item description___________________________________ Color _____________ Size _________ Cost ______________ Item description___________________________________ Color _____________ Size _________ Cost ______________ AFFSUM17

what’s new with you?

Send back this form so we can update your alumni record and share your good news in Class Notes.

Contact Information Name: _______________________________________________________________________________________ First (Preferred), Maiden and Last

Location attended: ____________________________________ Class year: _______________________________ Address: __________________________________________________________________________  Check if new City: ________________________________________________ State: ______________ Zip: ________________ Home phone: ________________________________________ Cell phone: ______________________________ Email: _______________________________________________ Date of birth: _____________________________ Employer: _____________________________________________________________________________________ Job title: ____________________________________________ Effective: ___________________  Check if new Business address: ______________________________________________________________________________ Wedding Announcement (within the last 12 months) Married to: _________________________________________  Check if spouse attended CC. Class year: _____________ Date of marriage: __________________________ City/State of celebration: _______________________________ Birth (Adoption) announcement (within the last 12 months) Birth of a:  Daughter  Son  Multiples Baby’s name: ______________________________________________ Date of birth: ________________________ Spouse’s name: _____________________________________  Check if spouse attended CC. Class year: _____________ Class Notes: Tell us about your career, community service, military news or retirement updates.

Please attach additional information if necessary. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Submit the digital form with photo upload at www.columbiacollegealumni.org/classnotes.

Email: ccalum@ccis.edu Mail: Columbia College Alumni Relations, 1001 Rogers St., Columbia, MO 65216 Fax: (573) 875-7733

AFFWIN18

Alumni Information Update

64

Looking Back

A Silver Spoon In Every Mouth!

BY BRADLEY MEINKE ’14



PHOTO BY KACI SMART ’09

From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Christian College ladies were educated in the fine art of dining and gracious living. Proper silverware adorned the tables for daily meals served in the dining rooms of Williams and St. Clair halls.

Christian College students attended all meals together and were taught the proper manners befitting a refined young lady. It was expected that the weight of one of these beautiful spoons would become second nature, so that Christian students would one day continue this level of etiquette in their own homes.

The Archives collection includes many silver spoons with CC engraving and decorations. An early souvenir spoon circa 1915 has an outline of St. Clair Hall in its

bowl. During this time, each college in Columbia, Missouri, had a spoon that depicted identifying features of the individual campus.

This particular spoon was donated to the Archives collection from an alumna who inherited it from a family member who also attended Christian College.

While the origins of this spoon are unknown, items of this quality were often sold by local jewelry stores as gifts to young ladies for graduation or another special occasion.

Bradley Meinke ’14 is collections manager of the Columbia College Archives. He may be contacted at archives@ccis.edu or (573) 875-2749.

1001 Rogers Street Columbia, MO 65216