CROSSROADS
FALL/WINTER 2018
Atlanta
THE MAGAZINE OF EASTERN MENNONITE UNIVERSITY
VOL. 99 / NO. 2
CROSSROADS FALL/WINTER 2018 / VOL. 99 / NO. 2 Crossroads (USPS 174-860) is published two times a year by Eastern Mennonite University for distribution to 14,000 alumni, students, parents and friends. A leader among faith-based universities, Eastern Mennonite University emphasizes peacebuilding, creation care, experiential learning and cross-cultural engagement. Founded in 1917 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, EMU offers undergraduate, graduate, and seminary degrees that prepare students to serve and lead in a global context. EMU’s mission statement is posted in its entirety at www.emu.edu/mission. BOARD OF TRUSTEES KATHLEEN (KAY) NUSSBAUM, CHAIR / Grant, Minn. DIANN BAILEY / Granby, Conn. EVON BERGEY / Perkasie, Pa. HERMAN BONTRAGER / Akron, Pa. SHANA PEACHEY BOSHART / Wellman, Iowa JONATHAN BOWMAN / Manheim, Pa. RANDALL BOWMAN / Richmond, Va. HANS HARMAN / McGaheysville, Va. CHARLOTTE HUNSBERGER / Souderton, Pa. CLYDE KRATZ / Harrisonburg, Va. CHAD LACHER / Souderton, Pa. KEVIN LONGENECKER / Harrisonburg, Va. CEDRIC MOORE, JR. / Richmond, Va. E. THOMAS MURPHY, JR. / Harrisonburg, Va. MANUEL (MANNY) NUÑEZ / Alexandria, Va. ELOY RODRIGUEZ ⁄ Lancaster, Pa. JAMES ROSENBERGER / State College, Pa. VAUGHN TROYER / Millersburg, Ohio ANNE KAUFMAN WEAVER / Brownstown, Pa. CROSSROADS ADVISORY COMMITTEE SUSAN SCHULTZ HUXMAN / President KIRK L. SHISLER / Vice president for advancement JIM SMUCKER/ Vice president for enrollment and marketing JEFF SHANK / Alumni and parent engagement director STAFF LAUREN JEFFERSON / Editor-in-chief JON STYER / Creative director CHRISTOPHER CLYMER KURTZ / Staff writer ANDREW STRACK / Photographer MACSON MCGUIGAN / Photographer LINDSEY KOLB / Proofreader JOSHUA LYONS / Web designer All EMU personnel can be reached during regular work hours by calling 540-432-4000, or via contact details posted on the university website, www.emu.edu. POSTMASTER: Submit address changes to: Crossroads Eastern Mennonite University 1200 Park Road Harrisonburg VA 22802
FROM THE PRESIDENT
VALUING OUR DIVERSITY SUSAN SCHULTZ HUXMAN
In this captivating issue of Crossroads, we celebrate a rich diversity of EMU stories. These wildly diverse success stories echo the message I shared earlier this fall with students at Convocation. I proposed that “setting the table with a diversity of utensils” is a mainstay of our “menu” as a Christian liberal arts college devoted to discipleship, service, global engagement and peacemaking. I shared the children’s story Spoon, written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Scott Magoon. Most of us can relate to the character of Spoon, who believes that our special attributes and unique talents don’t count for much some times. Perhaps sometimes, like Spoon, we’d rather be different (Spoon wants to be a fork, a knife, a chopstick, anything but a spoon.) The larger lesson that Spoon teaches us, however, is that we should zealously value the diverse attributes of others if we want to be followers of Jesus, if we want to be good citizens, and if we want to become experts and innovators in our field. In his book The innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, Walter Isaacson argues that the lone genius innovator is a myth. All the great innovators, he writes, shared one thing in common: they were collaborators, building teams of very diverse people to pioneer new ideas, inventions and services. So, to return to the children’s story: I exhorted students if you identify with spoons, great. If not, I invite you to seek out spoons. They are colorful, playful, even musical. Plus, they help you enjoy ice cream! If you identify with knives, great. (Well, mostly – we are a “peace college.”) If not, then seek out the knife. They are the most ancient of utensils, sturdy, formidable, and slice through “the meat of problems.” If you identify with forks, great. If not, I invite you to seek out forks. They are so very practical and spawned the spork! If you identify with chopsticks, great. If not, I invite you to seek out chopsticks, and even those who eat with their hands. In any event, chopsticks and hand-eaters are edgy, exotic and can help you “think outside the box.” Remember: Just as its difficult to eat pudding, peas or peanut butter without a spoon, a fork and a knife, it is difficult to be creative, innovative and successful without a diversity of conversation partners! So, I challenged students to think boldly and ask: How can I engage around the table with a diversity of people and ideas? Readers, may you do the same after being immersed in these diverse stories of our alumni!
IN THIS ISSUE FEATURES
8 #KRATZTOBER Catcher Eric Kratz '02 notches a careerbest season with the Milwaukee Brewers.
14
ATLANTA: WHERE THEY LANDED
11 TRANSFORMATIVE MATCHMAKING Mentorship class taps alumni resources.
22 WHERE I NEED TO BE Natalie Bonilla Romero '09 serves the community as a nurse practitioner.
24 CREATIVE FOCUS College advisor sets storyteller on a satisfying career path.
18 GUIDING LIFE
20 STICKY BUSINESS
ROYAL FILES
ON THE COVER Natalie Bonilla Romero ‘09, a nurse practitioner outside of Atlanta, trained as a doula and midwife when she was a teenager. Photo by Jon Styer
2 PHOTO
4 FAITH FOCUS
6 STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
27 MILEPOSTS
5 FACULTY FOCUS
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ROYAL FILES
PHOTO
HOMECOMING 2018 Homecoming and Family Weekend kicked off with a special concert, as EMU’s first female jazz combo reunited for a program with a cappella groups and student jazz and choir ensembles. PHOTOS BY ANDREW STRACK, RILEY SWARTZENDRUBER, JON ST YER AND MACSON MCGUIGAN
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ROYAL FILES
Top: Jackson Maust '09 performs with the Walking Roots Band at the Fall Festival on the lawn. // Middle, from left: Tailgating fun. Professor David Evans speaks during a special faculty edition of EMUTenTalks, with professors David Brubaker (left) and Judy Mullet. Participants jog through campus during the Peace, Love and Little Donuts Run. // Bottom, from left: Alumni Council president Liza Heavener '07 congratulates alumni award winners (from left) Claudette Monroy '10, Gilberto Perez '94, GC '99 (conflict transformation) and Regina Horst Chacha '85. This photo needs no caption.
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ROYAL FILES Students knit in a Wednesday chapel break-out session called "The Chronicles of Yarnia,” hosted by administrative assistant Barb Byer. The small group sessions during chapel time have expanded faith-sharing opportunities for students, faculty and staff. PHOTO BY ANDREW STRACK
FAITH FOCUS
NEW CAMPUS WORSHIP FORMAT broadens, deepens engagement
WITH THE BEGINNING of the new academic year at Eastern Mennonite University comes inevitable changes – a new schedule, new courses and new demands on time. But this fall, one of the mainstays of the weekly schedule looks and feels much different. Consolidated into one weekly meeting that alternates with convocation, campus worship is now twice the time, supported by a multitude of volunteer leaders, and hosted in a multitude of different places. Word is, too, that the multitudes are responding. That makes absolute sense to pastoral assistant Lindsay Acker. “One worship style is never going to fulfill everybody’s spiritual needs,” she says. With different “break-out groups” meeting around campus, Acker summarizes the new format as “so much opportunity to do your own thing.” STEM fans gather in the Suter Science Center to explore science and faith. Seminarians host “welcoming prayer.” A residence life director offers co-exploration of a book about the journey from Christian to Christ follower. A staff member opens space for entering the Gospel through informal dramatics. 4 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2018
And there’s more, Acker says. “Peace Fellowship is working on an interfaith break-out group to co-host with the Center for Interfaith Engagement. And have you heard about the ‘Chronicles of Yarnia’ group? They are gathering for knitting and reflection. I love that spaces like these are now being welcomed and supported by the university, and I hope it can lead to greater change and understanding.” This revisioning has been years in the making. During many past chapel services, campus pastor Brian Martin Burkholder watched the clock as the 30 minutes trickled away. So, too, did some of the audience – heading out to class or other commitments while music was playing, a speaker was wrapping up, or announcements finished. The amount of time wasn’t the only concern of Burkholder and the campus ministries council. They were asking questions attentive to enhancing faith and spiritual life on campus: Would other formats for gathering be more formational? Could more options be offered to meet more community and individual needs? The experimental answer is programming that is both “invitational and intentional,” Burkholder says. “This structure expands our time together, offers choices for how a person wants to engage and brings people into spaces around campus where they are both comfortable and challenged. We are broadening our ministry to better meet the growing diversity of our student body in connected and collaborative ways.” Pastoral assistant Luke Hertzler calls the new format “a beautiful and energizing space for the EMU community to come together centered around Christ … embracing unity in diversity.” “We all have different ways we experience and love God,” he said. “Regardless of what our God-given calling or passion is, we can still be a part of the same revitalizing, Spirit-led movement emerging across campus this year.” Though Acker says the break-out groups are a “great way to celebrate our differences,” she sees some “kinks to work out.” The fact, though, that EMU is trying something new towards the goal of engaging with the community’s diverse spiritual needs is meaningful. “I hope that in doing so, we can grow and keep ourselves accountable to students’ needs,” she said. — LAUREN JEFFERSON
ROYAL FILES
FACULTY FOCUS
FACULTYRECRUITERS
Professor Jerry Holsopple '80 holds a lens in front of a perspective student during a special campus visit program for local high school students. PHOTOS BY MACSON MCGUIGAN
contribute to enrollment gains
WHENEVER THEY CAN, EMU admissions counselors connect prospective students with faculty members. “Meeting a faculty member can make a difference, often swaying a student towards choosing EMU,” said counselor David B. Yoder '14, sharing the story of one high school senior who wasn’t seriously considering EMU until the 2017 Honors and Scholarship Weekend when she met Professor Tara Kishbaugh. The two bonded over their common love of chemistry, Kishbaugh stayed in touch and encouraged her preprofessional interests, and the student eventually chose EMU. Kishbaugh is one of several professors involved in the second year of a new EMU recruitment initiative. The model combines increased emphasis on faculty outreach and engagement with expanded scholarship opportunities for prospective students in five “focus programs” – education, engineering, music, visual and communication arts, and STEM. The results are “really encouraging,” said Vice President of Enrollment Jim Smucker. Last year, applications were up 25 percent in those particular programs and the trend has continued through the current recruitment cycle, with predictions expected to exceed the previous mark. Twenty-seven first-year students earned new departmental scholarships, with seven additional students joining a new STEM-focused curricular program created by EMU faculty and funded by a special National Science Foundation grant (the chemistry-lover is among this cohort). This first-year class of 204 is not only numerically larger than last year’s, but also arrives with higher average GPA and SAT/ACT scores. Faculty are key to recruitment efforts in a very competitive higher education landscape, Smucker said. The new initiative sets aside workload time for select professors to generate on- and off-campus programming, lead scholarship selection committees, and engage with prospective students through personal outreach such as phone calls and emails. “We know that recruiting is a relational endeavor and that faculty are important and influential contributors to a student’s vision of what they hope the college experience will be,” Smucker said. “Developing a relationship with a professor even before arriving on campus can be a reason that a student makes a choice between EMU and another school.” Outreach has taken innovative forms. Here’s a sampling: Esther Tian creates opportunities for her engineering students to talk about projects and answer questions in high school classrooms and at several open house events.
Steven David Johnson has critiqued AP Art student portfolios and held workshops for high school students. Music professor David Berry and education professor Paul Yoder '06, MA '11 (education) teamed up for a visit to Dock Academy in Pennsylvania. Yoder also set up a visit for high school students in two “Educators Rising” clubs; the students attended an Intro to Teaching class and heard from a panel of current students. (He’s made similar efforts in collaboration with the nursing department.) “Our faculty are special and accomplished professionals with much to share about their fields of expertise,” Smucker said. “These outreach efforts in local schools and in Mennonite schools enhance our reputation, showcase our rigorous academic programs, and help to spread the word about the mission and values of the EMU community.” — LAUREN JEFFERSON www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 5
1. ROYAL FILES
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
FIELD EXPERIENCE 1. Senior Riley Wesp (right) was supervised in his summer internship at Tech Impact in Washington D.C. by Francis Johnson ‘07. Johnson interned at Tech Impact while with the Washington Community Scholars' Center, and stayed on. Now based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Johnson is Tech Impact’s director of technology services. (Photo by Macson McGuigan) 2. Biology majors Sylvia Mast (left), Xavier McCants and Maria Yoder spent seven weeks shadowing health care providers in Peru last summer with the help of the CT Assist Health Experiential Learning Program. Founded by two alumni, the scholarship fund supports clinical experiences that prepare students for professional health programs. (Courtesy photo)
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3. Ministry Inquiry Program participants (from left) Abigail Shelly, Lydia Haggard, Anna Ressler and Liz Marin worked with congregations in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio. The summer experience was funded in part by Mennonite Church USA with new support from The Showalter Ministry Inquiry Program Endowed Scholarship Fund created this year by Stuart ‘67 and Shirley Hershey Showalter ‘70 to help strengthen the program. (Photo by Macson McGuigan) 4. Biochemistry major Leah Lapp (left) and Hannah Walker ‘18 ( a biology and environmental sustainability double-major), studied coffee borer damage in Hawaii with Professor Matthew Siderhurst. Their research was supported by Glenn Kauffman ‘60 and Roman Miller Research Awards, named after distinguished professors emeriti and supported by donors to the Daniel B. Suter Endowment. (Courtesy photo) 5. Six engineering students, including Ben Zook, interned with companies in three states, including at businesses with alumni ties: Venture Products in Orrville, Ohio, owned by the Steiner family, and Rosetta Stone in Harrisonburg, Virginia, founded by alumni and employing many alumni. (Photo by Macson McGuigan) 6.
Luke Mullet (first row, right) was accepted to the competitive New York University Film Scoring Workshop (chamber and soloist track) and spent two weeks studying creative processes and composition, technology, editing, recording and mixing with professional faculty members, including 19-time Emmy nominee Mark Snow. Mullet is a math major, but has been deeply involved in music at EMU. (Photo by Andrew Strack) 7. Senior softball player Brittany Viands (left) interned with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, supervised by local chapter leader Jason Stuhlmiller, former Royals baseball coach. She credits Jolee Paden ‘16, among others in EMU’s FCA ministry, in helping her make a successful transition to college and growing into her current leadership role. A social work major, she is now considering youth ministry as a future career. Paden is now an FCA campus representative at George Washington University. (Photo by Andrew Strack)
— LAUREN JEFFERSON
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FROM THE FIELD
#KRATZTOBER VETERAN ERIK KRATZ ’02 HELPS MILWAUKEE BREWERS TO WORLD SERIES BID
ONLY ONE BASEBALL TEAM ends their season with a “W,” and in 2018, it wasn’t the Milwaukee Brewers. But catcher Erik Kratz ’02, who has weathered the ups and downs of many Ws and Ls (in baseball parlance, wins and losses) in his 17 seasons of professional baseball since graduating from EMU, would chalk up a W for this last one just the same. Losing “will never take away all the great I got to see in my teammates, friends and MKE,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “The future is really bright but this season will shine forever in my heart.” Besides setting a career-best season in several statistical categories including starts, Kratz also made baseball history: He is the oldest player (since 39-year-old A’s third baseman Lave Cross in 1905) to make a postseason debut and the secondoldest catcher in postseason history with three hits in a game. Kratz could teach a class in negotiation, contracts and plain old life logistics of being a pro player: he has played for 30 minor league teams and experienced just about every type of transaction possible in the business – trades, releases, purchases, claims off waivers, and free agency. But the truth was, as Brewers manager Craig Counsell pointed out, his longevity as a catcher points to some sterling talent: “If you’re 38 years old and still catching,” he said, “it’s almost assuredly that you’re a very good receiver of the baseball, you have a very good handle on managing a game, you take fast at knowing hitters.” The media, both midwestern and national, was quick to catch onto Kratz’s unique feel-good story – one many of his true fans have followed for a long time. “A true baseball lifer is getting his shot on the big stage, and hasn’t disappointed,” wrote SB [Sports Blogging] Nation. Kratz’s “journeyman” story was re-told by broadcast announcers in each game he played. The attention didn’t just come from where he’d been or what he did on the game’s biggest stage; it was also on how he played the game, with focus and passion and integrity.
Certainly his division series Game 2 and 3 contributions, during which he provided a key 2-run single and then went 3-for-4, helped to catch the collective baseball world’s attention. Then Kratz, wearing a microphone, provided an unforgettable soundtrack to Game 7’s last out. After watching the catch, before celebrating the biggest win of his long professional career, he turned around to thank and bless home plate umpire Teddy Barrett. Making the social media rounds too was his postgame interview with an All-Star trio of FOX MLB commentators, during which Kratz, nonplussed, reminded them that his orbit had crossed theirs, even if for a few days. “Well, Papi,” he said, ignoring David Ortiz’s question and taking care of first things first, “do you remember we were actually teammates?” Frank Thomas, who ended his career with the Blue Jays, asked the next question and Kratz also could not let this opportunity pass him by. “Me and Frank, we were in Big League camp together a couple of times. If Frank forgot that, that’s OK, I didn’t want to single just Papi out there.” In an already memorable season, Kratz played one of his two final games in front of a special crowd. Nicknamed the Kratz Krew by the media, 14 EMU-linked buddies* now living around the country rendezvoused in Milwaukee’s Miller Stadium for a crucial Game 6, somehow keeping their plan a secret until pregame, when Kratz found them in the front row seats on the first base line, wearing former team jerseys raided from his closet, smiling and waving and near tears with joy at seeing their friend on the field, just two wins away from the World Series. It didn’t happen, but “October’s Unlikely Hero” (Baseball America) isn’t done yet, and MLB’s “Best Story in Postseason Baseball” isn’t over yet. We’ll be watching, Erik Kratz. — LAUREN JEFFERSON *This group included Jesse Bergey ‘02, Matt Clemmer ‘02, Joel Daly ‘03, Darren Delp class of ‘01, Greg Grimm ‘04, Kurt Holsopple ‘02, Casey Severs ‘05, Chris Severs ’03, MBA ‘11, Zach Starks, Bob Steury, Ryan Swartz, Barney Quick, Ryan Waltrip class of ‘02, and. Michael Zook ’98.
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Top: Milwaukee Brewers catcher Erik Kratz '02 homers in his first at-bat of the Aug. 31 game against the Washington Nationals. Left: Kratz visits with a young fan during pre-game batting practice. Right: Kratz waits behind the plate. He has been a professional baseball player for 17 years. PHOTOS BY ANDREW STRACK
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CONNECTING YOU TO YOUR FUTURE... EMU's graduate programs, including the Center for Justice and Peacebuillding and Eastern Mennonite Seminary, offer many opportunities for online learning. Visit www.emu.edu/graduate to learn more.
Nursing: MSN leadership and management/leadership and school nursing concentrations; faith community nursing certificate; RN to BS in Nursing; DNP Business: hybrid MBA program; Collaborative MBA (all online, visit www.collaborativemba.org) Organizational Leadership: hybrid MA program Seminary: online and hybrid classes CJP: hybrid MA in conflict transformation; Summer Peacebuilding Institute short-term residential courses for academic credit; Zehr Institute webinars and courses
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TRANSFORMATIVE MATCHMAKING Mentorship course empowers students and business leaders
A VERITABLE “WHO’S WHO” of executive leadership assembles each year to aid MA in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) graduate students as they expand their management and empowerment capacities in a two-unit mentorship class. “I’m both grateful for the time and resources these professionals, many of them alumni, are offering our students,” said program director David Brubaker. “And since this is the first time I have joined them, I’m also learning from them myself.” Mentors and mentees use readings, DiSC and Enneagram activities to explore personality traits, and discuss concepts of leadership through personal stories and reflection. Additionally, the student participates in a 360-degree review to assess personal leadership strengths and areas for improvement through a confidential survey of supervisors, co-workers and those s/he supervises. Over both semesters, the course involves combined classroom sessions and several one-on-one meetings. This fall, Lee Snyder, president emeritus of Bluffton University, is the lead instructor. A recent guest speaker was attorney and alternate dispute resolution expert Marshall Yoder MA '10 (conflict transformation). This year’s mentors include Brubaker and the following (all Harrisonburg-based unless noted): • Devon Anders '88, president of InterChange, Inc., offering warehousing, logistics and supply chain management; • Hans Harman '02, president of Momentum Earthworks; • Jim Krause, retired corporate vice-president, president and CEO of Sentara RMH, a regional hospital; • Kara Martin, probation officer in North Carolina; • Edgar Miller, retired general manager of Truck Enterprises, a multi-state commercial truck dealership; • Tammy Torres, assistant director at the nonprofit social services agency Empowerhouse in Fredericksburg, Va. • Wayne Witmer '88, president of Harman Construction. Anders and Miller served on the MAOL curriculum advisory council with Sue Cockley, an expert in adult education who was the program’s first director. Now dean of EMU’s graduate school and Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Cockley notes that leadership development has strong similarities to spiritual formation, widely recognized as one of the seminary’s unique curricular foci.
Some of the students and mentors in the 2018-19 two-semester mentorship class taught by Lee Snyder in the MA in organizational leadership program: Back from left, student Sheldon Rice '02; mentors Tammy Torres, Devon Anders '88 and Jim Krause. Front row, from left: students Steve Ericksen, Deb Lokrantz, Marilda Bardhi and Sandra Quigg. (Photo by Andrew Strack)
“Becoming a leader is a maturation process that resembles spiritual maturation,’” she said. “This process is the gradual development of emotional intelligence, a deepening understanding of oneself and one’s strengths and weaknesses. Just as a spiritual director can help guide the student to a deeper faith, so can a mentor guide students in this self-knowing journey in order to form them into mature leaders.” The pairings come about organically. Marilda Bardhi, former CFO of a large construction company in her native Albania, is currently interning with Anders at Interchange. Anders and Bardhi have spent time thinking and talking about cultural differences related to leadership – an intellectual and personal exercise Anders has found beneficial. Steve Eriksen, director of customer service at Campwise Software, has benefited from Edgar Miller’s mentorship prior to the class. That long-term relationship has helped Eriksen see his own leadership development as a process of authentic transformation. “It’s important to determine who you genuinely are and never stop learning about yourself and others,” he said, adding that Miller has served “as a sounding board for ideas, a motivator for continued growth, and a source of encouragement when difficult situations arise.” Miller has mentored four students through the program “and learned from all of them.” After more than 40 years in leadership, he enjoys passing on lessons learned and working with his mentees through current issues in their lives by offering “possible solutions or alternatives based on my experiences.” And the discussions sometimes revive forgotten principles of leadership or lead to the exploration of new ones. “Good leaders never stop learning,” he said – echoing one underlying goal of the mentoring course: that the cycle of sharing and reflecting continue to enrich a lifetime of growth in all who participate. — LAUREN JEFFERSON www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 11
TRACK AND FIELD FACILITY RENOVATION Now is the time to invest in bringing EMU’s track and field facilities up to 21st century standards – not only because it is urgent we do so for the current athletes – but to greatly enhance EMU's enrollment goals during the next several years.
THIS NEW FACILITY WILL: • Impact a large number of students through the athletic experience • Enable hosting of home college track meets (currently not an option) • Realize cost-savings from the reduction of travel costs • Provide opportunity for every athlete on the roster to train and compete • Accommodate a team of 75+ student-athletes • Increase diversity in the student body • Enhance enrollment and retention strategies of the university • Increase recruiting capabilities through the hosting of high school meets • Host track and field camp events to support recruitment and revenues New head coach Bob Hepler (left) and associate coach Erick Camodeca come to EMU from outstanding careers at University of Texas at Tyler and Stevenson University, respectively. They share excitement for building strong rosters and competitive teams, as well as developing first-class facilities to support EMU’s student-athletes. The duo have already spent time in planning and working with EMU’s fund development team. “These two coaches are great fits for our community and the right choices at this exciting time in our history,” said Director of Athletics Dave King.
WATCH THE NEW VIDEO FEATURING COACHES AND FORMER STUDENT-ATHLETE MICHAELA MAST '18 – emu.edu/track-field 12 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2018
Contact us to discuss your gift or a multi-year commitment. KIRK SHISLER vice president for advancement 540-432-4499 DAVE KING director of athletics 540-432-4440
Join this winning effort! RENOVATION DETAILS The Track and Field Project will feature TWO PHASES: Phase I includes demolition of the old track, re-grading, installation of a new eight-lane, polyurethane track, installation of throws area, addition of steeplechase and all new equipment. Phase II will feature a new two-story building for locker rooms (to support enrollment growth in the program), equipment storage, concessions, a yearround hitting facility for baseball and other features. Learn more about this project at
emu.edu/track-field
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It took a long time to become you – Indigo Girls
Alumni find their homes in Atlanta
Early in their career, the Indigo Girls frequently performed in The Little Five Points Community Pub, owned by a group of investors led by Don Bender '64, here with his wife Judy. Though the pub is no longer in business, it helped establish the neighborhood as the funky, eclectic and wildly popular draw it is today and Bender is still involved with the Little Five Points commercial district. PHOTO BY JON ST YER
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WHERE THEY LANDED A Life in Five Points ON A BALMY SEPTEMBER AFTERNOON, Don Bender '64 stands in Findley Plaza on corner of Euclid and Moreland avenues in the Little Five Points neighborhood, holding an architectural rendering of renovation plans. The plaza and surrounding streets – known as L5P – is Atlanta’s best-known bohemian hub, attracting musicians, street artists, venders, theatergoers and browsers to an eclectic neighborhood of clothing, novelty and new age stores, record and book stores, coffeehouses, restaurants and bars. At the moment, however, the triangle is a sleepy place. A delivery man pulls a loaded dolly cart nearby and a store owner jangles his key ring as he prepares to open for another business day. A disheveled man hangs over the railing surrounding a nearby shade tree, and Bender’s wife, Judy, delicately steps around his possessions to touch him lightly on the arm and begin a quiet conversation. A few feet away, Bender points to the future locations of perimeter planters and relocated street lighting. He has known the footprint of this neighborhood since long before its present incarnation, first through his vocational service in Atlanta in the ‘60s and then more fully in the early ‘70s, when he formed a group of investors to purchase and renovate dilapidated buildings. The development effort jumpstarted what is now one of Atlanta’s tourist attractions and a source of civic pride for the surrounding neighborhoods. Like the star that may grace the plaza’s new center to symbolize the five streets that come to the point, Bender, too, has synthesized and integrated his life’s 16 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2018
many influences. He would name more than five, if you asked him, but he is a gracious soul and knows the limitations of space. 570 MILES NORTH: EMC The youngest of nine siblings raised in Greenwood, Delaware, Bender came to EMC in 1960 at a time of immense change. Just two years before, his 65-year-old father – more moderate in his approaches to discipline, nonconformity and other issues straining the faith – had resigned as bishop with the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference. As Bender left for EMC, his parents moved to Mississippi to pursue ministry among the Choctaw Indians; his brother Titus '57 was already there, rebuilding African American churches with his wife Ann Yoder Bender, class of '58. (Don’s sisters Mildred '58 and Emma '60 with her husband Glenn Myers '63 would also join their parents in Mississippi in 1962 and 1963 respectively; after pastoring and earning his doctorate, Titus began a 22-year teaching career at EMC in 1973.) “The college served as a kind of halfway house for what I had been and what I was on the road to being,” Bender said. Though some on campus were “voices like those I was trying to escape,” many others shared his progressive thinking. He studied to become a history teacher, but took several social work courses and, most significantly, received his first introduction to the Quaker faith through a campus-wide book selection, The Journal of John Woolman. He also heard Vincent Harding, a black Mennonite pastor then based in Atlanta who was pressing the church toward more active support for
the civil rights movement. (Harding would eventually leave the church because his calls to action were, he felt, for the most part not being answered). 2 MILES WEST: VOLUNTARY SERVICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS In 1967, Bender arrived in Atlanta for alternative service at Mennonite House, an interracial voluntary service unit in an African-American neighborhood a few blocks from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and the national headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Bender taught in the public schools and contributed to youth programming at the house, but he was also drawn by the civil rights movement to a new faith home. “The Mennonite mission church was racially integrated, but not really activist,” Bender remembers. “As I became deeply embedded in the movement – I knew a lot of the leaders and heard Dr. King preach – the Quakers became a better, more comfortable place for me to be.” 6.5 MILES WEST: SIMPSON ROAD A major organizing center of the ‘60s civil rights movement, Atlanta attracted many with social justice at the forefront of their work – including a group of Franciscan sisters, most of them nurses, from Rochester, Minnesota. Among them was a school teacher, his future wife Judy Harak. The sisters made their home, Bender noted with a grin, on Simpson Road between two strip clubs. Don and Judy's “Menno-Catholic” marriage ceremony in 1969 “caused everyone problems,” he says. “We were trying to make her parents and my father happy and the Quakers, too. Of course it was the ‘60s, so there was folk music. It was a generally strange combination – but you know, that’s the way our life has been.” The young couple lived at Quaker House for the next three years, teaching and contributing to the meeting’s work in civil rights, peace action and draft counseling. Judy would go on to earn her doctorate in biology, teach and direct research at Morehouse College, and then move into a similar position in the
graduate school at Clark Atlanta College. Her research focused on microbial mats used in bioremediation, aquaculture and wastewater treatment. When they purchased a home in Candler Park, adjacent to Little Five Points, the family’s sustainability efforts, which included a backyard tilapia farm and cooperative farming, earned attention from Mother Earth News. But that’s another story. Bender’s teaching career would transition as well. He eventually earned a master’s degree in adult education from University of Georgia and would teach ESL and GED prep in a variety of settings, including at a federal penitentiary.
Shops in Findley Plaza, a popular gathering place in the Little Five Points commercial district of Atlanta. The plaza is slated for renovations under the guidance of Don Bender '64 and other community leaders.
500 FEET EAST: PHOTO BY JON ST YER L5P COMMUNITY PUB, INC. Now a homeowner and settled in Atlanta, Bender began to formulate a plan to benefit the languishing adjacent L5P the multi-lane Stone Mountain Freeway, business district. The resulting Atlanta a Georgia Department of Transportation Intown Development Corporation – 17 plan that twice over a 15-year span like-minded investors, all of whom had threatened the area along with several been involved in civil rights and the other historic neighborhoods. First peace movement – first renovated six developed in the ‘60s, the plan was local homes. In 1977, the corporation vociferously opposed when more than purchased a strip of storefronts that 200 homes were razed in preparation. In included the Redwood Lounge, a seedy 1971, the force of local activism caused place that attracted former convicts. then-Governor Jimmy Carter to stop the It was the nightly site of prostitution, project, and the land sat for more than a brawls and drug deals – a place decade until Carter returned to Georgia that needed to be cleaned up if the after his one-term presidency. Looking neighborhood was to move forward. for a place to build his Carter Center, Using business as a means of commuhe reintroduced a slightly improved nity activism “was countercultural, for plan but still with a major limited sure,” Bender said. “It was a plunge.” access highway running through the The Little Five Points Community Pub neighborhoods. Inc., ceremonially opened by the newly Bender lent his organizing skills to city elected mayor Maynard Jackson, served council campaigns, demurred requests bar food and alcohol. Bender was pleased to run himself, and attended protests when his former EMC ethics professor in what became known in city history Harry Lefevre, a new Atlanta resident, as the “Road Fight.” Civil disobedience became an investor.“I figured that was an on a wide scale was used to stall the endorsement,” he jokes. process; Judy recalls running to make The space accommodated community sure a bulldozer operator had seen her meetings and hosted poetry readings, husband prostrate on the ground. (“I board-game gatherings, art shows and made eye contact with him before I laid concerts – including early performances down,” Don says.) Eventually the plan by two Emory University students who was modified: Today’s Freedom Parkway still call themselves the Indigo Girls. is a gentle four lanes and bike trail, and the former freeway interchange is a large .5 MILE: FREEDOM PARK urban park. Bender’s contributions to L5P go handNow Bender hasn’t used his bartendin-hand with his activist work against ing skills for many years; the group sold
the pub after 10 years in business, as “we thought it had done what we set out to do, and other places offering similar things were opening,” he says. But he is still involved in several commercial real estate partnerships and in the Little Five Points Community Improvement District. He is sometimes tapped to share lessons from his experiences with other areas of Atlanta that are still in need of revitalization. When we talked, he was anticipating an interview with a local high school student compiling a history of the area. Bender’s many interests and talents as well as his clear capacity for leadership meant he could have pursued any number of options. How did he decide where to focus his time and energy? “I think I used a kind of meditative approach to determining what to do, but then it turned out to be a crooked path, exploring this direction and that direction.” He pauses, and looks at Judy with a warm smile. “We probably took on a little more than we should have.” As the afternoon moves on and business starts to pick up on the plaza, the Benders head for home, two people walking together through a neighborhood whose transformation is the direct result of their life journeys that were not so much crooked, perhaps, as starshaped. — LAUREN JEFFERSON
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Maggie Worku '07, an associate director with Transamerica, in Atlanta's Commerce Club. PHOTO BY JON ST YER
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Guiding Life World traveler finds satisfying work in insurance field SINCE 1960, Atlanta’s Commerce Her current work feeds her desire to be pursuits. She prefers working for herself, Club has been the gathering place for helpful to others while also offering time managing her own time, and developing history-shaping meetings, especially in and financial support for other interests her own future and that of her clients its former location in the Five Points – such as developing a fledgling import through personal interaction. She guides neighborhood, surrounded by banks, retail business inspired by global travels. her younger clientele through important law firms, the offices of the Atlanta In 2017, Worku visited 11 countries financial decisions and helps those 60 Journal-Constitution, and Georgia State (she maximizes her time by including and older through the maze of rules and University. In 2010, the prestigious club visits to adjacent countries). One favorite regulations surrounding retirement. followed the migration of many of these trip was a solo 2015 visit to Egypt to Close to her heart are the interactions institutions south to its current location see musician Yanni in concert with the she can’t forget: bringing a life insurance on the 49th floor of 191 Peachtree Tower. pyramids as the backdrop. check to a grieving family overwhelmed Maggie Worku '07 – Ethiopian Worku traces some of her indepenwith bills, informing a teenage orphan native, Transamerica executive and dence back to her move to LMS from that his mother had not purchased a entrepreneur – is a part of this new Ethiopia at age 16. “It wasn’t my compolicy that would have enabled him to history. She often hosts prospective munity, but LMS still felt comfortable,” continue supporting him and a younger recruits, conducts training sessions, and she said. Though she met a handful of brother. Times like that leave her quesmeets clients in one of the many work Ethiopians at EMU during her first year, tioning her own persuasive abilities. spaces or the dining area. The views from the many international students and “Was I dedicated enough?” she said. the wall-to-wall windows are stunning, hospitable community helped her settle “Did I try hard enough, because that deuseful for both inspiration and distracin. These were, she says, unique and cision to say no to a life insurance policy tion. Her favorite looks southeast – “I positive experiences that she wishes other changed the life of her children?” think,” she says: “I get turned around in immigrants could have. “People really Worku’s own assessment of her here.” Known city-wide for its business cared … There was a real understanding fortunes, so far, is that she has been networking opportunities, time at the that you can’t treat various people in the “pretty lucky, honestly,” in the life she has club is always well-spent. world all the same way.” created in Atlanta, considering she came From an early age, Worku was exposed At EMU, she chose a business major, knowing only one person and had no to the business world. Her father, a civil but her interests were broad. She still job lined up. She has capitalized on her engineer, and her mother managed busihas the form that she and her counselor natural strengths but also developed new nesses in construction and import/export filled out during the first semester, a skills and knowledge. She remains gratein Ethiopia. Her brother Yohannes plan that enabled a double-major in ful to her parents for the role they have '07, with whom she came to Lancaster economic development and international played in her independence and success. Mennonite School (LMS) and then on business and a triple-minor in justice, And now Atlanta – her many friends, to EMU, is now a regional vice president peace and conflict studies, marketing, her boxer Bella, a thriving Ethiopian at Transamerica. One younger sister is and computer information systems. She community, the varied pace of the urban a civil engineer completing doctoral balanced this intense coursework with a setting, the warm weather and endless studies and teaching in Addis Ababa, job in Multicultural Student Services and entertainment options – feels like home, Ethiopia; the youngest travels Africa as a extracurricular involvements (the most a place to grow roots and build a future. sourcing director for Diageo based out of formative was Students In Free Enter“I am glad to get away, but always Nairobi, Kenya. prise, now known as Enactus). glad to come back,” she said. ‘I still It was Yohannes who urged her to Those early inclinations towards haven’t really figured out why, but this is consider working in insurance after she innovation, entrepreneurship and selfhome.” — LAUREN JEFFERSON struggled to find her professional niche. motivation are evident in her business www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 19
STICKY BUSINESS Working to the highest standard
EVEN THOUGH he used to be a social worker in Atlanta, Joel Gross '76 says his more recent decades as a business owner have “enabled me to do more for people than I ever did while working as a social worker.” Both he and his wife Karen Kurtz Gross '75 share an entrepreneurial spirit and community-oriented values. The couple met while in voluntary service in Durham, North Carolina, in 1970 and moved to Atlanta after graduation to work with Mennonite Central Committee. In 1990, Karen co-founded a fairtrade retail business that eventually joined Ten Thousand Villages, raising more than $3 million to benefit global artisans by the time it closed in February 2018. Joel left his job with Atlanta’s Community Relations Commission in 1981 to start a graphics installation company that has grown into a thriving full-service graphics company. 20 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2018
Thirteen people, including several who have been with him for nearly 20 years, work with Gross from the Sticky Business headquarters in an industrial park near the Atlanta airport. There, he is able to “do more” by empowering his employees through on-the-job training and off-site educational opportunities, as well as offering mentorship and a community-oriented faith-filled support network. “Our management team comes from diverse backgrounds but we all are believers,” he said. “We want to glorify Christ through the business; it’s the core and center of who we are.” As he leads a tour through the multibay warehouse, Gross introduced each person by name, stopping to share a joke or two, but also to point out their expertise. The business, he knows, would not be successful without their shared dedication and skill. “This is not something everyone can
do,” he said, stopping to admire a work in progress with an employee he joking calls “The Old Pro.” “This is a craft. The conditions, the type of vinyl, the temperature – all these things change how the vinyl behaves, so this work requires someone who can adapt and adjust and has a good knowledge of just how far the material can be stretched. Ae [pronounced air] can do amazing things with vinyl, he’s been doing it so long. His signature is like calligraphy. Ae is also a musician, too, and an artist in what he does here.” Clients look to Sticky Business for an astonishing range of products and applications. During the months surrounding Atlanta’s hosting of the 1996 Olympics, approximately 80 employees worked at Sticky Business, with 35 dedicated to installing special graphics on more than 1,500 buses. His employees have designed, printed and installed vinyl graphics on boats, box
Joel Gross '76 owns a vinyl graphics business in Conley, Georgia. He and his wife Karen are both EMU graduates, as are their son Conrad '09 and daughter Amanda '06, MA '13 (conflict transformation). Gross, at right with two of his 13 employees, has been influential in creating professional, ethical and educational standards for the vinyl graphics industry. He has also provided leadership for the area business community and as a mentor in his church. PHOTOS BY JON ST YER
trucks, cars, trucks, and trailers, as well as pianos, ATM machines, pedestrian bridges, roller coaster cars, Turner Stadium’s outfield walls and giant ceremonial baseballs. Sticky Business prides itself on good customer service, a quality that Gross says has always set him apart. “I was a good old Mennonite boy,” he said, of his first days in the business. “I would tell people, ‘I am coming to your place on Tuesday,’ and I would show up on Tuesday and they thought I was a rock star because they were comparing me with people who would tell them they would be there on Tuesday but they wouldn’t tell them Tuesday of what month.” An early advocate of professionalizing the industry, he is a founding member of the Professional United Application Standards Group, an association of 3Mcertified installation companies. Members send their installers to complete training and testing at 3M’s headquar-
ters to meet industry standards. It’s another opportunity for Gross to help his employees develop their skills and also provides opportunities for industry networking. Gross would be the first to claim no special business skills – “You make many, many mistakes – and you hope they’re not fatal – until you are able to find and hire good people to do the things you can’t do,” he said. Bending his attention towards leadership for the common good, however, comes naturally. As past president of the Conley Area Business Association, he helped to launch a feasibility study that resulted in the new Greater Conley Industrial Community Improvement District. He now chairs the district’s volunteer board, which works to improve the area’s business environment by addressing safety and security concerns and infrastructure improvements through partnerships with
the county, state and adjacent neighborhoods. The CID is funded by the area’s property owners through a voluntary tax levy. Gross also volunteers as a mentor – and a mentor to the mentors – at North Point Community Ministries’ Buckhead Church, and he counts these relationships with men to be among his greatest rewards. His independence as a “small” business owner undergirds all of these endeavors, Gross says. “If you want to do good things and make an impact, small business is where it’s at,” he said. Through Sticky Business, he can work to create beneficial situations in which his employees can be successful; their successes, in turn, motivate and free him. “Lord knows, I’ve made mistakes and had to apologize,” he said. “We’re all imperfect, but we strive to represent our Lord to the best of who we are in what we do every day.” — LAUREN JEFFERSON www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 21
'WHERE I NEED TO BE' New York City native finds her niche as a nurse practitioner
QUICK MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Romero and “making sure all the patients get gained experience through connections taken care of the right way” don’t always with Amish midwives. equate, Natalie Bonilla Romero '09 When she enrolled in community said recently. A nurse practitioner in an college, though, she was encouraged to Atlanta-area clinic, she’d just gotten off broaden her training and pursue a nurswork late, again. A patient with “pretty ing degree, and she soon transferred into basic” upper respiratory symptoms also EMU’s nursing program. had unrelated lab test results Romero It was difficult, landing on an unfawanted to explain. miliar campus where she knew no one, “That, in a nutshell, is primary care,” had no car, and was hours away from her she said – not with resignation, but parents – and the coursework wasn’t easy, with conviction that what she offers her either. She had to retake a couple classes, patients is making a difference. and remembers the pressure of knowing “sort of saying ‘Thank you.’” At a very early age, Romero found that passing was a requisite for advancing. She hunkered down in the library. herself in a health care provider role. Her “My dad was a cab driver in New York “I pretty much became a hermit,” she dad and mom, from Colombia and EcCity, and my mom was a housekeeper,” said – a determined one: “‘I’m gonna uador respectively, and extended family she said. “I felt like my parents came to do this,’” she remembers telling herself. relied on her for interpreting at medical this country to make something amaz“‘This is what I set out to do.’ I finished appointments and translating documents. ing out of their lives, and although that and passed, but I struggled and I studShe observed quickly “a need for more couldn’t happen for them, they instilled ied.” representation of the Hispanic commuthese values and morals in me, to say, Once she found her footing, she fell nity in health care.” ‘You are going to make a difference.’” in love with the EMU social scene, was She became interested in midwifery, Mastering those difficult classes and active in the Latino Student Alliance, and as a teen became a doula. After her ultimately graduating, she believed, connected personally with professors family moved from New York City to would be proof of that – and would be a (that connection continues: last fall she 22 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2018
Natalie Bonilla Romero '09 trained as a doulah while a teenager in New York City but expanded her health care knowledge at EMU. She spent several years as an emergency room nurse before becoming a nurse practitioner. PHOTO BY JON ST YER
met with Professor Laura Yoder for dinner), and appreciatively attended chapel services. “It was definitely where I needed to be, the small community,” she said. “I like that the professors knew my name, knew where I came from, what my story was about. That made a difference.” After graduating from EMU, Romero spent time in community and emergency medicine, in part at Gwinnett Medical Center in Atlanta. Caring for a spectrum of the population, and not providing
only maternity care, felt right: “This is the role that I was really meant to fill,” she realized. Romero continued working and enrolled in a dual-degree, three-year program, and earned her MSN and nurse practitioner’s licence. Now, she’s seeing her own impact, a culmination of her life’s experiences, particularly when she meets with patients grateful for a Spanish-speaking care provider. “As I walk into a room, patients look at what I would look like, and they start
speaking in Spanish,” she said. “We immediately have that rapport – and yet we’ve only said ‘Hello.’” That translates into better care. “You bypass this gap in medicine because they already feel like, ‘Oh well, she’s kind of like my family member, and she understands exactly what I’m about to tell her,’” she said. “It leads to that connection with them and therefore the trust that you need.” — CHRISTOPHER CLYMER KURTZ '00
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A career path that began with a question:
‘What are the classes you really want to take?’
Elizabeth Beachy Hansen '99 outside the reThink Group headquarters in Cumming, Georgia. PHOTO BY JON ST YER
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JAY B. LANDIS and his checkerboardtially more influence than either entity wrinkled forehead: That’s basically what alone,” its website says. She’s seen her started Elizabeth Beachy Hansen '99 own kids connect with the resources at on her career path. As a first-year student, their church. she had biotech and science research She also works with her husband Dave, leanings, some theater experience, a a “whole-package” filmmaker, in their passion for playing marimba, and no Arclight Studios, a career field she says is declared major. ironic for her: she grew up without teleLandis was the faculty advisor for such vision. Instead, “we had books. We had people. so many books.” She remembers a sum“He called me and said, ‘Well, What mer her mom took limiting measures are the classes that you really want to because her little sister – now language take?’” she remembered recently. “Then and literature Professor Kirsten Beachy he started telling me about all the things '02 – was reading so much. he was teaching, and so I ended up as an Collaborating with a spouse can be English major.” kind of like marriage therapy, she said. Hansen loved not only Landis’s teach- “Anytime you work together on a creative ing but also the intense, collaborative project like that, it brings out the best process of theater, and the campus where and the worst. We’ve learned how we she still feels at home. work together as a team” – critiquSo much has followed: a first playwrit- ing each other’s work included. That’s ing gig (Jordan’s Stormy Banks for the Val- ultimately good for the art, since what ley Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center emerges as a first draft is “really like a in Harrisonburg); an MFA from Regent third or fourth draft,” she said. University; her husband Dave, whom she Even though the Hansens work as met at a month-long Act One workshop Christians, theirs is not “Christian art” – in Chicago, various writing gigs that led it’s art. to new writing gigs; and now, for about “Stories are beautiful and wonderful eight years, a reThink Group position in and dangerous in that they carry a messuburban Atlanta – oh, and two children, sage,” she said. “That’s a powerful thing.” now nearly two and four years old. While some might use art to spoonfeed a “It’s definitely been a different world, message to audiences, Hansen’s definithe last few years,” she said. “A lot of tion of a Christian story is more rooted what we’re doing right now is figuring in, well, story: out how do we continue to do this stuff “A Christian story would be a story we’re passionate about, around kids. It’s that’s really well told, where somebody been a good challenge.” changes for better or for worse,” she said, Hansen is a script writer and story “and because of something that we see in developer for reThink Group, which their story, we then start asking quesproduces curricula and companion tions.” resources in a wide variety of formats for Questions that, perhaps along with churches and parents. It calls its philosoforehead wrinkles, can even start a phy and strategy “Orange,” to represent professional journey. — CHRISTOPHER how the joining of two forces – parents CLYMER KURTZ '00 and church leaders – “will have exponen-
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After spending a year in Papua working in public health with Mennonite Central Committee's SALT volunteer program, Nicole Groff '14 worked as a certified nursing assistant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and determined her career path. She is now a graduate student in the dual-degree master's program in global public health and physician assistant studies at Emory University in Atlanta. PHOTO BY JON ST YER
Aaron Hooven '16, a former Royals pitcher and recreation leadership and sports science major, has found his niche in financial sales with a fastgrowing company in suburban Atlanta. He credits some of his success to coursework in mediation, speech and human resources. PHOTO BY JON ST YER
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MILEPOSTS 1950-59
1970-79
John Ruth ‘53, Harleysville, Pa., and his son Jay have made a documentary film premiered by the Mennonite Heritage Center. Is There a Lesson: 45 Years with John Ruth and TourMagination explores the Anabaptist theme of biblical nonresistance through photography and film footage of the Anabaptist Heritage Trail tour.
Miriam Eberly ‘72, Lititz, Pa., a former Eastern Mennonite Missions worker, founded the Belize Evangelical Mennonite Church Scholarship Fund in 2014. She served two terms in Belize between 1965 and 1976, first as a nurse at a 12-bed hospital in Orange Walk Town and later as a certified registered nurse practitioner at a San Felipe clinic with a twobed maternity ward.
1960-69 Larry E. Nolt ‘67, Souderton, Pa., retired recently as partner in IVC Wealth Advisors, LLC. In 51 years of employment, he was also president of FirstService Capital Advisors (before merging with National Penn Capital Advisors and later BB&T) and a partner with Canon Capital Management Group. Early in his career, he was the first full-time alumni director at EMC and Seminary and later director of college and seminary relations. Some folks will remember that he and a business-partner couple started and managed Heritage Family Restaurant in Harrisonburg for five years. Widowed after 51 years, he has reunited with a Lancaster-area high school classmate, Sherry Groff Read, and will be moving to Key West, Florida, where he will manage a vacation rental. Joseph Gascho ‘68, Hummelstown, Pa., received the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, given annually by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation at Penn State College of Medicine, where he directs the Cardiology Fellowship Program. Del Glick ‘68, Washington D.C., has retired from full-time pastoral ministry after nine years with Washington Community Fellowship. He had previously served as interim pastor and then bishop/overseer. Since 1980 he was also involved in conference and denominational leadership with congregations in Indiana, Florida and Pennsylvania.
Steve Hackman ‘73, Souderton, Pa., was among Dock Mennonite Academy’s 2018 alumni of the year, receiving an award for distinguished service. He worked for 22 years as a pediatric respiratory therapist, and then was chief development officer for 10 years for nonprofits in Nigeria, Egypt and India. He was on the board of Chosen 300 Ministries for 22 years, and is secretary for the Pennsylvania board of directors for Healthy Niños, which he has served for 15 years. Dr. William “Bill” Yoder ‘73, Gvardeysk, Kaliningrad, Russia, is a retired church journalist. He had previously lived in Gvardeysk from 2001-05, then worked primarily in Moscow while commuting from Belarus. Sara Wenger Shenk ‘75, Elkhart, Ind., will retire as president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in June 2019. She has served in this role since the fall of 2010, following 15 years on the EMS faculty and in administration, including in the associate dean position. Dennis Gingerich ‘76, MDiv ‘79, Cape Coral, Fla., was awarded the 2018 Elmer Tabor Generosity Award from the Cape Coral Community Foundation at an October ceremony. He is the founding pastor of Cape Christian Fellowship, which is attended by 3,000 people each weekend.
FRIENDS OF THE WOODS AND WETLANDS REPRESENTATIVES Friends of the Woods and Wetlands representatives (from left) Electa Mohler, Blanche Horst '53, Charles Longenecker '57, Roland Yoder '57, John Buckwalter '61, Becci Leatherman '58, Ed Longenecker '68 and Arlene Shank receive the LeadingAge PA Volunteer of the Year Award in June. The group was recognized for their volunteer efforts with flora and fauna on Landis Homes' 110-acre campus. (Courtesy of Landis Homes)
Daniel Liechty, class of ‘76, Normal, Ill., a professor in the School of Social Work at Illinois State University, was bestowed with the honorary title Distinguished Lecturer in Arts and Sciences. It is the highest honor given within the University College of Arts and Sciences, where he has taught for 20 years. His research is in the area of religion and social work, and his teaching area is human development across the lifespan.
1980-89 Phil Wenger '82, Lancaster, Pa., provided the Longacre Series Lecture in November, speaking to several audiences on topics of faith, business and social justice. He is the former owner of Isaac's Deli, Inc., and current CEO of the Lancaster Conservancy.
Conley K. McMullen ‘78, Keezletown, Va., was elected a Fellow of the Virginia Academy of Science. He is professor of biology at James Madison University.
Myron Blosser ‘83, MA ‘98 (education), Harrisonburg, Va., was awarded the annual Genetics Education Award from the National Association of Biology Teachers. He is co-director of Harrisonburg High School Governor’s STEM Academy and a past Virginia Biology Teacher of the Year.
Wilda Schwartzentruber Stoltzfus ‘78, Bellefontaine, Ohio, is a special projects officer at Community Health and Wellness Partners of Logan County.
Cheryl Kreider 83 Carey '83, Lansdowne, Va., is the executive director of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine, located in Leesburg.
Miriam Zehr ‘78, Orrville, Ohio, graduated from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in July with an MA degree in Christian formation with a concentration in Christian spirituality. She is an associate pastor of worship and education at Oak Grove Mennonite Church in Smithville.
Tammy Fulk Cullers ‘83, MA ‘13 (education), Broadway, Va., published Random Numbers, a mystery for teen readers (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018). A seventh-grade teacher, she also co-authored the Custer’s Mill Mystery series and the Local Lore history series.
Rolando Santiago ‘79, Lancaster, Pa., began as development director in May for the Jubilee Association of Maryland, a Mennonite-related developmental disabilities organization. He was a member of its board from 1999-2004, and now oversees its foundation, event planning and communications.
Peter Gabriel Omonde ‘83, Washington, N.C., works at Agape Community Health Clinic. Shana Peachey Boshart ‘85, Wellman, Ohio, received an Award for Distinguished Service as one of Dock Mennonite Academy’s 2018 alumni of the year. An EMU trustee since 2012,
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she served for 20 years as faith formation minister for Central Plains Mennonite Conference. She curates the Anabaptist Faith Formation website and has promoted young people’s participation in the Mennonite Church USA delegation assembly, most recently through the Step Up initiative. Sharon Witmer Yoder ‘85, Elkhart, Ind., graduated in July with a Master of Divinity degree with a major in pastoral ministry from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. In December, she will conclude 11 years of service as co-pastor at Olive Mennonite Church. Maria Bender Archer, class of ‘86, MA ‘11 (education), Harrisonburg, Va., was named K-8 principal at Eastern Mennonite School in July. She was the K-5 principal since the elementary school began in 2005.
PHILANTHROPIST OF THE YEAR AWARD Levi ’76 and Lillis Troyer (middle) were recognized with the Margaret Martin Gehman Philanthropist of the Year Award at the 2018 donor appreciation banquet during Homecoming and Family Weekend. With them are Professor Emerita Margaret Martin Gehman, the award's namesake and its first recipient, and President Susan Schultz Huxman. The Troyers represent a six-decade-long legacy of connection and engagement to the university, aiding in capital campaign projects, contributing to scholarships, and supporting the EMU educations of their children and grandchildren. This is not the first recognition for the couple's numerous philanthropic endeavors. In 2014, they were recognized with the Holmes County Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to area business as well as education, mission work, community service and economic development. (Photo by Andrew Strack)
Sue Blauch ‘86, Harrisonburg, Va., was named the first Head of WNBA Referee Performance and Development in August. She officiated WNBA All-Star Games in 2006 and 2011, as well as the 2006 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 2008 Summer Olympics Bronze Medal game. Todd M. Shenk ‘88, Anchorage, Alaska, was named a senior program officer for the Rasmuson Foundation in June. He previously worked 12 years for Casey Family Programs in Seattle, including three years with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington D.C.
1990-99 Pauline Martin ‘90, San Salvador, El Salvador, directs the education policy and evaluation master’s program at the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas in San Salvador, where she has lived for 25 years following service with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Cheryl Helmuth Logan ‘91, Bridgewater, Va., is the new director of admissions for EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. She formerly worked for Blue Ridge Community College as a career coach at Harrisonburg High School. Jill Stoltzfus ‘91, Souderton, Pa., is a research institute director at St. Luke’s University Health Network in Fountain Hill, Pa. This fall, she presented a Suter Science Seminar titled “From Undergraduate Education to Meaningful Employment: How a Former EMU Psych Major Found Her Calling in the World of Academic Hospital Research.” Aimee Jeanette Camp ‘93, El Paso, Texas, is a public library branch manager two miles from the U.S-Mexico border. The library offers ESL, beginning computers, GED, French and citizenship classes. Kevin Griffin ‘93, MA ‘17 (education), Royersford, Pa., stepped down after 13 seasons as EMU’s head women’s basketball coach to serve as connections minister for the Philadelphia District Church of the Nazarene.
COMMUNITY RECOGNITION AWARD Basil Marin MDiv ‘05, Harrisonburg, Va., received a special community recognition award from the Harrisonburg/Rockingham African-American Festival in June. He is pastor of New Song Anabaptist Fellowship. (Courtesy photo)
Delores Jean Saner Jameson ‘93, Harrisonburg, Va., received a United Way Bright Star award for early childhood education in June. Jameson is the executive director of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Child Day Care Center. Tim Meyers ‘93, Archbold, Ohio, began a new position as math instructor at Four County Career Center. He has worked in education for 19 years. He and Heather Yoder Myers ‘93 have three children. Randall Nyce ‘94, Souderton, Pa., a stewardship consultant for Everence, received the
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President’s Stewardship Award at the organization’s 2018 national conference. Amy Rhodes Brown ‘95, Staunton, Va., earned an MSN-Nurse Educator degree from Liberty University in May, and is now an RN care coordinator for the colorectal surgery program in the digestive health department at the University of Virginia Health System. Stephen Farrar ‘95, Harrisonburg, Va., is the EMU music department’s new office manager. He attended Ohio University for graduate studies in piano performance, and earned Master of Divinity and Master of Music degrees at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. Stephen also serves as associate pastor and minister of music at Sunrise Church of the Brethren. Anne Gingerich Brenneman ‘96, Salt Lake City, Utah, has been appointed administrative director for pediatric behavioral health at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. She previously worked for nearly eight years in several positions, most recently as director of pediatric education, practice and research. She has also served as the simulation program manager at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Jeanette Nisly ’96, MSN ’14, Petén, Guatemala, volunteers with Concern America, an international organization that in part trains villagers to become their own health-care providers. She teaches online courses for EMU and is enrolled in EMU’s doctor of nursing practice program. Earl Robinson ‘96, Overton, England, has published Our Road to Adoption: The story of our family and the great family of God (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018), in which he narrates the three-year road to adopting their three daughters. Trent Hummel ‘97, Cincinnati, Ohio, presented a Suter Science Seminar on his research into targeted therapies in pediatric neuro-oncology. He is associate professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Ryan W. Kauffman ‘97, Lancaster, Pa., is a member of the NakedEye Ensemble, which has released its debut album “Storylines Crossing” (Starkland, 2018). It’s “a stylistic melange, full of gritty energy and wonderful stylistic feints,” said Joshua Kosman of The San Francisco Chronicle. Ryan Linder-Hess ‘98, Lancaster, Pa., works for Hess Bros. where he has helped to develop a new variety of apple called Sweet Cheeks. Hess Bros. donated apples (another variety) for EMU’s donor appreciation banquet. Stephanie Horst ‘99, Lancaster, Pa., recently completed her education requirements for Associateship in the Society of Actuaries. She works for Capital BlueCross in Harrisburg.
2000-09 Christopher Clymer Kurtz ‘00, Linville, Va., along with Maria Clymer Kurtz ‘00, Nick Hurst ‘01 and Craig Zook ‘01, released the Clymer Kurtz Band’s fourth CD, titled Snow on Snow on Snow (2018). It features the original “Solemn Stillness (Joy to the World)” and new arrangements of traditional Christmas carols. Rosemary Siegrist Blessing ‘01, Lititz, Pa., is the artistic director of the Mennonite Children’s Choir of Lancaster chamber choir. She also has a private piano studio, teaches at Franklin and Marshall College, and is a rehearsal accompanist for the Lancaster Symphony Chorus.
Alicia Horst ‘01, Harrisonburg, Va., received a United Way Young Community Builder Award in June. She is executive director of NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center and accredited by the U.S. Department of Justice to practice immigration law. Anthony Streiff ‘01, Weyers Cave, Va., helped the Harrisonburg Cardinals to the finals of the 2018 National Wheelchair Basketball Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. He has been a team member for 13 years. Sarah Ann Gehman Bixler ‘02, Princeton, N.J., is a doctoral student in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and assistant to the director for the Center for Church Planting and Revitalization. She and spouse Benjamin Bixler ‘03, MA ‘13 (religion), a doctoral student at Drew Theological School, attend Oxford Circle Mennonite Church in Philadelphia. Andrew Garner ‘02, Lancaster, Pa., has been named the director of strategic partnerships for the North Museum of Nature and Science, where he has worked since 2014, recently as education services manager. Caleb Ediger ‘03, Harper, Kan., earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice in organizational leadership from the University of Kansas in July. His doctoral project was titled “Using Simulation with New Graduate Nurses to Identify Nurse-to-Nurse Lateral Violence.” He is an assistant professor of nursing and the simulation educator at Newman University. Laura Horst Rosenberger ‘03, Chapel Hill, N.C., was inducted into the American College of Surgeons in November. She is a breast oncologist and assistant professor of surgery at Duke University School of Medicine. Casey Armstrong ‘06, Remington, Va., was named the assistant county administrator of Rockingham County. He previously held the role of director of community development and has worked for the county for 12 years. Luella Kaufman Glanzer ‘06, Harrisonburg, Va., was recognized as one of “40 under 40” awardees by the Virginia Nurses Association this fall in Richmond. Since 2017 she has served as the nursing retention program coordinator with the UVA Health System. She is enrolled in EMU’s MSN program. Stephanie Miller Lehman ‘06, Philadelphia, Pa., earned a PhD in chemistry from the University of Virginia in October, and started a post-doctoral position at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Kristy Koser ‘07, MA ‘09 (counseling), Millersburg, Ohio, has successfully defended her dissertation “The ART of Couple Satisfaction,” thereby earning her PhD in Counseling and Supervision at James Madison University. Donovan Tann ‘08, Newton, Kan., chairs the language arts department at Hesston College. He was a Lilly Graduate Fellow 2008-11, and completed his PhD in English at Temple University in 2014. Rachel Reesor ‘09, Stouffville, Ontario, Canada, is a licensed clinical social worker at Blue Hills Child and Family Center in Toronto. She performs assessments on families that have remained in the system for extended periods of time and provides therapy to families through Children’s Aid (foster care in Ontario). Regina Wenger ‘09, Waco, Texas, has begun doctoral studies in history at Baylor University.
2010-18 Justin Reesor ‘10, Stouffville, Ontario, Canada, is the operations manager for RENEW,
which has facilitated investments in eight medium-sized companies in Ethiopia with the goal of producing both financial returns and positive social impact for its angel investors. In total, RENEW has helped create 827 jobs and supports 5,700 smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, and is expanding to Uganda. Reesor’s role includes finance/accounting, HR, IT, and project management functions. Ben Roth Shank ‘10, Wellington, New Zealand, won the National Council of Teachers of English 2018 Paul and Kate Farmer English Journal Writing Award with “Maximizing the Heuristic Potential of the Enthymeme.” The article began as an assignment for a rhetoric class during his graduate studies through Valdosta State University. He teaches English and media studies and coaches soccer at Wellington High School. Matthew Tieszen ‘10, MA ‘15 (biomedicine), a graduate student in the physician assistant program at James Madison University, served a clinical rotation at Shirati KTM Hospital in Tanzania. He and Blake Rogers ‘14 were the first students from JMU’s PA program to complete a clinical rotation there. Brianna Oelschlager Moyer ’11, Lititz, Pa., was awarded the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Resident Teacher Award for exemplary leadership and teaching excellence in the Lancaster General Family Medicine Residency program. In August she began as a faculty member there, where she will supervise family medicine residents, assist the current director of the global health studies curriculum, and have her own practice.
TEACHER OF THE YEAR Chris Grim ‘90, Broadway, Va., was selected as Teacher of the Year for Rockingham County and the Virginia Department of Education’s Region 5, which covers 13 counties and seven cities. She is in her 29th year at Fulks Run Elementary School, where she teaches first-grade math and language arts. Six other EMU alumni were recognized among local teachers of the year: Heather Crawford ’97, Sheri Loomis ’01, Sheryl McDowell MA ’09, Stephanie Slater MA ’07, Heidi Swartz ’98 and Abby Stover ’11. (Courtesy photo)
Michael Spory ‘11, Charlottesville, Va., completed a master’s degree in architecture at Iowa State University and is an architectural designer at Stantec, an international design and engineering firm. Nathan Hershberger ‘12, Durham, N.C., was named Eastern Mennonite School’s 2018 Young Alumnus of the Year. He and his wife Kaitlin served for three years with Mennonite Central Committee in Ankawa, Iraq. He is enrolled in a doctoral program in theology at Duke University. Justin King ‘12, Harrisonburg, Va., is Eastern Mennonite School’s new high school principal. He previously taught world history, government and economics at Broadway, Turner Ashby and East Rockingham high schools, and coached baseball. This fall he began working toward a master’s degree in secondary school administration at James Madison University. Julia Schmidt ‘13, Goshen, Ind., graduated in May with a Master of Divinity degree with a major in theological studies from the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. She also received the seminary’s Heart of the Community Award and the Award for Excellence in Peace Studies. Louise Babikow ‘14, Lancaster, Pa., received a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017. She completed a student elective term in Roatán, Honduras at Clínica Esperanza, and plans to work in Lancaster as a nurse practitioner. Eric King ‘14, Taos, N.M., is operations manager for Taos Initiative for Life Together, a “Mennonite-inspired social change movement.” He helps to manage and develop the house and urban agriculture site. Eric has also worked at McMurdo Station in Antarctica and at Vine & Fig, the New Community Project sustainable living center in Harrisonburg.
MASTERSHIP AWARD Dr. Todd Weaver ‘87, a dentist from Brownstown, Pa., received the Mastership Award, the highest honor of the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD). He is pictured with his family – wife Anne Kaufman Weaver ‘88, MDiv '16, Lara '18 and Seth, a junior at EMU – at the AGD Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Dr. John Reckner, his partner at Weaver, Reckner & Reinhart Dental Associates in Harleysville and Souderton, Pa., also earned the award. Only 1% of practicing dentists in North America have earned the honor, achieved through a series of rigorous requirements in 16 different disciplines of dentistry. Not pictured: Daughter Keri Weaver '15 is a nurse at University of Penn Lancaster Women's and Babies Hospital. (Courtesy photo)
Melanie Krosnes Lewis ‘14, Winchester, Va., was promoted to lead chaplain of Valley
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Health System’s six hospitals. She leads clinical chaplains at Winchester Medical Center and Warren Memorial Hospital, and helps coordinate the volunteer chaplains at four smaller critical-access hospitals. Karla Hovde ‘15, Minneapolis, Minn., is the communications specialist for the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Keri Weaver ‘15, Lancaster, Pa., is a labor and delivery nurse at Lancaster General Hospital, where she was recognized for professional excellence during the July managing partners meeting for her calm and thoughtful care with an expectant mother during a crisis cesarean section decision. She is enrolled in EMU’s MSN program.
FIVE NEW MEMBERS OF ACRS Five new members have been elected to the 12-member steering committee of the Anabaptist Center for Religion and Society, a community of elders hosted by EMU. The new members are Richard L. Bowman ‘70, professor of physics and director of academic computing, A. Leroy and Wanda H. Baker Chair in Science, at Bridgewater College. Susan Weaver Godshall ’65, retired educator and administrator; Nancy R. Heisey MDiv ‘94, associate dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary and professor of Biblical studies and church history; Pat Hostetter Martin ‘64, MA ‘98 (conflict transformation), chaplain at Sentara RMH Medical Center in Harrisonburg, former director of EMU’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute and MCC community development leader; Harold F. Miller ‘63, retired teacher and MCC country representative who recently returned to the United States after nearly 50 years in East Africa. (Photos by Howard Zehr)
Andrew Yoder ‘16, Charlottesville, Va., is the technical manager for Secure Futures, which collaborated with EMU student groups to install new solar panels on Roselawn and the University Commons in a “solar barn raising” that increased the university’s solar energy capacity by 65 percent. He is enrolled in EMU’s MBA program.
GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL including the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and Eastern Mennonite Seminary Tim Alan Short MDiv ‘99, Wadsworth, Ohio, completed his clinical pastoral education residency at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in Cleveland in 2016. Since then, Tim has been chaplain at Ohio Living Rockynol in Akron. Jeff Heie MA ‘00 (conflict transformation), Harrisonburg, Va., coordinator for the Harrisonburg Gift & Thrift solar project, worked with Staunton-based firm Secure Futures to put together the “Thrifty Solar Barn Raising” team. Jeff’s team was among 170 teams nationwide selected to compete in the US Department of Energy’s Solar In Your Community Challenge, a $5 million contest that supports “innovative and replicable community-based solar business models and programs that will bring solar to underserved communities.” Secure Futures’ CEO is Anthony Smith, former business professor at EMU, and the firm employs many EMU alumni, including President Emeritus Loren Swartzendruber ‘76, MDiv ‘79. Khadija O. Ali MA ‘01 (conflict transformation), Mogadishu, Somalia, is an electoral commissioner for Somalia’s National Independent Electoral Commission in Mogadishu. She earned a PhD from George Mason University in 2014.
SALT Kate Weaver (from left), Stephanie Slabach Brubaker, Lara Weaver and Caleb Schrock-Hurst, all 2018 graduates, began their one-year voluntary service terms with Mennonite Central Committee's Serving and Learning Together (SALT) program in August. Brubaker is an English language program and health assistant with the Baromari Catholic Mission Salesian Sisters House in Bangladesh. Schrock-Hurst is a manuscript editor with The Gioi Publishing House in Vietnam. Lara Weaver is teaching English and working as a youth mentor in Laos, and Kate Weaver is an assistant teacher with New Dawn Association of El Salvador. (Courtesy photo)
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Jodi Dueck-Read MA ‘03 (conflict transformation), Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, teaches conflict resolution studies at Menno Simons College and is a senior research assistant for Canadian Financial Diaries. She earned a PhD from the Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice at St. Paul’s College, University of Manitoba, in 2016. Ja Nan Lahtaw MA ‘03 (conflict transformation), Yangon, Myanmar, is the executive director of the Nyein (Shalom) Foundation, and spends much of her time convening and facilitating negotiations between the Myanmar government and ethnic armed organizations as well as between various ethnic armed groups. Tecla Namachanja Wanjala MA ‘03 (conflict transformation), Nairobi, Kenya, completed a 10-month Richard von Weizsäcker Senior Fellowship under the Robert Bosch
Academy in Berlin, Germany. Prior to that she managed a social healing and reconciliation program of the Green String Network. She holds a PhD in peace and conflict studies from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology. Allison Garcia MA ’05 (counseling), Harrisonburg, Va., published Vivir el Dream (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017), a novel she shared during a fall Writers Read event on campus. The book’s themes include experiences of immigrants, the commandment to love God and neighbor, and her passion for cooking and food. Katharine Dow MA ‘04 (conflict transformation), Walnut Creek, Calif., is a USAID foreign service officer and currently enrolled in the MFA in Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. Shawn Gerber MDiv ‘04, Bloomington, Ind., is the director of spiritual care and chaplaincy services at Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital. He is married to Rachel Gerber MDiv ‘05, who is the assistant director for the Career Development Center at Indiana University. Iris de León-Hartshorn MA ‘05 (conflict transformation), Portland, Ore., is Mennonite Church USA’s associate executive director for operations, a new position that encapsulates the roles of chief of staff and key advisor to new executive director Glen Guyton. She was previously the church’s director of transformative peacemaking. Joseph Ngoriakou Riwongole MA ‘06 (conflict transformation), Nairobi, Kenya, is a civil affairs officer with the United Nation Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Ferdinand Djayerombe Vaweka MA ‘06 (conflict transformation), Montreal, Canada, is coordinator with ROJEP, the Francophone ecumenical network of about 30 faith-based groups working for justice, ecology and peace in Quebec. Theo Sitther MA ‘13 (conflict transformation), Silver Spring, Md., is a lobbyist for the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington D.C., and has helped connect CJP students to policymakers. Fabrice Guerrier MA ‘15 (conflict transformation), Washington, D.C., founded Syllble Studios, Inc., a collaborative storytelling startup that publishes fiction books and original serialized stories. He works for the U.S. State Department and is a 2018 Gabr Fellow at the Shafik Gabr Foundation. MCA Shamsa Omar GC ‘15 (peacebuilding leadership), Wajir, Kenya, is one of four winners for the British Council’s Future Leaders Connect Programme, which connects and equips young people with policy and leadership expertise. She chairs Wajir’s Gender, Culture and Community Service Committee. Andrew Daniels MA ‘16 (conflict transformation), Belfast, Ireland, is an international fellow with the Belfast-based program of PeacePlayers, which combines sports programming with peace education and leadership development for youth in communities in conflict. He oversees programs for youth ages 7-18 with the aim of bringing together residents of starkly segregated neighborhoods. Aaron Oda MA ‘16 (conflict transformation), Harrisonburg, Va., is program manager of Gemeinschaft Home, a residential therapeutic facility for men transitioning out of incarceration.
Joanna Stauffer MA ‘17, Harrisonburg, Va., is a middle school intervention center coordinator for Harrisonburg City Schools, responsible for discerning and implementing how restorative practices can be integrated into the school’s disciplinary procedures. Shankar Rai MDiv ‘18, MA ‘18 (organizational leadership), Lancaster, Pa., was a featured speaker at the Bhutanese-Nepali Churches of America Youth Summit this summer in New York. Approximately 90,000 Bhutanese refugees have resettled in the U.S. since 2008, including Rai in 2010. He has planted and pastored Bhutanese-Nepali churches in Baltimore, Md., and Harrisburg and Lancaster, Pa. Charlie Tinsley MDiv ‘18, Harrisonburg, Va., is the Virginia state ambassador for the National Association of Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse. He advocates locally and regionally for the organization (online at www. naasca.org), and was a panelist on its radio show in August.
MARRIAGES Lois B. Bowman ‘60 to John H. Kreider ’62, Harrisonburg, Va., May 12, 2018. Rene Hostetter '03, MA '08 (church leadership) to Isaac Witmer, Harrisonburg, Va., Sept. 1, 2018. Julia Schmidt ‘13 to Jonathan Shetler, Nathrop, Colo., Sept. 23, 2018. Jacob Landis ‘15 to Leah Roth, Morton, Ill., Aug. 4, 2018. Rachel Bowman ‘16 to Greg Koop, Harrisonburg, Va., May 26, 2018. Alex Miller ‘16 to Abby Dwyer ‘16, Raleigh, N.C., March 9, 2018. Sam Swartzendruber ‘16 to Kari King ‘16, Harrisonburg, Va., June 3, 2017. Isaac Dahl ‘17 to Jacinda Stahly ‘17, Harrisonburg, Va., June 23, 2018. Zachary Sauder ‘18 to Juni Schirch Sanchez ‘16, Lyndhurst, Va., June 29, 2018.
BIRTHS AND ADOPTIONS Jennifer and David Berry (assistant professor of music), Joshua Timothy, Aug. 9, 2018. Mike and Katie Fisher (admissions counselor), Bowen Grace, June 3, 2018. Sam and Katy Hopkins (open house coordinator, assistant field hockey coach), Grayson Gordon, July 7, 2018. Andrew (assistant professor of theology, peace and mission) and Karen (instructor, Intensive English program) Suderman, Simon Joshua, Aug. 21, 2018. Lance (facilities management) and Kristin Nussbaum Wenger ‘11, Everly Mae, Aug. 3, 2018. Rachel and Todd Van Patter MA ‘16 (assistant director of institutional research), Auden Hale, Sept. 20, 2018. Elizabeth and Jared Yoder ‘96, New York, N.Y., Lincoln Bennett, Feb. 20, 2018. Jill Landis Jha ‘99, MA ‘10, and the late Kumar Anuraj Jha MA ‘07, Goshen, Ind., Anjali Moon Landis Jha, June 6, 2018. Kenneth and Katrina Hochsteter Owens ‘00, Washington, D.C., Jonah Mose, Nov. 23, 2017. Cindy King ‘00 and Samanth Dawson, Charlotte, N.C., Ari Dawson, April 30, 2018.
Lori Doll and Joseph Friesen ‘04, Harrisonburg, Va., Ezra Joseph, May 10, 2018.
BOOKSHELF
Meredith and Jon Trotter ‘04, Harrisonburg, Va., Hannah Elise Wine, Dec. 26, 2017. Nick ‘04 and Jessie Lusby Buckwalter ‘05, Lititz, Pa., Lilly Mae, May, 22, 2018. Brandon and Stephanie Good Rittenhouse ‘06, Harleysville, Pa., Grayson Lee, May 12, 2018. Isabel Castillo ‘07, MA ‘17 and Patrick Ressler ‘09, Harrisonburg, Va., Malik Castillo Ressler, March 2018. Jennifer Ruth ‘07 and Benjamin Gundy, Pittsburgh, Pa., Malcolm Rich Ruth, April 19, 2018. Chris ‘08 and Eliza Barnhart Burkholder ‘09, Salem, Ore., Titus Anderson, May 11, 2018. Nathan ‘10 and Kelsey Anderson Kauffman ‘08, Washington, D.C., Liv Wendell, May 25, 2018.
J. David Eshleman ‘58, SEM ‘61, Dover, Ohio, includes devotional readings for 366 days in his sixth book,Soaring on Eagle’s Wings: When Supernatural Becomes Natural (Masthof, 2018) based on his personal experiences as a pastor for 50 years and church consultant.
Jean E. Snyder ‘63, Pittsburgh, Pa., published Harry T. Burleigh: From the Spiritual to the Harlem Renaissance (University of Illinois, 2016), a biography of the African American baritone, composer and pioneer arranger of spirituals. She has since spoken at numerous events honoring Burleigh, including at the Library of Congress and the Annual Vesper Services of Negro Spirituals.
Ryan Wolz ‘11 and Katie Sensabaugh, McGaheysville, Va., Lillian Irving Wolz, Aug. 30, 2018. Phil ‘11 and Laci Gautsche Tieszen ‘13, Harrisonburg, Va., Lesedi Joy, July 31, 2018. Brendon ‘12 and Heidi Boese Derstine ‘11, Harrisonburg, Va., Ava Mae, Aug. 26, 2018.
Edith Layman Rhodes ‘74, Johnson City, Tenn., has written a book of the history of Dale Enterprise School (Pacer, 2018), a three-room elementary school west of Harrisonburg from 1909-63.
Austin ‘13 and Sarah Schoenhals Showalter ‘12, Harrisonburg, Va., Tobin Henry, Nov. 7, 2018.
DEATHS Florence Y. Bucher ‘40, Indianapolis, Ind., died Sept. 14, 2018, at 97. Evelyn Brunk Maust ‘41, Harrisonburg, Va., died May 9, 2018, at 96. She was a nurse at Rockingham Memorial Hospital and EMU, as well as an avid volunteer and traveler in the US and internationally. She was known for her vegetable and flower garden adjacent to campus. Virginia May Derstine, Harrisonburg, Va., died April 21, 2018, at 93. She assisted her husband Norman ‘46, when he was director of church relations at EMU for many years. Rosanna Yoder Hostetler ‘53, West Chester, Pa., died Jan. 29, 2018, at 87. With her late husband, she served the Mennonite Church as a missionary in Brazil. Marijke Schuette Kyler ‘53, Harrisonburg, Va., died June 30, 2018, at 86. Born in Amsterdam, she emigrated to Ohio where she met her husband, Rinehart. She taught languages at Bloomfield College and EMU.
Michael Kurtz ‘77, Chandler, N.C., has authored Mentoring Pew Sitters into Servant Leaders (Plowpoint, 2018). Kurtz is the lead pastor at Francis Asbury United Methodist Church.
Janet M. Ruth ‘79, Albuquerque, N.M., shares her love of birds through poem, story and image in her first book Feathered Dreams (Mercury HeartLink, 2018). Janet recently retired as a research ecologist with the USGS New Mexico Landscapes Field Station. Her website is redstartsandravens.com.
J. Roger Kurtz ’85, Souderton, Pa., is editor of Trauma and Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2018), a collection of essays on literary trauma theory from global contributors. Kurtz chairs the Department of English and Philosophy at Drexel University.
Jewell Gross Brenneman ‘56, Bridgewater, Va., died Aug. 1, 2018, at 83. She held three advanced degrees in the arts and was an active member in her church congregations. N. Leroy Lapp ‘56, Morgantown, W.Va., died July 16, 2018, at 86. His research on the mechanisms of occupational dust-related lung diseases was used to develop federal regulations impacting mining practice and compensation of workers. An expert in chest xray interpretation, he was the first physician in West Virginia to use lasers to treat lung disease. He was also chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at WVU for 20 years. Martha Yutzy Kaufman ‘57, Goshen, Ind., died Aug. 26, 2018, at 89. She spent her years as a schoolteacher, homemaker, Avon representative and active church member. Gardening, quilting and bird watching were among her favorite pasttimes.
Peter Dula ‘92, professor of Bible and religion, and David Evans, professor of history and mission at EMS, are the coeditors of Between the World of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Christianity (Cascade Books, 2018).
Cheryl Woelk MA ‘11 (education), Seoul, South Korea, has co-authored with Jan Edwards Dormer Teaching English for Reconciliation: Pursuing Peace through Transformed Relationships in Language Learning and Teaching (William Carey Publishing, 2018). She is coordinator of the Language for Peace project of Mennonite Partners in China.
D. Keith Mullet ‘57, Pantego, N.C., died March 30, 2018, at 85. Keith taught school in Roper, was a social worker in Swan Quarter,
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and for more than 30 years worked for Pantego Overhead Doors. He was married to Rosa Mae Kurtz for nearly 60 years. Jim Burkholder ‘60, Mechanicsburg, Pa., died June 13, 2018, at 84. Jim pastored many churches over the years and was also the manager/salesman for Concord Associates, a ministry which provided features for newspapers, for 54 years.
PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT STUDENT OF THE YEAR Kevin Leaman ‘15, with Harold Felton, professor and program director, was honored by Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences at Mary Baldwin University as the Physician Assistant Student of the Year in spring 2018, selected by a faculty committee that considered didactic and clinical grades and positive remarks from his preceptors, as well as a patient’s family. (Photo courtesy of Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences, Mary Baldwin University. )
Ray C. Gingerich ‘60, Harrisonburg, Va., died June 17, 2018, at 84. Ray and his wife Wilma moved to Luxembourg as missionaries under Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions in 1960. For seven years he pastored a small Mennonite congregation and started a Christian bookstore. After returning to the states, he continued his studies at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and Vanderbilt University. He taught many years at EMU in the Bible and religion department and helped develop a peace and justice minor. Delilah Miller Sharp ‘60, Bolivar, Ohio, died Jan. 13, 2018, at 82. She taught school for four years and was a substitute teacher for 55 years. Harold Reed ‘61, Lititz, Pa., died Dec. 13, 2017, at 83. He served in administrative roles in Somalia and the home office of Eastern Mennonite Missions. Nancy Jane Peachy Bontrager ‘62, Hesston, Kan., died Sept. 30, 2018, at 78. She was a nurse and later volunteered at various organizations. Geraldine “Gerry” Wilcox Rush ‘63, Harrisonburg, Va., died Sept. 17, 2018, at 76. She taught at EMC and EMHS, then stayed home to raise her children. She then became an accountant. A member of Zion Mennonite Church, Gerry also volunteered and used her accounting gifts in nonprofit work. She was co-director of Highland Retreat for seven years and spent 33 years on the board. Valentine Yutzy ‘64, Plain City, Ohio, died July 12, 2018, at 84. He served in Korea as a conscientious objector and was a missionary, farmer, mason, engineer and consultant. Valentine was Ohio Farmer of the Year in 1989 and EMU Alumnus of the Year in 1990. He was also a member of United Bethel Mennonite Church..
BIPOLAR DISORDER EDUCATION Bev Miller ‘74, Wauseon, Ohio, has used her experiences with bipolar disorder to educate others and encourage participation in a National Institute of Mental Health neurobiology study of the disorder in Anabaptists. The close-knit history of Anabaptists makes it easier to identify the genetic variants associated with the disease. So far, the study includes 1,000 participants. “It’s one thing Mennonites can do for the rest of the world,” Miller said. To learn more about the study, visit www.nimh or email bipolargenes@mail. nih.gov. (Photo by James Pruitt/The Village Reporter)
Phineas Ziki Makoyo ‘68, Shirati, Tanzania, died Jan. 12, 2018, at 77. He earned a PhD in pharmacology at Howard University and specialized in general surgery. Phineas served in Tanzania for over 28 years, where he started Rao Hospital and Rao Health training Center. He was also pastor of Tanzania Mennonite Church for more than 10 years. David Alvin Wenger ‘69, Bronx, N.Y., died Sept. 16, 2018, at 71. He worked in various positions related to mental health, and remained active in the church, where he played piano for the youth choir.
Lois Smith Wingate ‘74, San Antonio, Texas, died June 26, 2016, at 63. Verlen G. Rufenacht ‘75, Lancaster, Pa., died Sept. 19, 2018, at 68. Verlen taught in Lancaster Mennonite Schools for 36 years. Daniel Sarco ‘76, Harrisonburg, Va., died May 3, 2018, at 69. He was a respiratory therapist at Augusta Health, an avid photographer and amateur pilot. Gary Allen Smith ‘84, formerly of Broadway, Va., died June 21, 2018, at 78. After serving in the Navy for 14 years, he settled in Florida and built homes. He later moved to Texas and ministered to those in need. Brenda Joyce Beachy Miller ‘87, Timberville, Va., passed away Oct. 22, 2018, at 77. She attended EMC from 1959-60 and returned and completed her elementary education degree in 1987. She enjoyed directing choirs and singing, gardening, arranging flowers, road trips and having company. She was active at church and served in a variety of capacities. Christa Pierpoint GC ‘07 (restorative justice), Charlottesville, Va., founded the Restorative Community Foundation with a focus on addressing juvenile and young adult justice reform measures. She was a teacher with Albemarle County Schools and the Augusta Correctional Center. Alexia S. Lockett, class of ‘11, Afton, Va., died Aug. 12, 2018, at 29. Brian Gerig ‘12, Albany, Ore., died June 3, 2018, at 29. He was a manager at a Kohl’s department store and a member of Lebanon Mennonite Church. Degree Key CLASS OF - attended as part of the class of a given graduation year GC - graduate certificate MA - master of arts MDiv - master of divinity Entries about alumni with both their undergraduate and graduate degrees from EMU are listed in the undergraduate section. Have an update? Visit emu.edu/alumni/update. Editorial Policy Milepost entries are printed on the basis of submissions from alumni or on the basis of publicly available information. We do not verify the accuracy of information that alumni provide, nor do we make judgment calls on the information that they wish to be published, beyond editing for clarity, conciseness and consistency of style. The information provided to us does not necessarily reflect the official policies of EMU or of its parent church, Mennonite Church USA.
Norma Jean Bender Eddy ‘72, Shalersville, Ohio, died March 5, 2018, at 68. She was a teacher for more than 30 years and a member of Aurora Mennonite Church.
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“A G O O D I N V E S T M E N T ” ENDOWING THE FUTURE OF EMU STUDENTS EMU endowed scholarships are funded by generous donors to provide long-term financial assistance to EMU students, helping to offset the costs of higher education and enhance students’ ability to enroll and remain at EMU. Donors have many reasons for establishing a scholarship. William and Gladys Troyer wanted to honor the memory of their daughter, Maxine Troyer ‘81, during significant family milestones, such as family business succession and estate planning. They included her by funding a scholarship in her name to benefit EMU students majoring in education. Maxine, a compassionate and dedicated educator to an underserved and poverty-stricken Appalachian population, died at the age of 23. The family cannot help but wonder, “What would her impact have been in that community if she was there longer?”
Marcy Gabriel '88 with current scholarship recipients Abigail Shelly and Robert Chaplin.
“Through the scholarship, Maxine has a legacy that she was not able to create for herself,” says her sister, Marcy Gabriel ‘88. Maxine’s purpose, passion and commitment to education lives on through the work and service of EMU students. The Troyer’s original lifetime gifts of $71,000 have benefited 79 EMU students over the past 30 years, and the scholarship’s invested funds will continue to grow in value and benefit students for generations to come. Marcy says she and her siblings agree that the broad impact of the scholarship is an important reason to continue support. “Although the fund is not a huge amount,” she said, “it has touched so many people and that makes it a good investment of the family’s money.”
Maxine Troyer, 1981 EMU graduation
If you would like to consider establishing an EMU scholarship or make a contribution to an existing scholarship like the Maxine Troyer Memorial Endowed Scholarship, please contact Jasmine Hardesty, director of development and planned giving, at 540-432-4971 or jasmine.hardesty@emu.edu. Learn more about endowments at EMU by visiting emu.edu/giving/endow.
540-432-4971 • jasmine.hardesty@emu.edu
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PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID Harrisonburg, Virginia
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Experience the culture of this eastern European country full of beauty and pain. Jerry Holsopple, professor of digital media, offers historic, cultural and artistic perspectives through photography, music, art and more.
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OTHER UPCOMING TRIPS ISRAEL / PALESTINE • Linford and Janet Stutzman • Fall 2019 IRELAND • Mark Metzler Sawin • May 2020
LITHUANIA PHOTO BY JERRY HOLSOPPLE