Taking a Chance

Answering a call to serve others, Stephanie Martin works to help people get on their feet and thrive in the workplace.

Stephanie Martin (MS ’16) had $125 and an endless supply of faith and passion when she opened A Chance Re-Employment and Training Agency. That sounds like an imbalance of assets, but it all depends on what you value.

“I’ve seen the difference in people’s lives when things change after they’ve always been told they couldn’t or wouldn’t be something,” Martin said. “It was because of their background or ethnicity or a language barrier or that kind of thing. Having the ability to be able to assist them and show people how to change how they’re being seen is the best feeling in the world.”

Martin was a state of Indiana reemployment coordinator when the idea to start her own reemployment agency came to mind.

The impetus goes directly back to her faith.

“Working in the unemployment office, I saw a void for people coming in who were not being assisted and were not feeling a sense of worthiness,” she said. “I sat at my desk and prayed, ‘God, what do you want me to do for your people?’ He came up with this. I didn’t have any schooling in this. I Googled how to start a staffing agency.”

Martin earned a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Healthcare Administration from USF. She started A Chance Re-Employment (ACRE) with business partner Perry Laster in 2018, and the company has placed nearly 350 people in jobs since then. Martin also teamed with Laster in developing a transitional living home for women coming out of incarceration and a transportation company for people needing rides back and forth from work.

“We are faith-based and following what God leads us to do to serve his people,” Martin said.

One of Martin’s first clients, Rochelle Ulanowicz, will never forget how Martin helped her when she was unexpectedly unemployed. Martin connected Ulanowicz to a non-profit, which eventually led to a job with the City of Fort Wayne.

“She gives people a second chance,” Ulanowicz said. “She cares about people and she’s in your corner to help you get into a better situation. She helps you get your power back.”

The COVID-19 pandemic struck hard at A Chance Re-Employment as it did many small businesses, as job opportunities became scarcer.

“It has been difficult for small businesses trying to make a difference in your community,” Martin said. “A lot of companies are hesitant to take new employees and we were not able to place people like we needed to, due to COVID-19. I have prayed and I know God will provide. He provided before and he’ll provide again.”

Originally from Los Angeles, Martin grew up in Fort Wayne and graduated from Paul Harding High School. She earned bachelor’s degrees in speech and communication and gerontology from Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne, with minors in Spanish and psychology.

She earned two master’s degrees from USF with the hope she could help people in special need of finding ways to get the healthcare they deserve. While that wasn’t the route she followed, the idea of helping others remains at the forefront.

As its website explains, ACRE’s mission is to assist candidates who have barriers due to their criminal history and/or a disability receive the workplace training needed to regain suitable and sustainable employment.

“There are other placement agencies, but they are not really focused on the population I serve,” Martin said. “We work with a lot of major corporations and with individuals who have occupational barriers to employment.”

Her businesses are lean, with few employees and long hours for Martin. She chose USF for her master’s degrees because of its prestige and emphasis on Franciscan values, and she carries those values with her.

Larry and Katie Wiedman have spent more than half of their 40-year marriage connected to University of Saint Francis students. They relish unbreakable bonds.

“I’m a mother at heart,” Katie said. “Now, instead of just having two children, I have hundreds of children. They fulfill me. That’s what makes life worth living.”

Larry, known to many as “Doc,” shares his wife’s strong affection for students. Love, passion, commitment—those concepts spill over during any conversation with the Wiedmans, whether they’re talking about their marriage or their careers as USF educators, mentors and friends.

Larry and Katie both hold professor emeritus status at USF and continue to teach. Katie retired in August as USF Director of the Health and Exercise Science program, which she founded.

The Wiedmans’ influence on USF students extends far beyond the classroom, and graduation doesn’t mean goodbye.

“In the 20-some odd years I taught environmental science, I had something like 150 graduates and I probably have 130 of them on speed dial,” Larry said. “We get invited to so many weddings, it’s not even funny.”

The Wiedmans’ personal love story began at an early age.

“She didn’t like me when we first met,” said Larry, who is a year older than Katie.

“We met in church,” Katie said. “Fifth and sixth grade. I thought he was totally obnoxious. The Sunday School teacher agreed.”

“But I persisted,” Larry said, “and I eventually got the prize.”

Both raised in New Haven, Indiana, they dated in high school and at Ball State University. They were married in 1979, shortly after Katie earned her bachelor’s degree. Larry spent two years working in an oil field before settling into academia. He spent several years at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Ill., until the Wiedmans moved back home to Indiana to be closer to family. They had two young daughters, and it was important to them that the girls get to know their grandparents.

Larry landed a position at USF in 1993 and began a 20-plus year run at the university. Katie, who spent 15 years working as a dietitian, was eventually asked to teach at USF, too. “Larry had been grooming himself to teach all his life, so he knew exactly what he was going to do from the time he was really young,” Katie said. “I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d ever do something like that.”

They were part of the USF Biology department for years while raising daughters Audrey and Claire.

Alongside their teaching duties, the Wiedmans homeschooled their daughters. Both daughters went on to earn multiple degrees, with Claire earning three at USF.

“Saint Francis gave us a lot of opportunities, just from the colleagues we met, the situations we were in and the students,” Larry said. “I had a vision of what I wanted my career to be and they let me (pursue that vision).”

Larry’s annual educational trips to the Bahamas and other locales where students could learn more about environmental science highlighted the year for many.

Katie became a change agent at USF, establishing the Exercise Science program as well as the Nutrition and Dietetics career paths. She established the Exercise Science and the Nutrition degree programs. “I like helping students get to where they want to go, all 150 or more of them,” she said. Katie had three graduates in Exercise Science 12 years ago; the two programs now graduate more than 30 students each year.

In other words, Katie always held students’ interests at heart.

“I don’t know anybody in the history of Saint Francis who has been fortunate enough to start a program from scratch, and she’s done two of them,” Larry said.

Since he retired from full-time teaching, Larry has expanded his artistic pursuits in wood carving, and his art is regularly featured in the Decatur Sculpture Tour. Katie enjoys gardening, sewing and cooking in her free time, and they both love spending time with their grandchildren.

In 2017, the “Lawson-Wiedman Prairie” dedication put their family names on a USF campus site used by students in environmental science study.