“We opened registration May 5 and by May 24, we only had 50 campers and we weren’t sure this was going to happen,” said Gustavus, administrative assistant to the state FCA director. “But God was at work.”

She gives this synopsis while also, in succession, handling a request for XL t-shirts, telling a camper how to work around a lost ID card, and fielding other questions from various staff and coaches coming in and out of camp headquarters in the ��ݮ���� commons. With no sign of flagging energy on the third day of the four-day camp, she also mentions doing a dorm check at 11:30 p.m. the night before.

“God at work” in this particular context means that by Sunday [June 27], 268 teenagers were travelling to EMU from Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C. 

And Gustavus, camp director Todd Burger, 25 coaches, and 56 staffers were ready for action — and ready to shake the rust off after a year of interactions that were limited by COVID-19.

So were EMU’s director of auxiliary services, Cheryl Montgomery, and her staff, as well as Bruce Emmerson, director of dining services at Pioneer College Catering, and his staff in the university dining hall. 

Montgomery has actually been waiting for the FCA campers for close to two years. The organization booked EMU facilities for the first time in summer 2020 after having been based at University of Richmond for many years. Then COVID hit.

Even up until a few months ago, Montgomery was liaising with FCA and campus officials and paying close attention to government regulations to determine if events would be allowed and what limitations might be in effect.

The FCA camp is the first large group that EMU has hosted this summer.

The unusual sight of hundreds of teenagers — string bags on their backs and athletic gear in their hands, crossing Park Avenue, lined up on the turf field or clustered in small groups under any available shade tree — has drawn a lot of attention. (“Campus is hopping. What’s going on?” came the email from one curious EMU employee.)

It’s been a slow process, Montgomery says, working with planners through so many uncertainties. She estimates EMU will host only about 25 percent of their normal summer bookings.

“Still, we’re so glad to have people back on campus this summer. It’s been great getting to know FCA staff and volunteers,” she said. “Our groups usually return, we get to know them and they become like family. Every summer is a bit of a family reunion.”

Family is one theme of the FCA camp, too. Many coaches and staff bring their families, which means all-camp events includes all age ranges from babies on up, Gustavus said. 

But it’s also “our SuperBowl,” she said, the biggest event of the year in part because of its size but also for its potential impact on young people.

“In some ways, high school is the last opportunity to introduce them to Jesus,” Gustavus said, “and this age group is prime for the introduction. We get every kind of background under the sun and they all need Jesus.”

Coming to faith in Christ through sports is the natural hook for athletes, said Burger, who moved into his FCA work through involvement in baseball. (FCA also offers some sport-specific camps.)

At all-sports camps, campers work out in two practice sessions guided by college and high school coaches each day. Instruction in eight sports is offered. Campers also participate in huddles, or devotionals, with leaders who are college athletes. 

Kendrick Golhston, a former professional football player and director of Northern Roanoke Valley FCA, guides a daily devotional time “Doing Sports God’s Way,” built around 1 Timothy 6:11 and the camp theme of “Pursue.” 

“Sunday was pursuing love, yesterday was ‘pursue worship,’ today was ‘pursue unity,’ and tomorrow will be ‘pursue rest.’ God is in each one of those things,” Gohlson said. “We talk about being competitive and in pursuit. You can be competitive and still have the will to win but when you win what are you winning for? That’s the difference between those who have accepted Christ and those who haven’t.  When I’m winning, I’m bringing Him glory. I am not bringing it on myself but on Him.”

Each evening, everyone gathers for a program, which includes games, skits, music, testimonials, and a speaker. Burger said the highlight of the week, for him and many others, is the last evening program. “Thursday, our last day, we do a last chapel and the athletes and sometimes coaches give a testimonial about what happened at camp and it’s so powerful. Sometimes we hear about an athlete who their coach will say at the beginning may not be open and then they’ll get up and talk about what happened … that’s what we’re here for.” 

I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.

– Albert Einstein

I walk in the caf and I smell mac and cheese, my eyes roll back and I’m weak in the knees.

– $EFF, Frosty Long, and Dr. Aaron the Architect

Great food feeds the soul as well as the body. It calls us together to laugh, share stories, and bond. It is a love letter from the chef to the diner. And sometimes it incites feats of creativity, as in the case of ��ݮ���� (EMU) students Aaron Moyer, Nathan Longenecker, and Seth Andreas, who were inspired one night by their friend Ben Alderfer expounding upon the virtues of the meatball mac and cheese served in EMU’s cafeteria (affectionately referred to as “the caf”). 

Within one breakneck weekend, Moyer, Longenecker, and Andreas wrote, recorded, and dropped a hip hop single titled . 

“We each wrote our own verses for the most part,” Andreas said. “I was the one with a microphone and recording software, so I was the one that edited it and pieced the whole thing together.” 

Andreas, a sophomore math and computer science major, drew on his experience from the “Folk Rock to Hip Hop” class taught by Professor David Berry to produce the track.

Food Service Director Bruce Emmerson is a fan.

“I love seeing the students having fun,” Emmerson said. “I thought the song was creative … it was the sincerest form of flattery!”

“Bruce was incredibly kind and willing to join our shenanigans,” said Moyer, a first-year biology major. “His decision to show support for our song and willingness to be adventurous made me love EMU and the cafeteria even more.”

The trio plans to keep writing music, although they haven’t disclosed any more possible muses.

“We work best when we get random bursts of inspiration,” Longenecker, a first-year math and computer science major, said. “This song has taught me that the greatest passions often come from the smallest things in life.”

To that end, EMU News would like to share a tongue-in-cheek meditation written by Moyer, elaborating on the profundity of this preeminent dish.

Meatball Mac is special. It is not special because it is good, but because it is symbolic. I could go as far as to say that Meatball Mac symbolizes the unity after division, the greatness after being just good, and the calm amongst the chaos. One meatball without its corresponding Mac is like a pea without a pod, or a song without a harmony. Teamwork like this is what the world needs right now: similarities, compliments, togetherness… not division, chaos, or hate. We can use the relationship between a meatball and its Mac as a template for developing unity. We will get through 2020.

Laura Cattell Noll ’09, a graduate student in environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, works with Professor James Galloway and project manager Elizabeth Castner on the “N-Print” project and helped to connect EMU.

In addition to boosting awareness about nitrogen, the internationally supported project provides suggestions for reducing nitrogen pollution and provides institutions with targets for their reduction levels. UVA was the first to develop an institution-level model for measuring nitrogen footprints and began measurements in 2010. It aims to reduce its nitrogen levels 25 percent by 2025.

An initial cohort of six other institutions—including EMU along with Brown University, Colorado State University, Dickinson College, the University of New Hampshire and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts—joined UVA in calculating their nitrogen usage.

A second cohort group has since started, and a third is preparing to begin.

The opportunity to participate in the research was one that coordinator couldn’t pass up.

“This was a great ‘Aha!’ to learn more about nitrogen and share with this community and to give me a chance to do some research about food usage on campus and to talk to dining services about food consumption,” he says.

Cattell Noll, a former member of Earthkeepers, was delighted that her alma mater participated.

“When EMU agreed to participate in the first cohort of schools to test the Institution Nitrogen Footprint Tool, I was thrilled to connect my current research with my efforts as an undergraduate,” says Cattell Noll, an environmental science major who was active in EMU’s sustainability programs. “It’s been fantastic to see how the addition of a nitrogen footprint has enhanced EMU’s sustainability efforts and improved our understanding of institutional sustainability.”

[Read more about Cattell Noll’s .]

Nitrogen and carbon footprints equally important

Carbon footprints have received increasing attention as an environmental issue in recent years, but nitrogen has mostly flown under the radar—until now.

“Human activities have dramatically altered the nitrogen cycle over the past century,” says Castner, N Footprint Project Manager in the UVA’s Department of Environmental Sciences. “Nitrogen is essential for supporting a growing global population, but excess nitrogen has detrimental effects on the environment.”

Castner says the impacts of nitrogen “are not as simple to communicate” as those of carbon footprints, “but they are equally important.”

Among those effects, she says, are smog in urban areas, depletion of the ozone layer, acidification of aquatic systems, algae blooms, further build-up of greenhouse gases and forest mortality. At issue is not the inert nitrogen that naturally occurs in earth’s atmosphere but “reactive nitrogen”—biologically and chemically active forms that interact with the environment in damaging ways. Human activities add nearly triple the amount of nitrogen annually than what would naturally occur.

Research involves dining services

Lantz-Trissel, in his position since 2010, is familiar with tracking EMU’s carbon footprint. It’s one of the responsibilities of his position and he’s helped EMU achieve for its efforts.

But a nitrogen footprint is different. It’s only recently that individuals have been able to track their own nitrogen footprint through the , launched in February 2011. Food production and consumption and energy usage are the biggest contributors.

EMU began its nitrogen measurements about two years ago, according to Lantz-Trissel. He says the inclusion of food as a key factor was particularly interesting.

“I’m intrigued, because I think food is a great discussion point for sustainability in all its complicated facets,” Lantz-Trissel says. “It hits energy use, fertilizers, transportation, social justice, environmental racism, workers’ rights and more.”

He says food services director Bruce Emmerson and his staff have been a great help in going through food purchases and other data to come up with numbers to enter into the calculator. Several students have also been helping with the research. EMU hasn’t set a formal goal for its nitrogen footprint yet, but Lantz-Trissel says the university has a head start.

“While EMU needs to continue to work hard to reduce our nitrogen footprint, we’re a good ways ahead,” he says. “We have the lowest amount of nitrogen per person among participating institutions. We’re doing a lot of great things already.”

For Steward-Jones, a blind student in , life has presented a series of obstacles much bigger than a parked truck. Yet, she has found herself equal to all of them with a little help and a lot of tenacity.

The great challenge of Steward-Jones’ life began when she was diagnosed at age 27 with the inherited degenerative disease Retinitis pigmentosa, which often results in blindness. Upon hearing the news, Steward-Jones says that she was seized with anger and a desire to deny what the doctors told her. Reality soon set in, however, as Steward-Jones first lost her night vision, then her peripheral vision, and finally saw her world dissolve into the light of total blindness, an experience which Steward-Jones describes as having a flashlight trained on her eyes.

Following her loss of sight, Steward-Jones said she was nicknamed “the gypsy” for living all over the country and in Japan, bouncing from one of her four children’s homes to another, until her son finally told her, “Mom you can’t just sit here and be blind, you have to do something.” Steward-Jones was soon attending the in Littleton, Colorado.

At the center, Steward-Jones relearned how to live her life. Learning to cook, clean, and do everyday tasks was a major part of the school’s curriculum, as was navigating the town. For her final test, Steward-Jones was dropped off at an unknown location in Littleton and needed to navigate her way back to the school. Upon arriving back at the school, Steward-Jones was greeted with congratulations from her fellow students and ringing bells to celebrate her accomplishment.

Since that time, Steward-Jones has navigated around many obstacles that have nothing to do with sight. One of her most important accomplishments was a bachelor’s degree from George Mason University in Northern Virginia, which allowed her to enter the master’s in counseling program at EMU.

Now in her 60s, Steward-Jones is facing new challenges on EMU’s campus. One of these challenges is the difficulty of the coursework, which Steward-Jones finds to be, “like medical school in terms of different terminology and applications.” Steward-Jones faces additional challenges in navigating the campus and completing assignments due to her blindness, which is why she is on a three-year, rather than two-year, track to complete her degree. But “we [blind people] can do most jobs with a little bit of assistance and a little bit of technology,” she says.

The help that Steward-Jones receives from technology usually comes in the form of a voice. From wristwatches to computers, everything in Steward-Jones’ apartment seems capable of talking. Often the voice belongs to JAWS, a computer program which can read everything from file names to websites in its mechanical voice. Steward-Jones uses this program to write papers, browse the Internet, and read emails.

On the human side, Steward-Jones has received help from the EMU faculty and staff. Steward-Jones said that she chose EMU because she felt that a Christian university would be more inclined to go the extra mile to help somebody with a disability. So far, Steward-Jones believes that she has experienced this Christian concern in the form of the people whom she calls angels. Those who have worked to make Steward-Jones’ time at EMU possible include: , director of the MA in counseling program who is Steward-Jones’ advisor; , administrative assistant in the program; , coordinator of student disability support; , director of auxiliary support; Bruce Emerson, food services director; and her tutor and reader, Anna Maria Johnson. Stewart-Jones gives special thanks to Lee Jankowski, a fellow counseling student for most of the 2013-14 year, who not only walked her between classes and her residence every day, but would jovially ask questions like, “Do we have trash to take out today?” And then he would collect her trash and deposit it in the outside bin.

For Steward-Jones, these relationships are unique in their closeness and warmth, but she stays open to meeting new people. “I know that at some point I’m going to get lost,” she says with her characteristic hearty laugh, “but somebody will help me and I’ll meet somebody new.” Her advice to people who hesitate to approach her: “It’s better not to grab my arm. If you ask if I’d like help, I’ll almost always accept. Just extend your right elbow to me, and I’ll grab it.”

With this type of help and her usual tenacity, Steward-Jones hopes to be working as a counselor after graduating. “Do I expect to actually practice this profession when I finish this degree? With God’s grace, yes.”

Daryl Bert, vice president for finance, opened chapel by praising the tireless efforts of Bruce Emmerson, food services director for Pioneer Catering, which operates 52 kitchens nationwide.  Emmerson, who was named Pioneer’s “rookie of the year,” in 2007 and “director of the year,” in 2011, has continuously improved the quality of services that are offered to the students, faculty, staff and visitors of EMU, said Bert.

“I have appreciated how seriously Bruce takes feedback from our community by personally, wittily and publicly responding to feedback cards in the cafeteria,” said Bert. “I am always amazed at how quickly Bruce implements themes from the survey forms into the food service experience in the cafeteria…

“I believe this attention to quality is validated by the large number of faculty and staff that join students in the cafeteria for lunch on a daily basis.”

Byron Peachey, associate campus pastor, said: “Anytime I’ve needed to work with Bruce or Ramona [Lantz] with special catering needs or events, they are adaptable and easy to work with, willing to take on special events such as the Late Night Breakfast… The food is always consistently delicious and varied.”

EMU routinely hosts outside groups, conferences and youth camps over the summer which adds to Emmerson’s schedule. LeDayne McLeese Polaski, program coordinator for the Baptist Peace Fellowship also praised the work of Emmerson and Matthew Hunsberger, Lehman Auditorium facility technician, in a written statement to Bert.

After stating that her Fellowship puts EMU at the top of the list, Polaski added: “I would be remiss if I did not mention the excellent work of Matt Hunsberger and Bruce Emmerson… They are true professionals who go above and beyond the call of duty to provide excellent service.”

Below is a list of students who were honored at the chapel ceremony for academics, athletics and community service.

Fall Season

Men’s Cross Country:

Dan Nafziger: ODAC Athlete of the Week (Sept. 1-5), All-ODAC Second Team, All-South/Southeast Region First Team, NCAA National Championships participant

Field Hockey:

Nicole Bencsik: All-ODAC Second Team

Jenessa Derstine: All-ODAC Third Team

Valerie Landis: ODAC All-Tournament Team, All-ODAC First Team

Adriana Santiago: ODAC All-Tournament Team, All-ODAC First Team

Men’s Soccer:

Barkot Akalu: All-ODAC Third Team

Kevin Chico: ODAC All-Tournament Team, All-ODAC First Team

Ryan Eshleman: ODAC All-Tournament Team, CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-District Team, All-ODAC First Team

Mitchell Leap: ODAC Player of the Week (Sept. 19-25), ODAC Player of the Week (Oct. 3-9), ODAC Player of the Week (Oct. 24-30), All-ODAC First Team

Brent Yoder:    All-ODAC Third Team

Women’s Cross Country:

Katie Eckman: All-ODAC Second Team

Women’s Volleyball:

Tabitha Bowman: CUA Guetle All-Invitational Team

Brittany Childress: EMU Hampton Inn & Sleep Inn All-Invitational Team

Winter Season

Men’s Basketball:

Owen Longacre: Marymount Tip-Off Tournament All-Tournament Team

Women’s Basketball:

Raiven Patterson: EMU Tip-Off Classic Most Outstanding Player

Kala Yoders: All-EMU Tip-Off Classic Team

Intensive English Program

Fanty Polanco

Maria Pena

Jihoo Park

Academic Support Center-Tutors

Stacy Kinkaid

Haleigh Hershberger

Lyubov Slashcheva

Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival nominations

Elizabeth Gannaway

Julia King

Justin Rittenhouse (alternate)

Jamie Hiner (stage manager)

Pastoral Assistant Recognition

Mitchell Stutzman – 1.5 years as pastoral assistant

Nursing Department Outstanding Service Award

Rebekah [last name omitted on request]

Student Government Association

Hannah Patterson, Senator

Joel Choi, Senator

Louise Babikow, Senator

Brittney Wenger, Senator

Katrina Goering, Senator

Daniel Sigmans, Treasurer

Nels Åkerson, c0-President