In the meantime, Hackney鈥檚 family encouraged her to consider EMU. Her mother, Marian Driver Hackney, was a 1970 graduate. Her grandmother, Virginia Weaver Driver (EMS 鈥�35), was an even stronger advocate. Driver called herself EMU鈥檚 鈥渢win,鈥� having been born in 1917, the same year Eastern Mennonite School opened (her childhood home was the Weaver House, now occupied by offices of ).

Hackney also had a few older cousins studying at EMU, and so by the fall of 2001 she was moving into a dorm room in Roselawn. California still beckoned, though. Hackney figured she would transfer after the year was over. But 鈥淚 had some really awesome friends and they talked me into staying.鈥�

First, Focusing on Water Quality

Hackney graduated in 2007 (on the six-year plan, thanks to some time off, switching majors, working, etc.) with a degree in and . Living in Staunton, Virginia, she worked as a field conservation technician for the Headwaters Soil and Water Conservation District. She spent most of her time focused on water quality and stream protection, and along the way, decided that her next move would be to study public health.

Soon, she began looking at graduate programs, but struggled to find one that felt like a match. She wanted something broad, something that would accommodate her to interests in environmental issues and social justice. Hackney turned to Google, typing all these things in one jumbled, run-on query, just to see what would happen.

She laughed at what bubbled up: a link to the website of . Probably not what she was looking for, she thought at first. As she started reading more, though, a strange realization set in. It looked as if the curriculum and faculty would support and encourage the holistic approach to studying public health that she wanted.

鈥淚t very, very surprisingly felt like clearly the right fit for me, even though I鈥檇 never planned to come back to EMU,鈥� Hackney says.

And so, in 2008, she was back at EMU as a graduate student at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, working on her master鈥檚 in conflict transformation with a focus on .

Next, Addressing Coal Mining

During her final semester, she fulfilled a practicum requirement by spending two and half months in Mingo County, WVa., with an environmental and public health organization called the . Hackney worked with the group in a number of areas, including research, community organizing and advocacy on behalf of communities affected by groundwater contamination from coal mining waste.

Hackney loved her grad program, but going into her practicum she wasn鈥檛 exactly sure what would come after she graduated in the spring of 2010 鈥� specifically, how or where she鈥檇 apply what she had been studying.

In West Virginia, she worked beside several medical students who shared her commitment to social justice and environmental advocacy. Physicians don鈥檛 have to be confined to clinics and hospitals, she realized. Then followed the 鈥渁ha鈥� moment, there in the decaying hills of West Virginia coal country, the threads of the past decade all coming together. Hackney decided to become a medical doctor.

Back home in Staunton, she picked up CNA and EMT certifications and started working at the Augusta Medical Center. With her sights turned to medical school, Hackney contacted , one of her biology professors from her undergraduate days during EMU Act I, for some guidance.

As she and Miller corresponded, he mentioned that EMU was planning to launch a new that would prepare students with college degrees in other fields to enter medical school. And yet again, amazingly, completely unexpectedly, Hackney鈥檚 evolving life plans had pointing her back to Harrisonburg, 30 miles north of Staunton. The timing, the closeness to home, the small class size, the familiarity, it just made sense.

Now, Transitioning to Medicine

Now in her first semester of the program, Hackney hopes this third stint at EMU will be her shortest. She plans to earn a one-year certificate, before taking the MCAT next spring and applying to medical schools next summer. If all goes according to current plan (always subject to change, Hackney avers), she鈥檒l start med school in the fall of 2014.

Approaching the halfway point of her first semester of Act III at EMU, Hackney is studying organic chemistry, physics, developmental biology and taking a biomedicine seminar. Back in a science lab for the first time in seven years, she finds the work difficult, sometimes overwhelming, and thoroughly enjoyable.

鈥淚t鈥檚 funny the way things work out,鈥� Hackney says, looking back on the unexpected ways she ended up at EMU, and once again, and then yet again.

It all makes sense in retrospect, each step building on the last, nonlinear but still connected way points on a route that continues to unfold.

Sunday: sustainability panel

EMU President Loren Swartzendruber

Sunday, April 18 at 4 p.m., EMU President Loren Swartzendruber will be part of a area panel that will discuss "Four Views: Community Sustainability" held at Harrisonburg High School. Swartzendruber will speak about his climate change and creation care philosophy and the campus-wide sustainability effort initiated by him at EMU.

He will be followed by Kathy Holm on sustainable agriculture, Erik Curren of Blackfriars Theater in Staunton on business sustainability practices, and last, City of Harrisonburg Mayor Kai Degner will offer a viewpoint on sustainability progress and goals for Harrisonburg and surrounding area.

A question and answer period will follow the speakers forum.

Wednesday: Joe Stanley on moral energy use

Joe Stanley of Virginia Interfaith Power and Light

Joe Stanley of Virginia Interfaith Power and Light brings the voice of the faith community to the discussion of public policies that concern the environment, predominately on the state level. The group’s work largely focuses on climate change, energy production and energy efficiency.

Stanley will speak on ‘Energy Use and Its Moral Implications’ Wednesday, Apr. 21. in the Strite Conference Center on ground floor of the EMU Campus Center (see campus map).

Stanley is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in political science. During his college days, he served as a legislative assistant to Delegate Franklin Hall, former minority leader, and also worked in the Richmond office of Senator Jim Webb. He also served as a student fellow for Virginia21, an advocacy organization working directly with and on behalf of college students. While at Virginia21, Stanley was active in the successful effort to pass the Community College Transfer Grant in 2007.

The Goochland County, Va., native is a 2005 graduate of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia and a member of the Greater Richmond Partnership for Smarter Growth’s Land Use and Transportation advisory board.

Admission to Stanley’s Wednesday speaking presentation is free. For more information, call April Banks at 432-4545.

Thursday: food and farms

On Thursday, April 22 at 5 p.m., Eric Bendfeldt of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service and local farmers will discuss current issues in food, farms and community sustainability.

This event, held in the Strite Conference Center of EMU’s Campus Center (see campus map), is sponsored by the Virginia Cooperative Extension: Community Viability and the Creation Care Council of EMU. For more information, can call the extension office at (540) 564-3080.

Thursday at 7 p.m. there will be a showing of "Kilowatt Ours, A Plan to Renergize America." Children grades 3 to 9 are especially invited. Eldon Kurtz, EMU director of physical plant, will be part of a panel discussion after the film. For more information on the film, contact

Robert C. Lehman, professor of physical science

Robert C. Lehman, 79, professor of physical science at EMU from 1955 to 1980, died Feb. 2, 2009, at Rockingham Memorial Hospital. Four days earlier, his sister, Esther K. Lehman, 85, died at Oak Lea, Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community. She was professor emerita of education, having taught at EMU from 1951 until 1982.

Dr. Lehman was born Mar. 22, 1929 in Harrisonburg and was the son of the late Chester K. (C.K.) and Myra Kendig Lehman.

Lehman taught astronomy and physics courses and was director of the M.T. Brackbill Planetarium, 1967-79, in the Suter Science Center.

On June 10, 1954, he married Ruby K. Swartzendruber, who survives. Also surviving are four children – Judith Ann, James Alan, Donald LeRoy and Douglas Chester Lehman – one sister, Dorothy L. Yoder, and four grandchildren, Allison, Eric, Brian and Michael Lehman.

Lehman spent a 1976-77 sabbatical year in designing and implementing and self-initiated projects and programs to raise the energy conservation consciousness-level on campus.

He installed a monitor in the Suter Science Center where anyone interested could see real-time graphing of the peaks and valleys of the college’s daily energy demands. Lehman’s study prompted the administration to repair steam lines that were losing heat in the winter, modify heating and cooling systems to be more efficient, change some lighting to use less electricity and invest more in energy-saving maintenance. The result was a $66,000 reduction in utility costs in a single year.

The EMU board of trustees gave Lehman a “resolution of appreciation” for his energy conservation efforts. During his tenure, he also led continuing education classes and seminars on solar energy alternatives.

“Robert was always an innovative strategic thinker with basic competence in many areas,” said John L. Horst, professor emeritus of physics at EMU. “In many ways he was my mentor.

“Robert was a good bass singer,” Horst noted. “He sang with the Park View Melodians as a high school and college student here. The group traveled widely during some summers.”

In 1970, Lehman was named president of Homes Foundation, a local non-profit group that developed housing for low- and moderate-income families. He was co-founder and first president of the Park View Federal Credit Union and was an amateur radio operator.

A 1950 EMU graduate, he earned a master’s degree in physics and a doctorate in biophysics from Penn State University.

He was a member of Park View Mennonite Church, where a memorial service will be held 3 p.m. Feb. 16.

Memorial contributions can be made to Mennonite Central Committee, Akron, Pa., and the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) at EMU.

An 草莓社区 faculty member will present a model for conservation efforts from a Kenyan nature reserve at the next Suter Science Seminar.

Dr. Shelly Thomas, assistant professor of biology, will speak on “An ASSET for People and Nature in the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, Kenya,” 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 1 in room 104 of the Suter Science Center.

Famous for its rare birds and mammals, the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest merges with Mida Creek to form a UNESCO biosphere reserve that attracts upwards to 4,000 tourists every year.

“For years, Kenya reserves were regarded as government property; neighboring communities had no say in management or benefits gained from natural resources, resulting in great antagonism,” Thomas pointed out. “The cost of living drove families to over exploit it through illegal hunting, fishing and logging.”

An international conservation organization, A Rocha Kenya (), designed a program called ASSETS that channels income from sustainable eco-tourism to nearby communities for school scholarships. ASSETS currently supports 175 students from eight communities, “which has contributed to a significant change of attitude toward the Reserve,” Thomas said.

Refreshments will be served 15 minutes prior to the presentation.

Admission to the seminar is free. For more information, contact Dr. Roman Miller

Matt Frei, chief Washington, D.C., correspondent for the BBC, interviewed President Loren Swartzendruber on creation care from an Anabaptist perspective for a BBC production about Christian response to global warming; the program will be aired internationally later this month.

It’s a hot topic generating heated debate.

EMU President Loren Swartzendruber added to the conversation with a message on global warming and the care of God’s creation, Friday morning, Apr. 13.

, which followed the regular chapel service in Lehman Auditorium, were recorded by Matt Frei, chief Washington, D.C., correspondent for the London-based British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

The event opened with the singing of an a cappella hymn, “God of the Fertile Fields” (Brethren-Mennonite Hymnal #360).

Swartzendruber believes the BBC contacted him because he was among 86 Christian leaders who signed a statement concerning this issue.

“Some Christian leaders have made public statements suggesting global warming is not a reality or is a hoax/conspiracy and the BBC wants to compare responses of various Christian leaders/groups,” the president said.

‘a Theological Issue’

“I believe this is a scientific and theological/moral issue,” the president said. “We are called to be good stewards of God’s creation, and we are invited to make every effort to reduce the impact of our lifestyle choices on this phenomenon for the sake of the entire world and our future children/grandchildren.

“The projections from many leading scientists are currently quite dire, particularly for the poorest populations in the world,” Swartzendruber said.

“A report from the (IPCC) says, with at least 90 percent certainty, that global warning is man-made and will ‘continue for centuries’ – unless we take actions to slow or reverse the trend.”

“What have we lost if we make changes now for a cleaner environment, even if we should ultimately learn that the projections have been made in error?” the president stated. “If we ignore some very obvious signs, however, or avoid the tough issues, and we are wrong in that direction, millions of us and our descendants will suffer awful consequences.

Excerpts from Swartzendruber’s address and an interview will be broadcast as part of a BBC news report on global warming later this month on the BBC television and radio network to an audience estimated in the millions.

The complete text of the president’s message is available at .

You may also read more about .

President Swartzendruber is available for further interviews on this topic. Contact EMU marketing and communications:

Andrea Wenger, director
Phone: 540-432-4348
Cell: 540-560-2237

Jim Bishop, public information officer
Phone: 540-432-4211