A new nurse aide (aka Certified Nursing Assistant, or CNA) training program at EMU Lancaster is providing job opportunities for those interested in the entry-level nurse aide position while meeting the needs of the numerous nursing homes in Lancaster County and surrounding regions. The program is the brainchild of Mary Jensen, vice president for enrollment and strategic growth at EMU, who sought out a solution to the shifting healthcare needs in the pandemic-laden summer of 2021 while serving as associate provost of EMU Lancaster. “We had one of the first RN to BSN programs in the Lancaster region and had developed a reputation in healthcare. While it became apparent during COVID that workers were leaving healthcare, there were also people who still needed jobs and wanted to work in healthcare, but had to start at the ground.”

Jensen consulted with the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, members of her team and EMU administration to research the viability of a scaffolded workforce development plan that involved partnering with area nursing homes to provide their employees with CNA, LPN, RN and BSN training. The results of this long-term strategy revealed a positive economic and educational impact to both EMU and Lancaster County, one of the largest retirement regions in the nation. So, in the fall of 2021, Jensen began the process of acquiring approval from the state of Pennsylvania to run a CNA program. A short time later, she was offered her current position in Harrisonburg, so would become a supporter of the project from a distance.

Christine Sharp, who was named executive director of EMU Lancaster in June 2022, led the Lancaster team through implementation of the CNA program. She continued conversations Jensen had started with executives from local nursing homes—and before long Landis Homes, Mennonite Home and Fairmount Homes had signed on as partners. The three nursing homes donated most of the equipment—including six hospital beds—for the classroom-turned-lab that was created to spec at EMU Lancaster by its resourceful staff in October 2022; an onsite lab was required as part of the state application process for administering a CNA program. “I love working in partnership,” shared Sharp. “It’s powerful for the school. It’s powerful for the community. And it’s powerful for our partner organizations.”

With partnerships in place, Sharp shifted to hiring instructors to teach the CNA training classes that would begin in January 2023. Seasoned nursing professionals Carmen Miller and Bernice Reynolds ‘21 stepped in to fill the two spots required to get the program up and running. Miller agreed to teach in a part-time capacity. Reynolds, who graduated from EMU Lancaster’s RN to BSN program and had Miller as an instructor, accepted an offer to teach part-time in January before moving into a full-time role as director of the nurse aide training program in March. Both women were required to take a course through Penn State to become certified to teach classes at EMU Lancaster as part of a strict set of state standards for CNA instructors.

Launching a program

After a nine-month process, EMU Lancaster received state certification—and Sharp and staff worked with Landis Homes, Mennonite Home and Fairmount to fill training slots for the brand-new, six-week CNA program. Cohort 1 launched with 10 Landis Homes employees in January; cohort 2 followed in March with five Mennonite Home and five Fairmount employees, and cohort 3 got underway in May with three employees from Mennonite Home, one from Fairmount, and one from Pleasant View Communities—a new nursing home partner. The program, which prepares employees to take both a written and skills nurse aide exam through Credentia for state certification, totals 120 hours and is divided into three parts: classroom/theory (45 hours), lab (35 hours), and clinicals (40 hours).

According to Reynolds, classroom instruction entails PowerPoint presentations, handouts, activities, and videos related to body systems, abuse, vital signs, pain levels, and “some 50 skills of daily living” (23 of which are Credentia skills) including washing the hair, handwashing and bathing. Lab time involves students practicing these skills on mannequins or on each other before working directly with the nursing home residents during clinicals. Sharp says a benefit of the partnerships is having clinical sites, which is an integral part of the training.

The need for nurse aides is so great that partners pay to send their employees through the CNA training program while also paying them their hourly rate, which can range from $18-$24. Mennonite Home even offered CNA candidates a $10K sign-on bonus, paid over two years, to fill its second shift. “It was so fortunate that EMU Lancaster’s partnership and the sign-on bonus came together,” said Justin Lewis, HR recruiter and former CNA at Mennonite Home. “There is a huge demand in healthcare for CNAs, and EMU has helped us fill our vacancies.” Lewis added that the Monday/Wednesday/Friday training schedule allows for a work-life balance with two days in between to “recoup, study, or potentially work.” (EMU Lancaster has since added an eight-week Tuesday/Thursday training option.)

Ramsuze Pierre was hired by Mennonite Home as a CNA after working in a fast-paced position as a technologist assistant at Lancaster General Hospital. “I wanted a slower-paced environment and the opportunity to get to know my residents,” said Pierre, who went through cohort 2. Pierre says she learned medical terminology and the importance of learning residents’ routines, body changes and mood swings in the CNA training program. “We learned everything that was on our exams,” declared Pierre. To date, 100 percent of students have passed the Pennsylvania state written exam, and 93 percent have passed the skills portion of the exam.

Tiffany Millner had been working as a laundry aide at Fairmount for nearly a year when she learned that CNA classes for cohort 2 would be held on MWF evenings, which fit her schedule. She applied, interviewed, and landed a CNA position with Fairmount, who sponsored her training. “I feel like I made a good choice by switching [jobs],” shared Millner, who says she “missed taking care of people” after having looked after her mom for five years before her passing in 2022. “EMU Lancaster’s program was amazing. Ms. Bernice (Reynolds) and Ms. Carmen (Miller) were excellent teachers and broke down our questions until we understood the answers.” Millner says she learned physical skills like how to “properly stand and hold your resident” to social-emotional skills like “making residents feel important and letting them be as independent as they can be.” She also grasped why as a laundry aide she had folded washcloths in fourths: because nurses use a clean area of cloth for each body part!

Meeting a need

Since starting in January, EMU Lancaster’s training program has hosted celebrations of completion for three cohorts of students who are serving as CNAs in Landis Homes, Mennonite Home, Fairmount, and Pleasant View Communities. United Zion and Hospice & Community Care have signed on as partners, and several other nursing/senior care organizations have reached out to partner with EMU Lancaster. Reynolds is hiring additional instructors, and three more cohorts are scheduled for 2023 to meet the nursing home needs and demand for the course by high school students and community members.

“I have a passion for the program because it has the capacity to change people’s lives,” said Reynolds. “Our nursing home residents deserve to be treated abuse-free with dignity and respect, and this program addresses the proper way to care for residents. It also recognizes a CNA job as a profession, can impact earning power, and is a stepping stone to other educational and professional opportunities in healthcare.”

With a model of success in place, EMU Lancaster will continue to assess the marketability of an LPN training program and other offerings. Millner says she is satisfied with her CNA status for now, but that EMU Lancaster should still start an LPN program. Pierre is “praying” for such a program. Whatever the future holds, Jensen believes EMU Lancaster is living into its mission to “prepare people from all walks of life for the workforce.” She says the CNA program “diversifies what it means to be educated at EMU” and “solidifies EMU’s place in Lancaster County as a partner who is seen as innovative, flexible, and willing to work with people to meet actual needs of the community.” 

This article was published in the Spring/Summer 2023 Crossroads magazine.

Aaron Yoder ’01 owns ., a Harrisonburg home construction and remodeling company that uses the EarthCraft House program. Compared to conventional building, EarthCraft House projects generate less waste during construction, require less energy for climate control and demand less ongoing maintenance. A M Yoder & Co. applies these techniques to a wide variety of houses. The company can build a home that uses 40 percent less energy, and an 8,000-square-foot luxury home that is far less resource-intensive than a conventionally built mansion.

Benjamin Meredith ’92 is owner and president of (Harrisonburg), which conducts home and small business energy audits to identify the best ways to reduce energy consumption. It also provides third-party verification for homes built to Energy Star or EarthCraft green building standards. Meredith uses construction expertise and specialized equipment – duct blasters, infrared cameras – to understand and improve a building’s energy usage. “Residential buildings consume approximately 22 percent of the energy consumed in the United States,” he says. “It is my job to help people figure out how they can reduce their energy consumption footprint.”

Bradley Yoder ’02 is project adviser for , based in Durham, North Carolina. It builds all its new homes to the of the . Smart and efficient homes, Yoder says, are a key part of living well-balanced lives: “If you’re careful about building [people’s] homes responsibly, efficiently and healthily, [they] are better equipped to do what they want with their lives.” One of Bradley’s colleagues, John Price, class of ’76, is the “build lead” at Build Sense, overseeing several of the company’s construction crews. Through another company, Carolina X Wall, Yoder also sells insulating concrete forms, an efficient and eco-friendly building material.

In Fulks Run, Virginia, Heather Bauman ’04 and Justin Thomas Yoder, class of ’03, live in a passive solar house, with supplementary heat from a masonry stove. It has a lightcolored metal roof to ward off summer heat. Built by Justin and his father, Kenton E. Yoder, the house stays comfortable during summers without air conditioning, says Heather.

In Philadelphia, Carol and Timothy Martin Johnson, both ’82 grads, commute to work by public transportation, bicycles or walking; when they need to drive, they use their trusty old Corolla – 260,000 miles and counting. In January 2011, they put solar panels on the roof of their 100-year-old house, which should provide at least half their electricity. The Johnsons rent out the third floor of their house, attend a church that shares space with five other congregations, and allow an urban beekeeper to keep two hives in their back yard. The sharing and interdependence that accompany urban living, Carol writes, present “challenges, but also endless creative possibilities in which we find much joy!”

“There are a lot of little things that each one of us can do in our own homes to save the planet,” wrote Martha Ann Burgard ‘66, of Gadsen, Alabama, in a letter describing the simple things she’s done in her own home. In condensed form:

Clean with white vinegar and baking soda, because they work as well as toxic chemicals. Use a clothesline. White metal roofs reflect more sunlight and keep a house cooler. Heat with a wood stove. Wear a hat. Bundle up. Invest in a down comforter. Shop at thrift stores and yard sales. Repurpose old things. Try treating ailments with home remedies. Compost. Mulch. Turn your lawn into a wildflower meadow. Collect rainwater for the garden. Grow your own food. Buy local produce. Cook in bulk, divide into meal-sized portions, freeze for later. Avoid processed food. Buy eggs in cardboard cartons, not styrofoam, because cardboard is a good fire starter and is compostable. Don’t dry-clean clothes. If you can’t wash it, you don’t want it. Make bags and purses from fabric scraps. Use some. Give some away as gifts. Volunteer. Teach middle-schoolers how to build birdhouses.

Says Burgard: “This is the civilized way to live, in harmony with nature, not fighting it, not destroying it, but enjoying it, communing with it.”

“We decided to take that little phrase fairly seriously,” says Lester, who returned to EMU to earn an MA in religion in 1994. “Simplicity grew from a concern for the environment and justice to become a guiding principle of our faith.”

And so, not long after they graduated, the Linds settled in Harman, West Virginia, near Mary Beth’s childhood home, putting their commitment to simplicity into action. Working part-time jobs, they lived a little above the poverty line, which was comfortable enough for their tastes.

They grew much of their own food, and for a long period, plenty of surplus produce for restaurants, grocery stores and farmers’ markets. They chose not to have children, and if they ever ended up with more money than they needed, they gave it away – all decisions guided by the Linds’ commitment to simplicity and stewardship, and all decisions that have left them with a deep sense of satisfaction.

“It was a lot of hard work, and it wasn’t easy, but it was worth it …the reward is great,” says Lester.

Now, he and Mary Beth live in a house they built in Philippi, West Virginia, closer to their congregation of Philippi Mennonite Church. One of the ways they tried to incorporate sustainability into their new house was through its one-floor design, meant to make household life easier as the two of them age.

As that time approaches, decisions the Linds made earlier in life about income and livelihood have presented them with new challenges, like finding a way to fund retirement after a life spent avoiding the accumulation of money. Without insurance through an employer, healthcare costs have also become of increasing concern.

“Our values of simplicity seem incongruent with a healthcare system that is not sustainable,” Lester says.

These realities, the Linds say, have significant implications for how people can pursue lifestyles based on simplicity. The Mennonite church, Lester adds, could – and should – provide better leadership in alternative ways to fund health care and retirement.

Nevertheless, the Linds remain as committed as ever to the simple lives they chose 40 years ago. “The value of simplicity continues to form who we are and how we live,” Lester says. “If we had it to do all over again? Yes, we would.”

He began paying close attention to the environment he lived in. He moved out of the city to find cleaner air. He began filtering his water, started growing much of his own food, and used mind-overmatter techniques to overcome anxiety about exposure to toxins.

That experience had a direct and enormous effect on Good’s career as an architect. (After attending EMU, he earned an architecture degree from Catholic University in Washington DC; his daughter, Bethany Good, graduated from EMU in 2004.)

“How could I specify products that go into people’s buildings that could make them sick?” he says. “That was my call to action.”

In 1984, Good designed his own special “ecological” house to safeguard his health. After that project received attention in an architecture magazine, Good started getting calls from interested people across the country and around the world. In 1988, his self-published book, Healthful Houses: How To Design and Build Your Own, became one of the first on the subject.

Now working from his office in Northern Virginia, Good has designed healthy homes and buildings for clients throughout the Americas, as well as in Asia and Europe, and has spoken widely in the field on how to build to protect occupants’ health.

Built with 20 prefabricated panels made by a company in North Carolina, the house includes a number of green features, beginning with the shape itself. The round design gives the home an improved surface-to-volume ratio – and consequently, improved energy efficiency – over a standard, boxy house. Simple ways the Kennels maximize the efficiency of their house: passive solar design, orienting the house to maximize and minimize the effect of sunlight at the appropriate times of year, thick insulation, reflective roof shingles, well-built windows and doors, and “window quilts” to minimize heat loss.

The house also includes some higher-tech green features, including solar collectors to heat the house via radiant floor heat and the water system (on March 1, a sunny but chilly day, their tank temperature reached 120 degrees). A separate, 4.8 kW photovoltaic system at the house generates about half the electricity the couple uses.

Elmer’s and Marianne’s previous house, built in 1980, also had solar collectors for hot water and a passive solar design.

“It seemed like the right thing to do years ago, and it still is,” says Elmer, who retired in 2010 from his career as a general surgeon affiliated with Rockingham Memorial Hospital.

Eating locally and in season wasn’t a fad during Mary Beth Lind’s childhood in rural West Virginia. It was just the way things worked. Her mother grew a large garden, and her father, a doctor, sometimes accepted vegetables as payment from his patients.

“You just learned to live with what you have,” says Lind, who graduated from EMU in 1972 with a degree in home economics.

Lind, now a registered dietitian, later earned a graduate degree in nutrition from Oregon State University and returned briefly to EMU to teach home economics in 1980.

In 2005, Lind drew on her professional expertise and personal experience to write Simply In Season (Herald Press), a cookbook arranged by season with an emphasis on fresh and local foods. Lind co-wrote the book with a Goshen College graduate, Cathleen Hockman-Wert.

“That whole sense of eating locally and seasonally [that I grew up with] was what was so important about Simply In Season,” said Lind. She hopes the book will help broaden the horizons of recent generations of home cooks who don’t “know where their food comes from other than the supermarket, [and] who want to support the local, seasonal food economy but to whom it is not part of their heritage.”

A decade before Simply In Season’s publication, Lind and her sister, Sarah Myers (class of ’67) co-wrote Recipes from the Old Mill: Baking With Whole Grains (Good Books, 1995), inspired by childhood memories of their uncle, who ran a water-powered grain mill in West Virginia.

Herald Press celebrated the 30th anniversary of a kindred bestseller, Living More with Less, with last year’s release of a new edition edited and expanded by Valerie Weaver-Zercher ’94. Living More with Less was originally written by Doris Janzen Longacre, who died of cancer just before completing her manuscript (her husband, with three others, ushered it into publication). Longacre had previously written the bestselling More-with-Less Cookbook (Herald Press, 1976 & 2000) – 860,000 copies sold by 2010, including British and German editions – which provided inspiration for Lind and Hockman-Wert’s Simply in Season.

An ��ݮ���� alumna with more than 12 years experience in design, writing, editing and project management has been named director of at EMU.

of Harrisonburg will begin her new position on May 16, 2005. In this role, she will direct a six-member creative staff responsible for the overall public relations/communications programs of the university, which includes overseeing publications and other print materials, the news bureau, institutional advertising and web content design and maintaining campus-wide graphics and editorial style standards.

Ms. Parmer will succeed Paul W. Souder, who held the position three years.

, vice president for , announced the appointment.

“Kirsten brings years of experience in working within the marketing services department at EMU and has worked for a number of external clients over the years as well,” Yoder said. “She has shown natural leadership qualities, a creative flair and a passion for quality, timeliness and accuracy,” she added.

A 1993 EMU graduate, Parmer was a student assistant in the communications department during most of her college career. She joined the staff as a graphic designer in 1993 where she has worked on major projects including “Crossroads,” the university magazine; the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival; admissions materials and the President’s Annual Report.

She has received a Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District III “award of excellence,” numerous Printing Industries of the Virginias awards and the EMU “Quality Service Award.”

Parmer is married to Trevor Parmer, assistant vice president for employee benefits at BB&T Shomo and Lineweaver Insurance. They have two sons – Max, 7; and Simon, 4.