What has been your post-EMU studies and/or career path?��

A week after graduating from EMU, I began a research assistant job at the American Institutes of Research (AIR) in Washington DC, where I worked for just over a year. I focused primarily on two tasks: database entry of metadata from surveys conducted by the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) and quality control of NCES publications, to make sure they aligned with NCES standards.��

While I very much enjoyed working for AIR as a company, I wasn’t particularly enthralled with the work, so I enrolled in James Madison University’s psychological sciences master’s program at JMU. After completing that in 2017, I began my doctoral studies.��

I have found that both the master’s and PhD programs have aligned well with my studies from EMU, which is rather impressive given that my two undergraduate majors – math and psychology – don’t necessarily overlap much. The focus of both of my JMU programs is on educational assessment, which requires learning statistical analyses (math) and applying them to actual students (psychology).��

I hope to end up working in the testing and licensure field, applying the statistical models I’m learning to real-world, high-stakes decisions such as whether or not a doctor gets certified.

How did your academic studies and professors at EMU prepare and inspire you for your graduate studies and/or current work?��

As I was a double major and in the honors program, I didn’t have a lot of time to take courses outside of my majors. Fortunately, the courses I took, particularly in math, have served me well in the statistics portions of my current PhD program. I was able to make connections between what seemed like abstract concepts at the time (e.g., linear algebra) with real-world applied statistics (e.g., multiple regression). Even outside of coursework, both my math and psychology courses helped to foster a researcher mindset within me.��

Similarly, the courses I took instilled in me a strong interest in scientific inquiry. I am in my current program because I wanted an answer to the question, “How do we know tests work and tell us what we think they tell us?”��

I want to give a shout-out to Deirdre L. Smeltzer, who was one of my math professors and was also a mentor for me through the honors program. She always encouraged me to pursue graduate education, and I enjoyed all of our one-on-one meetings in Common Grounds, even if they became less frequent as the years went on.

What attracted you to attend EMU as an undergraduate?��

My older sister, Alexis Sauder Rutt, attended EMU for her undergraduate education, and I really enjoyed the location and feel of campus when I visited her.��

However, the main attraction for me was the cross-cultural opportunity. The required semester-long cross-cultural appealed to me because it was more than just a study abroad. Students weren’t just attending a different university in a different country; they were actually living and interacting with people vastly different than themselves.��

My sister went to New Zealand, and I had my sights set on India. When I started at EMU, however, the India cross-cultural was not going to be offered while I was there. Instead, I had the awesome opportunity to go to South Africa and Lesotho in the fall of my junior year. It was amazing, and I loved the place and the people.��

Lastly, I wanted to attend EMU because it was a Mennonite institution, where I knew I would have a set of shared values with a large portion of the student body.

What are some favorite memories of your time at EMU?��

I really enjoyed my time working with Linda Gnagey in the tutoring center. It was a great experience to help other students with the gifts that I have been given.��

Another thing that has stuck with me has been an ultimate frisbee group that originally started as an EMU student group that played on Wednesday nights. Although most of the group has since moved away, there is still a core group that play Wednesday nights that is ever-expanding to include EMU alumni, community members and current students.��

As I’ve already mentioned, the cross-cultural was an amazing experience. I would love to go back to South Africa sometime in the future.��

Finally, I also enjoyed just being on campus and hanging out at Common Grounds. I love their Valley Turnpike milkshake!

How would you describe your personal growth while a student at EMU?��

Academically, I grew into a more confident writer and speaker, and these skills have continued to serve me well and develop through my graduate education.

I also certainly feel as though I matured during my time at EMU. College is a formative time, and I wouldn’t have wanted to spend it at a large university where I could get “lost” in the crowd. While at EMU I grew closer to many friends and developed relationships that will last for my lifetime. It’s always wonderful to meet up with longtime friends here in Harrisonburg, including at annual events like the Virginia Relief Sale.

Ryan Swartzentruber ‘16, who recently finished his master’s degree in agricultural and resource economics at Colorado State University, says he frequently reflects on what makes an excellent educator. “I’ve concluded that Chris has pretty well hit the nail on the head.”

With a legacy of several EMU grads now teaching at large universities, “Chris has multiplied himself,” said his colleague, business professor Spencer Cowles. “Isn’t that the sign of a great teacher, to inspire a lifelong love of the subject amongst their students?”

Despite initial aspirations to work at a large, R-1 university, Gingrich chose to spend 24 years at ��ݮ����, where he has enjoyed a sustainable balance of teaching and research, prioritized mentoring relationships, and anchored the economics program. He retired at the end of the spring 2019 semester, earlier than he would have liked due to health reasons.

EMU has been “a great place to come to every morning,” Gingrich said in an interview during the last week of classes. “I have always appreciated working in an academic environment with colleagues who support you and want you to do your own thing. … My students have kept me on the young side over these years and it’s been very rewarding to see them go off after graduation and be successful in their chosen field.”

The teacher

Gingrich was known among his colleagues as an astute and innovative teacher. In a tribute announcing his retirement, Undergraduate Dean Deirdre L. Smeltzer noted: “Rather than rely on past success in the classroom, Chris has demonstrated a commitment to pedagogical growth, including a willingness to try out and master entirely new teaching methods in his classes.”

Matt Gnagey ‘05, now an assistant professor of economics at Weber State University, recalls an innovative classroom game in which students acted as a cartel, accumulating extra credit points instead of money.

“The class tried over and over to collude,” Gnagey recalled, “but the incentives to forgo collusion for personal gain were strong, and just like OPEC we ended up overproducing, hurting ourselves collectively in the process. This same lesson explains many other international issues, for example why we have such a hard time mitigating climate change.”

Gingrich came to teaching as “a leap of faith,” he said. Applied research was his initial interest. From a farming family, Gingrich earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural economics at University of Illinois and then, with his wife, spent three years in Haiti with Mennonite Central Committee. Returning to the states, he was accepted to the doctoral program at Iowa State University. His advisor helped him find a dissertation topic: household consumption patterns in Lima, Peru.

Hired in 1995, Gingrich was EMU’s first “true blue economist,” said former EMU colleague, Professor Emeritus��Rick Yoder, a specialist in international development who had worked overseas with the UN and USAID.

Cowles, then department chair, hired Gingrich for the position with a prescient sense of what he would bring to EMU. “He was the right person for the job, a true economist who enabled us to build a rigorous economics major around him and his passion and knowledge for the subject. But he was also someone who supports and cares about students.”

Gingrich, who had never taught before, says Yoder “taught me how to be a respectable teacher.” The duo shared the university’s growing economics teaching load, as several majors required at least introductory econ coursework. Gingrich would eventually teach economics in the MBA program when it began, as well as undergraduate courses in quantitative research and finance.

One of their challenges was to make class time interesting and engaging. Hence the jelly beans and tennis balls: Gingrich was adept at developing lessons “beyond lectures and other didactic methods” that encouraged unique interaction and active learning with concepts, Yoder said.

He also appreciated their many conversations about concerns and challenges, trips to economics conferences with students, and a shared perspective. “W�� both believe that economics is a tool to solve some of humanity’s intractable problems, such as racism and inequality.”

Solutions: The researcher

Gingrich was a prolific and exemplary scholar while balancing a heavy teaching load, Cowles said, and his research was practical and applied, “not about some arcane financial matter, but instead using his economics knowledge to reach out and make a difference in the lives of people.”

His contributions in the field of economic development and public health were part of a larger effort by EMU professors to be active contributors to their scholarly fields.

Together with biology colleague Roman Miller (now professor emeritus), the business and economics department rallied to call for the EMU administration to support release time for research projects and importantly, to become “knowledge producers instead of knowledge consumers,” Yoder said. “W�� use textbooks someone else wrote, articles someone else wrote and we go to conferences where other people present. … Our point was ‘Where’s the Anabaptist voice of peace and justice and equity and the common good? How do we become part of this conversation?’”

Gingrich took a two-year leave in 2001-03, working with Mennonite Central Committee in Nepal as a consultant on microcredit and microfinance. Articles about his findings, published in the Journal of South Asian Development and the Journal of Microfinance, illustrate Gingrich’s focus on applied research: the success of microfinance programs in serving the poor and the sustainability of microfinance delivery through community-based savings and credit cooperatives.

What Answer to Malaria?

During the 2015-16 academic year, he continued research into distribution of anti-malarial bednets in Africa, as a visiting scholar at the Center for Communication Programs, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“A lot of research in grad school is pure theory and not much application and there’s a role for that, but the stuff I’ve been able to work on the past few years was very much policy oriented, and that feels good because I’ve been able to take economic skills and apply them to something more practical,” Gingrich said. “Hopefully we’ve shifted the debate a little bit in a different direction and influenced policy makers. Our footprint is there and I think it’s a fairly significant contribution to how to best distribute nets in a public policy debate.”

The mentor

Gingrich has enjoyed seeing the success of program alumni in academia, including Swartzentruber, Gnagey, Doug Wrenn ‘02, assistant professor of environmental and resource economics at Penn State; and Taylor Weidman ‘13, who is finishing a doctorate at Pitt. He also follows the careers of grads in business, for example, Isaac Wyse, director of revenue operations at YipIt Data in New York City, and Joe Mumaw, technical coordinator at Secure Futures, a solar business in Staunton, Virginia.

“It’s fun to meet with them, keep up with what they’re doing, see them get out of the classroom and develop their own careers,” Gingrich said. “I’ve been here long enough to see former students evolve into mature professionals in a number of different fields, which is rewarding.”

Wrenn, now at Penn State, researches urban and land use economics, unconventional energy development and impacts of hydraulic fracking. He traces his professional path directly back to Gingrich and Yoder. He added a second major in economics after after taking one of Gingrich’s classes, joined Yoder in a research project, and went to work for Mennonite Central Committee after graduation. Gingrich provided invaluable advice as he prepared his grad school application.

Gnagey, now at Weber State, says that Gingrich’s support and guidance, four years after he had graduated, helped him. Gnagey also worked for MCC after graduation; his current research builds on those ties, as he and a former MCC colleague conduct analysis of property markets in Indonesia.

And finally, to return to Ryan Swartzentruber, for a last word on Gingrich’s influence: “Chris has influenced my path in life, and I am forever grateful. He encouraged me, challenged me and been a role model to me. I’ve greatly appreciated – and benefited from – his relational attitude toward life, emphasizing people over other priorities.

Any comments posted below will be shared with Chris.

A political science major and revised minor and a global studies major and minor will be offered beginning this fall.

“These new majors reflect an expanding awareness that community, which EMU has long emphasized, also happens at national and global levels,” said Provost Fred Kniss. “With these new majors, students will develop knowledge and skills that will help them effect positive change in diverse settings.” ��

Political science

The political science major will train students to apply their research and analytical skills to current political affairs and offer students real-world learning through internships. It will prepare students to pursue further studies and careers in fields such as law and public policy.

“This major will closely align with EMU’s core mission,” said Professor Mark Metzler Sawin. “While many universities offer political studies, our program will be distinctive in its embodiment of our university’s values.”

Students will learn to think critically and analytically about power, authority and legitimacy, examining “the traditional role of relevant political actors, institutions, and mechanisms through a critical lens,” said Professor Ji Eun Kim. In addition to developing theoretical and moral ways of understanding political events, they will gain critical oral and writing skills for “speaking and understanding the language of these key actors” based on rigorous reasoning and dignity and respect for others.

Its interdisciplinary approach and diverse curriculum includes course topics such as human rights and dignity, political reconciliation, international relations, American politics, and peace and security in East Asia.

The major also requires a term at the Washington Community Scholars’ Center in Washington DC, where internships offer real-world extensions to classroom learning and vocational experience in policy, politics, advocacy and law. WCSC internship sites in these fields include working on Capitol Hill with the Catholic social justice lobby NETWORK or Mennonite Central Committee’s Washington Office;��and working to increase civic exchange political dialogue with the Faith and Politics Institute. [Learn more about internship sites in these fields.]

Global studies

The global studies major is fitting for a university that for 35 years has required students to have cross-cultural experience. In the program, students will identify a regional and language focus to prepare them for cross-cultural engagement, in addition to further study and careers in fields such as international development, human resources, intelligence and research analysis, and education in public and private sectors.

“EMU’s identity and history positions us to create and offer a global studies program to undergraduate students in a unique way,” said Professor Tim Seidel, who helped develop the major with vice president and undergraduate academic dean Deirdre L. Smeltzer, cross-cultural program director Ann Hershberger, and professors Adriana Rojas, Jim Leaman and Ji Eun Kim. “Graduates will be equipped with solid knowledge and relevant skills – and be equipped for postgraduate study and for professional opportunities including working in governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector.”

With three areas of concentration – sustainability, justice and peacebuilding, and societies and cultures – the major will focus on intercultural communication and the role of faith in global studies while exploring global political and economic actors beyond the state.

The curriculum will include course topics such as globalization and justice, biblical theologies of peace and justice, and cultural anthropology. Region-focused studies may include, for example, history and culture of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

The major was developed with funding from a United States Department of Education Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages grant.

Consider the approach ��ݮ���� math professor Owen Byer took when deciding which problems to include in the new textbook he co-authored with math-professor-turned-vice president and academic dean Deirdre Longacher Smeltzer, and Regent University professor Kenneth Wantz:

“In my own view,” he said, “either it should be a really interesting question, or – lacking that – the solution should be beautiful. Even average problems are worth including if the solution teaches you something.”

This November marked the publication of the long-anticipated – and, already, long-used – textbook Journey into Discrete Mathematics (Mathematical Association of America Press, 2018).

“This is definitely the best math textbook that I’ve ever used,” said sophomore Andrew Nord after a recent session of his discrete math class, which is the latest to use the – until now, pre-published – book. “It explains the concepts very fully and in a way that can be understood fairly easily.”

From the start

Byer, Smeltzer and Byer’s University of Delaware PhD advisor Felix Lazebnik began talking about writing Journey at about the same time the trio’s earlier textbook Methods for Euclidean Geometry (MAA, 2010) was published. All three had doctoral training in discrete math and had taught it many times, and “it seemed like a good second joint project,” Smeltzer said.

A year into the writing of Journey, however, Lazebnik needed to bow out – but generously granted permission for materials that he had developed to remain in the textbook. Byer and Smeltzer then invited Wantz, a former grad school colleague of Byer’s, to join them, and the new trio continued even as a new wrinkle developed: Smeltzer’s transition to being undergraduate dean left her little time to focus on the textbook. While each author ultimately made similar contributions, she said, Byer provided leadership and did “more of everything, especially generating problems and solutions.”

Once drafted, Journey entered what Byer modestly dubbed “a long process” of revising and polishing. For Smeltzer, that process posed the biggest challenge of writing Journey, second only to her limited time: “It’s hard to see something with fresh eyes when you’ve been working on it for a long time.”

There was a beautiful way to help with that problem, however.

A beautiful solution: students

As early as half a decade ago, Byer and his colleagues at EMU began using Journey in the classroom, first in pdf form ��and later – including this fall, even as the book was heading to press – in three-ring binders in Professor Daniel Showalter’s discrete math class.

Doing that had distinct benefits: Students could learn from a textbook grounded in experienced educational practice. Plus, students’ fresh eyes would help tease out what needed better explanation – and they’d find mistakes, discoveries that were often rewarded with bonus points.

Another of Showalter’s students, sophomore Silas Clymer, remembers – with a note of satisfied glee in his voice – finding a misleading hint in a homework problem. But more importantly, “It’s definitely cool having the writer of the book downstairs in an office,” he said. “You can go to talk to him if you need to.”

Showalter often teaches using a flipped classroom model, a model that depends on having a clearly written textbook: students learn concepts on their own from the textbook, and show up to class for answers to their questions and content-related activities. Even prepublicaton, he said, the evolved Journey proved an effective flipped-classroom text.

“It’s very clear,” Showalter said. “It’s rigorous and precise, and has plenty of examples.”

His students agree.

“I’ve never really learned from a textbook before,” said first-year student Jeremiah Yoder after a recent class period during which Showalter guided students in applying newly learned concepts to solve a variety of famous problems. “The textbook was always supplementary. But with this textbook, I feel like I’m on course without assistance, so I’m learning well.”

“W�� really don’t need a teacher,” his classmate Isaac Andreas joked. “That’s why we can just play math games in class every day. I mean, we spend a little bit of time on the content during class, but then we go off and [solve fun problems]. It’s still math.”

‘Exquisite and engaging’

Byer expects Journey to be adopted more widely than the “niche” Methods, as discrete math is taken not only by math majors but also students in computer science, and since MAA Press is now an imprint of the American Mathematical Society.

The publisher describes the text’s exposition as “,” with “detailed descriptions of the thought processes that one might follow to attack the problems of mathematics. The problems are appealing and vary widely in depth and difficulty.”

That’s no surprise, of course, taking into account the authors’ cumulative expertise from decades of teaching – and loving the beauty of – math.

The nine-member board “brought a huge range of expertise to our discussion,” said the center’s executive director , a biology professor at EMU. “The meeting was an opportunity to get feedback on our activities and think about how we might want to adjust our plans. I have so many new ideas that my head is spinning.”

Board of reference members Ben Brabson, professor emeritus of physics at Indiana University, Bloomington, and Shantha Alonso, executive director of Creation Justice Ministries, praised the work so far – especially “the evidence-based shaping of the center’s mission and programs,” Alonso said.

Joining Alonso and Brabson on the board are:

• Ray Martin, lead donor and honorary chair;
• Russell De Young, retired NASA engineer;
• Mitch Hescox, president/CEO, Evangelical Environmental Network;
• Chad Horning, chief investment officer, Everence;
• Lawrence Jennings, lay pastor, Infinity Mennonite Church, New York City;
• Jacqui Patterson, director, NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program;
• Lyubov Slashcheva ’11 D.D.S.;
• Vurayayi Pugeni, humanitarian relief and disaster coordinator, Mennonite Central Committee Canada.

Careful groundwork leads to plans in motion

This is the second major meeting since the center was founded in May 2016, funded by a $1 million donation from Martin, a Goshen College (Indiana) alumnus who worked in international development and global health. The collaborative initiative, which includes EMU, Goshen and Mennonite Central Committee, seeks to advance thinking and action in Anabaptist and other faith communities to mitigate climate change.

A May 2017 consultation at Goshen drew 25 representatives from Mennonite organizations to set the mission and objectives for the center.

“That 10 months since that consultation has been really important to developing a mission-focused, data-driven foundation,” said Graber Neufeld. “There’s so much we can try to do towards our goals, but we want to focus our efforts on making the most impact, and it’s taken some time to find out what that means.”

Following a winter 2017 survey of Anabaptists, the center has rolled out a slate of programs focused on student leadership, pastoral and congregational leadership, and support for research into best practices and innovative solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts.

Graber Neufeld says that continuing to build strategic partnerships will be key to the center’s success. Founding partner Mennonite Central Committee, for example, is a member of Alonso’s ecumenical organization, .

��‘A new, able and unique partner’

CSCS will be a “new, able and unique partner,” said Alonso, who welcomed the board of reference meeting as a way to learn more about the Mennonite faith and its connection to sustainable climate solutions. “CSCS can not only draw more Mennonites into care for God’s creation, but also be a witness of peacemaking and simple living for the broader climate movement, as well as the general public.”

��From a personal perspective, veteran climate scientist Brabson said his participation was a rare opportunity to “form new friendships with a magnificent group of people dedicated to doing God’s work on Earth.”

He praised the center’s strong financial and organizational foundation and its careful goal- and action-oriented planning to spend resources where they have maximum impact.

Outreach to other faith communities is happening “by word and by example from the Mennonite tradition,” Brabson said. “Moral agency, so well represented by the Mennonite tradition, is critical to the survival and enhancement of all of our lives, especially the disenfranchised among us.

“Discussion is good, but without action, very little benefit results,” he added. “The center’s careful planning bodes well for the ability of the center to deliver on its promise.”

Now at ��ݮ����, he recognizes a rooted affinity to Anabaptist teachings, “which I’ve come to realize I’ve followed for longer than I knew it existed.”

Thompson shared how his work and faith are deeply intertwined during a special chapel service last week jointly hosted by EMU’s STEM academic departments. Around campus, at the same time, other departments hosted special, unique chapel gatherings.

Just as his immersion in various “denominational streams has shaped my relationship with Christ and made it more full,” Thompson told the gathered, “likewise, the science and art of psychology has contributed to my understanding of what it means to be made in the image of God. My faith informs my work. My work informs my faith. I don’t know any other way to do it.”

Thompson’s words were encouraging to psychology major Lydia Musselman. “Hearing a professor’s personal story and reflection opens doors to conversation and deeper relationship, and gives hope to those struggling with our faith journey,” she said. “Connections and growth make sense in reflection. It was good to be reminded of that truth.”

EMU’s professors tend to be “down to earth and open people, but there’s a clear difference between a classroom and a chapel,” said junior English and writing major Josh Holsapple, who attended the Language and Literature Department gathering. “Having that extra layer of chapel is important.”

EMU’s annual departmental chapels offer students, faculty and staff the opportunity to talk about understanding, finding and living the work to which one is divinely called. While exploration and recognition of the Christian faith is part of the university’s core curriculum, these chapels are another time and place where faculty and students relate in deeply meaningful ways, said Undergraduate Dean Deirdre Longacher Smeltzer.

“The connection of faculty, staff and students around the idea of vocation is a piece of the faith mentoring and personal relationship-building that makes the EMU experience special,” she said. “The fact that we care about students as whole people is a value that students cite over and over again as something they really appreciate.”

Junior biology major Caroline Lehman agreed. “The professors at EMU, are, in my opinion, the school’s best asset. Being surrounded by people who not only do their jobs exceptionally well but also seem to love their work and grow in faith along the way has had a huge impact on what I hope to find in my future career. What that career will be, however, and how I will get there is still clouded with uncertainty, which can be really stressful at times. Hearing EMU’s professors, people who excel in their work and love their jobs, speak about their own experiences in finding their career paths and using faith as a guide through the uncertainty has been both comforting and inspiring.”

Poetry and stories for enlightenment and new energy

In the Roselawn gathering space on the second floor, Professor Vi Dutcher opened the Language and Literature Department chapel with the introduction of alumna and novelist Patricia Grace King, on campus for her Writers Read event later that week. Those present were invited to offer a single-word descriptor of their early childhood religious experience — and all but one person needed more words, with “nearly everyone offering a phrase or brief story,” said Professor Marti Eads, adding that everyone’s contributions were gladly heard and appreciated. The group then joined in a reading of Seamus Heaney’s “Station Island XI,” a translation of a 16th century poem by Spanish mystic San Juan de la Cruz.

The Student Education Association titled their time “Walking your faith…Teach like no other,” hosting a discussion around relationships and religion, and how to integrate faith and calling in a constantly changing world.

“What I find meaningful in the department chapel is the opportunity for faculty and students to collectively examine how faith and teaching intersect in the classroom,” said department chair Cathy Smeltzer Erb. “Each participant brings his/her own story to the conversation, and leaves with a reservoir of new stories to shape one’s faith journey.”

In other chapels…

The Business and Economics department hosted four students who attended the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) convention in November 2017. MEDA works at the intersection of faith and business as an international economic development organization with the mission of creating business solutions to poverty. The students shared about how they were personally and professionally inspired by their participation in the conference. Speaking were Lucas Miller, junior economics major; Isaac Brenneman, a junior double major in business administration and recreation leadership and sports promotion; Ryan Faraci, senior double major in accounting and business administration; and Kyungho Yu, a junior economics major.

The Department of Applied Social Sciences based their time around an entry in “Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals,” focusing on the anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X and Hebrew 10:26-39.

The History and Bible and Religion departments joined for a time of reflective scripture reading, prayer and singing around the theme of Living Water, while the Nursing Department also spent the time in worship and reflection.