A new endowment in support of psychology majors at ��ݮ���� honors three exemplary emeritus professors. Kim Gingerich Brenneman ‘85, Galen Lehman ‘73, and Judy Mullet ‘73 have 101 years of service between them at EMU.

The endowment honors the transformative impact of their teaching, scholarship and advising on hundreds of EMU students, but also supports the continued studies of new generations of students.

“It is an honor to have my name on the psychology endowment, especially with two other brilliant psychology faculty whom I know have made huge differences in the lives of EMU students,” said Brenneman. 

This scholarship is the first of its kind for psychology majors at EMU. Full-time psychology students in their first year at EMU will qualify as recipients, and students of African, Hispanic, Asian and Native American descent will be given priority.

Dennis Showalter ‘73, who graduated alongside Lehman and Mullet, saw an opportunity to create it.

“I decided that a psychology scholarship was definitely needed,” Showalter says. “Our EMC 45th reunion was coming up, so I reached out to the 10 psychology majors from the class of 1973, to see if they would partner with me in securing the scholarship.” 

Lehman and Mullet joined Showalter and Gretchen Maust ‘73, administrative assistant for the Visual and Communication Arts Department, to help establish the endowment. They then invited Brenneman, who was eager to join the team. But the coalition still needed to name the scholarship.

Each professor was “too humble to want it to be named after him or herself, so we named it after all of them,” says Showalter. 

They’re seeking $10,000 in financial support through EMU’s new crowdfunding platform, which has recently helped fund the Matt Garber Endowed Scholarship and MJ Sharp Peace & Justice Endowed Scholarship, both in honor of young alumni who have passed away.

“Endowments such as these affirm, energize and invite students to more deeply commit to a community of explorers and travelers in one of the newest disciplines in higher education,” says Mullet. “As a faculty member in the department I sought to live what we explored together both in and out of classrooms. The richness of one-to-one conversations were ‘holy moments’ that I cherish to this day. I’m honored to support ongoing ‘holy moments’ at EMU through this scholarship.”

Legacies live on through students and colleagues

All three former faculty have left indelible marks on the program through their tenure. Maust is proud of how far the department has come since she was a student.

“I am delighted to see our current psych majors challenged to explore all sorts of career options. I’m most excited about the new art therapy concentration which prepares our grads for advanced degrees in art therapy and the collaboration between our undergrad psych program and the graduate Master in Counseling program,” Maust says.

Lehman, having joined the faculty in 1973, brought some of the earliest improvements to the program, including Apple II computers, and renovating the formerly dirt-floor Suter Science Center basement into instructional and collaboration space.

Mullet, in addition to teaching psychology, also directed the Honors program, taught undergraduate and graduate courses in education, and co-founded and co-led Student Kairos Place, a week-long gathering of EMU undergraduate writers. 

She had a reputation as an excellent listener and mentor with deep compassion for her students.

“Judy Mullet is one of the kindest, and without a doubt the most affirming, persons I have ever known,” said Joshua Kanagy ‘13, a mental health counselor at Morrison Child and Family Services in Portland, Oregon. “Judy has a remarkable knack for recognizing and encouraging her students’ talents, and she was instrumental in my own decision to become a counselor. I am a gentler, more vulnerable, and more hopeful human being because of her.”

Brenneman, respected for her academic rigor, also led many cross-cultural trips to India over the years. And she was skilled at putting her colleagues and students at ease. 

“Her ability to always treat me with the highest respect for both who I am and the emotions that tag along with me has had an impact that will last throughout my entire life,” said Emily Suttles ‘16. “I have met many people who are good listeners, but she definitely tops the list, and I continue to strive to be that same type of listener for other people.”

Ultimately, Brenneman hopes to provide “a bit of financial relief” for tomorrow’s psychology students. “I hope it also shows that we are committed to encouraging the next generation of psychologists academically as well as financially.”

“This minor, housed jointly in EMU’s and departments, reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of emerging brain science, requiring students to develop expertise in both fields,” says Dr. , professor of psychology.

A wide-ranging multidisciplinary field that studies the brain and nervous system, neuroscience is reshaping many other fields, with applications explored by educators, therapists, economists, business leaders, medical professionals and law enforcement, among others.

“This minor will strengthen and broaden our students’ preparation for careers in medical sciences and for graduate studies in psychology,” says Dr. , chair of the .

Rounding out pre-MCAT prep

More than 80 percent of EMU students who complete EMU’s are accepted into medical school; this new minor has the potential to increase that statistic.

A 2015 revision to the Medical College Acceptance Test (MCAT) has added a section on “Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior.” Subject matter in this section, according to U.S. News and World Report, is generally covered in upper-level psychology and sociology courses.

The neuroscience minor, with its emphasis on interdisciplinary scholarship, will also prepare students for graduate school.

Applicable to broad range of majors

Core courses for the minor are general psychology, abnormal psychology, neuropsychology and advanced neurobiology. In addition, students would complete an advanced research course to explore the wide application of neuroscience to a topic of interest. Electives include advanced human physiology or cognitive psychology and a biology research seminar or psychological research design and analysis.

Advisors from both psychology and biology programs will mentor students seeking to apply neuroscience curricula to a broad range of majors.

Bringing a wide variety of interests to her program of study, senior Michaela Mast is a psychology major with minors in and . She had considered adding a biology minor, but the new neuroscience minor fits her interests.

“I thrive on educational input from an array of perspectives,” she says. “Interdisciplinary study provides a rich view of the world. I enjoy the study of psychology, but I appreciate having the insight into the whole picture that is offered with the study of neuroscience.”

Neuroscience is broadly embedded in EMU curriculum and programs

Neuroscience is already a strong curricular component with elements of applied neuroscience embedded in undergraduate coursework for and programs, and in graduate coursework of the program, , , and programs.

Neuroscience is also an important component of the (STAR) program, housed in the . The program, founded after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, conducts trainings about the world to a variety of audiences seeking to understand physical, mental and emotional responses to trauma.

The new minor meets institutional and departmental goals of “exposing students to cutting-edge research.” Venues to interact and network with professionals include regional neuroscience and psychology conferences. In 2016, for example, landed invitations to share their independent research projects at the Virginia Association for Psychological Science annual conference. More than 30 EMU psychology students have attended the Society for Neuroscience conference, which hosts approximately 30,000 attendees every three years in Washington D.C.

Students can add the minor to their portfolio beginning fall 2017.

Lee F. Snyder, EMU interim provost, asked these questions of the campus community at a convocation service Wednesday, Jan. 7, the opening week of second (spring) semester.

Lee F. Snyder, EMU interim provost, speaks to the campus community during EMU’s spring convocation Monday, Jan. 5. Photo by Jon Styer

Speaking with an enlarged image of the Earth projected on to a screen behind her on the Lehman Auditorium stage, Dr. Snyder noted that “this globe suggests the infinite mystery of God’s creation. But, it also represents a sphere with boundaries and – we now acknowledge – increasingly scarce natural resources.

“We refer indirectly to the world in the university mission statement, ‘EMU educates students to serve and lead in a global context.’ By that we suggest that we have a responsibility, a God-given mandate to relate to the world in some particular way – by serving and leading,” she said.

“Here at the beginning of 2009, from a magnificent, but scarred and scorched earth, we honor the God of enduring love; of unstinting mercy and grace. We raise our heads for a few minutes from the computer screen, we pull the head phones from our ears, we look up from our text messages, we push the book aside and think about the God of the Cosmos; of those vast reaches of space and time; God the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. For God so loved the cosmos,” Snyder continued.

“As we begin the year 2009, we simply remind ourselves that the cosmic God also gets very personal,” Snyder said. “It is neither presumptuous nor arrogant to stand back from this magnificent image of the planet and see ourselves as part of an ineffably beautiful but needy world – as significant partners with God in the work of peace and reconciliation.

And, there is something you can do now,” the provost told the assembly. “Students, take this opportunity for study and vocational preparation as the only world you inhabit at the moment. Discipline yourself in your work, ask questions, open yourselves to possibilities which might take you in new directions.

“Our responsibility is to be attuned to the ways that each of us personally is being called to be involved in God’s project of loving the world,” Snyder added.

“My prayer for you students, particularly, in a time of economic fears and unabated violence around the world, is that you would be willing to live on the edge of uncertainty while remaining compassionate and curious; that you would be propelled by a vision of healing and hope for the world which still receives God’s love.”

Cross-cultural Prayer and Sending

The service concluded with a commissioning and prayer led by associate campus pastor Byron Peachey for EMU cross-cultural groups who will spend second semester in Central America and India, respectively.

Kim Gingerich Brenneman, professor of psychology, and her husband, Bob Brenneman, are leading 24 students on a semester-long seminar in India, where they will explore the country’s history, government and culture, study and interact with the differing religions and learn fundamentals of the Hindi language. They will live with host families and keep daily journals.

Dr. Beth Aracena, director of the cross-cultural program, invites friends of the cross-cultural students forward for a parting prayer. Photo by Jon Styer

The Brennemans led EMU’s first semester-long cross-cultural to India the spring of 2007.

Ann Graber Hershberger, professor of nursing, and her husband, Jim Hershberger, will lead the 22 participants in experiencing the world of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. Students will spend significant time with CASAS (Central American Study and Service), a cross-cultural study program in Guatemala.

The first two months, members will live with families in Guatemala City while learning Spanish and studying the culture, history and current issues including immigration, trade and economics. Special focus will be given to relating to and understanding the Guatemalan/Mayan Anabaptist churches. Students will then participate in a service-learning opportunity in rural Guatemala or Honduras.

EMU’s second (spring) semester runs through Apr. 24.

The president of ��ݮ���� was about to give a welcoming address at the opening convocation of second semester Wednesday morning, Jan. 10.

But before that happened, the chair of the EMU board of trustees, Susan E. Godshall, came to the podium and gave Loren Swartzendruber an official “call” to a second four-year term of office. That term will begin July 1, 2007.

“I’m pleased to announce that Loren Swartzendruber has accepted reappointment to a second term as EMU president,” Godshall told the assembly. “We are grateful for his leadership and vision, for his deep commitment to God, the church and Anabaptist understandings, for his effective relationships within the EMU community and with a wide constituency off campus, for his advocacy of EMU and Mennonite education, for his leadership in finance and fundraising, for his collaborative approach to work and for his sense of humor to lighten the load,” she said.

“Loren, may God, who has called you to this task, provide you with joy and strength in it,” Godshall added, as the audience gave an ovation.

Strong Affirmation at Review

The EMU trustees and the board of directors of Mennonite Education Agency (MEA) formed a presidential review committee last spring in the third year of Swartzendruber’s first term. Drawing from some 184 responses from across the church, the committee reported strong affirmation for the president’s leadership.

Swartzendruber became EMU’s eighth president on Jan. 1, 2004 and was inaugurated on Mar. 27 that year. Before that, he served 10 years as president of Hesston College, a two-year Mennonite school in Hesston, Kan.

The Kalona, Iowa, native earned a bachelor of arts degree in liberal arts at EMU in 1976 and served as an associate director of admissions at EMU and par-time associate campus pastor. He received a master of divinity degree from Eastern Mennonite Seminary in 1979 and a doctor of ministry degree in church leadership in 2000 from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Ordained to the Christian ministry in 1975, he was pastor of Salford Mennonite Church, Harleysville, Pa., 1978-83, then served 10 years as associate executive secretary of the former Mennonite Board of Education, now Mennonite Education Agency.

Swartzendruber focused his convocation remarks on the words of Micah 6:8, which appears in the university’s mission statement.

‘Right Living’ Includes Worship

“Micah’s call to ‘walk humbly with God’ is consistent with other Old Testament texts and with the words of Jesus and others in the New Testament,” he said. “It’s impossible to segregate authentic worship from faithful living. It’s also the reality that ‘right living’ – doing justice, loving mercy – cannot long be sustained without engaging in acts of worship.

“At EMU, we dare to declare that the purpose of this education is to equip every graduate to serve others,” Swartzendruber stated. “The essential question that should dominate our inquiry and our interactions with others is not, ‘who am I”?, important as that is in the maturation process.

“The more transformative questions are, ‘Who is God and what is God calling me – and us – to be?'”

Brian Martin Burkholder, campus pastor, leads a prayer for the EMU cross-cultural groups who will spend second semester in study seminars in India and Guatemala and Mexico. Photo by Jim Bishop

The president noted that commencement is less than four months away, and that many in the audience will receive an undergraduate or graduate degree from the university on that special occasion.

“From there, you will scatter across the globe, not as completed, fully formed seekers of God, but to join the nearly 16,000 other alumni as people on a journey – to continue walking humbly with God,” Swartzendruber said.

The convocation ended with a prayer of commissioning for two student groups who will leave campus later this week for semester-long cross-cultural study programs. Kim G. Brenneman, associate professor of psychology, and husband Bob Brenneman are leading 24 students to India. Don Clymer, assistant professor in the language and literature department, and wife Esther Clymer are leading 20 students to Guatemala and Mexico.