EMU sent seven student leaders, including some hall directors and leaders of Campus Activities Council and Student Government Association, along with two Campus Life staff to the conference, hosted at Christopher Newport University from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1. The Virginia Association of College & University Housing Officers (VACUHO) organizes the annual event. Among the topics discussed were adapting to change, professional postgraduate development, and avoiding burnout.

The topic on managing and overcoming mental burnout was one that Dia Mekonnen, an EMU junior who works as a community adviser, found helpful. Attendees discussed effective ways to manage the challenges they face while interacting with residents, as well as developing self-care strategies and long-term resilience to prioritize their mental health. Mekonnen said she learned the importance of “guiding others with the power we have and creating a space where people feel comfortable talking about a variety of issues.”  

Scott Eyre, the director for Campus Life, started planning for this event last year, setting aside a budget for the conference as part of EMU’s commitment to develop student leaders. He knew that attending the conference would allow students to connect with others in similar roles and learn about what is happening at other universities, giving them a sense of belonging to a larger community. One of Eyre’s goals was for students to gain “ideas, energy, and education that they could bring back to help EMU continue to grow.” Not only does this conference develop student leaders, but also it helps them develop their own universities.

According to Tyler Stanley, the area coordinator for Campus Life, the most frequently asked question the group encountered while attending the conference was, “Where is EMU?” He said students could then “proudly make themselves and EMU visible in the industry.” 

Although the VACUHO has planned this conference annually for many years, Eyre said it’s been more than a decade since EMU has attended. He is excited the university could attend this year and hopes to send even more students in the coming years. Stanley also wants to continue sending student leaders to the conference and even dreams of EMU hosting the Student Leadership Conference one year. If that were to ever happen, perhaps students would no longer need to ask, “Where is EMU?”

The Student Leadership Conference gives students the opportunity to learn skills and perspectives that will aid them in both their personal and professional lives. Both Abera and Mekonnen returned to EMU inspired by what they had learned about leadership. “A strong leader adapts to the needs of their team and fosters an environment where everyone feels valued and motivated,” Abera said. 

Mekonnen agreed. “This conference inspired me to treat my residents the way I want to be treated and to be there for others,” she said. 

Those attending the conference were Ruth Abera, Amber Bonds, Chase Comer, Anne Cornelius, Dia Mekonnen, Emily Suarez Nunez, and Trinity Price. Two professional Campus Life staff members, Tyler Stanley and Atma Khalsa, also attended.

A brief ceremony before the ribbon-cutting included speeches from Student Government Association representative Hannah Nichols, EMU President Susan Schultz Huxman, senior advisor to the president for diversity and inclusion and Multicultural Student Services director Celeste Thomas, facilities management director Ed Lehman, Black Student Union co-president Jakiran Richardson and “resident barber” Mark Loving III.

Scott Eyre, lead residence director, was also recognized for his contributions and leadership.

The speakers then conducted a unity ceremony during which various colors of sand were poured together into a glass container.

“The colors of sand represent the connection between EMU and our multicultural faculty, staff, students, alumni and community,” said Nichols. “They also represent the Kente, a traditional woven cloth worn as a symbol of ethnic pride. The colors chosen are also connected to Kwanza (black for the people, red for the bloodshed and green for greener pastures) and the Olympic rings, a gathering of all nations.”

Also present for the ceremony were Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed;��Stan Maclin, EMU alumnus and founder of the local Harriet Tubman Museum; and local barber Tyrone Sprague, who owns Sprague’s Barbershop in downtown Harrisonburg and has been a supporter of EMU students for many years.

Soon, though, he’ll perform his craft in a proper barber’s chair with a proper mirror in EMU’s newest student space. Modeled after a barbershop and salon and dubbed “The Royal Treatment,” the space will be managed by the Black Student Union (BSU).

“This is much more than a barbershop. This is a sanctuary,” said senior Jourdyn Friend, BSU vice president, during a special evening preview of the room. “Your hairdresser is more like a counselor, there to talk about your problems, because you’re there so long you might as well. This space is progress towards recognizing not just the majority but also the minority. This is a symbol of our voice being heard.”

The grand opening of “The Royal Treatment” – which includes two barber’s chairs, a hairwashing station, television and two comfortable couches, all enlivened by a bright wall mural celebrating African and African-American culture – was Monday, Jan. 21, at 11:45 a.m. during the university’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration. The ceremonial ribbon-cutting was followed by a barbershop talk with local barber Tyrone Sprague. During past MLK Days, a visit to Sprague’s downtown barbershop for some history, legend and lore was a much-loved EMU tradition.

“We’re so pleased that Mr. Tyrone Sprague will be coming to help us celebrate the opening of our very own barbershop and salon,” Celeste Thomas, director of multicultural services and senior advisor to the president for diversity and inclusion, said prior to the event. “Just like his barbershop has been for years, I know this place is going to be full of joking and laughter and wisdom, a place where people can literally and figuratively let their hair down, where they can come and have a good time and be relaxed and comfortable.”

A major ‘milestone’

For the sneak preview hangout last week, though, it was Loving who did the barbering honors in front of a group of student-representatives from BSU and Latino Student Alliance invited by Thomas and lead residence director Scott Eyre. Both Thomas and Eyre sit on EMU’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (CODI), a 17-strong group that advises, consults and educates the EMU community.

BSU members called “The Royal Treatment” a major milestone in the university’s history. Senior Jessica Washington, the club’s secretary, said she never imagined “something like this” when she arrived on campus four years ago. “This is a real blessing.”

BSU co-president Jakiran Richardson, a sophomore, views the new space as the university’s way of showing empathy and understanding for students of color who must adapt to a predominantly white campus culture. “We understand what you’re going through,” he translated. “Here’s something to show our appreciation for you being here and that we are about who you are.”

Erick Camodeca, associate cross country and track and field coach, took advantage of the preview to relax in the barber’s chair while getting a “temp fade” from Loving.  Also a member of CODI, Camodeca might be new to the campus – he arrived last summer – but his experience at four other universities has given him a critical eye.

The new space, he said, “sends out a message that this university does care, that we are making a commitment to diversity and to our students.”

The barbershop is “all about community, which is one of EMU’s core values,” Camodeca added. “What a better place to have a barbershop where people can come in of all diversities and backgrounds and share an experience and learn something.”

A measure of support for the room was the wild success of its crowdfunding campaign. More than $2,600 was raised by donors to purchase sinks, chairs and other amenities and decorations.

‘A meeting place’

Historically, the African American barbershop and salon was, and still is, a meeting place, “a place where mothers take daughters, where fathers take sons, a family place, a place of confidentiality and gossip, with people coming in and out, selling this and that,” Thomas said.

“Not to mention food,” added Friend to general laughter. “You can get your dinner there.”

The barbershop was also a place where “planning happened through the Jim Crow era and the civil rights movement,” Thomas said.

“It’s still definitely a place where dreams are fostered,” said former BSU co-president DeVantae Dews. Dews found Sprague’s barbershop downtown when he first arrived from Lynchburg as a first-year student. Over the years, time spent with Sprague reflecting on the civil rights and Black Lives Matter movements, along with a host of other topics, were important to his own outlook and activism.

“Those conversations gave me hope and vision for what I believe the next movement is to come,” Dews said, “and so I can only imagine how much wisdom will be poured down through our generations here in this place, and what this space can do – for reflecting on the growth that’s happened here at EMU and the planning we can do to make more change to help make this campus a better place for everyone.”

‘All hair types’ welcome

Eyre, the residence director, appreciates the new space as an opportunity to learn about and appreciate cultures different from one’s own. The barbershop and salon is rooted in his own learning experience, which began when female students using hair straighteners in the dorms repeatedly set off fire alarms.

“The reaction of some white and white Mennonite students who didn’t understand what was going on helped me admit that I didn’t know either,” Eyre said. “With a lot of grace, Celeste answered questions and shared about African American hair and hairstyling and the processes involved, and I realized that EMU could do better in providing and creating spaces in support of our students.”

The barbershop and salon will be a familiar cultural space to many African American students, he said, but white students “will have to figure out how they fit in,” a fair experience considering that African American and minority students make that effort constantly at EMU, he said.

The cozy room in University Commons is located in a former office donated by the Student Government Association. Students at the sneak preview event said they were confident the space would quickly become a campus hangout.  

The ambiance brought back memories for Ariel Barbosa, co-president of Latino Student Alliance, of going to the barbershop with her dad, who has both African and indigenous Brazilian heritage. That same feeling of “being at home there” in the barbershop of her childhood is one she hopes will be shared here. “I’m excited that students are at the center of this project,” she said. “I just envision this as a space that will be one of true diversity, where people of all hair types will find a place.”

For Dews, who had worked on the initial plans for the space several years ago, sitting in the new lounge gives him “great hope,” he said. “And if I am hopeful sitting here, think of how a freshman would feel … I believe this is the small fruit of the harvest of what God wants to do on this campus when looking at diversity, reconciling between racial and social economies and all the other social constructions that try and divide us. This is just the beginning of what can happen on this campus.”

Now a graduate student at Kutztown University, Joshua works as a success coach with the , which partners with ChildPromise, Inc. to provide support for students who are current or former members of the foster care system.

Joshua notes that out of more than 400,000 foster care children in the United States, less than 10 percent decide to pursue any type of college degree, and that it is a privilege to hear their stories and offer support as they work towards their goals.

What attracted you to attend EMU as an undergraduate?

At first, I just wanted to move away. I lived outside of Philadelphia my whole life and I wanted to be anywhere else. Then I fell in love with Harrisonburg because it has a very unique environment of a half-urban/half-rural area. They have an exciting downtown area that always has great events, and lots of open space and vistas.

You majored in liberal arts and focused in business. Why did you choose that combination and what skills did you gain from that interdisciplinary emphasis?

I began my journey as an accounting major. I loved the work, but realized that the career of an accountant wasn’t quite what I needed in life. I thrive off of relationships and knew that I needed to work more directly with people.

My experiences working with the Campus Activities Council and Residence Life affirmed that notion and I knew that I needed to change my path. I spoke with an academic advisor, Amy Springer Hartsell, who discussed a possible future in student affairs. It was too late to switch majors without having to extend my studies a couple years, so I decided on a liberal arts major, with a focus in business knowing that I could use that degree anywhere life took me.

What did you do after graduation?

I worked full-time as an assistant hall director at the University of Colorado to affirm my passion for higher education and student affairs. I loved everything about my job: the residents, my student staff, my daily work and my boss who turned out to be a great mentor. Unfortunately the position was terminated after one year.

I am pursuing my master’s degree in higher education at Kutztown University. Some of my goals here are to learn about opportunities to bring restorative justice to common student conduct processes, and how to find resources that help our students with financial, housing and food insecurities.

Can you talk a bit about your current work at Kutztown? What are its joys and challenges? 

I am currently a graduate assistant working in a new aid program called the Providing Resources for Future Standouts program (PROFS). It focuses on giving aid to students who grew up in the foster care system who have decided to pursue a college education. I administer this program that provides financial aid, free on-campus summer and winter housing, and free off-campus trips to places like Washington D.C. or New York City or Philadelphia. I coach them through the challenges they face as students who may not have a network of  support.

Because this is such a new program, I have had the opportunity of creating the program’s foundations. This includes policy creation, event organization, case management and relationship building. I also go to group homes to encourage foster care children to pursue a college degree.

I love all of my students and their unique personalities. Each has a story unlike anybody else’s and I get to watch them overcome all of that negative history that might have held them back. The hardest part is knowing that, although I provide a lot for them, I will never be able to give what a family would. One student sat in my office crying. She was trying to get a loan to buy a car, but had no credit. The dealership told her to get her parents to co-sign, but since neither are a part of her life, she had to let it go.

Have you found any of your experiences or coursework at EMU helpful in your current work?

EMU challenged me and helped me grow in every way I needed to best support my students. Through my philosophy classes with Christian Early and sociology classes with Carolyn Stauffer and Jenni Holsinger, I was challenged to see the privileges I live with as a white, middle-class male with a supportive family.

More than that, the most important lesson I learned was with Residence Life: I am a community builder, both in my personal and work life. Our motto was Learning to live together, and I keep that motto to this very day. We are all discovering ourselves and how we relate to others day by day, and it’s a process we experience together.

What do you think makes EMU graduates distinctive?

EMU offers a view of the world that I did not experience anywhere else. There is a clear focus on community, both locally and globally. Many of my coworkers have a very success-driven mindset because their schools taught them how to get ahead of the curve.

EMU taught me that success means nothing if I use it to put others down. It is that care for community, which EMU instilled in me, that made me the perfect leader for a program like no other.

What are some favorite memories of your time at EMU?

I was very active as a student and made many memories. From winning the variety show two , to my adventures to Cookout with friends, it is difficult to pick only a few memories because so many come to mind. I often check back to the EMU social media pages and websites to find that the residents I served as an RA are now in leadership positions.

I was able to experience many different adventures, and participated in a couple of harmless hijinks in my time, but I will always remember my time as an Community Assistant. Scott Eyre and Micah Hurst, my two residence directors, were two of the most influential people in my life. They encouraged me when I was feeling hopeless. They guided me with wisdom when I felt lost. They gave me the strength to do hard things when challenges appeared in my hall. I will always be thankful for the Res Life community at EMU.

Other influential people: Christian Early changed the way I think about the world, and there is no going back! Take a class with him. The reading is worth it. And Kristen Beachy inspired me to write again in her non-fiction creative writing class.

What are your plans for the future?

Next year, I will graduate with my MEd degree in higher education and student affairs. I want to work on the frontlines with students and help them succeed. My dream would be to move back down to Harrisonburg to be with my pseudo-family and friends, but I will go wherever God leads.

In the meantime, I am getting as involved as possible. I will be advising a couple student organizations, going to national conferences, building mentorships, and organizing presentations to inspire others with the success of my PROFS program.

What advice to you have for current undergraduates?

GET INVOLVED! And do so early. The CAC Barn Dance isn’t overrated, and your RA’s floor events aren’t stupid. These events are a time to get to know the people who will change your life over the next four years. If what you’re interested in isn’t available on campus, make it happen. The faculty and staff at EMU love to support the students and want to be involved (why else would they let you call them by their first names?).  If you want to make an anime club, or knitting club, or even a drum circle club, go to the Student Life office and make it happen.

In addition to earning certification in mental health first aid and first aid/CPR, the CAs — sometimes along with ministry and pastoral assistants, who were also preparing for the school year — attended numerous training sessions. A sampling of topics included diversity and identity, led by professors and , sex and relationships led by Professor , power and systems led by Professor , and restorative justice practices and conflict styles led by , restorative justice coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee.

A series of meals prepared and hosted by the president’s cabinet and various other departments and faculty reinforced the sense of community and showed that EMU is “an institution that cares deeply,” said Scott Eyre, lead residence director. [Meet the .]

“Our faculty and staff care for our students and make it easy to enter into conversations and to learn from them, and to invite them into spaces and places. There are a lot of fingerprints on what we do in ,” he said.

‘All based on care’

As imperative and useful as the skills she learned in the days of training will be, Abigail Shelly, a sophomore social work major from Collinsville, Mississippi, was most inspired by something less tangible. “I think through seeing the different residence directors and people leading, seeing how much care they put into this before we’ve gotten here, has made me feel like I’m better equipped to reflect that on the people who are going to be hall residents,” she said. 

All CAs are strongly encouraged to connect intentionally with each pair of roommates early in the first semester, an idea Eyre picked up several years ago from a CA whose hallway “flourished.” That’s just one way CAs will help their diverse hallway communities function in a healthy way, which isn’t an easy task, said Eyre. Hall members can include Mennonites and non-Mennonites, people with different racial and political backgrounds, people with various experiences of what “community” means, and more.

“How do you invite people into a space where all that can translate? How can you help them care, and know and want to be with each other?” Eyre said.

Such attempts also help students make better choices, said Eyre, because “when you know the people you live with in a residence hall, they can come into your decision-making.”

Shelly says that the big picture of care encompasses even the interactions between residence life staff and students who may break rules.

“It’s all based on care. When I heard it last year, I thought, ‘OK, it’s a Christian university, they need to say that’ — but seeing that in action and in conversation? I’d say the sessions have been great, but it’s more about seeing how the RDs care for each other, and then in turn care for us, and then how that will trickle down to the residents, as well. Their cups are completely overflowing,” Shelly said.

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For all their work, Eyre said that CAs might not see the return on the investments they make in people even though those returns may well be very real. “Somewhere down the line, five, ten years from now, people who came here as 18-year-olds to live in this community and maybe don’t quite get it now, or are not really interested in it, all of a sudden they might find themselves married, having kids, working a job, whatever it is. Some of these deposits that these CAs made in their lives early on, right now, they might look back and say, ‘That experience is really helping me right now.’ Maybe the CA will never know, and the residence director will never know, and a professor will never know.”

But sometimes they will know. Eyre can remember — from when he was a CA over a decade ago — people whose words and actions showed that they didn’t like being at EMU. “But some of those people work here now,” he said. “A lot of those people give to the school. EMU changes lives even if you don’t want your life changed while you’re here.”

Shelly, who decorated her hallway with lights and artwork to “set the tone and make it a homey place,” says seeing her freshman year CA bring students with different backgrounds together into a community with “thick and foundational” relationships inspired her to become a CA.

Elizabeth Eutsler, a biology major from Waynesboro, Virginia, also credits her freshman year CA with getting her interested in the role. That CA encouraged her to apply for the job, Eutsler said, even though “I didn’t have the confidence to think that I could do it.” Now she’s a senior and entering her third year as a CA: “It was intimidating, but I was like, ‘I’m going to do this,’ and I did it.”

Eutsler said she gets excited about meeting new people and incoming first-year students, but this year it was something else that made her recommit to the program. “I realized that I had such a great support system in residence life that I couldn’t not come back. It’s such a great community to be in, and it’s just really made me feel at home as a person, and so I decided to stay, because I knew I couldn’t miss out on that aspect of my life. They’ve been great.”

***

In two years, sophomore Nicole Litwiller has used her artistic worldview, psychology background and creative problem-solving skills to carve out her own niche at ��ݮ����. When the major came here from Sarasota, Florida, she only knew a handful of people on campus.

“I remember the first week or so feeling really lost. Once I started getting involved, I kind of found my stride. And that’s how I knew this place was home,” says Litwiller.

Litwiller is extending that sense of belonging to other students through the “,”  a campus-wide competition designed to increase student involvement and foster team camaraderie.

Housing-based teams “check in” to campus events, which are assigned different point values. The team with the highest percentage of involvement at the end of the year will receive a trophy and special celebration during Springfest. This semester is the “pilot program” of what would ideally be an annual, year-long event explains Litwiller, whose Maplewood Dorm team is currently in the lead.

The Cup grew out of brainstorming sessions in the (SGA), where Litwiller is a senator.

“I love Harry Potter,” says Litwiller.

The Royals Cup is based on the “House Cup,” which is awarded to one of four “houses” (dormitories) in the magical Hogwarts School. “That inspired me to think about it in a way that the EMU campus could benefit from, whether you’re a ‘muggle’ (magic-less human) or a wizard,” she jokes.

Lead Residence Director Scott Eyre, Director of Student Programs Rachel Roth Sawatzky, Professor Kirsten Beachy and Rachel Holderman, SGA vice president of marketing, have been the other primary organizers behind the competition.

Litwiller is also part of the and . She’s also joined the planning committee for the Inauguration Gala, a formal event April 7 to celebrate the of Dr. Susan Schultz Huxman as EMU’s ninth president.

Litwiller’s artistic spirit informs her involvement in each of these.

“Art is just something that’s always been a part of me,” she says. “It is how I observe things, and how I look at the ‘little beauties’ … that helps me to look at things a little bit differently than someone with a more scientific or mathematical mind might think of things.”

Litwiller says that, besides art, participating in Odyssey of the Mind in high school – a youth competition which fosters creative problem-solving – has informed her approach to college. Her liberal arts concentration in psychology helps Litwiller consider individual and group wellbeing within the many organizations she navigates.

Music, good conversation, and reflection keep Litwiller energized for this work. “Get involved in the things that give you the most energy, but also make sure to take times for things that restore you,” she advises.

Nominate a student with an email to lauren.jefferson@emu.edu.

, director of student programs, opened the service: “Every day on this campus, there are great people doing great things, big and small gestures, accomplishments made after long-term commitments and one-off unexpected triumphs. Most of these good deeds are never recognized. We all carry on our work and responsibilities, working hard at doing the right thing because we care and we are people of integrity…that’s what real leadership is all about.”

While no one works solely with hope of recognition as motivation, Sawatzky said recognition is important “to pause and honor these individuals …and to say thank you to the students who are leaders, scholars, athletes, volunteers, dramatists, future nurses, future teachers, tutors, theologians and advocates.”

She also noted that such students “set the bar high for students around them” and provide “motivation, energy and meaning to us as professional staff … You are what makes EMU not just a good place to work and learn, but a great place.”

Language and Literature Department

Department chair presented the following awards, which honor former faculty members and current scholars:

Nathan Peters was awarded the Jay B. Landis Award for Excellence in Literary Studies.

Naomi Scoville was given the Omar Eby Writing Award and the James R. Bomberger Award for Excellence in TESOL.

English education major Rebekah Hertzler earned the Carroll Yoder Award for Teaching Excellence.

The Ervie L. Glick Award for Excellence in World Language Study was given to Teresa Garcia-Bautista, who Medley said “has exhibited academic excellence and a clear sense of calling in using her studies in graduate studies and service to the church.”

Kari King, who was the student representative on the faculty search committee, earned The Ray Elvin Horst Award for Excellence in Spanish.

Education Department

Teachers of Promise Institute are Austin Mumaw, Erin Nafziger, Isaac Driver, Malea Gascho and Ruthie Beck.

The “Courage to Teach” Award was presented to Angelica Diaz.

Psychology Department

The Exemplary Achievement in Psychology: Service and Scholarship was awarded to senior Brooke Lacock, co-president of the Psychology Club, for her impact on the and the campus as a whole, said Professor .

Mackenzie Lapp and Rachel Bowman earned the G.R. Lehman Outstanding Achievement in Research award for their “exceptional dedication” to their senior research projects. Koop praised their “intellectual curiousity and dogged persistence” and predicted future graduate school success.

All three students are among nine psychology majors at the Virginia Association for Psychological Science annual conference April 20-22, 2016, in Newport News, Virginia.

Science Department

Outstanding Second-Year Biology Student was awarded to Samantha L. Kauffman by Professor

Eyan P. Roth and Hannah L. Weaver were named Outstanding Senior Biology Students, especially impressive, said Professor , as both are transfer students and “distinguished themselves in the two years they’ve been here.”

Professor recognized three students: senior , for his entry into the Student Research Competition of the Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education; and first-year students Claire J. Waedelich and Carolann G. Wengerd for their poster presentations at Capitol Region Celebration of Women In Computing. Wengerd earned a third-place award at the undergraduate level.

Three students, all absent on their cross-cultural trip this semester, were recognized. was named Outstanding Senior Chemistry Student. Janaya M. Sachs earned an award for excellence in research. Maria R. Yoder was recognized as Outstanding First-Year Chemistry Student.

Nursing Department

Jess Rheinheimer was recognized by Professor for academic excellence in n studies. Recently named , Rheinheimer is a member of the Honors Program and has been inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honors Society.

Ann Marie Bauer was awarded the , which recognizes student-nurses who exemplify EMU’s “sacred covenant” model : service, empathy, agape love, empowerment, and faith.

Recognition for servant leadership went to Louise Krall, co-president of the Student Nurses Association.

Bible and Religion Department

Professor named the winners of the essay contest as Bekah York and Christian Hershey, sharing first place and a $500 cash prize, and Christian Parks, who won $100, for their scholarly work. Haverim is the alumni group of the department.

Theater Department

Professor recognized Clara Bush, MaKayla Baker and Caleb Townsend for their nominations for the Irene Ryan Acting Competition by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. All three are members of the cast of “,” currently in its final run on campus.

Multicultural Services

Oksana Kittrell, Tae Dews and Christian Parks  were the student leaders for the first that traveled over spring break. Christian Parks and Philip Watson planned and implemented the first on campus. Londen Wheeler, minister of music, and Christian Parks, choir director, provided leadership to the gospel choir. Brittany Williams, Oksana Kittrell, Kendi Mwongo, Tae Dews and Makora Nyagwegwe led efforts in organizing the first President’s Ball.  Delight Tigoe and Lynne Cha led the Alpha Omega Dancers for Christ.

Residence Life

Resident director recognized three-year Community Assistants , Andrew Yoder and Sam Stoner, and also senior returning Community Assistants, Valerie Meza-Cooper and Londen Wheeler. Community assistants live and serve in the residence halls.

Academic Success Center

Director presented certificates of thanks to the following student-graduates who provided services in the : Alex Bender (two years, computer science tutor), Tylar Burgdorf (one year, receptionist), Giulio Garner (two years, Spanish tutor), Stephan Goertzen (one year, computer science tutor), Brielle Hoch (four years receptionist), Andrea King (fpur years receptionist and tutor), Jaclyn Kratz (three years, math tutor), Isaac Mast (one year, computer science tutor), Lauren Sauder (one year, writing and economics tutor), and Andrew Yoder (two years, economics tutor).

Kristy Wertz, a two-year nursing tutor, was recognized as Tutor of the Year.

Student Programs

Common Grounds Coffeehouse management team this year was Rachel Schrock, events manager; Abby Dwyer, operations manager; Brianna Kauffman, finance manager; and Valerie Meza-Cooper, catering manager.

Timothy Callahan, Juan Luna and Kegan Yoder served on the Recreation Sports Leadership Council, which oversaw the nearly 500 members of the campus community involved in intermural sports. Terry Dotson and Colton Frey were the Game Room Leadership Council, which helped to set the budget and make decisions regarding programs and offerings for the approximately 2,500 visitors who used the game room this year.

Campus Ministries

, undergraduate campus pastor, recognized ministry assistants in the residence halls:  Megan Bishop, Perry Blosser, Sarah Boshart, Heyrin (Lynn) Cha, Dylan Grove, Abe Hartzler, Oksana Kittrell, Keyri Lopez-Godoy, Luis Longo, Jasmine Miller, Lydia Musselman, Da’Jahnea Robinson, Austin Sachs and Janet Spain.

Pastoral assistants, who support the MAs, are Jonathan Augsberger, Amanda Helfrich, Christina Hershey, Jolee Paden, Grayson Mast, Lydia Tissue, Courtney Unruh and Wesley Wilder.

Leadership Effectiveness and Development (LEAD) Series II Certificate of Completion

The following students completed a leadership seminar series: Brittany Williams, Alex Miller, Abby Dwyer, Meg Green, Hannah Heishman, Rachel Schrock, Grantley Showalter, Olga Balthazar, Delight Tigoe, Malachi Bontrager, Cameron White, Rediet Girma, Gillian Zehr, Ben Zook, Kegan Yoder, Tae Dews, Oksana Kittrell, Richard Robinson, Mario Hernandez, Alejandra Tejada Rivera, Jesse Reist, Jonae Guest, Makora Nyagwegwe and Heyrin Cha.

Student Government leaders and athletes in winter and spring sports who had earned honors (see w) were also recognized.

Editor’s Note: The following Visual and Communication Arts students were recognized in a separate ceremony April 22: Styer Scholarship, Azariah Cox; photography, Jonathan Bush; studio, Brooke Lacock; video, Jonathan Bush and Caleb Schlabach; and motion graphics, Rachel Cardwell.