That someone turned out to be Dr. Gaurav J. Pathania, assistant professor of sociology and peacebuilding at EMU, an anti-caste activist and lifelong . Pathania, who worked to help Seattle become the first U.S. city to ban caste-based discrimination , makes his acting debut when Origin releases in theaters on Jan. 19. 

The drama, written and directed by DuVernay and starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, follows journalist Isabel Wilkerson on her journey in writing her 2020 New York Times bestseller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. As Wilkerson, portrayed by Aunjanue-Ellis (King Richard), endures personal losses and dives into her writing, she travels abroad and digs deep into historical examples of caste systems. 

From a in The New York Times: “One is set in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, another in Depression-era Mississippi and a third in India over different time periods. This last interlude focuses on Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (Gaurav J. Pathania), who helped draft India’s Constitution and championed the rights of Dalits, people once deemed ‘untouchables.’”

Ambedkar “is the most important figure in politics in India,” Pathania said during an interview in his Roselawn office last month. A Shepard Fairey-inspired blue-and-red print of Ambedkar, akin to the Obama “Hope” poster, hung on the wall behind his desk. “He’s like the MLK of India, so no political party can do their politics without putting his face on their banners. If you ever go to India, there are thousands of statues of him.”

Ambedkar was born a Dalit, the lowest stratum of India’s caste system, but was able to earn degrees from the University of Mumbai, Columbia University and the London School of Economics — something unheard of for someone in his caste. He would serve as India’s first law minister after its independence from Britain in 1947 as well as chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee. He is widely regarded as one of the most educated and revered Indians throughout history.

“Every day of his life was spent bringing some social change and structural change,” Pathania said.

The EMU professor graces the silver screen in Ambedkar’s trademark three-piece suit and tie, his hair slicked back and his eyes behind a pair of thick-rimmed round glasses. If he appears stouter on the screen, it’s because he donned a fat suit for the role. Researchers for the movie spent two years learning all they could about the historic figure. That included studying which books he carried and what types of pens he used.

“There are movies made about Ambedkar in India, in other languages, but this is the first Hollywood movie that offers an introductory portrayal of Ambedkar,” said Pathania, who is originally from India. 

Before the cameras started rolling, DuVernay offered some tips to the acting newbie. Pathania recalled: “She told me, ‘You’ve studied this man for your whole life. So, just think about him when you’re on set. You don’t need any training; you have him in your heart.’”

Although his role in Origin has no speaking parts and totals a handful of minutes, the experience offered him a glimpse into the world of filmmaking. 

Pathania traveled to Savannah, Georgia, on three separate occasions to film his parts. One of his scenes, set in 1920s-era India, captures him stepping off the boat onto a pier, surrounded by members of the Dalit caste played by local extras. 

“The river was about 50 feet deep, so we had lifeguards standing around, and so I learned about all those things,” he said. “Cameras were in every direction; there was even someone standing in the water holding a camera.

“One simple scene might take almost eight hours, the whole day. When it appears on the screen, it appears for a few seconds, but it took all day to film.” 

Before arriving at EMU, Pathania taught at Georgetown University, Catholic University of America and George Washington University. He is an anti-caste poet, writer and community builder, and mentors emerging scholars through the Ambedkar International Center Authors’ Lab.   

To land the role, Pathania answered an open casting call submitted to the online Ambedkarite community in October 2022. He said he went through a lengthy audition process and was selected from a couple-dozen others. 

“I asked Ava, ‘How did you choose me?’” said Pathania. “And, she said, ‘We weren’t just looking for the facial resemblance, but also looking for the scholarly resemblance, because you are a professor and you are an Ambedkarite who has been teaching for a long time and your scholarship is around caste.’”

Pathania has watched the movie several times and said DuVernay has been receptive to the changes he’s suggested. He described Origin as “the most global kind of movie.”

“If you see the cast, there is an English-speaking cast, a German-speaking cast, Hindi, and then now, with the addition of the song by Stan Walker, a member of the New Zealand Maori tribe, I see it as a movie that actually reaches out to the entire world,” he said. 

Origin has a runtime of two hours and 15 minutes. It is rated PG-13 for thematic material involving racism, violence, some disturbing images, language and smoking.

“Community organizing is fundamentally a project of power-building within and among groups of people marginalized from existing power structures,” says Professor Ryan Good, co-director of the Washington Community Scholars’ Center (WCSC). Starting this fall, students at ��ݮ���� (EMU) will be able to study community organizing and community development through the new minor that Good championed. 

Students who are interested in community-based work, social and racial justice, activism, or a career in the nonprofit and social services sector will find this minor to provide skills and analytical frameworks complementing many professions. The minor may be useful to those pursuing majors in business and leadership; Bible, religion and theology; peacebuilding and development; political science; psychology; recreation and sport management; social work and sociology.

“Community organizing has been part of significant reforms and a variety of social movements in the U.S. going back more than 100 years.  Organizers may work with faith-based groups or with other types of organizations, such as schools or labor associations,” says Professor Jenni Holsinger, director of EMU’s sociology program in which the minor is housed. “For many students, it’s exciting to learn about new ways to help their own communities and to find hope, and possible career paths, in the work that has been done before and is being done now.”  

The minor consists of 18 credit hours, completed through three classes and an internship, plus two elective courses. One introductory course covering the history, theories, and tactics of organizing in the United States since the early 20th century is offered on the Harrisonburg campus, while the two other required courses and the internship are fulfilled during participation in the WCSC fall or spring semester program. The minor is situated within the Sociology program.

WCSC, located in Washington D.C. since 1976, is a program of ��ݮ���� (EMU) and is open to students from other schools, including Bethel College in Kansas and Bluffton University in Ohio, who regularly send students. The program has a strong history of placing student interns with nonprofits that mobilize community action, work to meet local needs, and advocate for social policies that support local communities, for example, the and the .

Social work major Reh Franklin is a current intern at DC Central Kitchen, a nonprofit and social enterprise that combats hunger and poverty through job training and job creation. Franklin’s projects this semester include co-facilitating group therapy sessions, creating data tracking tools for mapping the cost effectiveness of corner store programs, and creating and distributing surveys related to food equity, access, and justice.

Last fall, Sophia Minder, a social work major at Bethel College, interned with the Congregation Action Network, working with area congregations to “bring awareness to immigration issues through organizing actions and meetings with legislators.”

“Many EMU graduates seek employment in the U.S. nonprofit and social services sector,” Good said. “At a moment when the role of geography in driving and reproducing polarization and structural inequality in the U.S. has been made dramatically evident, a minor focused on place-based analysis, practice, and action will feel timely and relevant to many students.”

WCSC’s network of contacts and organizations within community organizing and development is broad. Specific examples of potential internship sites include:

• CASA de Maryland
• Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development
• Common Good City Farm
• Community of Hope
• Congregation Action Network
• DC Central Kitchen
• Empower DC
• Latin American Youth Center
• MANNA, Inc.
• Mary’s Center
• ONE DC
• Sitar Arts Center
• THEARC
• Washington Area Community Investment Fund

The term “environmental justice” is increasingly joining the common lexicon of activists and community leaders. The movement addresses massive problems like climate change and racism – but rather than siloing these struggles, looks at their intersections: how social issues and environmental crises play off one another, and how marginalized communities often bear the brunt of environmental degradation.

Take, for example, work that ��ݮ���� (EMU) Professor Doug Graber Neufeld has done . The dams’ history, having been introduced at the hands of British colonizers who forced local residents to build them, had to be addressed. But when building these sand dams became a collective endeavor that was cohesive with locals’ community values, they became an effective and climate change-resilient method of water storage.

Or look at the stream restoration work that biology students and faculty conducted in the rural area around Bergton, Virginia. They were joined in the project by students at EMU’s , who interviewed community members about their social climate concerning aquatic ecosystems and water quality. 

It’s a field that students at EMU have been calling for more education in – prompting faculty and staff to create a new environmental justice minor.

Professor Jenni Holsinger, who oversees the minor, said student interest has been building in the relationship between social and environmental issues. 

“Environmental justice is touched on in multiple courses, but not often named, and students have asked for a more explicit focus,” Holsinger said. “The minor will provide an interdisciplinary space to bring together students who are majoring in natural science programs and with students from other majors.”

The interdisciplinary minor will benefit students going into a variety of fields, including public health, urban planning, public administration, community organizing, humanitarian aid, engineering, and law. It includes an upper level course specifically focused on environmental justice, in which students analyze problems such as water rights, internal colonialism, and pollution, and the social movements that have responded to those issues. 

“Our students have a strong interest in the intersection between environmental and the social sciences, and the environmental justice minor will allow them to delve deeper into prevalent injustices around environmental harms and marginalized communities,” said Professor Jim Yoder, director of the environmental sustainability program in which the new minor is housed.

While students can begin working towards the minor now, the new course will debut in the 2021-22 academic year.

Other courses included in the minor cover sustainable food systems, race and gender, community health, urban sociology, and marginalized voices in Hispanic America: providing a wide-angle lens to examine the intersections of environmentalism with different social justice movements.

“The curriculum is also extremely relevant to events from this summer,” Holsinger explained. “It provides a perspective to help us understand the ways that our experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic are connected to historical and current anti-Black racism through structural patterns of injustice around environmental harms and benefits.”

Participants in the minor will also have opportunities to construct community-based research projects in response to local environmental justice issues.

“This type of experiential learning is a promising way for students to be involved in addressing the interrelated issues of poverty, health, and environmental conditions,” said Holsinger.

The business emerged out of a combination of two elements. After high school, Brubaker took a gap year and went on a cross-country road trip with a friend. The trip concluded a few months before the start of classes at ��ݮ���� in the fall of 2012. Brubaker wanted to work, but didn’t think that he had enough time to find and hold down a full-time job. Instead, he began to advertise himself as an “odd-job” man. Much to his surprise, requests for help poured in and he eventually had to enlist a friend to help him handle the workload.

That fall, Brubaker took an EMU class called “Principles of Management,” which required developing a business model. It helped him think more formally about the business opportunity he’d discovered that summer. Brubaker titled the business BruCrew, and officially launched under that name the next summer.

“There has been a bit of a learning curve,” he said, as he explained that he had to figure out how to get a business license, pay taxes, keep books and manage any (small) conflicts that may arise between one of the crew and a client. “We really haven’t had any big problems [though],” he added, “because the people I bring in recognize that the job is a blessing and are pretty driven.”

For the students who do work for him, the job is ideal. Full-time work is 20 hours a week and starting pay is $11 per hour, with a raise to $12 per hour after the first 60 hours. BruCrew is designed with college students in mind, he said. “I want to pay them well enough to be competitive with a full-time, minimum-wage job so that they can volunteer, read, spend time with friends and enjoy their summers as well as working.” Although 20 hours a week at $11 dollars per hour doesn’t amount to a 40-hour week at minimum wage, Brubaker believes that his model allows students to make enough to be able to invest in activities that are inherently valuable.

Brubaker does have a few contractors (he technically doesn’t have any employees) who will work for him all summer, but most on his BruCrew are pretty transient, working stints to supplement things like camp counseling jobs or to fit between family vacations. Others are on call for big moving or furniture installation jobs.

Brubaker, an major with minors in and , tries to conduct his business as simply and sustainably as possible. “We have a pretty low overhead because we use the clients’ tools,” he explained. “This allows us to bike or walk to client homes and means we don’t have to maintain and fuel a fleet of vehicles or expensive equipment.” BruCrew tries to find that middle ground between the neighborhood 12-year-old and a professional landscaping company, he said.

One way that Brubaker finds that middle ground is by building relationships and giving back to the community. He encourages his crew to do the same. Brubaker, who is currently studying at , drove two hours to Harrisonburg one recent weekend to join other BruCrew folks in the annual Blacks Run stream clean-up.

While in D.C., Brubaker has been using his free time to help install a rain barrel on the back of EMU’s house, start a rain garden and faithfully empty the house compost bucket every week. He hopes that he will be able to incorporate some of these eco-friendly ideas into BruCrew this summer.

Brubaker, who will be entering his senior year at EMU in the fall, doesn’t know what will happen to the business after he graduates. “I see potential for large growth,” he said, “but I’m not exactly sure where I want to take it.” He hopes that the vision will be shaped some this summer, when he has the space to dream and look to the future. For more information, check out the BruCrew.

EMU’s cross-cultural program is intentionally different from that of almost every college in America, says Vernon Jantzi ’64, who became a faculty member at EMU after earning his PhD in the sociology of development from Cornell University in 1975.

Jantzi, who has held a number of key administrative positions at EMU (and who passed up a chance to work at Harvard to come to EMU), was one of the founding faculty members of EMU’s and served as its second director for seven years, after its founder John Paul Lederach.

“We have slightly different ways of measuring success and what a program gives back to the students than a secular college or university,” explains Jantzi. “Our cross-cultural is not just an education for the intellect but it is a life-changing experience that is spiritual and changes students’ entire educational experience.”

EMU’s aims to improve the communities in which students spend time, while cultivating a sense of humble respect in the students for the wisdom, knowledge, and culture of the people they meet.

“There certainly are benefits in the professional world in doing a cross-cultural,” says Jantzi, “but our focus is on how it is going to change your life and outlook. This has been the goal since the program was implemented in 1982.”

As a case in point, Jantzi wrote his master’s thesis on Chile, but had never actually been to that country before leading a cross-cultural trip there in 1990. “I wrote my paper about how the government influences the Pentecostal Church. But when we actually went to Chile I saw a lot of that information in a different way.”

One of Jantzi’s criteria for a successful trip is for students to live within typical households. “I want students to be exposed to the cross-generational experience in that country and the things involved in family life in that country. . . .

“[In Chile] some of the students even lived with families who had been tortured or had family members killed by the military. They experienced families with very different political views than they had ever seen before. Some things can’t be learned from a book.”

Jantzi and his wife, Dorothy ’62, lived over 12 years in Latin America, notably Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Peru; he has been a consultant on development and restorative justice matters in a number of other countries.

(The Jantzis’ son, Terry ’87, also earned a PhD from Cornell in international and community development. Fluent in Spanish, he taught full-time at EMU from 1999 to 2010 and co-led, with his wife Elizabeth, a Peru cross-cultural in 2007. He then moved to international work with World Vision.)

In the mid-1980s, Jantzi spoke wherever he could – in churches, other universities, Congressional hearings – on the disastrous impact of U.S. military support for the “Contra” militias in Nicaragua. Alternatively, Jantzi advocated U.S. support for dialogue between the opposing factions and for development efforts to alleviate poverty.

At the time, he expressed amazement at Washington’s ignorance about Central America, adding that Mennonite Central Committee volunteers working there at the grassroots seemed to be much better informed than the policymakers were.

Jantzi, who speaks Portuguese and German in addition to Spanish, led a nationwide adult literacy program in Nicaragua in the late 1960s. In the early 1980s in Costa Rica, he was director of Cornell University’s program on worker-owned and -managed enterprises in collaboration with the Instituto de Tierras y Colonizacion. In New Zealand in the last decade, Jantzi helped found peace centers at two universities.

In 2009, Jantzi was tapped to coordinate a feasibility study for the now-established Center for Interfaith Engagement, under which EMU invites Christians, Jews, Muslims and others from diverse streams to build relationships based on mutual respect and understanding. He now works as a facilitator for EMU’s Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (better known as “STAR”).

Reflecting on his early-career decision to pass up a position at the Harvard International Institute of Development, Jantzi says, “It was a struggle, not an easy choice, because there was sacrifice involved.

“But EMU has been good. I estimate that 75 to 80 percent of faculty members have made those same kinds of choices. We choose to stay because there’s something about EMU that you don’t find anywhere else. It’s worth the sacrifice.”

—Rachael Keshishian & Bonnie Price Lofton

Graduating from EMU in 2005 with a double major in sociology and environmental science, Good has filled a number of roles at EMU: admissions counselor, associate director of admissions, director of retention, women’s head soccer coach, cross-cultural leader to Spanish-speaking countries, and instructor in several programs, , , and the .

“I look forward to continued enrollment success, a continued commitment to the Anabaptist mission and vision of ��ݮ����, and superb admissions leadership from Dr. Jason Good,” said , PhD, vice president for enrollment, in announcing Good’s appointment.

Good earned his master’s and doctorate in Hispanic studies from the Universidad de Cádiz in Andalucía, Spain. His dissertation, completed in Spanish, focused on the integration of immigrant students into educational systems, specifically analyzing how to welcome and retain underrepresented groups.

Good is the son of Nelson Good ’68 () and Betty Good-White ’67, a psychotherapist in Washington D.C., as well as the brother of Deborah Good ’02, the husband of Bryn Mullet Good ’06, and the nephew and grandson of alumni. In short, he has deep roots in this educational community, though he was raised in Washington D.C.

Good replaces Stephanie Shafer, who had been director of admissions since 2004, supervising Good in several of his roles. Shafer announced her intention in August to be director of development at Cornerstone Christian School, a Harrisonburg institution with students in preschool through grade 8, where she will be in charge of enrollment, marketing, public relations and fundraising.

“Stephanie leaves the EMU enrollment office in tremendous shape as she exits, bringing in two out of the three largest classes in over 14 years and being part of the sixth consecutive year of overall enrollment growth,” said Hartman in an email announcing her departure to the campus community. “We wish her the very best in her future endeavors and will miss her contribution immensely.”

Good’s former position of director of retention is now open, with candidates being considered by Hartman.

The new faculty, announced by provost Fred Kniss, are:

Amy Gillespie, EdD, assistant professor of the practice of nursing

Gillespie earned a BS in nursing from Duke University and an MSN from the University of Virginia. She holds an EdD from the University of Phoenix and has over 30 years of floor and administrative nursing experience. Gillespie also brings collegiate adjunct faculty experience in teaching acute care medical-surgical nursing.

Jennifer Holsinger, PhD, associate professor of sociology

Holsinger earned a BA in sociology at Seattle Pacific University. She holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Washington. Holsinger has collegiate experience teaching as an associate professor at Whitworth University and served as interim director of the U.S. cultural studies minor in 2012-13. Her areas of scholarly interest are race and ethnic relations, urban sociology, environmental sociology, demography, applied sociology and African and Middle Eastern studies.

Daniel King, PhD, assistant professor of physics

King earned a BA in physics and music at Goshen College. He holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. King served as a teaching assistant providing laboratory instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include ultrasound, microbubble dynamics, acoustics, biomechanics and fluid mechanics.

Kristen Kirwan, assistant professor of the practice of nursing

Kirwan earned a BS in nursing at the University of Virginia and an MSN from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. Kirwan brings a variety of nursing experience both in hospitals and family nurse practitioner settings. Her most recent professional experience has been at James Madison University as a family nurse practitioner.

Nate Koser, PhD, assistant professor of counseling

Koser earned a BS in psychology and an MA in counseling from EMU. He completed his PhD at Saybrook University in summer 2013. Koser has collegiate experience as an instructor in the MA in counseling program at EMU. His interests are in assisting and accompanying individuals to move towards an authentic life.

Jessica Kraybill, PhD, assistant professor of psychology

Kraybill earned a BA in psychology at Earlham College. She holds an MS and PhD from Virginia Tech. Kraybill has collegiate teaching experience as an instructor at Virginia Tech. Her specialty is in developmental and biological psychology and shares that teaching is her passion.

Justin Poole, PhD, assistant professor of theater

Poole earned a BA in communications with a theater emphasis at Eastern University. He holds an MA from Villanova University and a PhD from the University of Maryland. Poole spent two years studying with the Austrian Academic Exchange Program, one year in Vienna and one year in Salzburg, Austria. His research interests are devised theater/ensemble play development, contemporary European experimental performance, and contemporary performances of classical texts.

Andrea Dalton Saner, assistant professor of Old Testament and Hebrew Language

Dalton Saner earned a BA in Bible at Messiah College and an MA at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. She completed her PhD at Durham University in the United Kingdom in 2013. Dalton Saner’s faculty appointment will be a joint one with Eastern Mennonite Seminary and the undergraduate Bible and religion department. She has previous collegiate teaching experience at Goshen College. Her areas of interest include Old Testament theological interpretation.

Maria Esther Showalter, lecturer in the language and literature department

Showalter earned a BA in foreign languages from Gabriel R. Morena University in Bolivia and an MA from George Mason University. She has prior collegiate experience at EMU, having taught as an instructor in both the Intensive English Program and the language and literature department.

Debora Snarr, assistant professor of the practice of nursing

Snarr earned a BS in nursing and an MSN at the University of Maryland. She is a certified adult nurse practitioner and brings years of nursing experience in a variety of settings. Her nursing experience has focused on diverse populations in different settings. Snarr is passionate about the voice of the nurse and evidence-based practice.

Jianghong (Esther) Tian, PhD, assistant professor of engineering

Tian earned a BS in mechanical engineering and a MS at Changsha Institute of Technology. She holds a PhD from the University of Virginia. Tian recently taught statistics and calculus at The Miller School of Albemarle in Charlottesville, Va. Her research interests include robotics.

Anne Waltner, DMA, assistant professor of music

Waltner earned a BA in piano performance and biology at Goshen College. She holds an MM from the Chicago College of Performing Arts and a DMA from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Waltner has collegiate teaching experience at West Virginia State University, where she directed keyboard studies. She maintains an active solo and collaborative performing schedule.

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

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

First, Focusing on Water Quality

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

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

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

“It very, very surprisingly felt like clearly the right fit for me, even though I’d never planned to come back to EMU,” Hackney says.

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

Next, Addressing Coal Mining

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

Hackney loved her grad program, but going into her practicum she wasn’t exactly sure what would come after she graduated in the spring of 2010 – specifically, how or where she’d apply what she had been studying.

In West Virginia, she worked beside several medical students who shared her commitment to social justice and environmental advocacy. Physicians don’t have to be confined to clinics and hospitals, she realized. Then followed the “aha” moment, there in the decaying hills of West Virginia coal country, the threads of the past decade all coming together. Hackney decided to become a medical doctor.

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

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

Now, Transitioning to Medicine

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

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

“It’s funny the way things work out,” Hackney says, looking back on the unexpected ways she ended up at EMU, and once again, and then yet again.

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