Since the majority of the students in the two-year-old program are headed to careers in healthcare, it makes sense that the first scholar-in-residence would be a healthcare provider, said program director Roman Miller, PhD.

Longacher retired in February 2013 and moved with his wife Constance to Harrisonburg, where they live near the 91����Ƶ campus. In his part-time volunteer role with the biomedicine program, he will advise the professors and consult with students on their research projects. Longacher will serve a two-year term, with the possibility of renewal.

Longacher will also lead a consulting biomedicine team that will be set up this fall. It will be comprised of experts in the healthcare field.

“This is a big deal to have clinical expertise on our leadership team,” said Miller. “We were looking for a physician or other healthcare provider with connections to Virginia’s hospitals, medical schools and healthcare leaders as well as the ability to wisely guide us in further development of our program.”

Miller, who is 91����Ƶ’s longtime director of the , is himself the graduate of a biomedicine program. He earned his PhD in biomedical science at Kent State University in Ohio. A member of 91����Ƶ’s faculty for 29 years, Miller is the Endowed Professor of Biology.

“Our master’s in biomedicine is a good way to get into the healthcare field, whether as an administrator, teacher or healthcare provider,” said Miller. In some cases, like his own, it will mean further study after 91����Ƶ at the doctoral level.

Many of the current biomedicine students at 91����Ƶ did not pursue majors in college that would lead to health-care careers but decided later that’s what they wanted. Fewer than half of the current students came directly from undergraduate studies in college.

Following his undergraduate work at 91����Ƶ, Longacher, from Newport News, Virginia, went to the Medical College of Virginia (now part of Virginia Commonwealth University) in Richmond. After an internship at a hospital in Pennsylvania, he served as a general practitioner in Appalachia under . He returned to Richmond for a residency in internal medicine and gastroenterology.

Next came three years at a clinic in Indiana, before Longacher settled in Richmond to focus on gastroenterology – dealing with the digestive system – at the McGuire Clinic, later renamed Virginia Physicians.

For most of his career in Richmond, Longacher was also a clinical professor of internal medicine at VCU. He mentored students at his clinic as well as teaching at the McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center. A member of , Longacher related to some 50 Mennonite medical students at VCU over the years.

Longacher has been involved in a variety of leadership roles in his denomination, including two terms as moderator of . He served as president of and is completing a term this summer as president of its successor organization, .

“I’m looking forward to working with the other members of the advisory group to share our insights and help provide input from our experience,” Longacher said.

SGA co-presidents and main auction organizers Christine Baer and Carissa Harnish say they didn’t know what to expect before the auction started. “When the first big item, a ceramic bowl by Jerry Lapp, went for $325, we were amazed,” says Harnish.

Baer adds that local auctioneers John and Jack Bowman, who donated their time, “really knew how to keep the crowd engaged and laughing.”

“I was very pleased with the kind of response and donations we got from students, the science department, alumni, parents, faculty and staff,” says , executive director of development. “The auction crowd wasn’t huge, but those who came were prepared to spend money.”

The infamous shotglass (originally purchased as a “rosebud vase” for a donor appreciation banquet) brought $300. Howard Zehr‘s recent book, “,” went for $300. A star guide from M.T. Brackbill’s 1930s astronomy classes sold for $600. A large chest of drawers (possibly from the Ad Building) went for $750, and Esther Augsberger’s sculpture, “Robe of God,” sold for $3200.

Students also bought bricks from previous buildings on campus, plants from the greenhouse and discarded glassware from science labs. Food tables of chili, cornbread and baked goods added $700 to the total.

“It inspires everyone when students engage in a project like this with their own creativity, commitment, and passion for a good cause,” says Kirk Shisler, vice president for advancement.

A matching grant magnified the auction’s yield; for every $2 raised, an additional $1 was added by the Marietta McNeill Morgan and Samuel Tate Morgan Foundation, bringing the total to more than $21,000. Further donations made to the SGA campaign using this secure online form will be matched as well.

“When we started planning for this campaign last semester, we drew inspiration from the famous Library drive of 1969, when students lead the campus community to raise more than $100,000 [in 1969 dollars] in four days,” says Baer. “We heard so many library drive stories from alumni and community folks as they dropped off donated items for the auction. That made it come alive for us.”

The co-presidents admit their fundraising goals for the auction event were considerably more modest, between $5,000 and $10,000.

One lesson Harnish and Baer want to pass to future student leaders: “With all the institutional support here, from development to physical plant to faculty and staff, it is completely possible for students to organize successful fundraising campaigns for things they care about.”

Young alum , who as a and major spent many hours in Suter Science Center, agrees. “I thought the auction was fantastic: the type of event we should try to do every year, frankly. Not only did we raise money for a good cause, connections were made between students and alumni, and that’s what it’s all about.”

And ended up spending almost all of his professional life at the helm of retirement communities and nursing homes.

The life of Bernie Bowman ’72 is a testimony to the way a solid liberal arts education can be a springboard to almost anything.

At 91����Ƶ recently as a Suter Science Seminar speaker, Bowman titled his talk “Forty Years Post-91����Ƶ: Reflections on an Unexpected Career.”

That career basically turned out to be “leadership.” Bowman took his leadership journey within the world of senior living. His last 14 years of full-time leadership were as President/CEO of ., overseeing six retirement communities affiliated with the United Methodist Church in east Tennessee and southwest Virginia.

At age 66, eight years after stepping down as CEO, Bowman continues to work part-time at Asbury, focused on strategic planning and projects rather than operational matters. He and his wife Carol, class of ’72, live in Maryville, Tenn.

Bowman spoke of the epiphany of learning that “an individual working alone is severely limited in terms of potential outcomes,” while one who gathers and coordinates the efforts of many toward a common goal will see that “greater things are possible.”

A key Bowman lesson regarding growth as a leader: “Beg, borrow and steal from leadership journeys of others, those still practicing and those from eons past.” One of his all-time favorite books is Robert Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership (republished as a 25th anniversary edition in 2002).

In all cases and all times, “leadership is not about getting ahead and gaining and keeping power.” Rather, it is about “empowering others to be all they can be.”

“If others, in general, are not made more whole over time because of your leadership, then something is amiss.” Bowman said a sign of poor leadership is a feedback style that interferes with a team’s performance, rather than enabling it to be more skillful.

Ten other leadership tips from Bowman:

1. Take seriously the adage “know thyself” and explore “various personality discovery exercises.” Bowman found personality assessments especially worth revisiting when his leadership team changed.
2. Know that you are being closely watched by others in your organization, especially subordinates, and that you set the tone and establish the culture by which others live and work.
3. Solicit feedback, even while realizing that “it is almost impossible for the CEO to get full and unfettered feedback from employees.” Don’t rely entirely on structured survey instruments; sometimes simply walking around and talking to people will draw out better feedback.
4. Be conversant regarding the work of employees. “If those you are leading and managing can feel that you understand their work, your authority will be better received.” Bowman periodically would change places with an employee, or arrange for mutual job shadowing, just to stay abreast of the work of others.
5. Study and understand “change theory,” so that you grasp the importance of “bringing others along with the proposed change in advance of the change itself.” There is always a price to be paid for change, but the price is lower if you do it this way.
6. Become sensitive to – inform yourself about – cultural differences when you shift work environments. Even a shift from one region of the United States to another can require a different approach to leadership, as Bowman discovered when he shifted from Iowa to an Appalachian region (east Tennessee).
7. Work at creating your own leadership style, and know how to adjust it to suit each distinctive group of workers and different work environments. Bowman recommended Management of Organizational Behavior by Paul Hersey, Kenneth H. Blanchard and Dewey E. Johnson (10th edition, 2012) for gaining an understanding of an adaptive leadership style. “It is often more effective for the executive to change his or her style to meet the needs of others than to ask and expect employees to adapt to the executive’s style.” This requires having “knowledge of, and experience with, a variety of leadership styles so you can flex with the situation.”
8. Think of strategic planning as akin to a river. “It is always moving and constantly changing.”
9. Don’t hesitate to seek out executive coaching for assistance “in learning the requisite attitude, behavior and skills needed to perform” as well as possible. “We assume other staff need continuing support and training in their roles; why not CEOs?”
10. Expect to sometimes fall short or even fail over the course of a long career: “The fact is, sometimes one can exercise the best of leadership skills and still not be successful.” In such situations, it is time to “let go” and follow an alternate path.

In summary, Bowman advised his listeners to start with “a solid base in theory and concepts,” then live, experience and adapt these in one’s workplace. In so doing, the exercise of leadership will become “an act of natural self-expression.”

Tonight, I want to reinforce that 91����Ƶ is truly a Christian University like no other. Three and a half years ago, I was poised with making a life-altering decision: Where was I going to attend college? I had received acceptance from five universities. How was I going to choose? Which school would fit? Which school would provide me the best opportunities to excel?

Little did my 17-year-old self know how much of an impact that choice would make on the rest of my life. I stand before you to declare that I made the best decision – that this Christian University, like no other, has transformed me into not only a scholar, but into an individual like no other.

Multiple factors congealed to make 91����Ƶ rise above Virginia Tech or UVa, in my eyes. First, my mother, the first in my family to receive a college education, had graduated a few years earlier from the . She had shown me the core values of caring and compassion that 91����Ƶ’s professors instill in the minds of their students. Second, my dream was to become a doctor and and boasted medical school acceptance rates far beyond any public university I had considered. And, third, was the amount of financial support I would receive, making 91����Ƶ more of a realistic possibility. 91����Ƶ just seemed to fit.

The fit seemed more like home as I began my studies three years ago. As I reflect on my years burrowed deep inside the bowels of the , I have had multiple defining experiences. While some of my cherished moments are of classes, most are of the connections I made with faculty and fellow students while learning. Whether I was discovering how to set up a silica-gel column in the organic chemistry lab, determining what distinguishes a mockernut from a pignut hickory, or dissecting in the cadaver lab, these defining moments could have never happened without the resources that 91����Ƶ provides its students.

At this small private Christian university, I have had experiences that my high school classmates yearn for. Most have never sat down in a professor’s office to discuss not only class material but how the semester is going and what challenges they’re facing. Almost none has been provided the opportunity to dissect a cadaver as an undergraduate student.

If these highlights weren’t enough to set 91����Ƶ and its science department apart, this summer I was blessed to have the opportunity to travel to Bolivia and the Galapagos Islands on an 91����Ƶ sponsored cross-cultural. Under the guidance of 91����Ƶ biology professor and his wife Christina, I had the opportunity to discover biology outside of a textbook. I was drenched by rain in a rainforest, I had a monkey steal my water bottle to drink from it, I swam in Lake Titicaca, I fed the Galapagos Island giant tortoises, I observed Darwin’s finches, and best of all I made connections and built friendships that will transcend generations.

Today an article was posted to , 91����Ƶ’s intranet system, highlighting 91����Ƶ’s graduating class of ’62 and their life experiences and accomplishments. From this article, it became evident that 91����Ƶ, or EMC [in 1962], was a catalyst transforming each of these young minds to prepare them for the future. I can only hope that I can share the same sentiment when my 50th reunion from 91����Ƶ occurs.

Without the contribution of donors, like everyone in the audience, my education and the education of future students would not be possible. Thank you for allowing my education to be like no other.

Maggie had wrapped up her first two years at 91����Ƶ before meeting a native of Harrisonburg, Va., Nathaniel “Nate” Yoder, who had returned to his hometown after completing two years at a sister Mennonite school, .

Maggie and Nate were both in the class of 2008, and they quickly discovered a shared interest in answering God’s call through practicing medicine.

Now in their final year at VCOM, Maggie Yoder is pursuing a residency in family medicine, while Nate Yoder will be doing a residency in emergency medicine. They will each earn the degree of Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.).

“The VCOM relationship is a perfect next step for someone who’s come through 91����Ƶ,” says Maggie, adding that 91����Ƶ and VCOM are both based on service to others and intercultural awareness.

The non-profit VCOM was established with foundation and private donations in the fall of 2003 “to prepare globally-minded, community-focused physicians to meet the needs of rural and medically underserved populations and promote research to improve human health,” according to the school’s website. Initial focus on underserved areas in Appalachia has stretched to Latin America.

“The school’s block schedule is set up to encourage hands-on service in clinical settings in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic,” says Maggie. Up to 25 VCOM students travel to rural areas in these countries four times per year for several-week stints. They staff clinics that VCOM has established with local community partners, providing services to people who otherwise would not have access to basic care.

“While most medical students spend the first two years of med-school in the classroom, we had the chance to do hands-on clinical assessment and intervention,” says Maggie. Maggie and Nate have each completed a 10-day stint in Honduras, with Nate also spending time in Guatemala.

After graduating from 91����Ƶ in 2008, the Yoders took time off to work in research roles – he in a biotech lab and she at the – before beginning medical school in 2010.  Anca Chirvasuta, a 2012 graduate of 91����Ƶ, has followed the Yoders to VCOM.

The founder and chairman of the board of directors at VCOM, John Rocovich, J.D., LL.M., was key in building the relationship between 91����Ƶ and VCOM, anchored by a 2008 agreement for automatic admission for qualified 91����Ƶ grads. The arrangement guarantees acceptance of up to 10 91����Ƶ students into the VCOM program, assuming these students follow a distinct academic protocol and demonstrate high achievement in 91����Ƶ’s pre-med program. (The Yoders’ acceptances predated this agreement.)

Rocovich serves on , which undergirds 91����Ƶ’s . Renovations are expected to begin in early 2014.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he admits.

Gehman decided to take a break before pursing a degree, and spent the next two years working at a porcelain plant in Pennsylvania.

However, before he could decide on a career path, Gehman was drafted into the Korean War. As a member of the Mennonite Church, he was granted status as a conscientious objector, and was assigned alternative service at a veteran’s mental hospital on Long Island, N.Y.

“I assisted with the care of the residents,” he recalled. “I provided for their meals, their toiletries, bathing — things like that.”

After two years of helping the doctors, nurses and patients, Gehman had a clear vision of his own future.

“At that point, I felt I could be of service to people by becoming a physician,” he said.

With a clear goal in mind, he enrolled at 91����Ƶ — graduating four years later with a degree in pre-med. He continued his education at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and eventually completed an internship and residency at St. Luke’s Hospital in Pennsylvania.

“It’s where I met my future wife,” he said, smiling, adding that she worked as an obstetrics nurse.

The couple had a long courtship — due to Gehman’s decision to volunteer with the Mennonite Central Committee — they would wait seven years to be married.

Despite the time apart from his loved ones, Gehman felt called to serve with the MCC — which he says is an “agency that helps to take care of refugees or persons in countries that have great need.”

“I always took an interest in programs overseas,” he explained. “I was influenced in part by other physicians who had served.”

In 1965, Gehman was sent to serve at a hospital in Nha Trang — a coastal city in Vietnam. With the help of an interpreter, he treated a variety of medical issues-including tuberculosis, malaria, cataracts and respiratory disorders.

During his three and half years in the city, Gehman recalls how the Vietnam War slowly affected the hospital staff more frequently.

“When I first [arrived], I could travel almost anywhere I wanted,” he recalled. “Then, the war gradually built up and after that, travel was limited.”

After he returned from Vietnam, the MCC immediately offered him another volunteer opportunity in Nigeria, which was ravaged by civil war. Gehman agreed to go and spent a turbulent year in the southern part of the country.

“I was forced to treat things surgically that I had only assisted with as an intern or a resident,” he remarked.

After a marketplace was bombed, he remembers operating on limbs with “a textbook on one side and the anesthesiologists on the other.”

Gehman said he stayed calm by focusing on the singular task at hand, and credits his assisting staff for their service.

“I had good assistants I could rely on in the operating room,” he praised.

Although the work was challenging, he considered it a “rewarding” experience, and has no regrets about going on either trip.

After returning from Nigeria, he married Becky and settled in the Bergton area, where he still practices.

After decades of working as a doctor, some might ask why the 80-year-old physician doesn’t want to retire — but for Gehman, the answer is simple.

“What keeps me practicing medicine here is the tremendous relationships I have with my patients,” he explained. “That’s why I’m still working.”

Courtesy Daily News Record, Sept. 25, 2013

Mohsin, a 2012 graduate of the , is a current 91����Ƶ (91����Ƶ) student. His experience as an undergraduate double major in pharmacology/toxicology and biological sciences didn’t begin to compare to the opportunities he’s finding at 91����Ƶ.

“The research opportunities here – working one on one with my professor – are top notch,” said Mohsin. “A small university like 91����Ƶ provides so much more than a larger university setting.”

Over the past 10 years, more than 90 percent of 91����Ƶ students who completed were accepted into medical school, compared to the national average of 49 percent. 91����Ƶ’s MA in biomedicine – now completing its first year – anticipates similar success rates for students who complete the two-year residential program.

91����Ƶ the MA in Biomedicine program

The post-baccalaureate MA biomedicine offers three tracks:

1. MA in biomedical science prepares graduates for entrance into medical, dental, pharmacy, physical therapy, physician assistant, and other graduate level health care schools with doctoral programs.
2. MA in biomedical teaching prepares graduates to teach in a community college or trade school, or enhance teaching skills in a secondary setting.
3. MA in biomedical leadership prepares graduates for administrative work within a health care, clinic, or other biomedical setting.

Applications for enrollment in the MA in biomedicine for fall 2013 are still being accepted. Find out more at:

Studying human anatomy with colorful charts is one thing. Using a scalpel and an actual, recently living person is an entirely different matter.

“It was nerve-wracking, honestly,” said Hostetter, now a general medicine intern at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Md., who plans to become a radiologist. “You don’t really understand what that means until you walk into that room and you smell the formaldehyde and you see this human-sized lump in a bag on the table.”

Under the instruction of Dr. Greta Ann Herin, Hostetter and his classmates in 91����Ƶ’s Mammalian Anatomy class made their first incision down the cadaver’s back and began working their way down through the muscles and into the spine. By semester’s end they had performed a detailed dissection of most of the body, giving each student an extremely uncommon opportunity for up-close, hands-on study of human anatomy.

Few U.S. Undergrads Do Human Dissection

Herin, an associate professor of biology, said that for various reasons, including class size, expense, tradition and handling of hazardous materials, very few undergraduate students in the United States have the opportunity to dissect human cadavers. That meant Hostetter was one of just a few first-year medical students who entered his University of Maryland School of Medicine class with prior experience dissecting a cadaver.

“A lot of my classmates were coming from very prestigious schools with far more resources that 91����Ƶ has, and they were surprised that I’d actually gotten to spend a whole semester dissecting a cadaver,” Hostetter said. “It’s just not something that’s available most places.”

Faculty at several medical schools in Virginia said no more than 5 to 10 percent of incoming medical students have actually dissected a cadaver.

And a recent article published by Colorado State University noted that its own undergraduate anatomy course was one of the few in the nation in which students dissect cadavers. 91����Ƶ has offered its students the opportunity to dissect cadavers since at least the mid-‘70s, according to biology professor Dr. Roman Miller.

Put Ahead in Med School

Because dissection of human cadavers is so uncommon for an undergraduate pre-medical program, the opportunity gives 91����Ƶ students who go on to graduate study in medicine and related fields an advantage among their classmates.

“At 91����Ƶ we had as good, if not better, hands-on experience than in grad school,” said Jackson Maust ’09, now in his final year of physical therapy school at Ohio State University. “Compared to the rest of my classmates in PT school, I was really, really comfortable just stepping in.”

Debbie Boese ’07 Horst said her gross anatomy class in dental school at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) was very similar to the course she’d taken at 91����Ƶ and made it easier for her to earn an A in the VCU class.

“I was one of the few people in my class who had actually gone through the whole process, so it was basically like a review,” said Horst, now a practicing dentist in Harrisonburg, Va.

Dr. Richard Krieg, director of the first-year gross and developmental anatomy course at VCU’s School of Medicine, said that undergraduate experience with dissection, like Horst’s, almost always bodes well for a student’s performance in the course.

Krieg, who once visited 91����Ƶ as an anatomy guest instructor at the invitation of professor Melvin Ching (at 91����Ƶ 1996-97), said only a few of his program’s 200 incoming first-year medical students have dissected cadavers as undergrads.

“Kids do very well if they’ve had experience with cadavers, so it’s a really good thing,” Krieg said.

Staff at the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine estimate that less than 10 percent of each year’s 156-student incoming medical class have prior human dissection experience.

And at the Eastern Virginia Medical School, Dr. Craig Goodmurphy, director of the human anatomy program, guessed that about 20 percent of the 235 students entering the school’s medical and physician’s assistant programs have worked with cadavers. Most of them however, have been limited to cadaver “prosection” – either observing a dissection in process or studying an already-dissected cadaver.

Fewer than 5 percent of incoming students have actually participated in a dissection, he said.

“It’s the difference between reading a book and writing a book,” Goodmurphy said. “Anybody can read a book, but to actually write a book takes a whole different thought process.”

Two or Three Cadavers Per Year

Herin offers the anatomy course to undergraduate biology majors in the fall, sometimes with the help of her laboratory co-instructor, John Spicher, 91����Ƶ’s chemical hygiene officer. In the undergraduate course, students work in groups of four or five per cadaver. That group size is smaller, Herin said, than in classes at some medical schools.

She and Spicher typically work with two to three cadavers each year in the anatomy class, required for biology majors in the pre-physical therapy track, and taken by many in the pre-professional health sciences track. (Beginning this spring, 91����Ƶ’s new MA in Biomedicine program will also offer a cadaver dissection course, taught by Dr. Julia Halterman.)

Most 91����Ƶ nursing and kinesiology students also benefit from Herrin’s course by observing the dissected specimens for part of their anatomy study. She said that several local high school anatomy classes also usually visit her lab to see the cadavers each year.

91����Ƶ receives the cadavers from the Virginia Department of Health’s State Anatomical Program. They cost about $1,500 each to cover the state’s cost of preserving and transporting the cadavers. That expense, and the fact that dissection is not well-suited to large classes, are two factors that make actual dissection very uncommon at the undergraduate level. The hazardous chemicals involved – phenol and formaldehyde in particular – are also a factor.

Maust said he benefitted greatly at Ohio State both from his experience with cadavers at 91����Ƶ and the instruction he received from Herin and her colleagues in the biology department.

“The quality of our professors is really unlike anything you get at a larger school,” said Maust. “We don’t get teaching assistants. We learn from really high-quality faculty.”

Calling his dissection experience as an undergraduate at 91����Ƶ “invaluable,” Hostetter said he hopes the course will continue, despite – and because of – the fact that it’s so uncommon.

“I really hope that 91����Ƶ continues to offer that because I think that it’s invaluable, especially for people who want to go into medicine or other health sciences,” he said.

More info

Learn more online about 91����Ƶ’s undergraduate majors in biology, chemistry, nursing and pre-professional health sciences, and the new MA in biomedicine graduate degree.

presented the awards, which are based on academic achievement, athletic contribution, Christian commitment, leadership, campus involvement and service, as the culmination of the evening.

Richter, a major with a 3.64 GPA, was a four-year pitcher for the baseball team and plans to work in a sales or marketing position.  He was consistently on the Old Dominion Athletic Conference All-Academic Team and 91����Ƶ’s Dean’s List.  Besides baseball, his campus life was filled with leadership on , 91����Ƶ Royals Society and the .  He also volunteered at numerous places off campus.

“You are not an athlete just when you’re in season – you’re an athlete year round,” Richter explained in how he balanced his demanding schedule at 91����Ƶ.  “Baseball provided me with the discipline I needed to enjoy a busy, but incredibly rewarding college career.”

Young, a captain with the women’s basketball team, was also on the Dean’s List and ODAC All-Academic Team, holding a 3.71 GPA with a major in and minor in .  She was a four-year member of Royals Society, helping with prospective students, as well as being a member of the .  Young was also a youth leader at her church and volunteered with a local food bank and the fall back-to-school backpack drive.

“Being a student-athlete has taught me to be mentally and physically strong in seemingly impossible situations,” said Young, who suffered a long-lasting shoulder injury her freshman season.  “God used basketball as the framework that I could grow in my relationship with Him, share my talents with others, and now go on to pursue a career in physical therapy.”

The Athletic Department staff also voted for Athlete of the Year winners.  Mitchell Leap (Harrisonburg, VA/Eastern Mennonite) claimed the men’s honor with Bianca Ygarza (Conestoga, PA/Penn Manor) taking the women’s.

Leap led the men’s soccer team in scoring for the fourth straight season, netting ten goals, which was also third-best in the conference.  He had five game-winning goals and was named All-ODAC First Team.  Leap graduates fourth in 91����Ƶ history with 35 career goals and fifth with 80 career points.  Ygarza was a dynamic presence as a power forward for the basketball women, earning a spot on the All-ODAC First Team as a sophomore.  She led 91����Ƶ with 14.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game and was second in the ODAC in field goal percentage and free throws.

Also at the banquet, Newcomer of the Year Awards were given to Jenessa Derstine (Harleysville, PA/Christopher Dock) in field hockey and Justin Rodriguez (Miramar, FL/Pace) in baseball.

Derstine, an attacker for the Lady Royals, led the team with 29 points this year.  She scored ten goals and assisted on nine others.  Her speed helped ignite 91����Ƶ’s offense and landed her on the All-ODAC Third Team.  Rodriguez batted .374 with 28 runs and team highs of four homeruns and 41 RBIs.  His RBI total was third in the ODAC during the regular season and the third baseman was named All-ODAC Second Team.

As part of the dinner and banquet, four seniors gave short reflections on their time playing a sport at Eastern Mennonite: Valerie Landis (Quakertown, PA/Quakertown) from field hockey, Justin King (Lititz, PA/Warwick) from baseball, Pete Nelson (Harrisonburg, VA/Christopher Dock) from track and cross country, and Brent Yoder (Sarasota, FL/Sarasota Christian) from soccer.

King uniquely talked about playing four years of a collegiate sport even though the experience was not living up to the ideas he had beforehand.

“I have learned a lesson I would have not chosen to learn on my own, because it was painful,” said King.  “Through the ups and downs, the wins and losses, I have had to rely on God as my source of hope and strength when I was weak, discouraged, or overwhelmed.  The Apostle Paul says it best in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, ‘Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’’”

Landis was the lone senior on the field hockey team this fall and stepped into a leadership role which was not natural to her.  She said that will help her as she leaves college.

“I recognize that I am going to be a new member of a completely different team after graduation,” Landis explained.  “What I have learned over the past four years is that I can’t let my age or lack of experience hinder me from being responsible or taking initiative.  God has granted each of us the experience of being part of a team and it is my hope that we are able to leave this community as an athlete and a graduate and apply those interpersonal skills learned on either the court or field and apply them in the next stage of life, appropriately and meaningfully.”

Dr. Ronald Stoltzfus, Faculty Athletic Representative, and Dr. Nancy Heisey, Undergraduate Academic Dean, presented the Academic Achievement Awards to each team’s individual with the highest GPA.  Those awards went to: Richter and Brad Billings (Selinsgrove, PA/Selinsgrove) in baseball, Jennifer Blankenship (Bassett, VA/Bassett) in women’s basketball, Owen Longacre (Telford, PA/Christopher Dock) in men’s basketball, Nels Akerson (Harrisonburg, VA/Eastern Mennonite) in men’s cross country, Alli Eanes (Harrisonburg, VA/Westmont Hilltop) in women’s cross country and track, Jenna Longenecker (Lancaster, PA/Conestoga Valley) in field hockey, Bryce Shank (Harrisonburg, VA/Eastern Mennonite) in men’s soccer, Erica Detweiler (Hickory, NC/Fred T. Foard) in women’s soccer, Aaron Sloan (Ooltewah, TN/McCallie School) in men’s track, and Kendall Garber (Lancaster, PA/Lancaster Mennonite) in men’s volleyball.

The evening included a special mention of , a senior student worker with the athletic events staff, who had passed away from cancer just a week prior to the banquet.

If anyone values opportunity, it’s Lyubov Slashcheva. As a at 91����Ƶ (91����Ƶ), taking the Dental Admission Test (DAT) is one of her priorities. Her free moments are spent engrossed in a DAT study guide.

A Russian interpreter for the (HRFC), Slashcheva does not waste a moment. Five schools, including the University of Baltimore, West Virginia University, University of North Carolina, University of Pittsburgh and Virginia Commonwealth University have already received her dental school application. When asked why Virginia Commonwealth appeals to her, the frequenter of the 91����Ƶ Dean’s List expounded upon her overall campus visit impression. At the school, she said, service is emphasized and envisions that serving others will equip her well for dentistry. In-state tuition and proximity to home also helps, she added.

After she dons 91����Ƶ’s royal blue gown this December, the visionary plans to travel. She will spend four months in Gracias, Honduras and Mayobamba, Peru with the , serving in two dental clinics. The Luke Society will support her as she educates communities about preventive medicine, stimulates community development and builds community missions with a local pastor. Slashcheva will do this all so local individuals can care for themselves.

With over three years of Spanish under her belt, Slashcheva is slightly nervous for the time away but is optimistic it will be an opportunity for growth. This experience, the forward-thinker hopes, will give hands-on dental experience and a picture of rural dentistry abroad.

Family-rooted worker

In addition to being a highly disciplined student, Slashcheva values her family and church community. When she is not arduously studying for the next exam, serving others or spending time in extra-curricular activities, the youngest of three children relaxes at home with her parents.

She donates her time to the HRFC and other dental clinics in the area while working two jobs. Additionally, Dr. David Kenee, Dr. Steven Gardener and Dr. Stacie Dietz, all in the dentistry field, receive Slashcheva’s helping hands. She also tutors struggling students in organic chemistry and biology and works at .

At her home congregation of First Russian Baptist, Slashcheva co-directs a choir that meets three times a week and attends a weekly youth prayer meeting. “I like a strict schedule,” said Slashcheva who also plays flute in the church band.

After pondering how she spends her free time Slashcheva said she can’t live with free time. “After I graduate, maybe I’ll learn how.”

Slashcheva cherishes the common ground built at the HRFC between medical professionals, clients and volunteers. Others, she hopes, “would value the opportunity that the HRFC presents to do a job willingly while belonging to the larger effort.”

“We were surprised to find that 91����Ƶ is one of the best represented schools in our class, excluding Penn State itself,” said Brianna Oelschlager, ’11.

Oelschlager, Austin Baer ’06, Ben Ruth ’09 and Jon Spicher ’10 are the latest students to enter Hershey Medical Center after graduating from 91����Ƶ. Other graduates include Anny Smucker, a 2008 alum who served as a mentor to Oelschlager as she made the transition to medical school.

“Anny answered all my questions about coming to Hershey which helped ease my transition into medical school,” said Oelschlager. “She told me that the classes at 91����Ƶ taught her how to study, which put her one step ahead of many of her classmates.”

Over the past 10 years, more than 90 percent of 91����Ƶ students who completed the pre-medical program were accepted to medical school, compared to the current national average of 46 percent.

David Leaman, PhD, a 1960 graduate of 91����Ƶ and physician at Hershey Medical Center said 91����Ƶ students are prepared for the rigors of medical school. “The education they received, coupled with a strong work ethic and positive attitude, allows them to adjust quicker to medical school than some students.”

Oelschlager said their class schedule has consisted of time in anatomy lab, daily lectures and a course on the “Foundations of Clinical Medicine.”

“The class on the ‘Foundations of Clinical Medicine’ is really interesting because we learn how to perform a cardiac exam and to identify abnormal heart and lung sounds,” said Oelschlager. “But right now our time is mostly devoted to lectures on anatomy and being in the lab.”

With another nine weeks remaining in anatomy, Oelschlager knows their journey into the medical field has just begun.

“I am starting to see that what we are learning now is just building on the foundation of knowledge we gained at 91����Ƶ,” said Oelschlager.

91����Ƶ has signed an articulation agreement with the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) in Blacksburg, Va., which will guarantee acceptance of up to 10 91����Ƶ qualified students into the VCOM program by following a distinct academic protocol and by demonstrating high achievement.

The Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine is a private, non-profit osteopathic medical school located in the Corporate Research Center at Virginia Tech. Founded in 2002, the mission of the school is to help alleviate the critical shortage of physicians in the Appalachian region.

To qualify for acceptance, an 91����Ƶ student must complete all required undergraduate courses prior to graduation, including eight semester hours of physics, inorganic or general chemistry and six additional hours in selected science courses. Learn more about 91����Ƶ’s pre-medical program.

In addition, they must have a science grade point average of 3.4 or better, a total GPA of 3.4 or better, have taken the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and have positive interviews with the 91����Ƶ Pre-Professional Health Sciences (PPHS) advisory committee and the VCOM director of admissions and specific VCOM faculty members.

“This agreement is a direct response to the chronic shortage of physicians in rural areas of Virginia, primary care physicians and physicians providing care for underserved populations and medical missions,” said Roman J. Miller, Suter Endowed Chair of Biology at 91����Ƶ and pre-medical adviser.

Over the last several years, the acceptance rate into medical schools is 90 percent for 91����Ƶ students completing PPHS programs compared to a national acceptance rate of 47 percent. Learn more about 91����Ƶ’s high med school acceptance rate.