Bethany Chupp ’16, MA ’18 (counseling), remembers the exact moment she learned she had landed 91����Ƶ’s prized four-year, full-tuition Yoder/Webb Scholarship.

While on her way to get pizza with a friend’s family, she received a call from History Professor Mark Metzler Sawin, director of 91����Ƶ’s Honors program, who told her the good news. “I got off the phone and told them, ‘I just got a full ride to college,’” recalled Chupp. “T���y were like, ‘Oh my God, well, now it’s a celebration dinner.’”

That was 13 years ago. Today, the Oregon native, equipped with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and an MA in counseling from 91����Ƶ, runs her own private practice, , as a licensed professional counselor. She credits 91����Ƶ’s graduate counseling program with helping her reach her goals.

“I feel like what it gave me, in terms of my career, was a network and a level of trust, because the program is so respected,” Chupp said. “If you’re an 91����Ƶ counseling grad, in this area, at least, it’s what gets you a job, no problem.”

Growing up in a Mennonite family, Chupp said her parents, graduates of Hesston and Goshen colleges, encouraged her to attend a Mennonite school. After visiting various colleges and universities across the U.S., she said 91����Ƶ just felt different. Its students seemed the kindest, she said, and its campus the most active. The fact that she could earn a college degree without paying a dollar in tuition, thanks to 91����Ƶ’s generous donors, was just the cherry on top.

“T��� Yoder/Webb scholarship ultimately sealed it,” she said. “How are you going to say no to that?”

While at 91����Ƶ, Chupp studied in the Middle East for her intercultural in 2015 and attended the Y-Serve Civil Rights Tour in 2016. ​Both of those experiences wouldn’t have been possible for her without attending 91����Ƶ, she said.

Another unique experience offered at 91����Ƶ was the closeness she shared with her professors. “My classes were small enough that we were invited to professors’ homes for dinner, and we called them by their first names,” she said. “That’s not common. That’s something 91����Ƶ does differently.”

She continues to stay in touch with many of them. “T���y’re not just former professors,” she said. “T���y’re friends who happened to be my professors.”

For the past five years, Chupp has been actively involved in the local roller derby community. She skates as Peaches n’ Scream for The Hits, a team that competes in Harrisonburg’s . She had attended games as an 91����Ƶ student but was committed to theater. “Plus, my mom told me I couldn’t join until I was off her health insurance,” she joked. When COVID-19 put an end to her theater shows, she discovered a newfound passion on the roller rink.

“It’s a very inclusive and welcoming community,” said Chupp. “It’s a sport where every body type has a place and a purpose. There’s also something cathartic about it in that it’s curated aggression.”

Chupp has four siblings, including two alumni, Brandon ’19 and Caleb ’25. They aren’t the only Royals she may have helped recruit to campus. The longtime camp counselor and director spent many summers working at Drift Creek Camp, a Mennonite camp on the coast of Oregon. She said several former campers are now students at 91����Ƶ. “When I came to 91����Ƶ, I was the first Oregon student in years,” she said. “T���re was one senior and then me. And now, there’s a whole posse of them that are here.”

Since graduating from 91����Ƶ in 2018, Chupp has regularly returned to campus to attend events, meet with friends, and provide services at the counseling center.

“It’s rewarding to still be part of the community and care about it,” she said. “I think it’s easy for alumni to dismiss it as something from when they were in college, but I continue to feel invested in 91����Ƶ’s success.”

Your support helps students pursue a quality college education without financial barriers. Join us for the 10th annual Lov91����Ƶ Giving Day and contribute to the scholarships that empower future 91����Ƶ students. On April 1, let’s show that our generosity knows no bounds…for the record!

Take a look around campus and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone involved in leading as many clubs and organizations as Leah Frankenfield.

In addition to leadership roles as a Royal Ambassador and with 91����Ƶ’s Royals RISE program, the senior psychology major has either led or helped start a number of athletic and advocacy clubs on campus: Badminton Club, Bike Club, Pickleball Club, Asian-Pacific Islander Student Alliance (APISA), and University Women’s Empowerment Network (UWEN). This year, she is representing her peers as Student Government Association co-president.

The Northern California native grew up hearing about the magic of 91����Ƶ from her father, James Frankenfield ’81, who shared stories of sledding down the 91����Ƶ Hill on trays from the caf. “He mostly talked about the impact 91����Ƶ had on his career,” said Leah Frankenfield. “He attributes a lot of his success in life to his chemistry degree from here.”

So when the time came for her to pick a college, 91����Ƶ was at the top of her list. The university’s tight-knit campus and her family connections—her cousins Greta Schrag ’24 and Libbie Derstine ’25 are recent graduates—added to the charm. She was also intrigued by the Mennonite culture her father grew up in. Plus, it didn’t hurt that the surrounding city of Harrisonburg, with its plentiful shops and restaurants, had so much to experience. 

“91����Ƶ offers a great balance between being in a rich cultural environment near a large university and having a small campus that provides personalized attention and opportunities to build deep relationships with professors,” said Leah Frankenfield. 

She said many of her professors allow students to take mental health days. “T���y want you to develop holistically as a person first,” she said. “T���y want you to prioritize your health, show up in the best way you can, and communicate with them. I’ve really appreciated that flexibility.”

Another benefit of attending 91����Ƶ is the wealth of scholarships and financial aid available to students. Leah Frankenfield is the recipient of a merit scholarship and the Pioneer College Caterers Scholarship, and is among the 100% of undergraduate students at 91����Ƶ who receive financial aid.

These days, the college senior is busy applying to grad school, with an eye toward counseling or school psychology. Whichever path she takes, she feels a twinge of bittersweetness. 

“I have these mixed feelings,” she said. “Sometimes I think, I can’t wait for the next step. At the same time, 91����Ƶ has challenged me to grow and explore my identity and explore how I make a new environment feel comfortable. I like the way I’ve made 91����Ƶ my home and, at the end of the day, it’s going to be sad to leave.”

Your support helps students like Leah pursue a quality college education without financial barriers. Join us for the 10th annual Lov91����Ƶ Giving Day and contribute to the scholarships that empower future 91����Ƶ students. On April 1, let’s show that our generosity knows no bounds…for the record!

“I’ve always been conscious of how much money I’m spending,” he said. “I don’t want to have tons of debt I’ll have to pay back later, especially at high interest rates.”

And so for Vasquez, who works a part-time job at The Home Depot, financial aid from the Montgomery GI Bill, the Virginia Tuition Grant (VTAG), and a new National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM Scholarship has been a godsend in covering the full cost of his college education.

“Without the NSF S-STEM Scholarship, I would’ve struggled financially,” he said. “T��� scholarship really takes the pressure off my shoulders, because now I won’t have that debt looming over my head.”

Born and raised in Harrisonburg, Vasquez graduated from high school in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and attended Blue Ridge Community College while enlisting in the military. After completing recruit training, taking time to reassess his academic goals, and changing majors from business to computer science, he transferred to 91����Ƶ last fall. 

He is among an initial cohort of 91����Ƶ students receiving the NSF S-STEM Scholarship, which provides:

• Up to $15,000 in unmet financial need annually for the length of the degree
• A paid one-week Bridge to College program
• A STEM mentorship program
• An eight-week paid internship
• Free conference attendance
• Forest restoration opportunities in Park Woods (91����Ƶ’s on-campus woodland)

The scholarship is open to high-achieving, income-eligible students who are majoring in Biochemistry, Biology, Computer Science, Engineering, Environmental Science, Math, or Psychology (research/STEM track).

Applications for the S-STEM Scholarship
are due by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026.

For more information, visit .

‘A welcoming community’

Forming friendships at a new school can have its challenges.

Along with other initiatives provided by the scholarship, a Bridge to College program helps new 91����Ƶ students adjust to life on campus by moving them in a week early, introducing them to STEM faculty and staff members, and engaging them in activities to build camaraderie and form connections with one another. Students participating in the weeklong program receive a generous stipend for their time.

Ani Koontz, a first-year biology and secondary education double major from Newton, Kansas, is a recipient of the S-STEM Scholarship. She recalled traveling to Shenandoah National Park with students and faculty the week before classes, surveying salamanders and hiking trails, before bicycling around Downtown Harrisonburg on a tour led by city officials.

“That first week showed me how friendly and approachable my professors are,” she said. “T���y’ve done a great job creating a welcoming community.”

Another S-STEM Scholarship recipient, Mara Carlson, is a first-year psychology major from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “Many of us have become close friends,” she said. “I’ll see the other scholarship recipients around campus and we’ll say hello to each other.”

Through the scholarship, each student is paired with an academic advisor specific to their major, who can answer questions and help guide them forward. Carlson said she meets with Kathryn Howard-Ligas, assistant professor of psychology at 91����Ƶ. “We discussed a four-year plan, and I was really grateful for that,” she said. Part of that plan includes gaining invaluable experience through internships and conferences, additional perks of the S-STEM Scholarship.

Carlson said she already knew she wanted to attend 91����Ƶ, and that receiving the S-STEM Scholarship was “a nice surprise.”

For the Kansas-born Koontz, 91����Ƶ had always been on her radar, but she also considered attending in-state schools that normally would’ve been cheaper. When she learned she had been offered the S-STEM Scholarship and that it would lower her college costs to “a very affordable amount,” her choice to attend 91����Ƶ became an easy one.

“It’s 100% the reason I came,” she said. “When I got that, it meant I could completely afford to go here, and it honestly made 91����Ƶ more affordable than any other college in my area. It’s my joy to share how grateful I am because this is truly just an amazing thing that 91����Ƶ has.”

Trina Trotter Nussbaum ’00, MA ’17 will never forget the first time she saw the view from the Campus Center balcony. Standing on the balcony overlooking the Front Lawn and gazing east toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, the then-first-year student recalled telling a friend: “I don’t know what I’m going to study, but I know this is where I need to be. This is my place.”

“All it took was one look at those mountains, and they seemed to tell me, ‘You belong here,’” Trotter Nussbaum said. 

That was nearly 30 years ago. Today, Trotter Nussbaum is the new director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement, a position she’s held since Jan. 1. She still feels that same sense of belonging at 91����Ƶ and works to ensure others on campus feel it too. Through her role at CIE, she celebrates and supports students, faculty and staff from a wide range of faith traditions and backgrounds. 

It was a long road that led her to 91����Ƶ. After graduating from high school in North Lima, Ohio, Trotter Nussbaum, who was raised Mennonite, moved to Pittsburgh and completed travel agency school. She gradually learned that it wasn’t the career for her. Returning home to Ohio, she ran into a childhood friend about to graduate from 91����Ƶ who told her, “You should give 91����Ƶ a try.” It was just the push she needed. 

Trotter Nussbaum arrived on campus in the fall of 1995 as a 22-year-old first-year English major. She was older than the others in her Northlawn dorm, but she saw that as a blessing. “It helped me settle down and figure out what I wanted to do.”

That turned out to be theater. Trotter Nussbaum credits 91����Ƶ’s theater program with recognizing her strengths as a performer and teaching her invaluable listening and improv skills. During the second semester of her junior year, she added a psychology major. Though it delayed her graduation by another year, she said it ended up being one of the best decisions she ever made. “I might not be acting or counseling right now, but I draw on those skills every day,” Trotter Nussbaum said. She graduated in 2000 with bachelor’s degrees in theater and psychology, along with a minor in justice, peace and conflict studies. She said professors in her justice and theology classes challenged her faith with love and grace, ultimately strengthening it and shaping her into the faith-based peacebuilder she is today.

After a decade spent working at nonprofits and government agencies, Trotter Nussbaum returned to 91����Ƶ in 2013 as associate director of CIE. Fueled by formative experiences during a 1998 intercultural trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland, she began pursuing a master’s degree in conflict transformation at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. It took her another five years to complete the two-year program while working at CIE and raising two children. In 2017, she earned her MA.

Ever the lifelong learner, Trotter Nussbaum continues to seek out further education. She’s working toward earning MDiv equivalency so that she can enroll in the new Doctor of Ministry program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. 

Over the years, she’s received numerous scholarships as a student. She said those scholarships, as well as 91����Ƶ’s tuition benefits for employees, made it possible for her to continue her studies. “I love how 91����Ƶ encourages its employees to take the classes they want to take,” she said. “T��� ability to take classes, even one at a time, for almost free is such a blessing.”

Trotter Nussbaum and her husband, Brian Nussbaum ’00, live in Harrisonburg with their two children. Her brother, Travis Trotter ’99, serves as university registrar for 91����Ƶ.

Your generous support helps students like Trotter Nussbaum pursue a quality college education without financial barriers. Join us for the 9th annual Lov91����Ƶ Giving Day and contribute to the scholarships that empower future 91����Ƶ students. Together, we can help write 91����Ƶ’s next chapter.

Read the previous profiles in our A Royal Tale series:

The grant, awarded through the NSF’s , will fund up to $15,000 annually for each scholarship recipient throughout the length of their degree. Overall, the S-STEM Scholarship will fund a quality undergraduate education for 23 91����Ƶ students among three cohorts over the next six years, beginning with first-year students entering the Fall 2025 semester.

The scholarship is open to academically talented students with financial need who are majoring in the following fields: Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Environmental Science, Math, and Psychology (research/STEM track).

Applicants for the S-STEM Scholarship must submit their application and reference forms by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. For more information about the program and how to apply, visit: emu.edu/stem/scholarship

In addition to scholarships, the program offers students a paid one-week Bridge to College experience, where they can meet professors, learn material from their discipline, acquire study skills, and become better prepared for college.

91����Ƶ Biology Professor Dr. Kristopher Schmidt said that some first-year students can struggle to adjust to life on campus, and that the grant aims to ease that adjustment.

“We want to create a sense of belonging,” said Schmidt, who is principal investigator for the grant program.

The program also provides funding for embedded tutoring services and paid tutoring opportunities for students, specialized advising, and guidance from professional STEM mentors.

“This would be a person outside the university in their field of interest who can encourage them, help them, and connect with them along their four-year program,” Schmidt said about the mentors. 

The S-STEM Scholarship program offers innovative opportunities for place-based learning and funding for an eight-week paid internship. Students can use grant-funded resources to conduct research on forest restoration in the Park Woods space, which serves as a key learning lab for STEM students.

This latest grant builds on the success of a similar STEM grant that wrapped up in 2023.

By leveraging grants like these, 91����Ƶ lives into its mission and vision, outlined in its 2023-28 strategic plan Pathways of Promise of opening new pathways of access and achievement, and can help the NSF achieve its goal of diversifying the STEM workforce.

“We were thrilled to receive this,” Schmidt said. “We’re excited and grateful the NSF has chosen to invest in our students at 91����Ƶ.”

Faculty members Kristopher Schmidt, Jim Yoder, Daniel Showalter, Stefano Colafranceschi and Dean Tara Kishbaugh wrote the S-STEM grant proposal.

A new endowment in support of psychology majors at 91����Ƶ honors three exemplary emeritus professors. Kim Gingerich Brenneman ‘85, Galen Lehman ‘73, and Judy Mullet ‘73 have 101 years of service between them at 91����Ƶ.

The endowment honors the transformative impact of their teaching, scholarship and advising on hundreds of 91����Ƶ students, but also supports the continued studies of new generations of students.

“It is an honor to have my name on the psychology endowment, especially with two other brilliant psychology faculty whom I know have made huge differences in the lives of 91����Ƶ students,” said Brenneman. 

This scholarship is the first of its kind for psychology majors at 91����Ƶ. Full-time psychology students in their first year at 91����Ƶ will qualify as recipients, and students of African, Hispanic, Asian and Native American descent will be given priority.

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

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

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

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

They’re seeking $10,000 in financial support through 91����Ƶ’s new crowdfunding platform, which has recently helped fund the Matt Garber Endowed Scholarship and MJ Sharp Peace & Justice Endowed Scholarship, both in honor of young alumni who have passed away.

“Endowments such as these affirm, energize and invite students to more deeply commit to a community of explorers and travelers in one of the newest disciplines in higher education,” says Mullet. “As a faculty member in the department I sought to live what we explored together both in and out of classrooms. The richness of one-to-one conversations were ‘holy moments’ that I cherish to this day. I’m honored to support ongoing ‘holy moments’ at 91����Ƶ through this scholarship.”

Legacies live on through students and colleagues

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

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

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

Mullet, in addition to teaching psychology, also directed the Honors program, taught undergraduate and graduate courses in education, and co-founded and co-led Student Kairos Place, a week-long gathering of 91����Ƶ undergraduate writers. 

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

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

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

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

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

The theme of the conference is “Peace in practice: What does it look like when our theories become action?”

“Lisa’s example of field work with local, international, and systems-based conflicts is inspirational for college students,” says Christine Baer, a conference co-organizer and a senior and major.

Schirch and other speakers will focus on building peace at all levels, from local to international, and integrating this work into art and other forms of community engagement.

91����Ƶ Lisa Schirch

In her role at the Alliance for Peacebuildling, Schirch connects policymakers with global civil society networks, facilitates civil-military dialogue, and provides a conflict prevention and peacebuilding lens on current policy issues.

Schirch is also a research professor at .

She has conducted conflict assessments and participated in peacebuilding planning alongside local colleagues in more than 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Kenya, Ghana, and Fiji.

Schirch works primarily with small local NGOs and civil society organizations. Schirch also has worked as a consultant on conflict assessment and peacebuilding planning for large entities, such as the , the World Bank, several branches of the U.S. government, the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, and many other international organizations.

She holds a BA in international relations from the University of Waterloo in Canada and an MS and a PhD in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University.

Drama that entertains and informs

“I’d Like to Buy an Enemy” will be performed by on Friday, Jan. 31, at 8 p.m., in the MainStage Theater in University Commons.

The play, starring Ted Swartz, MDiv ’92, and Tim Ruebke MA ’99 (), allows audiences to laugh at themselves while raising important questions about the place of the United States in the world, confronting the fear that is such a large part of contemporary culture, and exploring ways to honestly work for peace and justice in this country.

Tickets are $8 for general audience and $5 for 91����Ƶ faculty and staff. 91����Ƶ students and conference attendees are free, if they show their identifications.

Ted and Company will also host university chapel on Friday at 10 a.m.

Organizers

The Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship Conference is sponsored and organized by , a student organization that organizes campus-wide activities, regular space to share meals and discussions, and special speakers to spark meaningful dialogue. For more information about the conference or Peace Fellowship, contact the applied social sciences department.

Conference details

The program will open on Friday, Jan. 31, at 7 p.m., and end on Sunday, Feb. 2, at 1 p.m. Participating schools include Bluffton University in Ohio; Conrad Grebel College in Canada; Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania; Goshen College in Indiana; Hesston College in Kansas; and Messiah College in Pennsylvania.

Workshops will be offered on a wide range of topics, including “A Subversive Shalom: Enacting Radical Peace” with and ; “Home Front: the Untold History of Radical Veteran Peacemaking” with ; and “: Promoting Personal Growth and Community Well-Being” with Philip Fisher Rhodes and Ron Copeland.

Other topics to be covered range from “The Relationship Between Islam and Peace” and “Restorative Justice in Our Schools” to “Arts, Theater, and Peacebuilding.”

Most sessions will be held in of the seminary building and seminary classrooms.

Creating connections

“We expect this conference to be a time of sharing stories and experiences at all levels, with many practical applications of peacebuilding,” said Krista Nyce, an 91����Ƶ senior major and conference co-organizer. “We have heard a lot in the classroom about theories and have debated concepts; thus we hope this can be a time to build on those with realistic accounts of speakers’ varied involvements from local organizations to experiences of national organizing, from art to restorative justice to education.”

and a is available . is also available.

For more information on the conference visit or email: emupeacefellowship@gmail.com.

As per usual in the Solomon Islands, the day was brutally hot. Allen and his team stretched a tarp over the canoe to shade themselves during the six- or seven-hour voyage. They paused for a rest stop on a small island and drank from coconuts along the way. Soccer, they say, is the world’s game. Fitting then, that on this day in 2010, it was soccer that was taking Allen to the far reaches of a distant Pacific island chain by dugout canoe.

Dugout canoe to island tournament

After finally docking at Gizo, where the Solomon Islands Football Federation was hosting a regional tournament, Allen and his players from Rendova Island found the soccer pitch entirely abandoned. This was not entirely a surprise. Soccer, and life generally, proceeds in a more unstructured manner in the Solomons than in the United States. And so, the team from Rendova simply waited for opponents to arrive.

Eventually that happened, and Allen’s team did well enough to reach the quarterfinals but no further. They puttered back home, and the team kind of disbanded – it was not an incredibly serious, well-organized endeavor to begin with – and Coach Allen’s first tournament in the Solomon Islands was in the books.

Growing up in Richmond, Virginia, Allen was once a promising young soccer player himself. He played on an Olympic development team and received some Division I recruiting interest but didn’t quite grow big or tall enough to play at the top collegiate level. Being an elite player as an adult “takes a lot of hard work and planning, and at the same time, you have to kind of get a little bit lucky, too,” says Allen, who was not lucky in the physical stature department.

Soccer-playing brothers at dad’s alma mater

Lacking any better ideas for life after high school, he enrolled at 91����Ƶ, encouraged by his father Earl Allen, a Methodist pastor who earned a bachelor of divinity from 91����Ƶ in 1984, then a master’s in counseling in 2002. Allen saw decent game time as a freshman midfielder but then suffered a series of knee injuries that kept him mostly on the bench for the rest of what he recalls as a frustrating and disappointing career as an 91����Ƶ soccer player. (He was proud, though, to watch his younger brother, Peter Allen ’01, enjoy a much more successful career.)

After graduating with a psychology major and coaching minor, Allen began a small photography business at a ski resort near Harrisonburg, Virginia. He spent the next five years working “night and day” to build it into a much bigger affair – three divisions, 25 employees – only to have his two biggest clients suddenly decide to take photography in-house. At some point around the time of the ensuing bankruptcy, Allen became aware of and interested in the missionary group Youth With A Mission, and eventually enrolled in a discipleship program in Townsville, Australia. That trip in 2008, which included ministry work with Aboriginal Australians on the Cape York Peninsula and Torres Straight Islanders (who, as you might guess, inhabit the Torres Straight Islands), was Allen’s first foray to Oceania.

With YWAM in the Pacific

It was also the beginning of a new sense of broad purpose in his life. After coming home to Virginia, Allen wanted to go back; he wasn’t sure what, exactly, he wanted to do, but he knew where he wanted to be. In 2009, he went back to the Torres Straight Islands – politically, part of Australia and geographically, halfway between it and New Guinea – and stayed until his visa expired. The next year, he returned for more YWAM training in Wollongong, Australia, with the intention of taking a missionary assignment in Cambodia.

That plan fell through, though, leaving Allen hanging in Australia and in search of some option other than coming back home. When a friend of his father’s named Dennis McAdams (himself an ’84 seminary grad, with an MA in religion) invited Allen north to Rendova, in the Solomons’ Western Province, he jumped at the opportunity.

Owner of chili pepper farm

Allen decided to stay with McAdams in the Solomons, independent of any assignment or support from YWAM or any other group. Rendova Island is remote and undeveloped; Haponga, the village where Allen lived, lacked electricity and other basic infrastructure. The islanders mostly got by on subsistence agriculture and fishing. In order not to go hungry himself, and in hopes of bringing some economic development to his new neighbors on Rendova, Allen put his entrepreneurial skills to work and started up a chili pepper farm in hopes of selling the crop to a nearby tuna processing plant.

The chili pepper thing never really panned out like Allen had hoped, though, and he began poking around at other ideas, projects, ways to keep himself occupied and solvent and to provide some employment for others in the community.

In the meanwhile, Allen was glad to discover that lots of folks on Rendova were as big into soccer as he was. He joined in from time to time, to the extent that his long-ago injured knee would allow, and eventually got to the point where soccer was occupying most of his time. He realized that he’d found a great way to connect with the locals – communication in English is far from a sure bet on Rendova – and, thus, after catching wind of an upcoming regional tournament in Gizo, did Allen decide to do a little coaching.

Players share 11 pairs of cleats

Allen’s efforts to convene an all-Rendova team were hampered by all sorts of practical and cultural obstacles. Only after considerable scrounging around, for example, did the team come up with 11 pairs of soccer shoes, enough to keep everyone on the field shod, but requiring shoe-switching at every substitution. Being a total newcomer to the island with limited ability to communicate and little social capital to smooth over fractious intra-village politics on Rendova presented its own set of challenges, as did social norms like non-adherence to rigid schedules.

As might be obvious by now, Allen had developed a determination to make things work out somehow in the Solomons, and he eventually pulled together a team. (Other business ventures that he dabbled in include bok choi farming, firewood chopping and solar panel sales; his persistence and ambition seem at times to be a sort of tropical island reboot of an immigrant chasing the American Dream.) All told, the team got in about one week of practice before the voyage to Gizo.

After several more twists and turns in this story, too long to recount in full here, Allen, by happenstance, met the coach of Koloale FC, a club team that’s pretty much the New York Yankees of Solomon Islands soccer. At the time, Koloale was floundering in the O-League, an international competition between the best club teams in the South Pacific. While back briefly in the U.S. – visa renewal was in order – an email from the Koloale coach, whose team had lost three straight matches, popped into Allen’s inbox: Help needed, please come?

Rescuing the pride of Solomon soccer

Allen answered the call, arriving back in the Solomon Islands’ capital of Honiara for what he thought would be an assistant coaching gig with Koloale. Management had other ideas, though. Midway through the 2010-11 season, days after arriving back in the country, Allen was on a flight to Fiji, the new head coach of Koloale FC. The O-League isn’t quite the World Cup, but it’s a far cry from the provincial, loosely organized Solomon Islands Football Federation regional tournament back in Gizo where Allen cut his coaching teeth in the Pacific (earlier in life, it should be noted, he’d coached extensively back in the U.S., from youth to collegiate soccer; Koloale, though, was by far the highest profile gig he’d landed).

Ten minutes into the game against Lautoka, its Fijian opponent in the O-League, Koloale went down by a goal. In the few days he’d had with the team, Allen had tried to emphasize tactics, formation, structure, and something had worked. Koloale equalized within 10 minutes, then scored another, and another, and a few more, and flew back home victors by a 6-1 scoreline. The fans in the Solomons were ecstatic, and Allen was suddenly a bona fide celebrity in the country, which takes its soccer very seriously.

“That can be good, and that can not be good,” says Allen. “If you lose, the whole place can turn on you.”

Koloale finished up the season with two more wins in Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu ­– not enough to qualify for the finals after the early-season losses, but plenty to place the outsized hopes of soccer fans in the Solomons squarely on Allen’s shoulders.

By the time the next O-League season began – this was the 2011-2012 season – there’d been some upper-level machinations at the club that led to the release of a number of Allen’s best players. After losing the first two matches, Allen presented management with a series of requests that he thought would help get things back on track; after these were turned down, he resigned. Expectations were still huge, and Allen no longer felt like he’d be able to satisfy them, and he wasn’t eager become a national villain on account of decisions beyond his control.

Marriage, new business and soccer dreams

Personal matters also figured prominently into his decision to step down. Allen’s wife Suzie, whom he’d met in Honiara and married during the previous off-season, was pregnant with their daughter, Eliana, now one. Allen and his family now life in Honiara. Business-wise, he’s finally hit on something that’s panned out: cell phone sales. In partnership with a brother-in-law, he’s started a company that sells phones, airtime minutes and solar-powered charging devices, with 30 employees and stores in several towns, including Gizo and Honiara.

Allen’s ties aren’t totally severed with Koloale, either. Later in 2013, he hopes he’ll be coaching the team again in the O-League. Then there are always more plans and possibilities to investigate. This past winter, Allen and his family came back to Richmond for a visit, where he spent some time looking into the possibility of buying some farmland in the Shenandoah Valley. He’s been thinking lately about giving farming a try back in the States, maybe setting up some sort of exchange program with the Solomons. Soccer-wise, he’s been thinking about some sort of exchange system too, maybe getting a few players who came up through the tactical, heavily coached American system to balance out the raw talent and technical skill that are present in droves in the Solomons.

This would not have been the stuff of his wildest dreams when he was playing soccer at 91����Ƶ. It all just sort of happened, piece by piece, and doesn’t seem over yet at any rate.

“It’s not something you plan. And that’s the beauty of it. There’s a lot of grace in it. … I don’t know how I ended up coaching that team,” says Allen. “I think God’s definitely got his hand in it. I don’t think you’d ever imagine you’d ever be doing something like that.”

To be a candidate for the scholarship, Koser had to complete a 25-page essay on the relationship between his work and its connection to Rollo May, an existential psychologist and co-founder of Saybrook Graduate School.

“I drew from a number of different cases,” said Koser. “The essay wove together direct clinical work with qualifying essays and what happens in a relationship between a therapist and client.”

As a practicing psychoanalyst, Koser said, “Psychoanalysis has been historically categorized by most people as belonging only to the white, upper-class community. I want to subvert this presumption by bringing psychoanalysis to the underrepresented and reach people that it hasn’t in the past – not just in academics but also in clinical work. Psychoanalysis is a radical approach that applies to each unique subject.”

Koser, who earned his undergraduate in and graduate degree in from 91����Ƶ, said his work as a student and faculty member “greatly influenced his doctoral work.”

“I did not grow up Mennonite, but what resonated with me is the focus on relationships and community that is found in the Mennonite faith.”

, director of the MA in counseling program at 91����Ƶ, said the award “positions Nate to be a respected contributor to the field of Existential/Humanistic psychology and it also reflects the intention we have as a counselor training program to embrace the Existential/Humanistic way of working and being in the world.”

A student of Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud, Koser said winning the award is a significant professional accomplishment, but its meaning has changed over time.

“Initially, I felt that receiving this award would provide me with some sort of authorization, as if winning it would provide a kind of credential,” said Koser, who also works for . “However, because I am unable to refuse analyzing such things, the award has provided me with yet another opportunity to learn something about myself, my motivations, and my desire. This seems much more important to me than any kind of credential.”

Having an adopted brother with tubular meningitis has made a huge mark on the Rev. Paula Snyder Belousek’s life.

“Early on, I became interested in what role people with disabilities play in the church setting,” she said last week at Bluffton University.

While majoring in and at 91����Ƶ, she sought out how to pair her love for people with disabilities and her love for the church.

Her answer came during voluntary service in Fresno, Calif., when she gave her first church sermon accompanied by a person who had a developmental disability.

“That church claimed and made me their own; that was something I really appreciated and helped define my walk,” said Belousek, now pastor of Salem Mennonite Church in Elida, Ohio.

She visited nearby Bluffton from Feb. 21-23 as part of its minister in residence program, sitting in on classes, lectures and lunches, as well as speaking at the university’s weekly chapel service.

As a pastor, Belousek has used her experience and interest in people with disabilities by trying to speak in a way that appeals to a variety of listeners, and by being creative.

“I love shaping worship and helping people see their own calling and giftedness,” she said. “I’m always seeking new ways that I can involve teenagers or other age groups.”

The ministry was a calling she didn’t recognize initially, the native Canadian acknowledged, but as a pastor, she feels she has learned a lot about herself and others. “People know when you’re being real with them and, when your intentions are right, they will grow to trust you,” she said.

Belousek also has advice for college students studying religion. “Start testing it with a community of people, and ask yourself if this truly is God’s calling for you,” she said, adding, for female religion students in particular: “Trust the voice of God, even if there are barriers. Trust God that he gave you your gifts, and he will make a way to use them.”

The Eastern Mennonite graduate, who now has several Bluffton alumni in her congregation, encourages high school students to pursue Mennonite higher education. “I highly value Mennonite education because I know how it’s helped shape my own life,” she said.

But it probably doesn’t hurt that Kniss, 54, who’s serving as the acting president during President Loren Swartzendruber’s three-month sabbatical, still sees the man occasionally. After all, professor Galen R. Lehman has continued his career there for more than three decades.

Lehman, 63, is the longest-serving professor at 91����Ƶ, beginning his career with the university in 1973 in the psychology department. When he first started teaching, he often found his students were very close to his own
age.

Now he’s finding that many of them are children of his former pupils.

“If I ever find someone who says I taught their grandparent, I’ll know it’s time to quit,” he says with a heartfelt laugh.

While the university must constantly recruit new professors who are on the cutting-edge of education practices and theories, Kniss says having long-term professors such as Lehman around provides other employees with a sense of context and stability.

“A problem or an issue comes up and people who haven’t been around think it’s new,” said Kniss. “[But] people who have been around say, ‘Oh yeah, we dealt with this back in 1970.’ Or they say, ‘Here are the roots of the issue.’ ”

Lehman, who is now the psychology department chairman, has served up his share of new ideas while at the university. He was among the first to integrate computers into the classroom, using an Apple II computer to administer tests to students in 1974.

He also led an initiative to turn a dirt-floor basement in the Suter Science Center into instructional space, creating an area where upper-class psychology students could spend time with underclassmen.

Reconciling Science, Religion
Lehman received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from 91����Ƶ in 1973. He earned his master’s degree in general psychology from then-Hollins College, and he earned his doctorate from Virginia Tech in applied
experimental psychology.

His expertise is in working with groups to solve practical problems or prevent unsafe behaviors, particularly in the workplace. While many employers might say it is good enough to just have people who want to be safe at work, Lehman argues that, “If you can work on the behavior … that’s what will actually increase the safety measures in a manufacturing plant, rather than simply working with the attitudes.”

Lehman is also very active with the Virginia Mennonite Mission Board. He makes several trips yearly to Jamaica to assist with the logistics of missions there. He splits his time between 91����Ƶ and working as the Caribbean regional director for the board.

Some might see a contradiction in his interest in science and his dedication to his faith, but not Lehman. For him, the two work together.

“I can use my science and knowledge of human behavior … to motivate  people,” said Lehman, who was raised in the Mennonite church. “One of the things I find very fulfilling about my work is that I feel each area -[science and religion] – complements the other.”

The Maryland native became interested in psychology after living in Jamaica for a few years in the late 1960s where he did missions work as part of Alternative Service during the Vietnam War. The experience exposed him to the behavioral problems some disabled children in the Caribbean nation faced, such as learning difficulties or acting out and other disciplinary issues.

“I asked myself the question ‘How could I prepare my life in a way that could address those problems?’ ” he said.

Now he serves on the board for a school for deaf children in Jamaica, using his background in psychology to help teachers learn how to better interact with students with disabilities.

A Mentor’s Suggestion
Lehman says he hadn’t considered teaching psychology until a professor asked him during his senior year if he had thought about teaching the subject.

“It was really that affirmation from a mentor of mine that sort of planted in me the dream of teaching,” he said.

And so it was that Lehman’s dream blossomed into a lifelong career, allowing him to leave his mark on a host of students.

Kniss said he remembers Lehman’s passion for his chosen field, which Kniss described as contagious – inspiring, even.

“The interest in the material, it was infectious,” said Kniss. “Even though psychology wasn’t my field, the fact that he was so interested in it – you couldn’t help but get interested in it. It’s more that kind of flavor or spirit of the classroom that I remember.”

Farm Life
Lehman’s interests extend beyond the science of the mind. He enjoys  architecture (he designed and built his own home, as well as several others) and the visual arts, such as photography and videography.

He lives on a farm, where he raises cattle and bales hay.

“My life has all that variety that helps make it fulfilling to me,” he says.

And it is that diversity that makes Lehman a good professor, Kniss says.

“He has a lot of different interests and a lot of energy and curiosity. And I think that’s always a good thing to have in a university – people who ask questions outside of their disciplinary box,” he said.

————————

Reprinted by permission from the June 18, 2011 edition of the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record.

Contact Joshua Brown at 574-6218 or jbrown@dnronline.com

The seminary is offering four evening classes during second (spring) semester.

• Kevin A. Clark, part-time instructor in spiritual formation, will teach “Formation in Personhood I,” 6:30-9:10 p.m. Mondays beginning Jan. 10-April 25.
• A “Spiritual Direction Seminar and Practicum II,” led by Wendy J. Miller, seminary campus pastor, will meet 6:30-9:10 p.m. on Tuesdays beginning Jan. 11-April 26.
• Nathan E. Yoder, associate professor of church history, will teach “Mennonite History” Tuesdays 6:30-9:10 p.m..
• Mark Thiessen Nation, associate professor of theology, will teach a class on the life and teachings of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer 6:30-9:10 p.m. Wednesdays beginning Jan. 12-April 27.

In addition, the seminary has scheduled several weekend and special short courses during the semester. They are:

• “Ministry in the Workplace,” Feb. 11-12, Lonnie D. Yoder, professor of pastoral care and counseling, coordinator;
• “Psychology of Religious Experience,” 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Jan. 21-22, Feb. 18-19, and Mar. 18-19, Lonnie D. Yoder, professor of pastoral care and counselinbg, instructor;
• “Introduction to Conflict Transformation,” 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Jan. 14-15, Feb. 11-12 and Apr. 8-9, Ronald S. Kraybill, professor of conflict studies, instructor; and
• “” (Seminar on Trauma Awareness and Recovery) 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Feb. 4-5 and Feb. 25-26, Jayne S. Docherty and Carolyn E. Yoder, instructors.

These courses can be taken for academic credit or on an audit basis.

For more information on seminary evening and special courses coming up spring semester, call Don A. Yoder, (540) 432-4257, or e-mail: .