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Options wide open
An underpinning of liberal arts supports Bethel graduates as they branch in all directions
by Melanie Zuercher
Matt Kaiser, Inman, graduated from Bethel in May 2006. He was just accepted into medical school. His major? Music.
“I came to Bethel as a naïve freshman, with no idea what to major in,” says Kaiser, who is currently serving a term with Mennonite Voluntary Service in Boulder, Colo. “I enjoyed playing the guitar but I didn’t know if I wanted that as a career, which either meant teaching or being a fantastic musician.”
Kaiser followed his interests, studying guitar and enjoying his music theory classes. One interterm, he took Human Genetics with professor of biology Wayne Wiens ’58 and was fascinated. So after that, he made sure “to sign up for some of the more difficult General Education requirements [in the sciences].”
And then he spent a summer shadowing James Ratzlaff ’90, a Moundridge physician. “That kind of tipped the scales,” he says. “I discovered a.) I can do this, and b.) I enjoy this.”
He applied to the University of Kansas School of Medicine and went for an interview last September. “The first question they asked me was: ‘You’re a music major – What are you doing here?’”
But it wasn’t really a challenge, he says: “Medical schools now are actually looking for students with undergraduate degrees other than [medical-related ones].” The current thinking is that students with a broader range of experience and interests make better doctors.
Kaiser’s story is not unique or new at Bethel College. You would be hard-pressed to find a professor or an administrator who won’t tout the ongoing value of the broad-based and broad-ranging liberal arts education – as most clearly reflected in the General Education curriculum – that Bethel strives to give its graduates in their few short years on campus. But it is probably alumni stories that truly tell the tale.
Thirty years earlier than Kaiser, Suzanne Wedel ’76 graduated from Bethel College. At first glance, her career path may seem obvious – she majored in biology with a minor in chemistry and she is a medical doctor (University of Kansas) and full-time faculty member in surgical critical care at Boston Medical Center.
However, Wedel had a second major, in peace studies. What she spends a good part of her time nowadays doing is being CEO of Boston Med-Flight, a critical care transport service (helicopter, jet and ground) for patients in New England, supported largely by the six major teaching hospitals in the Boston area.
As an undergraduate, Wedel remembers, “I had diverse interests and at Bethel I was encouraged to keep my options open.” As a college senior, she applied to the University of Colorado-Boulder for a graduate program in political science that focused on international relations and peace research. She was accepted into that program but she also got into the KU School of Medicine, which gave her the option of starting the summer after graduation from Bethel. She decided to try it and as it turned out, never looked back.
She retains her interest in international issues, however. She is spending more time in international consulting on medical topics, including a visit to the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, last summer.
Nor has what she learned and experienced in her peace studies courses faded into the background. “As it turns out,” Wedel says, “I’m in a very political arena [with medical transport] and one that is very competitive in some parts of the country. I’m interested in how people can collaborate and build coalitions rather than exclude and compete. Boston MedFlight is the only successful cooperative venture among all the teaching institutions in Boston, [able to] finesse goals and keep an eye on something higher [than competing with each other].
“There are five medical transport companies in New England and they all work closely together – common protocols and standards of care, common research. Boston MedFlight fostered that [cooperation] and it has made us a model. One thing I learned at Bethel – you always invite everyone to the party. From all our game theory discussions, I learned how to get everybody [into a position] where they can all win.”
She is clear about the value of her overall educational experience at Bethel. “I can’t emphasize enough the value of going to a [college] where you can have personal relationships with faculty, where you can pursue your interests and be involved in lots of things, not be required to specialize but be able to skim the surface of a lot of things and find out what really interests you,” she says. “Some of the classes I remember most had nothing to do with my majors – such as World Religions with Harold Gross and two wonderful art classes with Paul Friesen.
“At Bethel, everybody can be a big fish in a little pond. Everyone can succeed and be recognized in something. At a larger institution, you’re not always able to do that. I developed the skills I needed to succeed.”
Vallery Thaw-McCrary ’98 of Fort Pierce, Fla., would agree. She came to Bethel College on a vocal music scholarship. Although her father Harold Thaw’s family is from Newton, Thaw-McCrary grew up in Kansas City, Mo., so experienced some culture shock coming to the small North Newton and Bethel College communities.
She admits that she wasted a lot of her first year at Bethel but that eventually, “Bethel College began to mature me. I saw what I wanted and started making the strides to get there.”
Although Thaw-McCrary eventually graduated from the University of Phoenix, she credits Bethel College with setting her on the path she is following today. “I can’t remember what my initial major was – I was interested in English and also in education. And of course, music, with my scholarship. [Professor of English] John Sheriff’s classes were important, in writing and learning to appreciate literature. Kathryn [Kasper, instructor of voice] was not just a vocal coach but a friend.”
With a degree in business, Thaw-McCrary became revenue/budget coordinator for St. Lucie County, Fla., for four years before recently resigning to start her own bookkeeping and CPA business while pursuing a growing career in gospel and R&B music and acting. In the last year, she has released a CD, With Me; garnered rave reviews for her performance as Clemma in the Vero Beach Theatre Guild’s production of Neil Simon’s Proposals; and published a book, Full Circle: A young woman’s introduction to life, which is part self-help book and part autobiography.
“I guess John Sheriff’s writing classes did some good,” she says.
“Young women need guidance on getting an education and getting some life experience,” she continues. “Try to make something good out of everything you do. I learned from mistakes I made, at Bethel and elsewhere – that was part of the maturing process. It’s OK to make mistakes – they help you know which way you need to go.”
In a way, that was the experience of Rob Schunn ’86. His degree was in natural science (emphases in chemistry and biology). He went straight into an internship that became a part-time job and then a full-time one, in the organization where he still works today – KWCH-TV Channel 12 in Wichita.
As with Kaiser, internships proved to be a key for Schunn. One of them showed him what he didn’t want. When he came to Bethel from his hometown of Phoenix, he says, he was interested in medical technology, perhaps working in a lab. Then one day, he shadowed a lab technician in Newton – and realized “this was not my personality. I enjoyed the science, but not the lack of regular contact with people.”
He began taking communication classes as a junior and “got bit by the bug.” He secured an internship in the news department at KEYN-FM in Wichita and as he was driving in for his first day, Jan. 28, 1986, he heard the news that the space shuttle Challenger had exploded on takeoff in Florida. At the end of his first day on the job, his supervisor told him that he could now survive anything in the news business – he had “passed the test.”
Eventually, he discovered TV was his preferred medium. He is now a news photographer and runs the satellite truck for Channel 12, which allows him to travel all over the state and sometimes the country.
Schunn is a regular at the annual Career Night sponsored by Bethel’s Alumni Association. He remembers that one time not long after he had graduated, Wayne Wiens came to see him at his table. “Wayne just couldn’t figure out why, when I had that degree in science, I had gone into TV.
“I couldn’t really explain it. I tried to tell him that even though I do the same thing every day, I also learn something new every day.
“At the time, we were doing a series on health on KWCH. I said to Wayne that when I go out with a reporter who is interviewing doctors and other medical personnel, the reporter often can’t understand what they’re talking about, but I can. And that helps make a better story. Wayne said, ‘I never thought of that.’”
In TV news, Schunn says, “We have to be experts on a little of everything in order to tell the story. If I could put my finger on just one thing I gained from my Bethel education, it would be learning how to think about what I observe and then tell the story. My liberal arts education prepared me for that.”
You would get no argument on that from Duane Goossen ’78, Topeka, who graduated with a degree in peace studies and religion with a minor in industrial arts. He went home to Goessel and started his own construction company. Then he decided to run for state representative from his district and served in that capacity from 1983-97 before getting a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Kansas governor Bill Graves appointed Goossen, a fellow Republican, as state budget director. When current governor Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, succeeded Graves, she kept Goossen in his same position. He also serves as state secretary of administration.
At Bethel, Goossen says, he “learned how to learn and how to think about things. Both [being] a legislator and working on budgeting have carried me over a wide range of topics. Knowing how to weigh in and how to work with people, how to think about different topics and how to integrate them, has been very important.”
When he was a student at Bethel, the peace studies program was still fairly new and focused a lot on conflict resolution (conflict analysis, etc.) – “useful in about any job,” Goossen says. “State government is about managing conflict. Government in general is about trying to figure out how, say, 2.7 million people – the population of Kansas – can live together in a reasonable way.”
Like Kaiser, Goossen had no idea what career path he would follow when he was a student. Like Wedel, he followed his interests, which, he says, “gave me excellent preparation to go in a whole variety of directions.” After he had served as state representative for a while, he realized he had found his career – he wanted to keep working in public office of some kind. “It was something I enjoyed. I got to think about lots of different topics and meet lots of different kinds of people, and I find that fun.
“My Bethel College education gave me a very important foundation,” Goossen says. “Although my career path has differed from what I envisioned as a student, the knowledge, conflict resolution skills and personal relationships that I developed at Bethel have helped me all along the way.”
It’s obvious that any number of Bethel alumni would agree with him.