around the green – campus

Thresher Awards presented at final spring convo

The annual awards convocation, held each spring at Bethel College, includes recognition of students who excel academically in various disciplines, along with faculty transitions and a “Helping Hand” award to one staff or faculty member. This year’s event took place May 11.

As he opened the convocation, vice president for academic affairs Brad Born noted that the annual gathering emphasizes “values that are central to our identity as an academic community” – service, integrity and academic excellence.

“In our celebration of noteworthy individual awards, may we be mindful of the many unnamed but nevertheless worthy expressions of scholarship, service and integrity that we have witnessed in others this year,” Born added.

One highlight of the convocation is the presentation of Thresher Awards to seniors who make outstanding contributions in their academic fields. This year, Threshers were given in English and the sciences.

The 2007 Thresher Award recipients were Adam Gaeddert, Hutchinson, for English; Jeff Janzen, Fresno, Calif., for natural sciences (with biology and chemistry as supporting departments); and Emma Lewis, Newton, for psychology.

(For a full listing of the awards presented go to www.bethelks.edu/news.)  by Melanie Zuercher

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New arrival joins nursing department’s family of simulators

As Bethel College was welcoming returning alumni as well as families of graduating seniors for the annual Alumni and Commencement Weekend, another new arrival made its debut in the nursing department.

Gregg Schroeder ’92, director of Bethel’s nursing program, introduced visitors to SimBaby®, the newest computerized mannequin. The simulator has all the characteristics of a six-month-old female baby.

“SimBaby® has full monitoring capabilities to give our students the experience of working with an infant in [the Intensive Care Unit],” Schroeder said. “They can do an EKG, take vital signs, start an IV, do assessments of [typical] head issues or code it like on ‘ER.’ SimBaby® has breath, heart and bowel sounds. It can turn cyanotic – the blue tinge around the mouth that indicates a low oxygen level. It cries, coos, coughs and has all kinds of vocalizations. The only thing it won’t do is try to crawl out of its crib.”

SimBaby® joins the Bethel nursing department’s family of computerized simulators intended to cover a wide variety of medical scenarios. These include SimMan® as well as Noelle, a birthing simulator, with the accompanying PreemieBaby®. Only a handful of baccalaureate-level nursing programs in the state of Kansas have this kind of computer technology to train junior-level nursing students beginning clinical rotations.

SimBaby®’s purchase was enabled by a $20,000 grant from the K.T. Wiedemann Foundation, along with several individual donor gifts, said Sondra Bandy Koontz ’70, Bethel’s vice president for advancement.  by Melanie Zuercher

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Unruh presented with nursing Outstanding Alumnus Award

The Bethel Deaconess Hospital/Bethel College Nursing Alumni Association presented its Outstanding Alumnus Award to Lynn Unruh ’74, Orlando, Fla., at the annual Alumni Association banquet May 19.

Unruh is an associate professor in the health services administration program in the Department of Health Professions, College of Health and Public Affairs, at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. From August 2006-August 2007, she was in Princeton, N.J., on a year-long Robert Wood Johnson Foundation fellowship in nursing policy and philanthropy.

Unruh received her diploma and license in nursing from the Bethel Deaconess Hospital nursing program in 1973 and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Illinois in 1988. She earned a B.A. in economics from the University of Illinois, an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Notre Dame, and Licensed Health Care Risk Manager credentials from the University of Central Florida.by Melanie Zuercher

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Student group serves in Greensburg

On May 19, a day after finals ended and a day before Commencement, when most students were cleaning out their dorm rooms in preparation for leaving campus for the summer, 12 students along with one admissions staff member and one student’s father, got up early, drove about 100 miles to Greensburg and spent a Saturday working with Mennonite Disaster Service.

Although their rooms might have been classified as disaster areas, what the students found in Greensburg was obviously far worse. May 4, an EF-5 tornado virtually leveled the town of 1,600, killing 10 of its residents.

At the site of Greensburg Mennonite Church (flattened along with every other church in the town), the MDS staff directed the Bethel group several miles out of town to spend the day walking a farmer’s wheat field and cleaning up debris so that he would be able to harvest safely later in the season.

For Parker Stanley, a music education major from Liberty, Mo., the trip to Greensburg was a welcome change of pace.

“It’s easy for me to get distracted in college with practicing, scheduling gigs, doing homework, attending concerts, getting ready for performances,” he said. “It’s a rejuvenation of your spirit to help somebody out, particularly those who have experienced a tragedy.”

In addition to Stanley, other students who made the trip were sophomores Will Peterson, Bonner Springs, Nicole Schmidt, Newton, and Kyle Unruh, Goessel; juniors Emily Piper, Newton, Jennifer Regier, Elbing, Paul Regier, Newton, and Matthew Root, Topeka; and seniors Jordan Penner, Reedley, Calif., Melinda Stucky, Goessel, Aaron Voth, Hesston, and Moon Yu, Hesston; along with admissions counselor Lowell Wyse and Chuck Schmidt ’80, Newton, father of Nicole.

“For me, it’s a reminder that we’re part of a larger community of beings,” said Jordan Penner. “Things like this help me remember what we all share, and that I’m just one small part of all that.”  by Adam Gaeddert

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