Quicknotes | march 2017

Basketballs, volleyballs, and other sporting equipment were nowhere to be seen in Iles P.E. Center on February 23 as students got down to the business of business. During an intense three-hour midday window, more than 75 organizations gathered in the gymnasium where hundreds of upperclassmen came to meet potential employers, as well as graduate school representatives from Southern and sister Adventist universities. This marked the first time Southern’s Health Careers Fair, Meet the Firms, and Graduate Schools Fair were combined into a single event.

Lisa Kuhlman, assistant professor in the School of Business, receives both personal and professional fulfillment from helping organize the event.

“One of my greatest joys is connecting people,” Kuhlman said. “Every semester, recruiters complement our students for their preparation and research on the firms, and they tell me how much they look forward to attending our event.”

Participating organizations are listed at southern.edu/meetthefirms, and a collection of photos from the event is available online.

-Michael Steinke, junior marketing major, contributed to this article.

Southern is hosting 10 academic camps this summer, June 5-7, bringing high school students to the university for an opportunity to explore or sharpen their vocational focus. Each three-day camp includes a spiritual component as well, modeling for students how Adventist education facilitates the marriage of career and calling.

Approximately 80 students participated in last year’s summer camps, coming from as far away as Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Many attend Adventist academies and other private schools, but almost half have public education and homeschool backgrounds.

Campers studied chemistry, computing, English, filmmaking, photography, and physics/engineering while enjoying a variety of recreation activities, both on and off campus, in the evenings. Each of those topics will be offered again this year, alongside four new camps: Civil War history, graphic design/printmaking, social work/missions, and an honors institute.

Melissa Garbi, a senior at Wisconsin Academy, traveled to Southern last summer for film camp.

“It was fun to meet like-minded people and learn about something we all had an interest in,” Garbi said. “The atmosphere was inspiring and convinced me that I could really have a career doing what I love!”

Francine Brown, mother of twin high school seniors in Tampa, Florida, sent both her boys to Southern for a snapshot of university life.

“I thought it would help shape their decision for a college home and major,” Brown said. “They gained hands-on experience and were able to network with professors and peers. Plus, the price was excellent.”

Registration, including all food, materials, and activity expenses, is $150 for day students and $200 for those requiring housing. To keep costs this low, Southern is subsidizing the camps, which means no additional discounts will be offered. However, some students have secured sponsorships from their home church or stayed with relatives in the Collegedale area to minimize expenses.

For campers coming from outside the Chattanooga area, vans will provide free transportation both to and from Southern at centralized pick-up locations in Asheville, Atlanta, Nashville, and Knoxville on June 4 and 7. For more information, call 423.236.2781 or visit southern.edu/camps.

It’s been nearly 100 years since the 19^th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920. Tennessee’s ratification was the last needed to change the U.S. Constitution, and Chattanooga’s Council for Women, a group organized by current Mayor Andy Berke, has asked area educators and nonprofits for help honoring this milestone anniversary. Southern is playing a big role in that celebration.

History students from Southern, Covenant College, and the University of Tennessee Chattanooga (UTC) are collecting oral histories of women who have made the city a better place to live. The goal is to archive 200 stories on the UTC website. Southern students working under professors Lisa (Clark) Diller, ’96, PhD, and Mark Peach, PhD -- with additional assistance from campus librarians Pamela (Foard) Jansen, attended, and Jessica Spears -- have already conducted 60 interviews, including 10 with connections to campus either as faculty, staff, or alumni.

“We want to preserve their stories for posterity through the archives and tell some of their stories in written form as well for the centennial celebration in 2020,” Diller said.

This project, five years in the making, also seeks to research and tell the stories of 30 deceased women in the area, develop selected narratives into at least one public exhibit, and create a short film on the topic.

Abby Jansen, junior history major, has conducted interviews with three key leaders to the Chattanooga area: Stacy Richardson, the mayor’s chief of staff; Christie Mahn Sell, Hamilton County judge; and Linda Moss Mines, county historian and teacher at Girls Preparatory School.

“Working with prominent women in Chattanooga has allowed me to learn from the community while simultaneously seeking to benefit it by recording these valuable stories,” Jansen said.

Carolyn Runyon, a member of the mayor’s Council for Women, has been impressed in her dealings with Southern students.

“They are conscientious interviewers who have provided hours of interviews that document the rich and vital history of women in Chattanooga,” Runyon said. “They approach difficult topics, such a segregation and inequality, with poise and professionalism.”

-by Erica King, senior public relations and international studies double major

This semester’s Week of Prayer was titled “Radically Chosen” and featured seven student speakers January 30 through February 3. Regardless of how well-known or powerful the adult presenters are during the fall Week of Prayer each year, campus history suggests it’s peer-to-peer messaging that helps bring about the most transformative moments.

Darcee Christensen, junior social work and Bible worker double major, was one of the student speakers for this Week of Prayer and had never preached a sermon before. She attempted several different methods to create an outline for her message, but no matter what she tried, nothing felt right. The Campus Ministries office was supportive throughout this process and gave her a mentor who encouraged Christensen to pray for the individual that Jesus wanted her to reach with her words. She prayed and prayed, but remained unsure throughout most of January.

“Preparing for this was extremely difficult for me; I felt like I was in such a fog,” Christensen said. “But as I spent time with Jesus, He gradually began to piece together each part of the message, bit by bit. He even used a difficult experience to open my eyes to what He wanted me to say. I believe He waited until the last minute to reveal His will so that I would continue to depend on Him.”

Because of the messages shared during Week of Prayer, 75 students came forward asking Jesus to transform their hearts. And the presenters, no doubt, left the experience changed as well.

-by Erica King, senior public relations and international studies double major

In celebration of Southern’s 125^th anniversary, campus leaders looked for an opportunity to honor the institution’s rich history and recognize past, present, and future generations of alumni. As a result, Southern held the inaugural Alumni Generational Pinning Ceremony on February 19 during the Parents Weekend brunch.

During the ceremony, Alumni Relations Director Evonne (Kutzner) Crook, ’79, expressed that all families of students, whether they attended here or not, are a part of the Southern family. As Crook read the Pin Oath, alumni parents presented the generational pin to their students.

Pin Oath: “This pin is a symbol of your shared experience. Wear it as a representation of your family’s legacy and your bond to the Southern family. May this pin serve as a reminder of the tie that binds past, present, and future generations of Southern alumni.”

Southern’s commitment to providing Christ-centered education has spanned more than a century, and for some families, as many as five generations of students have studied here.

Mark McKinney, ’83, MD, is a second-generation alumnus and parent to Caleb McKinney, a senior finance major. Both participated in the pinning ceremony. Mark’s sister, Karen (McKinney) Brown, ’90, and her son, Nikoli, a senior management major, also shared in the event.

The McKinney family connections to Southern go as far back as the 1940s when Mark and Karen’s aunt first attended. It was during Mark’s time at Southern that he met his wife, Board of Trustees member Barbara (Chase) McKinney, ’85, MD.

“The alumni pinning ceremony during Parents Weekend was a special time to remember how important Southern Adventist University has been to our family,” Mark said. “Southern has been an integral part of our lives: preparing us for careers, holding us close to God, and strengthening our family relationships over time. Honoring those memories at the Parents Weekend pinning ceremony was a blessed event.”             

-by Zachary Hagen, junior English and music double major