In the News

Hesston College remembers Wilma Friesen

The Hesston College community mourns with the Paul Friesen family in the death of his wife, Wilma (Wenger) Friesen, on Friday, March 9, just two days shy of her 94th birthday.

Paul is a revered emeritus faculty member in art, who also started the art program in 1956. Wilma was constant in her support of whatever Paul needed to do for his art, his program and his students. At the 2008 dedication of the Friesen Center for Visual Arts, named in Paul and Wilma’s honor, Paul stated, “I give her [Wilma] a tremendous amount of credit for the things she had to put up with and the things she had to do. In spite of all that, she continually gave me encouragement.”

Wilma was a 1944 graduate of Hesston College, as well as four of her six children – Kelvin Friesen ’73, Jan (Friesen) ’75 Roth West, Gregg Friesen ’78 and Jennifer (Friesen) ’84 LeFevre – and several grandchildren. Her grandson Jaecy Friesen is a flight instructor with Hesston College Aviation, son Kelvin is the Board of Directors chair and daughter Jennifer is a former physical education faculty member and coach.

Visitation will be 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 17, at Hesston Mennonite Church, followed by a memorial service at 4 p.m.

Our prayers go with the Friesen family in the days and weeks to come.

Famed food service director remembered

Emil Yoder, a cook in Food Service from 1952-58 and director of Food Service from 1963-78, passed away Monday, March 12, 2018, in Glendale, Ariz., at the age of 90.

Yoder is fondly remembered for his cinnamon rolls, which were always met with rave reviews. During the college’s centennial celebration in 2009, Emil prepared cinnamon rolls, along with his wife Minerva and Bob Nunemacher, who succeeded Emil as food service director, for the college’s weekend guests. He is also remembered for switching from family-style meals to buffet-style dining in 1968 following a food services seminar at Central Michigan University, and saving the college $40,000 in the first year of the change, the equivalent of more than $290,000 today.

A passage in A School on the Prairie: A Centennial History of Hesston College 1909-2009, by John Sharp described Emil’s path to Hesston:

“Emil, appreciated by the thousands of students he served, was recruited to Hesston in 1952 by Business Manager Dan Kauffman. His cooking career had started in Civilian Public Service in Colorado, where Pearl Hershberger Rodgers asked the nineteen-year-old ‘green’ Amish farm boy to serve in the kitchen. He was then transferred to Mennonite Central Committee headquarters in Akron, Pennsylvania, where Edna Byler took him under her wing and taught him more about cooking and about managing a kitchen. When Dan Kauffman asked Byler whom he could hire for Hesston’s kitchen, Byler immediately recommended Emil. Emil cooked for Hesston students for six years during the ‘family style’ days….After six years, Emil and Minerva left to farm near Kalona, Iowa, with Dan Kauffman’s parting words to consider: ‘You’ll never be happy on the farm.’ Kauffman turned out to be right. The Yoders returned to Hesston in 1962 and bought a nearly ‘dead’ Hesston Café on Main Street…Within months they had won a loyal clientele, turned the business around, and were making a profit. A year-and-a-half later, in 1963, President [Tillman] Smith asked Emil to manage the college food services. The reluctant pair became willing when their ‘fleece’ laid before God was quickly answered: if someone offered to buy the café soon, they would sell. Within a week the offer came.”

Yoder is survived by his wife, Minerva Yoder ’48, and sons Keith Yoder ’72 and Royce Yoder ’74.

A Celebration of Life service will be at 10 a.m., Saturday, April 7, at Trinity Mennonite Church in Glendale, Ariz.

New scholarship focused on students with disabilities

A new institutional scholarship at Hesston College will benefit students with disabilities and special challenges, enabling and encouraging them to participate fully in academic and student life.

The Paul E. and Vesta L. Gingerich Scholarship Fund has been added to the college’s more than 100 endowed scholarships as a tribute to the experience that the Gingeriches and their four children – all Hesston graduates – received and enjoyed. The scholarship was set with a special focus on students with disabilities as two of the Gingerich children were born with a gene that caused dwarfism. Despite the extra challenges with which they were faced, both flourished socially and academically.

Paul and Vesta passed away in 2014 and 2016 respectively, and the fund was established through their estate.

The family noted that the scholarship is not limited just to tuition needs, but may also be distributed to help with other costs, such as tutoring, classroom assistance and technology support.

Anyone interested in giving to The Paul E. and Vesta L. Gingerich Scholarship Fund can contribute online and note the gift’s intention in the memo field.

Faculty members recognized as leaders in Kansas higher education

The Kansas Independent College Association (KICA) proudly announced the selection of twenty Kansas college faculty members who have been identified as the future leaders of Kansas higher education. Two Hesston College faculty members, Amy Birdsell, aviation, and Heidi Hochstetler, ACESS director, are among those recognized.

Together the twenty recipients will comprise the second class of participants in KICA’s Aspiring Campus Leaders Academy. The Academy is the outgrowth of several years of conversation about the lack of high quality training opportunities targeted for those in academics, not administration, at smaller, private colleges like the member KICA institutions. The Academy will feature learning opportunities-focused tactical tools such as budgeting, governance, data trends, hiring, faculty evaluation tools and more.

Birdsell has been teaching at Hesston College since 2005. A graduate of Hesston’s aviation program, she has a master’s in aeronautics from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach, Fla.) and an undergraduate degree from MidAmerica Nazarene University.

“I choose to teach at Hesston College because of the strong community of colleagues and the joy of helping student succeed in aviation,” said Birdsell.

Hochstetler has been director of Hesston’s ACCESS tutoring lab and teaches writing courses since 2013. A graduate of Hesston College, she earned an undergraduate degree in English and language arts with an education endorsement and a master’s degree in education with emphasis on curriculum and instruction and an English as a Second Language endorsement from Doane College (Crete, Neb.).

“I enjoy the connections I get to make with students as they increase their knowledge, hone new skills and wrestle with difficult ideas,” said Hochstetler. “It’s such a reward to see the small successes that lead to the big payoff at the end.”

“At Kansas’ independent colleges, we know that our most important job by far is to provide a vibrant, relevant, high-quality education to each and every student that enters our doors,” said Matt Lindsey, KICA president. “To invest in the future leadership of our member institutions is to invest in their students, and our communities as a whole.”

KICA develops and enhances the competitive standing of its 19 member independent, non-profit, regionally accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and strives to assure opportunity and choice in higher education for all students.

Bel Canto Singers spring break tour will head east

Hesston College’s premier vocal ensemble, the Bel Canto Singers, will travel east for a spring break tour March 18 to 25 with 10 planned performances in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and South Dakota.

The 29-voice mixed chamber choir, under the direction of Dr. Russell Adrian, will present a program entitled “Living Water,” which is inspired by biblical images of water that flow through the old and new testaments. The program features a cappella works, selections with organ or piano and special music by soloists and small ensembles.

In some locations, the Bel Canto concert will be a collaboration with choirs from local Mennonite high schools.

The tour itinerary includes:

• Sunday, March 18, 10:30 a.m., Weavers Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, Va.
• Sunday, March 18, 3 p.m., Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, Va.
• Monday, March 19, Lancaster Mennonite School, Lancaster, Pa.
• Monday, March 19, 7 p.m., Blossom Hill Mennonite Church, Lancaster, Pa.
• Tuesday, March 20, 7 p.m., Crown Hill Mennonite Church, Rittman, Ohio, with the Central Christian Varsity Singers
• Wednesday, March 21, 9:30 a.m., Central Christian High School, Kidron, Ohio
• Wednesday, March 21, 7 p.m., West Clinton Mennonite Church, Wauseon, Ohio
• Thursday, March 22, 11 a.m., Greencroft Goshen Community Center, Goshen, Ind.
• Thursday, March 22, 7 p.m., Waterford Mennonite Church, Goshen, Ind.
• Friday, March 23, 7 p.m., Iowa Mennonite School, Kalona, Iowa, with the Iowa Mennonite School Concert Choir
• Sunday, March 25, 9:30 a.m., Salem Mennonite Church, Freeman, S.D.
• Tuesday, March 27, 7 p.m., Hesston Mennonite Church, Hesston, Kan.

The 2017-18 year marks the 34th season for the Bel Canto Singers. The group carries out ambitious concert and touring schedules annually. Recent juried appearances have included performances for VOCES8, Chanticleer, the King’s Singers, Charles Bruffy and the Rose Ensemble.

Conference equips participants with skills to lead and inspire change

Hesston College hosted its annual Anabaptist Vision and Discipleship Series (AVDS) conference Feb. 23 to 25. The theme, “Before the Unthinkable Happens: Confronting our Role in Injustice,” had a focus on dismantling the injustices that surround us in an effort to change the situations that cause unavoidable tragedies to happen.

More than 400 people, including Hesston College students, pastors, congregants and church and community leaders from across the country participated in the weekend’s programming.

In the Friday night keynote plenary address, Dr. Drew G. I. Hart and Kansas Leadership Center (KLC) faculty Adrion Roberson, spoke on the theme of “Stayed on Freedom: A Theology for Confronting Systemic Injustice as Beloved Community.”

Roberson opened the event with his discussion on joining the four KLC leadership competencies – manage self, diagnose the situation, energize others and intervene skillfully – with faith. He also touched upon the idea of adaptive challenges.

“One thing about adaptive thinking,” Roberson said, “is it forces us to have to look at things from another person’s perspective, another faction.”

Roberson shared stories from the Kansas City, Kansas, community in which he lives and where he is pastor of Berean Community Church, an area he described as “the Nineveh of the state of Kansas.”

“Jesus must be at the center despite the challenges of societal injustices,” Roberson said. “My role is to get you to see these adaptive challenges through the lense of injustice using biblical principles.”

Dr. Hart, an author, activist and professor at Messiah College (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) followed Roberson and shared his experiences as assistant professor of theology and his work mentoring youth as a pastor.

Hart’s message also centered on the idea of shalom, God’s people living in harmony together. Hart noted current events such as the #metoo movement and Black Lives Matter as those calling for justice. Jesus brings a stronger everlasting justice, Hart noted.

“A theology for doing justice must have a vision of where it is going,” Hart said. “If we can embody the way of Jesus, a life that practices justice, confronts systems, prioritizes the vulnerable, loves rather than destroys their enemies and embodies God’s future for us in the here and now, then we have begun to understand a Jesus-shaped scriptural theology for doing justice.”

Hart and Roberson both challenged the audience to incorporate faith and justice, looking to Jesus for guidance.

“So let’s not just be hearers but also doers of the word, yielding to the Spirit and keeping our eyes stayed on freedom,” Hart said.

Saturday’s programming had participants working in small “Change Agent” groups to engage with one another to develop meaningful responses and strategies for change.

Sessions throughout the day continued to connect the KLC competencies and faith with reflections by local theologians and pastors including Hart; Kevass Harding, pastor of Dell Rose United Methodist Church, Wichita; Lois Harder pastor of Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church, Wichita, and Michele Hershberger, Hesston College Bible professor.

Saturday evening, the Ted &. Company show “Discovery: A Comic Lament,” further emphasized the themes of injustice and oppression by highlighting the Doctrine of Discovery, the legal framework that justifies theft of land and oppression of indigenous people.

The structure of the conference allowed participants to engage on social topics of importance to them and their contexts, as well as practice the leadership competencies with which they were presented.

“This weekend gave me a better understanding of what leadership is and how I can be a leader for change,” said Ivonne Ledesma, a Hesston College student from Wichita, Kan. “I found the courage I need to be able to stand up and speak up.”

Bach Festival to include recital by international concert pianist

The Hesston College Music Department will host the first Bach Festival for pianists, organists and music lovers in the region on March 9 and 10. The festival will center on the works, life and times of the great Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach.

Kicking off the festivities will be a recital by Frank Huang, assistant professor of piano at Miami University of Ohio (Oxford), an international concert pianist, at 7 p.m., Friday, March 9, at Hesston Mennonite Church on the Hesston College campus.

Described by “New York Concert Review” as a “thoughtful and accomplished performer” and that his playing was “impressive for its maturity and refinement,” Huang has gained international recognition for his artistry and technical command.

Huang’s performances have taken him to notable venues throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, Gijon International Piano Festival in Spain, and St. Martin in the Fields in London. His concerts have also been featured on radio and television broadcasts in various cities, most recently, Italy’s RaiRadio 3.

Saturday’s Bach Festival and Organ Competition will feature young keyboardists age 18 and under who will compete in an Elementary Division (age 9 and under), Junior Division (ages 10 to 13) and Senior Division (age 14 to 18). The entrants perform one Bach work for judges who will offer written constructive critiques. Five finalists from each division will advance to a final public performance round at 2 p.m., in the Hesston Mennonite Church.

Three finalists from each division will receive prize recognition. A special scholarship award to continue study with Hesston College’s internationally recognized faculty will be awarded to the top high school senior participating in the competition.

University of Tampa organist next up in organ series concert

Continuing to bring quality performing art from around the world to south central Kansas, the next concert in the 2017-18 Andover Organ Series will feature organist, Dr. Ryan Hebert at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 13, at Hesston Mennonite Church on the Hesston College campus. The concert is free and open to the public.

Dr. Hebert is associate professor of music, director of choral studies and university organist at the University of Tampa (Fla.). As an organist, he has performed extensively in the United States as well as in England, Germany and the Netherlands. His program will feature music by Bedard, Bach, Bridge, Handel, Martinson and Vierne.

Hebert is an active member of the American Guild of Organists, a church musician and a Carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America. He earned a D.M.A. from Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge), a M.M. from the University of Kansas (Lawrence) and a B.M. from the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa).

This third concert in the 2017-18 Andover Organ Series season is a continuation of the tenth anniversary celebration of the installation of the Andover organ at Hesston Mennonite Church.

Andover organs are built by the Andover Organ Company of Methuen, Mass. The company builds and restores mechanical action pipe organs, and since its founding in 1948, has restored more than 500 organs across the United States, as well as building new instruments, including the Opus 116 pipe organ, installed at Hesston Mennonite Church on the Hesston College campus in 2007.

Funded by the John Ernest Foundation, the Andover Organ Series at Hesston College features organists from across the world.

Raffle for big ticket items to benefit the student experience

Hesston College is offering the chance to win raffle prizes for a lineup of exciting prizes, including several big ticket technology items, with proceeds that will benefit the student experience.

The raffle is an annual event that is part of the National Arizona Golf Benefit in Glendale, Ariz., that will take place March 10. You do not have to golf or be present to win raffle items.

Raffle prizes include:

• Microsoft Surface Pro – Platinum; Core M, 128GB with black type cover ($700 value)
• Traeger Lil’ Tex Elite 22 pellet grill/smoker ($740 value)
• Fitbit Ionic Smartwatch ($325 value)
• Samsung 55″ LED Smart 4K Ultra HD TV Class (54.6″ Diag.), 2160p ($765 value)
• Larry Fitzgerald signed Arizona Cardinals jersey (Priceless value for future Hall of Famer)
• Golf clubs (value TBD)
• Restaurant gift cards: The Melting Pot, Abuelo’s, The Capital Grille, Red Lobster ($400 value)

Raffle tickets for those not golfing must be purchased no later than 1 p.m., on Friday, March 9. Tickets are $5 for one ticket or $50 for 15 tickets, and can be purchased online.

Prizes will be presented at the golf event. Prize winners are responsible for shipping expenses if they aren’t available to pick up their prizes.