Story Author: Andrew Jenner
Recent CJP grad produces documentary humanizing Syrian refugees, returns to campus as teaching fellow
By the time Myriam Aziz arrived from Lebanon to start her master’s degree at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) in the fall of 2015, the U.S. presidential primary season was already underway. The resettlement of Syrian refugees had become one of its many political footballs, and Aziz was dismayed to hear … More
Alumni help build Assets
With holiday demand on the upswing, The Stroopie Company went to two shifts in early November, allowing them to churn out up to 6,000 Dutch stroopwafels (cinnamon-y, carmel-y goodies best enjoyed with a hot beverage) a week. All six workers running the show at the company’s small production facility in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, are refugees: three … More
A mentor to future doctors and health professionals, biology professor Roman Miller retires after 31 years at EMU
All those years ago, the trajectory of Roman Miller’s young career had seemed so clear. He’d finished undergraduate and master’s degrees in biology and earned a PhD from Kent State University, specializing in male rats’ reproductive biology before landing a research position at the West Virginia University School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology. There, in … More
Runner, leader, speaker, writer: senior Jolee Paden considers the future
Whether you’re playing soccer, cross-country, tennis or golf, a strong core is key. There’s no avoiding it: athletes of all kinds have to work their abs. ABS is a convenient acronym, then, for the weekly Athlete Bible Study that’s begun meeting over lunch on the Eastern Mennonite University campus this semester – and just one … More
One of first to graduate with MA in biomedicine: ‘everything and more’ than expected
Two years ago, after earning an undergraduate biology degree from the University of Mary Washington, Qaiser Ahmed was looking for a graduate program that could give him extra preparation before pursuing his ambition to become a dentist. At the same time, Eastern Mennonite University was preparing to launch a new MA in biomedicine program designed … More
Thousands throng to new music festival made possible by many folks with ties to EMU
From a headlining act to the bike-powered recycling effort, from a group of staff and volunteers to the tent distributing Menno Tea to hundreds of friends and alumni, EMU and its graduates helped make the second annual Red Wing Roots Music Festival a success. Close to 3,000 people attended each day of the festival, July … More
Konrad Wert, a.k.a. Possessed by Paul James, draws spotlight from Billboard charts, NPR and NY Times before returning (yet again) to EMU
It was 1994 when Konrad Wert ’01 arrived at Eastern Mennonite University for the first time, and he didn’t stay long. Iffy about college from the start, he left after his freshman year for a voluntary service term in Washington D.C. Once that ended, he returned to EMU, stayed a bit, then departed again to volunteer … More
The history of the Washington Community Scholars’ Center
In the fall of 1976, Phil Baker-Shenk arrived in Washington D.C., intending to advance the causes of international human rights and nuclear disarmament through an internship with the Friends Committee on National Legislation. However, as an 18-year-old college undergrad at the bottom of the organization’s rungs, he found himself shuffled to its underfunded and understaffed Native … More
CRNA for Anne Parson …Another rung on the nursing ladder, with hospital job awaiting her in 2012*
The small class size, and the way the students in it looked out for each other during the 18-month nursing program, figure high on the list of reasons why Anne Parson ’09 enjoyed her experience in the RN to BS degree in nursing program at EMU’s Lancaster (Pa.) campus. “I’m a small-group, ‘homey-feeling’ kind of … More
Why EMU has a heart for mental healthcare
The first night at Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia, was horribly memorable. Emory Layman, assigned by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to work as an attendant at the mental hospital during World War II, was shown to a bed in a cramped office, just off the noisy ward full of patients, many of them shackled … More
Dorcas Stoltzfus Morrow: From missionary doctor to mother of five to psychiatrist
Every inch of tabletop space in Dorcas Stoltzfus Morrow’s apartment is covered with loose papers and three-ring binders, spillover from the crammed bookshelves that surround her living room at Landis Homes in Lititz, Pa. One of the first women to complete a full pre-med program at EMC, Morrow enrolled in the fall of 1956 at … More
Collins Center: In support of abused children
The way things used to work here went something like this: A child might mention something suggesting sexual abuse to a parent or a teacher. The child might be asked to talk about it with their guidance counselor, and then a social worker. A police officer would come ask questions about what happened. An investigator … More