Published June 18, 2019
Wittenberg Alumni & Friends,
It’s pretty quiet around here. On campus, we have summer school students, Upward Bound students, and visitors here for camps and conferences. We also recently welcomed the Southern Ohio Synod of the ELCA for its annual assembly. Summer projects in Ferncliff and Firestine and other places on campus are well underway. And the HWA project is getting closer to completion. I hope many of you will be back for Homecoming, October 24-27, to celebrate the grand opening.
While most of our students are away from campus for the summer, quite a few are engaged with our alumni. Some are working as interns in your organizations. Some of you are traveling with students to Lesotho. Thank you for the many ways in which you are involved in helping students learn, grow, and change.
Our alumni also do something else – they come back to work at Wittenberg. The latest alumnus to return is Andrew Steele '10, who is our new Assistant Vice President for Advancement and Director of Campaigns. Andrew joins us from the ELCA, and together we will be attending the Churchwide Assembly, August 6-8, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I encourage any alumni in the area to email Andrew (steelea22@wittenberg.edu) in hopes we might be able to connect with you while we are there.
In other news, we will officially be welcoming Michelle Mattson as our new Provost on July 1 and Rebecca Kocher as our new Vice President for Advancement on July 15. Both are excited to connect with our campus and with you, and I am excited to have them join the senior team. I am also pleased by the integrated efforts now underway with regard to programming for our four summer orientation sessions and forthcoming New Student Days, August 15-18.
Wittenberg is, and always will be, a community of learners that goes all in for students. Evidence of this commitment is everywhere, and I want to thank you for continuing to go all in for our students on campus and in the world that awaits them.
Best Regards,
Michael Frandsen, Ph.D.
President
Wittenberg University
Fulbright Winners
Wittenberg has not one, but three students joining the ranks of university scholars who have received prestigious Fulbright awards. Madison Krstich ’19 from Johnstown, Ohio, Katherine Winner ’19 from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Thomas Zabonik ’19 from Westerville, Ohio, have all been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Greek Leadership
Believing that conversation is the first step to prevention, more than 90 students from Wittenberg’s Greek life community discussed sexual assault, abuse, and interpersonal violence at the inaugural Fraternity/Sorority Summit on Prevention held on campus this spring. Participants also completed Green Dot training to learn bystander intervention to help prevent power-based personal violence.
Student Success
Gabrielle Szydlowski' 20, an education major and psychology minor from Twinsburg, Ohio, has been named a Campus Compact 2019 Newman Civic Fellow in a yearlong program that supports the next generation of public problem solvers in their personal, professional, and civic growth.
Faculty Excellence
Powelson Chair of Biology Cathy Pederson ’91, along with her daughters Lily and Kate, received the Warrior Award at the NeuroConnect Summit in Washington, D.C. The family has raised more than $100,000 for research related to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), resulting in five grants to researchers in four countries.
Upon the recommendation of the Faculty Development Board, Sha’Dawn Battle, assistant professor of English, has been chosen to receive the Edith B. and Frank C. Matthies Award. The purpose of the award is “to further the education of selected and worthy teachers and to strengthen the faculty.”
The Faculty Development Board announced that Danny Marous '09, assistant professor of chemistry, is the winner of the Provost’s Award for Outstanding Teaching, which recognizes the highest level of teaching excellence by a visiting or adjunct faculty member at Wittenberg.
#LifeAfterWitt
Derrick Braziel ’09, co-founder of MORTAR, is a 2019 Obama Foundation Fellow. He is among 20 social entrepreneurs from around the world selected in recognition of their commitment to addressing pervasive social and societal issues.
Erin Belanger ’18, a nurse in the Special Care Nursery at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, credits Wittenberg’s well-rounded, liberal arts curriculum with giving her a solid foundation to build upon in her nursing career.
Wittenberg was well represented at the recent Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League Hall of Fame induction ceremony, as Jim Render ’64 and Gary Tranquill ’62 were selected for induction this year.
Meet the Alumni Board
As the governing body of the Wittenberg University Alumni Association, the Alumni Board regularly returns to campus to interact with current students, highlight faculty excellence, foster alumni engagement, support fundraising, and partner with admission in encouraging prospective students to make Wittenberg their college choice. This month's featured board member is Tim McIlvaine '01, who pursued investment banking before earning his MBA from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. Since receiving his post-graduate degree, Tim has worked in management consulting and serves as an associate vice president with Weber Associates in Columbus, Ohio. He currently lives in Upper Arlington with his wife Abbey and their two daughters, Madelyn, 4, and Emersyn, 2.