Morningside Connect

Morningside College Student Government President, Jack O’Brien, has been involved on campus since day one.

He started out his freshman year as a Freshman Representative on the Senate. The following year he was the Student Advocate. This year he leads student government as the president. However, that is not all he is involved in.

Jack also serves as the Sinfonia Fraternity’s secretary and is a resident assistant in the Plex. Outside of campus he is the Woodbury County Democrats treasurer.

During his time at Morningside College, Jack has made multiple changes on campus. He was heavily involved with starting a Transfer Student Union to help transfer students transition on to campus and feel more at home. This was done in an effort to help lower the transfer student drop out rates. There has also been a boost in groups on campus. The organizations available to join jumped from 27 to 42.

“Doing this job, I think this has been the biggest impact I have had on campus,” said Jack. Being in a position of authority and having this lucky position of getting to talk to students and articulate them to the board, faculty, and staff.”

Jack was also involved with the grand opening of the Krone Advising Center and the Buhler Rohlfs Hall. He was one of the selected people who got to cut the opening ribbon.

“That was very cool to be apart of that aspect of Morningside’s history, opening the first building in how many decades,” said Jack.

Jack’s days are filled with meetings, board meetings, classes, homework, work, and other involvements. Even when he gets the chance for some down time he still tries to make that time as productive as possible.

“Going to board meetings with the board of directors this last semester was really inspiring,” said Jack. It was really cool to represent something I really cared about.“

Despite his busy schedule, he has made the Dean’s List every semester. He also earned the opportunity to travel to D.C. for the summer of 2014 for an internship with the Senator Harkin. There he worked on labor and women’s issues.

“I got to meet nearly all of the senators last summer,” said Jack. “D.C. was really positive and productive.”

Jack has been involved with politics in multiple ways since he was six-years-old. It started out with him stapling signs and has grown into more since then.

“I remember when I was like six my Dad took me to campaign with him for Gore,” said Jack.

After graduation in May of 2016, Jack plans to attend law school. After he receives his law degree, he wants to work with child protection or sexual assault cases.

Many couples choose to have their engagement or wedding pictures taken on the lush green space at Morningside College. Rosanne Lienhard Plante and Chad Plante had their engagement photos taken in May 2014 on campus. They were wed June 21, 2014.

On January 10, 2015, their engagement pictures featuring Morningside College’s campus were selected by ‘The Learned Bride’ website to be featured on their engagement page. The website showcases wedding and engagement photography that shows the beauty of a college campus or museum. They also feature love stories that have a connection with educational experiences.

“I selected the Morningside campus for our engagement photos,” said Rosanne, “because it is ‘home’ for me and because of the beauty of the campus in the springtime.”

Rosanne graduated from Morningside College in 1993 with a degree in history. Both she and Chad are college instructors at Western Iowa Tech. She is the lead instructor/advisor for the paralegal studies program and Chad is the lead instructor/advisor for the wind energy program.

Click Here to go to The Learn Bride website.

Morningside College Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Heather L. Reid, will be giving her shoptalk entitled Philostratus’ Gymnasticus: The Ethics of an Athletic Aesthetic Thursday, January 22 at 11:30 AM.

The lecture will be live online at that time.

For more information about her lecture, Click Here, to visit her page.

Let us know what you think of it as you watch it!

“To me, being a Morningside Mustang means putting forth a good attitude, going above and beyond expectations, and being a go-getter,” said Alex.

As graduation for him is just around the corner, we look back at his time here at Morningside College and he has shown through his academic career what it takes to be a Mustang.

Alex has had the honor of getting his photographs published in two different editions of the Morningside Kiosk. He has grown his experience and knowledge by attending WPPI, Wedding and Portrait Photographers International Conference.

“I had the opportunity,” said Alex, “to showcase my photography work to a professional who provided beneficial feedback.”

Along with WPPI, Alex has had the opportunity to attend photo trips that have been offered by photography classes and Photo Club. These trips help to expand portfolios and photo archives.

Besides the opportunities, one of the main reasons Alex chose to come to Morningside College was because of the teachers and staff. “They displayed an interest in developing students to achieve high standards,” said Alex “and create valuable relationships through networking.”

Morningside College Alumni in Japan had an informal gathering on January 6 at TGI Friday in Shibuya, Tokyo. Nami Toyotani, a 2003 Morningside graduate, organized this gathering. She chose the location for its American atmosphere and food.

The idea of gathering with other Morningside College graduates in the Japan area came from Yumiko Guelcher.

“When I said let’s get together with other Morningside College graduates in the Tokyo area, Nami volunteered to contact everyone,” said Yumiko.

Yumiko is the wife of Morningside professor Dr. Greg Guelcher. He teaches world, Asian, and Middle Eastern history, imperialism, and Vietnam history. Yumiko used to teach in the Sioux City School Districts as an ESL teacher, which she did for ten years. In August 2014, she took on a new adventure as a full time Japanese teacher at an international school, the American School in Japan, located in Tokyo.

Thanks to the age of technology and social media she has been able to stay in touch with many Morningside Alumni living in Japan.

Within the first three months, she met other Morningside Alumni that live in Japan, Tomomi Konno, Akira Tanaka, Kana Maeno, and Nami Toyotani.

“Nami Toyotani was always good with people at Morningside and she still is. I think she was one of the officers of the International Students Society at Morningside,” said Yumiko.

“My daughter Alyssa, grew up with many of the Japanese Morningside students, as Greg and I often invited them over to our house fro Japanese dinners and conversations,” said Yumiko. “Nami has been like Alyssa’s big sister.”

The ages of attendees ranged from the Class of 2003 to the Class of 2009. “We all shared fond memories of our time at Morningside College,” said Yumiko, “and talked about mutual friends, professors, classes. And the fund things they did.”

“For me it was neat to watch these alumni, many of whom came to Morningside at age 18, now matured and independent. They have their completed degrees, started careers, and continued to explore and build their own lives. The experience at Morningside seems to have given them a strong foundation for that!” said Yumiko.

 It has been a winter wonderland on campus these past few weeks. As you can see the above picture of Dimmitt, taken quite a few decades ago, still holds the same loved resemblance to the current Dimmitt that many students call home. Below you will find a current pictures of Dimmitt covered in snow.

If you have any picture of Dimmitt that you would like to share, please do! We would love to see them and feature them in next month’s newsletter!

The answer for last month’s trivia question, what building first housed the library on campus when the campus first opened, was Charles City Hall. The library has been moved to three different buildings. The first was Charles City Hall, then to the second floor of Lewis Hall, and final it moved into the library.

Did you get it right? Let us know!

As years go by, plans change and people move all over. We like to stay in touch with our Morningside family. Feel free to let us know what you have been up to or how life is going, we would love to get connected!

Feel free to comment below to let us know or update your information here: https://www.morningside.edu/alumni-and-friends/contact-us/update-contact-info/

Chances are, at some point in your professional career you will be approached by college students or others, either directly or indirectly, interested in pursuing careers in your field of study.  It’s sometimes difficult to know how to guide young people in the right direction.  What kind of information should you share?  How much should you do for students?

As a college alum, the best advice you can offer to students is the value of your experience!  Think back to your own thoughts, fears, and regrets.  Can you think of a time when you passed up a great opportunity that you later regretted?  Were there things in your college experience you credit with getting you where you are today?  How did your experience shape your career choices?  For example, it may be difficult for a student to understand how being the president of the Climb Club could help them become an effective educator,  how participating in choir could affect their career in business, or how being a collegiate athlete could lead to becoming a nurse manager.

In addition, talk about the types of things you participated in or the college decisions you made and how those impacted your relationships.  Maybe there are some relationships you still have today?  How have those impacted you? These are great experiences to share with students, as well as a helpful nudge for students into making decisions that will impact their career and their lives in a positive way.

Whether you are at a basketball game, theatrical event, or just back on campus once a year for Homecoming, as you connect with alumni, faculty, staff, Alumni Relations, Career Services, and students of the college, a simple invitation that indicates that you are open to sharing your experience with students will go a long way.

Next month, I will offer some tips on the appropriate way to provide networking contacts or job leads to students.

Stacie

Here we are – two weeks into the New Year! If you are like most of us, you made New Year’s resolutions in an effort to do things differently in the coming year. It’s an important exercise.

I am a strong believer that we must look back in order to look forward. I don’t care to be singularly focused on looking in the rear view mirror. Let me share with you why.

As the director of alumni relations at Morningside College, I have a foot planted in the past, but I need to be moving forward at the same time. Looking back and looking forward. Sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it? It really isn’t, as long as we understand the need to have both in some sort of balance.

Last June, President Reynders created strategic planning task forces across the college, asking us to look at what we’ve been doing in the past and then determine what we should be doing in the future. As our small alumni relations group grappled with where we have been and where we are going, I was guided by what Steve Jobs, the founder and chair of Apple, once observed:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

So as the alumni office looked to the future, it was important to those of us on the committee to have input from alumni, students, staff and friends of the college. We asked questions such as the following: What kinds of programs should we have in the future? What programs for young alumni, retired alumni and everyone in between? What should they look like? What are we doing to build a strong alumni base for the future with programs for current students? What should we be doing? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the office? To say the least, it was a sobering yet exciting exercise!!

We haven’t landed on exactly what the task force’s final recommendations might be, other than to say we will be much stronger and more focused on advancing the cause of building relationships at Morningside College. While we are most proud of our past accomplishments, we must continue to “look through the windshield” at the future. It cannot happen without you! With your continued help, support and prayers – it will happen!

Gene Ambroson

Director of Alumni Relations