Morningside Connect

Are you looking to make a difference in someone’s life, while also building your leadership and networking skills?  There are many ways for recent college graduates and alumni to connect with their community, while at the same time continually improving on their own leadership skills, professionalism, and career development.

Can you use your work or personal aptitude to help your community?  Many agencies are looking for professionals who will lend their academic and creative talents in areas such as writing, speaking, advocacy, art, language, landscaping, organization management, etc.  Using your skills to make a positive impact on a community agency will make you feel good while also building a positive image with others.

You can also use your experiences to help current students at your alma mater.  Do you have advice to share, or are you willing to let a student connect with you or observe you at work?  These types of experiences take very little time and effort, but they make an enormous impact on students.  Furthermore, being involved in these ways will help you hone leadership skills, and make you an attractive candidate for advancement.

If you are interested in being contacted by students for these kinds of opportunities, please contact me at hays@morningside.edu.

Stacie Hays

The week leading up to graduation was full of events for the graduates and their families to attend, including Baccalaureate, rehearsal, a celebration at Bob Roe’s Point After, and a dinner at the Marina Inn.

Morningside College class of 2015 walked across the stage May 9 and into the start of their next chapter in life.

Graduation brings on a transition in one’s life. Friendships that have been formed throughout one’s college years will change. Your best friend might not be on the other side of the room sleeping any more or just down the hall for late night conversations. Graduation brings on a transition from being able to see your best friend every day to living miles apart and getting together a few times a year. This is the transition that seniors Kimberly Schroeder and Faith Schmidt are going through.

Faith and Kimberly met during their time on the softball field where mutual interests brought them together. Both of them being pitchers, they got to spend a lot of time together on the field, which soon grew into spending time together off the field too. They became best friends and then roommates. One can hardly find one without the other nearby.

The two of them grew up in similar settings, Faith from a farm in Emmetsburg, Iowa, and Kimberly from a farm in Remsen, Iowa. There, they both learned the value of hard work and responsibility.

Throughout their time living together during their college experience, many hours were spent staying up late talking about life and their strong religious beliefs. Some of their other hobbies together include eating ice cream, watching The Bachelor and Are You The One? on television, and working at Bandits games. They also took a trip to D.C. together. There they visited the monuments and the Holocaust Museum.

Two months before graduation they sat down and formed a bucket list of things they wanted to do together before they graduated. Their list includes restaurants around Sioux City where they had never eaten, rock climbing, visiting the Sioux City Museum, and decorating their graduation caps.

When asked about their pet peeves about each other, the room grew silent. It took them quite a while to think of any.

“She never wears her hair down and she leaves the shower running forever,” said Kimberly.

“When she gets ice cream without me,” said Faith.

They plan to stay as close as possible and visit each other often throughout the years.

Faith received her degree in business administration with an emphasis in accounting and plans to become a CPA. Kimberly received her degree in business and is going to attend law school at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.

“What you are is God’s gift to you. What you become is your gift to God.”

It has been a whirlwind academic year filled with events, programming, resume reviews, employer outreach, and much more!  May is a great time for me, personally, to reflect on the previous year, as well as to begin looking forward and making plans and goals for the next academic year.  The end of the fiscal year for many organizations is when you may be expected to monitor and evaluate your own job performance and start thinking about your own professional development, career development plan, and work-related goals for the future.

Updating your resume is a great way for you to not only keep and maintain a current professional document, but it can also be helpful in evaluating your own work performance on the job.  When updating your resume, you will obviously describe the job that you do, but you should also try and identify some accomplishments or goal-driven initiatives you have experienced in your tenure.  These kinds of statements show employers that you are familiar with setting and reaching goals, and can be indicative of your work motivation and experience with goal achievement.  By doing this every year, your resume will remain fresh and current, should you ever need to use it to apply for different opportunities or advancements in your current organization.  Furthermore, by updating the resume before you actually plan to use it, you may find your creative juices are less stifled by not being under time or stressful constraints associated with the job search/application process.

I’m happy to announce that the Career Services Office will be open this summer!  I will maintain normal summer hours (M-F 8:00am-4:30pm), and will be open to students for individual appointments or e-mail consultations.   If you would like another pair of eyes to take a look at your resume, have career development questions, or if you have job opportunities for students or graduates, please feel free to contact me at hays@morningside.edu or (712) 274-5032.

Stacie Hays

I’m sitting in my office in Lewis Hall, gazing out the window – reminiscing in my mind about all the fun and laughs I’ve had with the 2015 graduating class of Morningside College. I have been often asked – what advice would you give the class as they venture out into the workaday world?

I am reminded of the graduation speech that Alan Alda, star of the CBS Television series M*A*S*H, gave at Connecticut College a number of years ago. Rather than me paraphrase it I offer this link: http://www.graduationwisdom.com/speeches/0020-alda1.htm

Please take time to read it. It is one of the most powerful graduation addresses ever given. He speaks to all of us about what this day has come to mean. I urge you to read it and give me some feedback once you have completed it. What do you think?

Gene Ambroson

That Morningside College’s second president, Bishop Wilson Seeley Lewis, established the College Endowment Fund in 1903. It was one of the many great things that President Lewis did during his eleven years here (1897-1908.)

Today the College Endowment Fund that he started is now valued at 40 million dollars. Thanks to him and his big dreams, Morningside College has been able to be a successful educational institution and will continue to be one and grow.