Morningside Connect

Morningside College recently had an alumni event in Arizona. The group of alumni attended an Arizona Rattlers football game. The team is owned by Morningside graduate Ron Shurts. The Arizona Rattlers are a professional arena football team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Conference in the Arena Football League and the defending ArenaBowl chapions.

Jim Hanthorne and Bob Rongstad.

Bob and Jone Rongstad.

Sue Poppen and her friend.

Lisa Andersen Ellis and her son Sam.

Robby, Rob, Diane, and Nick Deaver.

With football season just around the corner, we thought we would share a glimpse into the past. This photograph of the football team is from the 1949 Sioux Yearbook. The photo was captioned “Coach Pritula works us over.”

The Mustangs will be starting their season on September 5 with an away game in Sterling, Kansas. The following week, September 12, will be the first home game against Nebraska Wesleyan.

1949 football team.

1949 football team at practice.

“The most key thing that we have done recently with the college was we had an intern with us,” said Stuck. “He would tell you that probably my first words to him were I don’t like interns because interns take a lot of extra time. Josh Doering was our intern and he brought an excitement. He brought an energy level into our office, which was great. Having him be a junior, you always think freshman, sophomore year, what could he know? He knows a lot.”

After having Doering over the summer as an intern, Stuck has changed his thoughts on internships and plans on doing another one again.

“His (Doering’s) education and preparation, he stepped in and was able to take the things that he knew and the things that we could help him and teach him, combine those together to where he had a great experience this summer,” said Stuck. “It drew me into what’s going on more on campus. He can’t be the only one of those great students.”

Stuck is planning on looking into how Baird can work with the Morningside College business department and give back.

“We have 15 fabulous people here who are skilled,” said Stuck. “They have skill sets in portfolio building, sales and sales management, and a lot of different areas. I think that we need to be responsible to say, ‘Is there a way we can help?’”

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”  William Arthur Ward

Not all of us are teachers, but as alumni of the college, you all have the opportunity to mentor current students.

Mentoring, in a practical sense, runs very parallel to teaching.  In fact, the best mentors teach their mentees how to be successful personally and professionally, instead of just providing job leads and resources to students.   Mentors should provide information to mentees. However, they should also empower mentees to research and learn more about careers on their own, or to research industry or company problems and solutions.

Mentors have a lot of “street cred” with their mentees.  In many cases, a mentee looks up to and seeks the approval of their mentor.  Mentors can channel these feelings in a way that encourages the student to learn and grow, while also expanding their professional knowledge, problem solving, and critical thinking skills.

Mentors are very important to students.  The work they do helps to shape and develop students into the leaders of tomorrow.  It is important to take that work seriously and inspire in students the quest for life-long learning, which will impact them in a positive way for a life time.

Stacie Hays

Everywhere I go I hear folks say, “Where has the summer gone?” It’s so true. We already have students moving into their respective residence halls. It seems like just last week we had commencement. In that short period of time, a great deal has taken place on campus.

Dimmitt Hall has had a complete overhaul! It now has air conditioning, a fresh coat of paint, and many other updates. You will have to come see for yourself at Homecoming. (You’ll be receiving a brochure in the mail!)

We now have ownership of the tennis courts. The courts received quite a makeover. Thanks to the generosity of a number of our alumni – the tennis facility is one of the best around!

Resurfacing the Grace Church parking lot was another of those summer-time projects needing to get checked off the list.

Amongst all of this, Randy Peters, artistic director of the Betty Ling Tsang Fine Arts Series, has overseen a truly remarkable series of programs that have drawn huge crowds. As part of this series and what has become a near 4^th of July tradition, the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra performed in the Buhler Outdoor Performance Center before nearly 2,000 people. The evening was capped off by an amazing fireworks display accompanied by the orchestra.

As I commented earlier, summer is almost gone. Students are slowly making their trek back. Before you know it, Homecoming will be here! Please consider coming back for it! It’s October 9-11. Bring the family; everything we do is family friendly. In the next few days you should receive a Homecoming brochure in the mail. Attached to it is an RSVP card. Take time to fill it out and send it in. We’d love to see you again! Come see all of the changes on campus! Of special interest will be the tremendous changes in Dimmitt Hall. That alone is worth your coming back!

Before you know it, I’ll again be saying, “Where’s the summer gone?”

Gene Ambroson

The Betty Ling Tsang Fine Art Series recently had its last performance of the summer series, but not the last one of the year. The performance of “Oklahoma!” occurred on August 7th and 8th. Join us for the Waitt Lecture with Chuck Todd, NBC News political director and host of “Meet the Press,” at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20 in Eppley Auditorium.

Sea had sent out many applications and resumes for summer research positions. She ended up receiving offers for research positions from University of Nebraska Lincoln, University of Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, and the Amgen Scholars Program. She chose to participate in the Amgen Scholars Program in Japan.

“I ultimately decided to go for this program because I was offered a truly unique cultural experience along with summer research,” said Sea.

This summer research opportunity for students is sponsored and paid for by Amgen, a biotechnology company. The program provides selected undergraduates with the opportunity to engage in hands-on research at some of the world’s premier educational institutions.

Sea is working in the lab of Professor Eiichi Nakamura, which is a synthetic and physical organic chemistry lab. Her work deals with synthesizing organic compounds for use in imaging biological materials with scanning electron microscopes.

“The stuff I’m learning about is pretty difficult, but the language barrier makes it even more challenging,” said Sea. “Definitely hard work, but very rewarding!”

This program runs for eight weeks. Her weekdays are spent in a lab from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. learning synthetic chemistry techniques and running different types of equipment. On the weekends, she travels around Tokyo taking in the sights and culture.

“Tokyo is divided into districts; so far I have seen Asakusa, Akihabara, Shinjuku, Ueno, Yushima, Kichijoji, and Shibuya,” said Sea. “I’ve seen a lot of temples and shrines, but also a lot of crowded cities. We even went to Tokyo Disney one day.”

Besides Tokyo, Sea is getting to learn about other cultures from the other students in the program. Her roommate is from Australia, and her classmates come from all over the world.

Her learning about cultures won’t stop after her internship in Japan. This fall she will be leaving campus to study in Panama for the semester.

Second floor is in it’s finally stages.

The Dimmitt Hall renovation is almost finished. The final coats of paint in the dorm halls are finished, floors are being cleaned, and wires are being run for Internet access. The furniture will be coming soon. Students are already starting to move in to the updated facility.

The following photos were taken on July 27.

Ground floor was the last of the floors to be completed.

With the remodel came more accessible entries throughout the building.

The building will now have a workout room for students to use.

All halls now have their final coats of paint. Third floor is a light blue, second floor is maroon, ground floor is grey, and Hidden Hall is the blue shown above.

The fireplace in the Informal Lounge is in.