Morningside Connect

Ruth Hickman ’53 recently published her book, “A Daily Teaching Devotional from God’s Word”, on Oct. 19, 2015. The book is a teaching devotional that covers the 365 redemptive chapters in the Bible with the opportunity to journal your thoughts.

Hickman has been teaching Bible studies for 35 years. She and her husband, Chuck, founded the Bible-teaching ministry, Abundant Word Ministries, in 1980. Abundant Word Ministries is committed to offering in-depth understanding and application of God’s word.

Hickman has traveled all over the United States and Canada teaching in churches, at women’s groups, and at retreats. She has also led groups to Israel six times and made the trip overall ten times. Hickman has been invited to speak at luncheons, seminars, and conference retreats all across the nation. She was a guest on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and the television program “It’s A New Day.” Hickman has also taught a weekly radio series and has a video and audio study series available on a wide variety of topics.

Hickman has published several books, including “Hope for Hurting People,” which was published in 1987.

Hickman graduated from Morningside College in 1953 with a bachelor’s degree. She started off teaching in Anthon and Holstein, Iowa, from 1953 until 1957. She moved to Denver, Colo., in 1957, where she currently resides today. For 12 years she worked for Singer Sewing Machine Co. and has a sewing skills television program on KRMA-TV, an affiliate of PBS.

Morningside College is hosting a young alumni event on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, at the Tyson Events Center for the Sioux City Musketeers vs. Chicago Steel hockey game.

The night will start off with a reception at 6:30 p.m. in the Party Zone, with the game following at 7 p.m. Cost of the night will be $15, which includes the game ticket, food, and soft drinks.

For more information or for questions, please contact Shiran Nathaniel at nathaniel@morningside.edu or 712-274-5295.

Welcome to the New Year! For those of us in the upper Midwest, it’s been down-right cold! But as Dr. Dan Flanagan reminds us, there are only 20-some days until somebody starts playing baseball!

The close of 2015 allowed many of us to reflect on what had taken place at the college the first semester and to begin to execute our plan for this semester.

This semester finds us working with the choral director on plans to take the choir on tour to Kansas City, Kan.; Denver, Colo.; Laramie, Wyo.; Arvada, Colo.; and Omaha, Neb. Alumni in those areas will be notified when and where the choral concerts will take place.

Additionally, we are working on putting together another great Homecoming. Do mark your calendar – Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. Our honored classes will be 1956, 1966 and 1991. In addition, we will honor those who participated in jazz band, cross country and track while at the college. Be sure to mark your calendar.

For our friends in the Twin Cities, mark your calendar! Sunday, April 10, 2016, we will be coming your way with another of our super alumni gatherings! A committee of your friends are working with the Alumni Office to put that together. Watch your email and snail mail!

We are working on a host of other fun activities that involve the GOLD group –Graduates Of the Last Decade. We recently had an event in Omaha and will have a similar event in Sioux City at the Musketeer Hockey game.

On a closing note, I want to thank all of you who requested a yearbook on our recent quest to divest ourselves of books sitting on a shelf gathering dust. In my 30-plus years at Morningside, I have given away one book. With the announcement of this effort, we gave over 500 books to 200-plus alumni! Again, many thanks!

Gene Ambroson

Sophomore Lindsey Freitag is the youngest of five girls. She is from Albert Lea, Minn., a decently-sized small town where people will greet you with a smile and ask about your day almost automatically. She left her hometown and traveled 212 miles to Morningside College to have the space to branch out and figure out just who she is.

Freitag, an English and graphic design double major, spent her first year at Morningside College focusing strictly on her education and keeping a high grade point average. Her high grades landed her a spot in Alpha Lambda Delta, an honor society that honors the academic achievements of freshman students. Freitag, having sophomore-standing credits at the end of her first year, was also invited to join the upperclass honor society Omicron Delta Kappa. She is also a part of the English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta.

“My activities help me to be more aware of the needs of the groups and people around me,” said Freitag. “The honor societies that I’m involved in are always interested in helping people and filling a need.”

Freitag originally decided to major in English because she loves to read. As a young girl in middle school, she knew she wanted to be a copy editor at HarperCollins Publishing. Freitag even had a mapped out plan of everything she needed to accomplish to get her dream job: 4.0 GPA and a stellar internship in New York. But as much as she loved the idea of being surrounded with mountains of books to read, she grew as a person through education and no longer knew if that was the best plan for her.

“I read somewhere that whatever you do while procrastinating is what you should do with the rest of your life,” said Freitag. “I found myself spending extra time on my typography projects or practicing calligraphy to put off writing a research paper. This made me realize that my plan, as incredible as it sounds, wasn’t the best fit for me.”

Freitag is currently working on mapping out a new future, one with a focus on graphic design.

The holiday season is past, but the weather outside is still very frightful!  At Morningside, we have started another new semester and are dreaming of warmer days on the horizon!