Morningside Connect

Morningside College is kicking off its eighth summer season of the Betty Ling Tsang Fine Art Series.

The first performance will be the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Cats” on June 19 and 20.

Other productions scheduled for the summer are the Holiday Pops Concert with the Sioux City Symphony on June 27, the children’s musical “Hansel and Gretel and the Long Way Home” on July 10 and 11, and a sing-a-long to the musical “Oklahoma!” on August 7 and 8.

All performances are free and open to the public.

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.

A first impression can have a major impact on a person’s life, especially when it comes to colleges. Is it going to be a good fit? Are the people friendly? How good of a program is it?

The first impression of Morningside College and the Nursing Department was what drove Kelsea Hoberg to signup to become a Mustang.

“I came for a visit, loved the campus and after meeting with the nursing faculty, made my decision that day to come to Morningside,” said Hoberg.

She had been working at St. Luke’s prior to coming to Morningside College. Many nurses had been coming in and being hired by St. Luke’s. A good chunk of them were graduates from Morningside College, which sparked her interest in the program.

Kelsea feels like the professors in the nursing department want to help them learn.

“They are so passionate about their profession and want to pass it on,” said Hoberg. “They want us to get the information being taught to us and teach in several different ways to get the same information across to the students.”

Besides being a busy nursing student, Hoberg is involved in the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, Photo Club, Morningside Student Nurses Association, and Sustainable Environment Association.

“Photography is not my major, but here at Morningside, it does not matter if it is. The professors are willing to help you just the same,” said Hoberg.

Hoberg is in her third year at Morningside College and is planning on graduating in 2017 due to a hiccup with transferring in at a later date.

“After graduation I plan on working in a hospital on either a Medical/Telemetry floor, in the Emergency Department, or in the Intensive Care Unit,” said Hoberg.

On January 10, the Iowa BBQ Society Board of Directors and members inducted eight people into their new BBQ Hall of Fame.

Among the eight inductees was Morningside College 1980 graduate Anne Rehnstrom.

The Iowa BBQ Society Hall of Fame is intended to honor individuals, teams, businesses, local charities, and celebrities who have distinguished themselves in recognizing barbeque as “American Cuisine.” Those people also have helped celebrate and promote barbeque as a culinary technique, sport, and art form.

The first inducted members received a State of Iowa Plaque inscribed with their name, a Hall of Fame Certificate, and a lifetime membership in the Iowa BBQ Society.

The first inducted members were also the original founding members of the society.

“I was one of the original eight that founded the Iowa BBQ Society back in 1998; until 2014 I was the society’s secretary,” said Rehnstrom.

Throughout her years at the society, she has coordinated many barbeque competitions, written press releases, maintained the membership, searched for sponsors and judges, and completed many other various tasks.

Before helping start the Iowa BBQ Society, Rehnstrom was involved with the National Pork Board. She joined them in 1986.

“I helped with a contest that the Pork Board sponsored for a few years and then became the coordinator of one of the largest contests in the Midwest,” said Rehnstrom.

For her, this award meant a lot. She has dedicated over 16 years to getting the organization started and then keeping it running.