Morningside Connect

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!

There are two Morningside College December traditions that students love to take part in, the Hanging of the Greens and Christmas at Morningside.

A Morningside College student took home 1^st place at Future Founders U. Pitch Competition and a check to help his startup company Seed Slide. Junior business major Josh Doering is working towards making farms a safer place during planting season with Seed Slide.

Seed Slide is a remote seed box opener that adds safety and convenience into farming operations by eliminating the need to climb on top of wagons and seed tenders to unload seed.

Growing up on a farm and helping out tending the livestock and crop production in Hubbard, Iowa, helped Doering see the need for his product. His dad is also a seed dealer.

“It gave me insights into what the real issue was and how to understand the customers who would use the solution,” said Doering. “It (Seed Slide) will allow them to farm without harm, and save the risk of falling off while unloading seed.”

Doering says his experience at Future Founders U. Pitch Competition, where was Daymond John of “Shark Tank” was one of the judges, was “extraordinary, humbling, and gratifying.”

“It was so cool to meet Daymond John and shake his hand while giving him my business card, and to hear his positive feedback over the product,” said Doering.

He hopes to reach any farmer that can benefit from Seed Slide and provide a solution to a serious problem in the current farming process. Doering wants to do his part in helping making farming safer. He hopes to work to “make the world a better place” after graduation.

For more information on Seed Slide click here.

A Morningside College class of 1936 alumna just celebrated her 100^th birthday on December 8. Edythe Cavanaugh had an early birthday party to celebrate with her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

Cavanaugh was born in Lead, South Dakota, in 1915. She moved with her family to Rinard, Iowa, around 1930. Four years later, she graduated from high school and went on to attend Morningside College to complete her two-year certificate for elementary education. She went on to teach elementary school in Lohrville, Iowa, from 1936 until 1943.

In 1941, Cavanaugh married Clem Cavanaugh, who served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, they lived on the family farm and raised four children. They lead an active life and were involved in church and community activities.

In 1975, Cavanaugh joined the staff of Iowa Central Community College facilitating, GED completion for local adults. She retired in 1995 after 20 years at Iowa Central Community College.

In 2013, she moved off the farm to an independent living community in Denver, Colorado, near her son and daughter.

Happy Holidays from the Career Services Office!  I wanted to provide you with specific instructions on how to get registered with our mentoring network, as discussed in the last issue.

Your access to the Mentoring Network is available to you through the links on your Alumni Central account homepage.  You can search for mentors and also join the Mentoring Network.

Simply log on to your account through the Alumni icon on our school’s CCN homepage and Sign In.  You will need the password (mustang) to access the Mentoring Network.

Registering a profile is easy:

• Go to: http://www.collegecentral.com/morningside.
• Click on the icon labeled Alumni.
• Under “About Our Services”, choose the link for Mentoring Network page.
• Click on the link for Join Our Mentoring Network. 
• Access is password protected.  Our password is mustang.
• Click on the link for Add My Mentoring Profile.
• Complete the profile form.
• Be sure to make a record of the Mentoring Network Password and the personal Access ID and Password you create for yourself.  You will need these to access your profile in the future.

We value your privacy!  Students and alumni will be able to send messages to you without knowing your e-mail address. You may change this preference at any time if needed.

Stacie Hays

In the long-standing tradition of mission work and trips at Morningside College, Campus Ministries again went out to serve. We went to Minneapolis, Minn., to work at Simpson United Methodist Church on the south side of town Oct. 14-18, 2015. This church runs a homeless shelter that houses 60 men and 40 women each night. They specialize in helping people transition from homelessness into mainstream society through the services and programs they offer.

The three students and I helped the church clean out the old choir room and the costume room during the two days we were there. The collection of things in each room had been piling up for more than 50 years, and the church was ready to use these spaces for something new, as it looks to expand its ministries in this ever-changing society. The church was very thankful because the work we were able to accomplish in two days would have taken the church two months.

One of the nights, we went out to dinner with three alumni: Marc Shriver ’00, TJ Stadem ’10, and Laura Seymour ’00. Each of them was able to talk to the students and share how life after college brought new and exciting things, as well as some of the unexpected challenges life brings. As the discussion continued, we started talking about what each student has been doing in college as they prepare for the next step. Each student was very thankful for the experience and I was thankful to meet some of our outstanding alumni.

As we move forward, we will be meeting with alumni on each mission trip, hoping that we can connect, give the current students a similar experience, and share and update alumni about how Morningside has changed and what we are currently doing at the college. Thank you for your continued support of our students and watch your email for us to come to your city sometime in the future! Spring 2016 will be in Nashville, Tenn.!

Ryan Russell

The articles in this series have focused on mentoring and providing advice to students as well as to others in your professional network.   I have exciting news!  Morningside College Career Services has added a feature to our job posting site, the College Central Network.  Alumni can now register for our Mentoring Network.  This platform is more geared toward information gathering for students than direct mentoring/interaction.  It is our hope that students can access information on a variety of careers from various alumni to gain more information on their chosen career path.

We would like to fill this platform with lots of information from alumni before opening it up to students.  If you are interested in answering just a few short questions, you can make a positive impact on a current student! These questions run the gamut from what is your current job to what was your first job after you finished school and how did you find it, as well as what aspects of your education best prepared you for your career.

Once you register on the site, you also have access to all the job leads and employment material advice and tips!  It’s a one-stop shop!  Keep an eye on the Morningside College Alumni Facebook page for instructions on how to register or contact me at hays@morningside.edu

Stacie Hays

Bill Zahren, class of 1986, is the author of the newly released book Officer Involved, a book that is set in Sioux City, Iowa, and features a main character that is a Morningside College graduate.

Zahren started writing the book in 1998 but took a break after he got discouraged by the number of hoops he had to jump through to get it published.

“Writing a book is a lot of work,” said Zahren. “Drafting 89,000 words is just a small part of it. Editing over and over and over is the real challenge.”

The book was revived in 2014 when Zahren started working towards self-publication. It was released by Mill City Press in Minneapolis on Oct. 6 and is currently available in paperback and eBook through Zahren’s website, billzahren.com. It can also be found at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

The fictional novel is set in Sioux City primarily because of Zahren’s fondness for the area.

“As in every novel, the characters are amalgams of characteristics and mannerisms of a lot of people,” said Zahren. “There’s definitely bits of people I knew in the county attorney’s office in Hillary Reed. Tom Kingman is the reporter I always fantasized about being but never was. Some of the stuff he does, real reporters probably wouldn’t or couldn’t do for various reasons.”

Office Involved is the first of four books in the series. The second book, Paper Trail, is tentatively planned to be published in the fall of 2016. The series continues on with the story of Tom and Hillary as they dig to discover the truth of crimes.

Zahren majored in mass communication with a double minor in English and history. After college he worked as a newspaper reporter for the Le Mars Daily Sentinel and the Sioux City Journal for nine years. He and his wife, Rhonda, now live in West Des Moines, Iowa. Rhonda is a registered nurse, and Bill works as a self-employed freelance marketing writer when he is not writing novels.