Cedarville University

A new student organization at Cedarville University is fast-tracking undergrads for some of the most in-demand career fields in America. The group's focus is to promote interdisciplinary participation across Cedarville's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) students. "Our chapter helps to make a bridge between physical sciences and the life sciences at Cedarville through various activities," Pereira noted. "This is the only student chapter which brings together all STEM students. The students seek to point upward as they become more involved on campus and with other universities. "Being a Christian school, we want to have a good testimony out in the world for Jesus," said junior Ethan Doerstling from Arvada, Colorado. "We have an opportunity to reach out to other schools and show them there are Christians doing science." The students helping to lead the group are Ethan Doerstling, Izzy Coiro, Ben Veenstra, Adam Klauk, Kyra Becker, Angela Aad, Nathan Lee.

Dr. Heather Kuruvilla and her students at Cedarville University are researching ways to stop cancer before it starts. Kuruvilla, senior professor of biology, along with a team of undergraduate students including Madeline Ardrey, Kaylee Howell, Abbigail Paterson, Adin Pendell, Ezra Shimabenga, Nicholas Silveira, Anna Tomic, Sarah Harmon, Jeremy Lun, Jenna Martin, Benjamin Place, and Spencer Reynolds sought to discover if Tetrahymena thermophila, a single-celled organism commonly used in experimental biology, possessed proteins similar to Ras and Raf, two proteins that regulate cell reproduction in humans.

Cincinnati Bengals fans everywhere are eagerly awaiting their team's first Super Bowl appearance in more than 30 years. But one Cedarville University alumna and a current student won't just be watching the big game as fans, but as athletic trainers who worked with the Bengals during this championship season. Cedarville's relationship with the Bengals dates to 2011, when associate professor of athletic training and athletic training program director Mike Weller began working for the team as a certified athletic trainer. He continued there until 2014. Additionally, senior athletic training student Kurtis Gould from Pickerington, Ohio, has spent this season with the Bengals on a clinical rotation. He started in May 2021, and his rotation will end after the Super Bowl.

Dr. Andrew Straw, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice, along with two of his Cedarville University pharmacy students, recently developed a smoking cessation curriculum for use in pharmacies nationwide. The innovative project is in conjunction with Cedarville's Center for Pharmacy Innovation (CPI) and the Ohio Pharmacists Association (OPA). Two Cedarville pharmacy students and CPI interns, fourth-year student Matt Merical of Centerville, Ohio, and first-year student Luke O'Brien of Powell, Ohio, researched pharmacy practices in other states to determine how they implement smoking cessation programs. They also promoted the program and assessed pharmacists on how helpful they found the program.

Dr. Andrew Straw, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice, along with two of his Cedarville University pharmacy students, recently developed a smoking cessation curriculum for use in pharmacies nationwide. The innovative project is in conjunction with Cedarville's Center for Pharmacy Innovation (CPI) and the Ohio Pharmacists Association (OPA). Two Cedarville pharmacy students and CPI interns, fourth-year student Matt Merical of Centerville, Ohio, and first-year student Luke O'Brien of Powell, Ohio, researched pharmacy practices in other states to determine how they implement smoking cessation programs. They also promoted the program and assessed pharmacists on how helpful they found the program.

A team of Cedarville University students have worked for months designing and testing a rocket that will be used for the 2022 NASA Student Launch competition April 20-23 in Huntsville, Alabama. "I don't foresee any significant issues building it, since our full-scale design isn't significantly different from the subscale," said senior mechanical engineering major and team leader Chad Sanderson of North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.

ND Nguyen, a second-year pharmacy student from Vietnam, will lead a medical mission trip for Cedarville University Global Outreach to serve the refugee population in Clarkston, Georgia, during spring break 2022.

Frustrated that they were unable to foster personal relations with inmates at the Clark County Jail because of restrictions implemented during COVID-19, Cedarville University's Clark County Jail Ministry student chaplains found a way to minister to inmates. They began serving at Greene County Jail in Xenia, Ohio.

Once told he would never speak, one Cedarville student is proving his doctors wrong by winning state and national awards with the university's speech team. Senior Paul Miller from Chariton, Iowa, was 18 months old when doctors noticed moderate hearing loss during a wellness check. Now, Miller is a broadcasting and digital media major at Cedarville University, living free from all effects of his former disorder. He uses his voice at every opportunity, including theatre performances and as a member of Cedarville's speech team.

When fellow students at Cedarville University asked newly enrolled Anna Grace Galkin where she was from, she hesitated. This was because the longest she had called any place home was approximately four months. As the daughter of an itinerant preacher who led the self-run Galkin Evangelistic Ministries, Anna Grace's family traveled around the United States, sharing the gospel and encouraging local congregations.

When Cedarville University senior William Brethauer was a junior in high school, he never could have anticipated that a broken nose would lead to a lifelong passion, one which eventually led to an Olympics-sized business success.

The latter role is important because the Charitable Pharmacy doesn't charge patients, whom it calls neighbors, for medication. Volunteers, including students, who are willing to devote their time to the pharmacy are crucial to the pharmacy's operations. The program precepts students from eight different colleges of pharmacy and hosts 80 rotations a year. Already this school year, two fourth-year Cedarville pharmacy students have worked on rotations at St. Vincent de Paul: Erin Ballentine of Walkersville, Maryland, and Jessica Istifan of Cedarville, Ohio.

When Julie Clark, a 1998 English education major, graduated from Cedarville University, she expected to be a teacher. Little did she know, however, that her students would be those learning how to create desserts and breakfast specialties through recipes posted on her family business food blog. The online food blog, Tastes of Lizzy T, began as a midterm creative project for Maddie, Julie's oldest child, when she was a sixth-grader at a charter school in Springfield, Ohio. Maddie is now a senior at Cedarville, majoring in English.

When Cedarville University sophomore Hannah Bradley walked out on stage as the lead character in "Anne of Green Gables" this fall, it was a stark reminder that just a few years ago, she couldn't even walk. When Bradley was 15, she contracted a life-threatening case of meningitis and was placed in a medically induced coma.

The Cedarville University School of Biblical and Theological Studies awarded the inaugural Master of Divinity Text-Driven Preaching Award to graduating senior Nathaniel DeRochie. He delivered a chapel message prior to being presented with the honor during chapel on Wednesday, Dec. 1.

Cedarville University junior Jonathon Lipscombe could never have imagined his Lego stop-motion videos would turn into a globetrotting missions internship. Lipscombe, a biblical studies major from Spring Lake, Michigan, has worked with Advancing Ministries of the Gospel (AMG) International for the last 17 months as a global advancement intern, capturing on film what is happening in missions around the world. Lipscombe has worked as both a virtual intern and in person with AMG Guatemala. Lipscombe became interested in videography in elementary school, when he would make stop-motion videos of Lego characters having fantastic adventures. In middle school, he graduated to semi-professional photography, working with friends and family to take portraits and group photos. By the time he was in high school, photography was a passion. However, Lipscombe was seeking a way to unify his passion for media and his love for ministry.

If Tytist Dean, a Cedarville University Master of Business Administration student from St. Paul, Minnesota, could choose one word to describe his life's journey playing NCAA Division I basketball and producing Christian rap music, it would be "unorthodox."

The Cedarville University speech team placed fifth in the speech portion of the Steve Hunt Classic, a virtual competition hosted October 8 by Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. The Steve Hunt Classic featured more than 40 colleges and universities from 23 states. This is Cedarville's largest preseason tournament. Members of the Cedarville speech team include Olivia Ball from Columbus, Ohio; Alex Boesch from Champaign, Illinois; Ave Burson from Cedarville, Ohio; Will Galkin from Murray, Utah; Maren Moses from Columbus, Ohio; Paul Miller from Chariton, Iowa; and Micaiah O'Malley from Martinsville, Indiana.

After nearly six months of work, Joshua Johnson and his student team's business is finally taking flight. Johnson, a junior management major from Mansfield, Ohio, is leading a team of students working on a line of products aimed at preventing military suicides. Their new business, Consider the Ravens, has just launched as part of the Neos company, a branch of Cedarville University's Integrated Business Core (IBC) program.

Arielle Wenig may be Cedarville University's most proactive student ever. Wenig, a senior social work major from Marion, Ohio, wrote a letter to Cedarville when she was in fourth grade for a class project. Her teacher asked the class to reach out to colleges and universities as a part of a writing activity, and Wenig found Cedarville after a simple Google search of "Christian colleges in Ohio." When Cedarville's admissions team wrote Wenig back, they had no idea that the then 10-year-old would one day step foot on campus for her 1,000 days.

It started with some longtime local residents and a simple vision: beautify the village of Cedarville. Since March 2021, members of the Cedarville Revitalization Project have painted curbs, finished building-side stonework, cut brush and pulled weeds and even commissioned a mural. Now, Cedarville committee members are turning to senior industrial and innovative design (IID) majors from Cedarville University for their fresh, innovative design proposals to further revitalize the village.

In preschool, Marissa Conrad won awards for best handwriting in her class, which is more remarkable than you think since she no hands. Now a sophomore majoring in at Cedarville University, Conrad has continued to push herself in every area of life. Despite her disability, Conrad has enjoyed learning football, playing the cello, shooting airsoft and rowing boats. Conrad, from Buffalo, New York, explained that going through life without hands has not been the only challenge. In middle school, she waded through her parents' divorce, her mom's diagnosis of cancer and a transition to a different high school. During these years of external crisis, Conrad struggled internally with why God would choose to create her differently.

Americans have plenty of options to kill bacteria and repel mosquitoes, two sources of disease. In many developing nations, those resources aren't readily available. But a tropical fruit not very well known to Americans, but available in many places around the world, might provide a solution. A team of researchers from Cedarville University is looking into the potential bacteria-killing, insect-repelling properties of soapberry extract. Various species of soapberry plants can be found throughout eastern and southern Asia, the Pacific islands and the Americas, including the southeastern U.S., Texas and Hawaii.

When McKenzie Barlow began working on her senior design project, some people thought she was "udderly"ridiculous, but others were "mooved" with interest. Barlow, a senior electrical engineering major from Fork, Maryland, is currently working with her group on a senior engineering project - a Chick-fil-A retrieving cow robot! Barlow is partnering with senior electrical engineering major Joshua Blackburn from Mount Gilead, Ohio, and senior computer engineering majors Joshua Mundell from North Ridgeville, Ohio, and Andrew Murphy from lower Burrell, Pennsylvania.

Students from the Cedarville University School of Engineering and Computer Science have designed automobiles, planes and boats for competitions. At the 2022 NASA Student Launch in April 2022, they will add rockets to the list. Chad Sanderson of North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, a senior mechanical engineering student, first learned of the NASA competition last year. He was looking for ideas for his senior design project, required for senior engineering students, when a high school friend who is attending Carnegie Mellon University told him that his university was competing. Sanderson recruited classmates at Cedarville to join him in the competition, and they began researching the NASA competition and rocket building. In addition to Sanderson, who is leading the team and designing the motor mount, Cedarville's team also consists of seniors Jacob Titus of Medford, New Jersey, who is leading work on the aerobrake system; Peter Duttweiler of Montgomery, Texas, and Nehemiah Branson of Kingston, Ohio, who are working on the rocket payload; Dawson Tso of Dublin, New Hampshire, who is leading work on rocket recovery and safety; Forrest Putnam of Glenwood, Washington, who is leading work on the nose cone and simulations; and Grant Dupler of Amanda, Ohio, who will be leading construction of the body and fin. The team also includes two juniors, with Grace Fearday of Kettering, Ohio, working on rocket avionics and Stuart Nowery of Lebanon, Ohio, testing and modeling the rocket. Sophomore Josh Lukawski of Wantage, New Jersey, will also work on rocket modeling. Finally, the team includes two freshmen, with Daniel Hogsed of Dayton, Ohio, leading work on the sub-scale rocket and Joseph Copeland of Hamilton, Ohio, working on rocket construction.

Throughout the 2021-22 school year, Cedarville University's School of Education will be offering free take-home enrichment bags to the students at Cedar Cliff Elementary School. The enrichment bags contain educational materials and activities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). They are designed to help students who need additional exposure to these academic disciplines. Under Brown's guidance, junior primary (P-5) education students Natalie Hepner, from Orlando, Florida, and Katelynn Garber, from Sidney, Ohio, have planned and distributed the first round of enrichment bags, with the next coming in November and the remaining three during the spring semester.

When the country went into lockdown because of COVID-19 in March 2020, Cedarville University joined the many universities pivoting unexpectedly to online learning. Students, like Grace Gregory, who rely on The Cove, Cedarville's academic enrichment center, were encouraged academically and personally by The Cove's commitment to caring for its students through online tutoring. The change was simple for The Cove's leaders: implement a feature of the new tutoring interface that they had adopted less than three months earlier.

Throughout the 2021-22 school year, Cedarville University's School of Education will be offering free take-home enrichment bags to the students of Cedar Cliff Elementary School. The enrichment bags contain educational materials and activities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). They are designed to help students who need additional exposure to these academic disciplines. In previous years, Cedarville has partnered with Cedar Cliff to host STEM enrichment events on the university campus. Students have attended five Saturday events throughout the school year planned and taught by Cedarville students. "Because of COVID, we didn't host our enrichment days last year, and with the uncertainty of COVID this year, we wanted to be as creative as possible to get students the resources they need," Dr. Megan Brown, program advisor and assistant professor of education, said. "These bags provide students with the extra push and support in those topics that may not receive as much attention in school." Under Brown's guidance, junior primary (P-5) education students Natalie Hepner, from Orlando, Florida, and Katelynn Garber, from Sidney, Ohio, have planned and distributed the first round of enrichment bags, with the next coming in November and the remaining three during the spring semester. "The first bag had an aviation theme," Brown explained. "Students received foam airplanes, materials for paper airplanes and suggestions for family field trips." To accommodate a variety of ages, each bag also contains a two-page guide to explain what materials and activities suit younger, K-2 students, and which ones are more appropriate for third to fifth-graders. Upcoming bag themes include weather, simple machines and explosions. Once packed, Brown, Hepner and Gardner deliver each round of 100 enrichment bags to Cedar Cliff Elementary. Cedar Cliff handles distribution. "This project has huge benefits for everyone involved," Brown explained. "The elementary students are receiving that extra push they need in these fields, and the Cedarville students planning them are gaining experience in connecting with families, helping students who need enrichment and STEM - all things that teachers need to know." Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,715 undergraduate, graduate, and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is one of the largest private universities in Ohio, recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, including the Bachelor of Arts in Primary (P-5) Education program, strong graduation, and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and high student engagement ranking. For more information about the University, visit cedarville.edu.

For Cedarville University senior Arielle Wenig, running her first marathon this fall was more than a personal accomplishment. It was the completion of a father-daughter dream and the fulfillment of a race against time. On September 18, after years of anticipation and months of training, Arielle and her dad, Bryan, completed the 26.2-mile run to celebrate Bryan's 60th birthday. The accomplishment was particularly special because Bryan was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in May.

While moving her daughter, Morgan, onto Cedarville University's campus in August, Melissa Rupp heard a familiar voice. One she hadn't heard in nearly 16 years. Melissa looked around and saw freshman student Rosemary Carman. Rosemary didn't recognize Melissa, but Melissa recognized Rosemary from pictures. Seconds later, Melissa was embracing Rosemary's mom, Angela. Now mothers of college students, they had met each other 18 years before as mothers of premature babies, or preemies, and they had last seen each other when their daughters were 2.