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Her grandfather was a pharmacist for 50 years and a model for Jade Senger, who hopes to be in the first class when the School of Pharmacy opens in 2010 at Concordia University Wisconsin.
“I liked that a pharmacy program was coming, that it was an LCMS college, and that I could participate in my faith in school,” she says. “Since it’s a Lutheran college, I feel the kids are more like me.”
Like most firefighters, Jerry Maiello, a 1994 graduate of Concordia College, Bronxville, also worked a part-time job. Last year he was laid off from that job. The loss spurred Maiello to explore a new career as a paramedic or nurse. “I thought about it and prayed about it and just asked God to open doors wherever He wants,” Maiello says. On a fire call to Concordia, Maiello met a former professor who told him the college was starting a nursing program. Today, Maiello is in the first class and looking to finish in November. Still exploring a future specialty, Maiello adds this: “I love going on medical calls as a firefighter. I like trying to keep people calm in an uncontrolled environment.”
Concordia University Texas, Austin, finds its new campus very conducive to teaching and learning, even as it reaches about half of its students enrolled in graduate and degree-completion programs off-campus. The new bachelors-level nursing program collaborates with a local hospital offering sophisticated facilities for clinical teaching and learning. Concordia University, Irvine, Calif., will graduate its first cohort of 35 students in its accelerated-degree nursing program. (The university received 1,200 applications for the next class.) In Shanghai, China, 40 students are studying in a Master of International Studies program. Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Mich., began offering a masters degree in educational leadership two years ago at sites in surrounding communities. Already, more than 300 students are enrolled; some meet for afternoon or evening classes at Lutheran churches and schools. Concordia University Nebraska, Seward, begins a program this fall so individuals with a bachelor’s degree can retool--via online courses--to earn teacher certification and even a master’s degree. Enrollment is growing in graduate programs for teachers, and an MBA will be offered in collaboration with Concordia University Wisconsin. Concordia College, Selma, Ala., has a Rosa J. Young Center for Women to support personal, academic, and spiritual advancement for women, especially providing resources for positive choices in health and lifestyle. Helping to ensure success for male students, the MAN Center matches upper classmen to mentor freshmen.
Concordia universities and colleges stand ready to prepare men and women to serve as teachers and other church-work specialists. In fact, they actively recruit them. But the work of just 10 colleges is not enough: Every congregation is encouraged to identify, encourage, and support men and women to pursue church-work professions. The professional options include deaconess, director of Christian education, director of Christian outreach, director of family life ministry, director of parish music, lay minister, pastor, or teacher. “What A Way” is the LCMS initiative to support recruitment and retention of Synod-rostered church workers. In the coming years, the effort will study trends and needs for church workers, identify the best practices of LCMS schools and congregations, and develop incentive programs for recruiting and retaining church workers. Many resources--for use by congregations and professional workers--are now available on the Web at www.WhatAWay.org. Roland Lovstad
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An undergraduate freshman, Senger, a member of Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Billings, Mont., is pleased with Concordia Wisconsin.
