5/31/2005		SIFE team earns national honors
5/31/2005		E-town Student-Athletes Honored
5/23/2005		Incoming students make statement with mortarboard
5/23/2005		Beiler tells grads to serve others; E-town awards first master's degrees
5/16/2005		E-town faculty earn tenure, promotion
5/12/2005		E-town honors four retirees
5/6/2005		E-town athlete receives $7,500 NCAA postgraduate scholarship

Elizabethtown College’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team recently placed first runner-up in their league at SIFE Nationals in Kansas City, ranking them among the top 40 teams in the country. 

Elizabethtown’s SIFE team worked throughout the academic year on 26 projects, which were presented to an executive board of directors who serve as competition judges for nationals. This year’s team of more than 25 students was led by adviser Kristen Evans-Waughen, an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Computer Science. Members of the SIFE team that presented in Kansas City included seniors Ben Osterhout of Tunkhannock and Betsy Schmid of Cherry Hill, N.J.; juniors Kendra Eggert of Lebanon, Rob Hettel of Lansdale and Jonathan Schultz of Oceanport, N.J.; sophomores Shovana Chowdhury of Saudi Arabia, Tara Fagan of Gibsonia and Megan Grimes of Hershey; first-year students Sarah Brodbeck of York, Jill Hugus of Baltimore, Robert Qualls of Norristown and Stefanie Stamatopoulos of Hazleton. Business Advisory Board members Professor Emeritus Jerry Evans and Mary Lou Evans were also part of the team.

Melissa St. Clair and Steve Sanko, members of the cross country and track and field teams, have been named the Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Corporation (MASCAC) Scholar-Athletes for the spring 2005 season. One male and one female senior student-athlete are selected each season for the award from the 16 member schools of the MASCAC.

Senior men’s tennis player Greg Voshell has been named to the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District II College Division First Team in the At-Large category. By earning a spot on the Academic All-District II First Team, Voshell advances to the national ballot for the Academic All-America teams.

Senior catcher Seth Guida has been named to the American Baseball Coaches' Association (ABCA) All-Mid-Atlantic Region Second Team in NCAA Division III for the 2005 season. It is the first time that Guida has been honored with a spot on an all-region squad. Earlier this month, he was also named to the All-Commonwealth Conference First Team for the first time in his career.

For more on Blue Jay athletics, visit E-town SportsNet.

Students headed to Elizabethtown College next fall were easy to pick out in the crowd at high school graduation ceremonies. The College sent each matriculating student a mortarboard decoration that features the words, "Elizabethtown College here I come!"

The piece was the brainchild of Associate Dean of Admissions and Enrollment Management Gordon Bateman. He got the idea for the designed mortarboard cover after a student he recruited sent him a picture of her handmade decoration.

Five incoming students from Bishop Hafey High School (Hazleton, PA) sported their mortarboard covers at graduation. They are, from left, Kimberly Wienches, Angeline Alessandri, Any Huttenstein, Kimberly Stamatopoulos and Melissa Keeler. All five were in the top 10 of their graduating class.

"If you really want to be great, serve those around you." This was the final piece of advice Auntie Anne’s founder Anne Beiler offered to the 447 graduates of Elizabethtown College at Saturday’s commencement exercises.

Under sunny skies in The Dell, Beiler spoke of her own passion to serve others. "Each of you is uniquely gifted for a very specific purpose," she said. "My purpose focused on three things: to give, to treat people with respect and dignity, and to make sure my customers get fresh hot pretzels.

"I focused on what I had, not what I didn’t have," she continued. "As you think about your future, look deep in your hearts and ask the question, ‘What do I have?’ What can I offer my church, my community and my world."

Beiler echoed the words of College President Theodore Long, who welcomed the graduates and their families to the College’s 102nd commencement, where 23 occupational therapy students received the first-ever master’s degrees conferred by Elizabethtown. "This year we have a new extension of our mission – to educate for service – as we award our first master’s degrees in occupational therapy," he said.

In addition to Beiler, who received an honorary Doctor of Commerce, an honorary Doctor of Science was presented to Doris Gordon, the former Elizabethtown faculty member who founded the occupational therapy program, and an honorary Doctor of Public Service was presented to Susan Eckert, president and chief executive officer of the United Way of Lancaster County.

Photos of this year's ceremony will be available at the commemencement site.

Four Elizabethtown College faculty members have been granted tenure by the board of trustees. Earning tenure and a promotion to associate professor are Sean Melvin (business), Randyll Yoder (communications) and Joseph Wunderlich (computer science and computer engineering). Associate Professor of Computer Science Fani Zlatarova was also granted tenure, and Thomas Murray was promoted to professor of biology.

Chair of the Department of Business, Melvin is the author of more than a dozen articles on business law and tax-related topics and the author of four books, including the 2004 textbook"Cyberlaw and E-Commerce Regulation." After earning his Juris Doctorate from Rutgers Law School, he worked for several years as a corporate attorney at a Philadelphia law firm before joining a software house as vice president and general counsel. Melvin spent two years teaching business law and international business transactions in the undergraduate and M.B.A. program at West Chester University before coming to Elizabethtown.

Yoder teaches broadcasting and media production courses at Elizabethtown and serves as director of broadcasting and as advisor to the student-managed broadcast stations of ECTV-40 and WWEC-FM. An officer of Collegiate Broadcasters, Inc., a national student media organization, he designed and reorganized numerous student media operations and communications curricula before coming to Elizabethtown. Yoder earned a bachelor’s degree in mass media communications and a master’s degree in communications from the University of Akron, and a doctorate in mass communications from Bowling Green State University

Wunderlich earned a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s in engineering science/computer design from Pennsylvania State University and a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Delaware. Prior to coming to Elizabethtown, he served as an assistant professor at Purdue University; as an engineer and researcher for IBM; as a project engineer in San Diego, San Francisco and Austin; and as a consultant for computing and robotics. Wunderlich is also Elizabethtown’s primary computer engineering program coordinator and director of the Robotics and Machine Intelligence Laboratory, which recently entered a $25,000 student-built robot in national competition.

Zlatarova earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Bucharest in Romania. She served as a researcher and associate professor of computer science at the Bulgarian Academy of Science’s Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, as an associate professor at the University of Sofia’s School of Mathematics and Computer Science and as a senior lecturer in computer science at the University of Limerick in Ireland before joining the Elizabethtown faculty in 1999. Zlatarova has co-authored four books and has written 17 articles in refereed journals and conference proceedings. She was awarded two grants from the College: a faculty grant to develop a lab manual for an information system course and a strategic grant related to the 2004 Conference on Information Technology in Education, for which she served as committee chair.

Chair of the Department of Biology, Murray joined the faculty at Elizabethtown College in 1994, having earned a doctorate from the University of Connecticut. He was granted tenure in 2000. His research interests include phosphorus and water quality in temperate lakes, lake respiration and biogeochemical cycles, acid rain and lake eutrophication. He and his students conduct research in these areas at Elizabethtown College’s Lake Placida and in local streams. Murray is a board member of the Tri-County Conewago Creek Association.

Elizabethtown College recently honored four retirees who have worked at the College for a combined 147 years.

Professor of Music John Harrison of Hummelstown has served for 15 years as chair of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. He teaches piano and music history at the College.

Harrison holds degrees in music theory and piano performance from Florida State University and a doctorate in historical musicology from Bryn Mawr College. He has been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities and is a visiting evaluator for the National Association of Schools of Music. He has twice served as president of the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association and has received both the Distinguished Service Award and Teacher of the Year Award from that organization.

Harrison was musical director and conductor of the Hershey Symphony Orchestra for seven years, and as a pianist has presented numerous solo and collaborative recitals, as well as concerto performances. He is often called upon for piano workshops and master classes, and his piano students have received state and national awards.

Robert Morse of Lancaster, an associate professor of mathematics, is retiring after 37 years of teaching at Elizabethtown. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and earned a master’s degree and doctorate in mathematics from Temple University.

Morse served on E-town committees including the personnel council, the judicial council, and the resource and planning committee. To entice students to attend the College to major in math, he organized a math competition for prospective students that led to the current admissions event called Department Day.

Morse has also served the local community as treasurer of the Blue Jay Investment Club, president and treasurer of the Lancaster Aquatic Club, treasurer of the Starlight Dance Club and as a member of the Elizabethtown Nursery School board of directors. He also was a witness commission chairman of the Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren and is currently a lay reader for Highland Presbyterian Church.

Jacqueline Odenwalt of Elizabethtown has been an employee in the College’s environmental services department for more than 30 years. In addition to assignments in several of E-town’s residence halls, she has worked in the Baugher Student Center and in Brossman Commons.

Professor of Mathematics Ronald Shubert graduated from Elizabethtown in 1962 before earning a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Kansas and a doctorate from Pennsylvania State University. He began teaching at his alma mater in 1964 and was granted tenure in 1971. He never missed a class due to illness during his 41 years of service to the College.

A resident of Elizabethtown, Shubert served as chair of the mathematics department for 26 years and as chair of the computer science department for two years. In addition, he was the assistant men’s soccer coach for three years and adviser and coach of the women’s soccer club for two years. He also served on many campus committees, often times as an officer, and as the class agent for E-town’s Class of 1962.

In his community, Shubert served on the board of Community Nursery School, Willowood Swim Club, Willowood Swim Team Parents and Christ Lutheran Church. He also coached junior midgets baseball and girls softball.

Chris Williams of Dillsburg, a senior business administration major and member of the men’s cross country and track teams, has been awarded a $7,500 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. He will pursue graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and School of Business, where he plans to complete two degrees, a master of international development and a master of business administration. 

"I feel this award is a product of the wonderful athletic and academic support system at Elizabethtown College, one that makes me reluctant to depart," Williams said. "Coach Chris Straub was awarded the same scholarship when he completed his undergraduate work at James Madison University. He is the backbone upon which our programs depend, and my time here has been greatly influenced by his leadership."

Williams has received numerous awards and recognitions as an E-town student. He was named Outstanding Graduating Business Student this year and recognized as a College Scholar; was a member of the Integrity Committee, Delta Mu Delta National Honor Society in Business Administration and Alpha Lambda Delta (national honor society for first-year students); and earned the Financial Executive International Outstanding Student Award, James B. Hoover Business Scholarship and Emma G. Musselman Foundation Business Scholarship.

Williams served as cocaptain of the cross country team during the 2003-04 season, was a four-time varsity letter winner and was named an Academic All American in 2004. He was cocaptain of the track and field team in 2004-05, earned eight varsity letters and was named twice to the Middle Atlantic Conference All-Star Team.