Goshen College Assistant Professor of Nursing Jan Emswiler will present a keynote address about her work with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania.

GOSHEN, Ind. – Goshen College nursing students will gather for the last Annual Nursing Mock Convention as they focus on “Improving Patient Care: Building on the Foundation of Nursing” on Friday, Feb. 10 in the Church-Chapel Fellowship Hall. Professor Emeritus of Nursing Merv Helmuth, who started the Nursing Mock Convention at Goshen College 41 years ago and has coordinated it every year since, retired last year, but decided to coordinate one final convention for this year.

Throughout the convention, students will debate student-proposed resolutions pertaining to issues such as telenursing, wellness programs and non-pharmacological pain management.

“For the last 40 years we have had the privilege to come together as a department and discuss current nursing topics,” wrote senior Kelly Frey, president of the 2012 Mock Convention Executive Board. “The theme for [this year's convention] encourages us to reach back into history, to be enlightened by our memorable nursing founders and to prioritize key elements of what it means to provide nursing care.”

Before participants discuss the resolutions, Assistant Professor of Nursing Jan Emswiler will present a keynote address about her work with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. Emswiler graduated from Eastern Mennonite University with a bachelor’s degree in nursing and biology in 1998 and from Tulane University School of Public Health with a master’s degree in public health in 2004. She served with Mennonite Central Committee in Tanzania for six years working with a community-based health promotion program as the HIV/AIDS prevention and control unit coordinator. Then she taught advanced nursing studies at the Aga Khan University –Tanzania Institute of Higher Education. Emswiler has also served as the executive director for the Valley AIDS Network in Harrisonburg, Va., and taught Swahili at James Madison University.

Senior Marissa Kauffman, executive director of the Mock Convention Board, wrote to Goshen College nursing students, “As nursing students at Goshen College, we have learned the value of critical thinking, compassionate care and creative problem-solving. The Mock Convention Board hopes that this year’s convention theme will help us to remember some of the foundations of our nursing education as we move closer to achieving our dreams as nurses.”

The first Nursing Mock Convention at Goshen College took place in 1973, with initiation from Helmuth. The annual convention has been unique to Goshen College and has significantly contributed to student participation in professional nursing organizations. Goshen College nursing alumni have a 41 percent membership in their professional organizations, compared with the national rate of 20 percent.

Goshen College started the first bachelor’s of science in nursing program in Indiana in 1949, and graduated its first class of nurses in 1953. Since then, over 1,600 people have earned a bachelors degree in nursing at Goshen College. Learn more at www.goshen.edu/nursing. 

– By Alysha Landis

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.

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Related pages from Goshen.edu:

• bachelor of science in nursing
• accelerated bsn programs
• masters degree in nursing
• nurse practitioner programs

Photo credit: Courtesy of Elisabeth Beels

Culture for Service burns brightest for some Goshen College alumni just after graduation. For Elisabeth Fast Beels ’75 and Rebecca Dyck ’75, however, Goshen’s motto continues to guide their lives of helping others.

In 1972, as GC students, they had different Study-Service Term assignments – Dyck in Costa Rica and Beels in Jamaica. Afterward, they became close friends, were roommates in Kratz (414), and studied together in the nursing program. After graduation, they both worked at Elkhart General Hospital.

By the end of 1976, they felt called to serve with Mennonite Central Committee. They both were in the January 1977 orientation in Akron, Pa., after which their lives took different yet parallel directions: Dyck taught nursing at the Roma School of Nursing in Roma, Lesotho, and Beth taught nursing in the Lalitpur Nursing Campus in Kathmandu, Nepal. Both stayed in their MCC jobs for about four years, and then returned to the United States.

“The next 30 years were filled with marriage, children, more schooling, careers, etc. And before long, we had empty nests and it was time to put that ‘Culture for Service’ into action again,” Beels wrote in an email to the college. Beels and her husband, Theo, a physician, left Grand Rapids, Mich., last year for a three-year term in Nepal. She is teaching again, but this time in Tansen, a rural village in the hills. She also knits baby headbands to hold oxygen tubes in place and gives flute lessons. Theo works in the hospital.

Later in 2010, Beels persuaded Dyck to take time off from teaching at Dawson College in Montreal, to come to Nepal. And so Dyck spent several months doing clinical supervision of students in the hospital, holding workshops for students and teaching faculty at the nursing school in Tansen. Her husband, Peter, did ESL training for teachers at a primary school, while Theo worked in the hospital.

“One result of this stint together has been the resolution to entice GC to establish an SST unit in Tansen,” Beels wrote. “There are so many needs which students could address, that we are brimming with placement ideas. In the meantime, we send our greetings and lasting gratitude to our peers and mentors at Goshen!”

– By Richard R. Aguirre

PROFESSOR OF NURSING EVELYN DRIVER
Driver retired after 34 years of teaching at Goshen College; she joined the Goshen faculty in 1974. Driver graduated from Eastern Mennonite College (now University) in 1967, received a master of science degree from the University of Maryland in 1974 and a doctorate in nursing from the University of Virginia in 1997.

Reflecting on her years at Goshen, Driver said, “I appreciated all of the students who were eager to learn and motivated to be of service in the world and working with professionals in the local health care agencies who welcomed students and were supportive of their efforts to learn.”

The issues of autonomy and independence in the care of older adults were of particular interest to Driver. Her doctoral studies addressed aging, psycho-social nursing and nursing history. She has published in the areas of aging, coronary care, the history of Confederate nursing during the U.S. Civil War, and the World War II effort to draft nurses. During her teaching, she periodically worked in hospitals to enhance and strengthen the clinical setting and context from which her students would practice.

“I hope my students learned to value the wisdom of older adults and to have the patience to help them find their way through the health challenges of later life,” Driver said. “I also hope that they learned the value of using the best available research evidence to guide their nursing care.”

Beyond her service to Goshen College, Driver has been active in professional organizations including the American Nurses Association/Indiana State Nurses Association, Midwest Nursing Research Association, Sigma Theta Tau International, Phi Kappa Phi and Mennonite Nurses Association. She serves on the nursing research committee at Goshen General Hospital and as a consultant for several nursing research studies.

As she retires near family and friends in Harrisonburg, Va., Driver plans to continue being active in nursing organizations and will explore several history projects.

PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY STAN GROVE
Grove retired after 33 years teaching at Goshen College. His passion for undergraduate research has meant that he has supervised more than 70 undergraduate research students during his years at the college. Remarkably, nearly 30 of these alumni attained or are working toward a doctorate, and another 30 alumni attained or are working toward a doctor of medicine degree.

As a teacher, Grove hopes his students throughout the years learned “the thrill of learning and discovering new information about living things and the world in which we coexist,” he said.

Grove was an early adapter of technologyand encouraging students to use technology in classes, offering online course materials even in the early 1990s. Since 1992, he has also organized annual Science Olympiad events at the college for area high school and middle school students and their teachers.

In reflecting on his years at Goshen College, Grove appreciated “great teaching colleagues, great students, interesting courses, stimulating opportunities for discovery through research and a great setting for learning,” he said.

Grove graduated from Goshen College in 1965 and received a doctorate from Purdue University in 1971. As a researcher, he received more than a half-million dollars in grants. He is a member of a number of professional organizations in biology.

Grove anticipates living primarily in the Michiana area and continuing to be active in the field of biology during his retirement, including more time for fishing and travel. He and his wife Mary are the parents of two adult children who live in Elkhart County with their families, and they are members at Benton Mennonite Church.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.