Growing up in the former Soviet Union, Professor of Geography Olga Medvedkov routinely felt the fear around her associated with any challenge to mainstream thinking. The daughter of physician parents, she witnessed her mother’s and father’s reluctance to question the regime, knowing full well that other relatives had died earlier in Stalin’s purges.

For the uninitiated, such experiences sound crazy or even down right scary. But for Carey and the cavers with her, discovering that connection was a very big deal – it meant they had found a cave system. It was also a huge thrill, she recalls, and the highlight of her experiences as a “WUSS.”

From a campus that had no recycling program four years ago to the announcement during this year’s Green PoWER Week that the university would reduce campus-wide energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020, Wittenberg’s student-initiated march toward sustainability has been rapid and results-driven.

With only the subtle beat of hard-soled shoes across a slate floor echoing in Weaver Chapel, Wittenberg Choir members recessed in near silence behind their beloved maestro for the final time March 19. Some showed tears; others hid the evening’s emotions as Don Busarow, the man who created a 28-year masterpiece of ministry through music, said goodbye.

Every fall, approximately 50 million students walk through the doors of 99,000 public elementary and secondary schools around the country. Of those schools, 4,100 are public charter schools. With the new administration putting resources into replicating successful charter schools, there is renewed examination of how they might be an engine for reform – especially for urban schools, which many believe to be in crisis.

Kerry Dumbaugh ’74 had just transferred to Wittenberg from a music school and was “shopping around” for inspirational classes when she JessicaCrewsstumbled upon a class with Eugene Swanger, founder of the East Asian Studies Program and professor emeritus of religion. Captivated by the subject and his teaching, Dumbaugh ceased her search immediately.

If the buzzing of bees does not grab a visitor’s attention at Honeyrun Farm, then perhaps Becky, Jayne and Isaac Barnes’ smiles will. The three come from generational farming families and their positive, genuine personalities quickly reveal their friendly small-town roots. Mere minutes after arriving at their Williamsport, Ohio-based farm, 30 miles south of Columbus, guests find themselves at peace in their presence, surrounded by fields and family homesteads. Becky’s mud-caked pants and boots easily disclose her unrelenting commitment to organic produce farming, and the fact the she is able to take time to chat proves to be a rarity in her normal 15-hour days.

Throughout her youth, Alicia Sweet Hupp ’82 watched her father contribute his time, talent and treasure to his company and his community. Yet, she never envisioned being a part of his career until the day her father’s manufacturing company came calling.

The phrase “kid at heart” may describe Matthew J. Smith, but it’s what he does in the classroom that truly defines him. Since joining the faculty in 2001, he has turned his own childhood interests into powerful teaching tools that help demystify media messages.

A class on a cup ‘o joe connected students to another culture, but the accompanying field experience changed their perspectives forever.

High in the mountains of Guatemala during the early evening hours, eight first-year students sit under the fading sun with two professors listening to the story of Rigoberto, an ex-guerilla-fighter-turned-organic-coffee-and-banana farmer. A short time later, the students gather under the stars in the Santa Anita Cooperative’s coffee-drying patio after a home-cooked meal and cold showers to reflect on Rigoberto’s words.