WINONA LAKE – Almost twice as many businesses and organizations were represented at Grace College’s Applied Learning Fair Wednesday than were at the one in October.
“I’m very pleased, very pleased,” said Grace College Director of Applied Learning Randy Polston.
Some of the new entities at Wednesday’s fair, Polston said, included The Lebermuth Company from Mishawaka; Tear Down The Walls, a homeless ministry from Indianapolis; Sonrise from Anderson; Magical Meadows; and McHatton-Sadler Funeral Home.
Polston said when the fair was held back in October, he had 30 contacts. He estimated now he has 71, and 50 of them were represented at yesterday’s fair.
The Applied Learning program was implemented at Grace College this year to give students a chance to go out in the community and learn more than they are in the classroom. It is intended to include a broader range of experiences to help students expand their knowledge of their area while earning real credit.
Beginning Jan. 1, Grace students must complete 12 credits of Applied Learning to graduate. One credit equals 40 hours of service. The requirement will be applied to new students at Grace this year. It is pro-rated for this year’s sophomores through seniors but not required for them to graduate.
Polston said Wednesday’s fair was for students to sign up for summer and fall experiences.
Representing The Lebermuth Company, Director of Marketing Tiffany Smith said Lebermuth has factories in Bremen and Mishawaka. The company manufactures fragrances, flavors and essential oils that they then distribute to companies all over the world for candies, inspect repellants and lotions.
Smith said they had several openings for Grace students, including a fragrance and flavor lab technician, IT assistant and design assistant.
The lab technician would be ideal for a chemistry major. Hopefully, Smith said, the position is a new opportunity for a Grace student to explore.
“We’re excited to be here,” she said.
Warsaw Evangelical Presbyterian Church had six Applied Learning experiences available for Grace students, according to Angie Leopold, director of children’s services.
Those included preschool teaching or administration, church kids ministry, church kids choir, summer kids ministry, church technology audio/visual and church worship music.
Director of Christian Growth Anne Bailey said Wednesday’s fair was “bigger than the last fair we had.”
Leopold said the church would love to have the students right away, and the church has a summer event they could help out with, but it sounded like some of the students she talked to wouldn’t be ready for a year or two.
Bailey said freshmen and sophomores think they have a lot of time to figure out their options and what they want to do.
Rob Parker, CenturyLink sales manager, said students could get primarily sales and marketing experience with CenturyLink. Their work could help them create a portfolio to show their next employer.
“The main goal for me is to get them exposure to the business world,” Parker said.
He said he could tailor the students’ experience to what their goals are and what their career path look like.
Nick Deck, junior high and college-age coordinator with Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church, said they were offering graphic design and media experiences for students. They have research and writing experiences also available.
John Sproul, church volunteer, said Grace Brethren has so many Grace students already attend and volunteer there. The church also has pastors and part-time pastors who are Grace professors so that’s helped, he said.
McHatton-Sadler Funeral Home director Derek Sadler said, ‘We’re going to be providing what actually happens when death happens, from removal of the body to arranging funeral services to services to after-care work for the family. Everything but embalming to put it short.”
Hours with the funeral home for a student could include on-call night hours to working 12-hour days with calling and services.
Dr. Dawn-Marie Bass, audiologist with Bass Audiology, Syracuse, said, “I can show them how to run a business because I’m in private practice.”
She said the ideal student would be a medical or health care major, or a business major.
“As a believer, you run a business differently than the world does and I wanted Grace students to see that,” Bass said.
American Red Cross Operations Coordinator Kim Komdeur said the Red Cross has pretty much any experiences students were looking for. That can include disaster response, preparedness, community programs or office help.
She said the Red Cross has volunteers in the office every day because it depends on volunteers.
“One is exposure to the workings of an academic library,” said Tonya Fawcett, Morgan Library director at Grace College, of what experiences a Grace student could get from working at the library.
She said the library had one Applied Learning student in January, and now that student is working at the Warsaw Community Public Library.
Grace College sophomore Taylor Golding said he didn’t need Applied Learning since he was in his second year, but was looking for more opportunities to get involved for the future.
An elementary and special education double major, Golding said he was finding a lot of future opportunities, especially with Cardinal Services.
“It’s more specific to what I’d be interested in,” Golding said.
