Summer 2006
Highlights |
 Meet a Graduate: Lt. Zach Mauss
Zach Mauss, Class of 2006, graduated with a degree in Exercise
Physiology. Mauss was also commissioned at 2nd Lt. in the US Army
commencement weekend, following a four-year scholarship with the
Mountaineer Battalion of Army ROTC. Before taking up his military
obligation He will be heading to Israel to study Middle Eastern
culture and history, Arabic, and Hebrew through a prestigious and
highly competitive fellowship program. He is one of only three in
the US to earn the fellowship. Mauss, while a student, served as
XO of the Mountaineer Battalion and president of the ARMY ROTC Running
Club. He was a resident of Luther House his senior year.
Mauss is pictured with several women on the day of his
commissioning. He is third from left. Far left is Luther
House resident Shay McNeil, and far right is Luther House resident Jana
Melpolder.
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 Meet a Graduate: Jana Melpolder
Jana
Melpolder, Class of 2006, graduated with a double major in
Sociology and Anthropology and in Women's Studies. Jana will spend
the coming year
with Youth Encounter (formerly known as Lutheran Youth Encounter),
joining an international team bound for Ghana and Nigeria. The
summer between her junior and senior years was spent in mission work in
Thailand: pictured at left, Jana smiles for the camera as she
works with her IV team. Jana did an internship with the Lutheran
Campus
Ministry her last semester at WVU. During her internship, she
served as an assisting minister at mass and conducted various prayer
offices. She also experienced some of the aspects of daily church
work and reflected upon social ministry and the intersection of
theology and practice. Her internship project explored women in
the ministry, mainly in Appalachia. |
Second Team Returns from Biloxi!
Nick Hornbeck, Laura Pfeifer, Zach Kochy, and Neva Hornbeck prayed
compline on Sunday night, May 14, then they climbed into a van and
drove through the night to Biloxi, MS, to begin a week of disaster
recovery work. The three student and one parent team was
initiated and completely organized by the students. Nick and
Laura are veterans of "What a Relief!" the spring break 2006
deployment. Having returned a week later, Nick reported that all
went well and that a lot of dry walling had been done. For more
info about the Lutheran Disaster Response--Collegiate Corps, click here. |
Bennett & Riegel Swap
Pr.
Bennett and Chaplain Riegel swapped duties for the month of
June. This marked Pr. Brian Bennett's transition from Interim
Pastor to Pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Morgantown. During
the month, Pr. Bennett staffed the LCM@WVU information booth at WVU's
New Student Orientation. |
LCM@WVU Participants Elected to National Lutheran Assembly
Two
WVU students an active participants in the Lutheran Campus Ministry
were elected by the West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod Assembly to
serve as lay voting members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America Churchwide Assembly to be held in 2007. Rebecca Grate, a
senior psychology major won the female seat by a significant margin on
the first ballot. Jason Felici, a junior exercise physiology
major, after leading in the first two ballots, won the male seat on the
third. These two will be the only lay members from WV-WMD
attending the nearly 1100 member Churchwide Assembly, the highest
legislative body of the denomination.
In other election news, Dr. Garry Linton, Director of WVU's Office of
Lab Animal Resources, was elected to a four year term on the Board of
Directors of the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, PA,
defeating the incumbent by a comfortable margin. Linton will be
joining Chaplain Riegel on that board as representatives of the WV-WMD
Synod. |
Summer Reports from the Field
Alanna Hoyer-Leitzel, whose
presence we could enjoy for only one year before she departed for St.
Olaf, sent a post card, writing
 Hey Riegel,
So I know I haven't been around for a bit, but
I was looking at the LCM website and saw the summer updates and thought
I'd send my own. This summer I'm working for the Abrahamic
Program for Young Adults here at Chautauqua, planning and leading
interfaith educational events for high school and college age
people. I'm having a blast and learning a lot but still counting
down the days until I'm back at St. Olaf listening to the choir sing
"Beautiful Savior."
Always missing the WVU LCM a lot,
Alanna
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Alanna, we miss you too. Send us an e-mail! We don't have a
current address for you. BTW, the Riegel family actually stopped
at the Chautauqua Institute on their vacation travels but didn't know
that Alanna was working there.
Nick Hornbeck has returned his own version of the Grand Tour, but we leave up one of his postcards for all to enjoy.
 Riegel,
Here's some inspiration for ya. This "Botafumeiro" (Smoke Spitter)
weighs 53 kg, reaches a top speed of 68 km/h, misses hitting the walls
@ the end by 51 cm, and has a maximum angle of 82º! Supposedly it is
the largest incense dispenser in the world, and I witnessed it after
walking triumphantly into Santiago de Compostella after finishing the
Comino de Santiago pilgrimage. Hope your summer's going well, and I'll
see you in August!
--Nick
P.s., It fell down twice: in 1499 & 1622. |
Nick, we are indeed inspired. Nick also reported in an
e-mail that he has run with bulls with no worse outcome than losing his
watch.
Meanwhile, Kara Walton was digging up bones--dinosaur bones--in Wyoming. She wrote,
Hey Pastor Riegel,
Hope you are having a good summer. I am
having an amazing time in Wyoming. My research project focuses on
the plant fossils and petrified wood of the region. I love it
because I get to hike around the region gathering specimens instead of
sitting in the dinosaur quarries all day. I have already made
many new good friendships through this and learned a lot more about
geology as well. I will definitely be sad to leave but am looking
forward to living at the Luther House this year.
--Kara
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Let us know what you are up to during the summer months? Send us
a postcard or an e-mail (include a digitalized photo if you can). |