Thrift Store Funding Scholarships for 55 Years

Mary B. Thomas Award Honorees 2022

The Columbus Otterbein Women’s Club, founded in 1921, originally limited membership to alumnae and former women students. A lot has changed since then. Now called the Westerville Otterbein Women’s Club, it is open to members of any gender, and it runs a Thrift Shop on campus that has raised over $1 million for scholarships for Otterbein students.

Opened in 1952, the Thrift Shop is the oldest sustainability initiative on campus. All merchandise is donated, all staffing is volunteered, and all proceeds are returned as gifts to the University. The first scholarship — the Westerville Otterbein Women’s Club Scholarship — was established 55 years ago in 1968 and is still awarded annually to two or more first-year students who graduated from Westerville City Schools.

The Club is accepting new members, and the Thrift Shop has your next treasure in stock.

Research To Relieve World Hunger

Eunice FosterEUNICE FOSTER, Ph.D., graduated from Otterbein with a degree in Elementary Education in 1970. After teaching at Main Street Elementary School in Columbus for four years, she was called to a new career. Now a crop physiologist at Michigan State University, Foster has broken glass ceilings as the first African American and the first female associate dean in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. She works to lift others up as a founding member of the National Society for Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) — an organization she emphasizes is inclusive of everyone — which now has 65 chapters in 35 states.

She also has made significant contributions to addressing the global food crisis with her research on drought resistance and nitrogen utilization in soybean, dry beans, Bambara groundnut, and cover crops in corn. In 2021 she was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science — one of the most prestigious distinctions in science.

We talked to Eunice about her experience:

We talked to Eunice about her experience:

What led you to your career in crop Physiology and agriculture?

I was teaching sixth grade and I loved it, but I was telling my students that you could do anything you wanted to do, and you could make a difference. World hunger was an issue (and still is) particularly in Africa in the ’70s, and I became interested in it. I found out that, as a land grant university, Ohio State had money for research in agriculture. So, I got my master’s at Ohio State. Then I was offered a job in California with Dow, which had an agricultural division, but I really wanted to continue on.

I went to meetings of our professional society, American Society of Agronomy. I met someone from the University of Arkansas who said they were looking to recruit, particularly Blacks because they had none —most of the schools didn’t. I met with them and was recruited, so I did my Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas.

What does your research entail?

When I was at Ohio State, the associate dean of the department asked me, “Do you want to study horticulture or agronomy?” I didn’t know what either one was, so I said I want to study whatever is going to teach me how to grow the foods that people eat. He said agronomy, so I studied agronomy (the science of soil management and crop production) at Ohio State.

I wanted to study more about the issues that plants have: How do they grow better? What governs the growth of plants? That’s physiology, which is what I studied at the University of Arkansas. When I came to Michigan State University, I taught crop production, introduction to crop science, and crop physiology.

In terms of research, I worked with soybeans, dry beans, kidney beans, Navy beans, and those kinds of beans. I looked at a drought resistance and cover crops and was able to have some involvement with Mexico in a research program, some with Malawi and students from other parts of Africa, and so forth.

Why is your research important in today’s era of climate change?

Even before the almost-crisis that we’re in right now, areas would have periodic episodes of drought. When that happens, the plant doesn’t grow and develop. It may die. You don’t get the yield. In some parts of the world, it was even more often than it was happening here. Now it’s happening more often everywhere with extreme temperatures, excessive moisture, and all of those different issues.

We now have 8 billion people, and it has been projected to reach 9 or 10 billion by 2050. We need to feed those people. I’m a Trekkie, but I don’t expect to get the Starship Enterprise or any other ship anytime soon that’s taking us to different places. So, we’ve got to be able to feed ourselves here and now and it’s got to be nutritious food. With climate change that’s going to be even harder than it has been.

It was already going to be hard enough trying to increase yield, but with having serious drought at times, excess rain, tornadoes, it will be even more difficult. So, my discipline is extremely important, and the unfortunate part is that most people don’t know anything about it.

When most people think of agriculture, they think of farming. That’s fine, except that in the U.S. less than 1% of the people feed the rest of us and grow additional food to export. Plus, we also need the people in the other countries producing enough food to sustain themselves.

That means that this discipline needs to look at: what do we need for the crops to grow, for soils to be fertile? There are also issues with fertilizer and fertilizer run-off, with pesticides and pesticide run-off, diseases and insects. We need to be able to deal with all that and grow food. So, this discipline is extremely important.

What challenges have you faced as a black woman in your field?

When I first I came to Michigan State, I was the first female in our department and the first person of color in our department. There are times when you say something, and they don’t hear it. I am a very assertive person, and I became even more assertive. I think over time people knew that when Eunice speaks, I’m going to tell you what I think and I’m going to be very assertive about that.

But when I had one-on-one interviews with people, someone said to me, “Are you applying for this job because you want to be the first woman and the first Black here?” Now that’s not a legal question. But I smiled and I looked at him and I said, “I applied because you have a job and I need a job.”

I didn’t say it to be offensive but to me it was a common-sense question. You apply when people have a job, and you need a job.

I can’t remember if it was the same man, but someone later said to me, “I should have known we were going to have to hire a woman sometime because we have these women students.”

People would say things that they didn’t realize were offensive, and some of these people were men I came to like, in fact many of them. But I did have to work to change things.

There were there was a course in another college, Women in Science, and the people had asked me to put up flyers in our department. A person in my department took them down and said, “We don’t want our students taking this course.”

There was hostility towards women in science and so you had to be a strong person. But I didn’t come into agriculture for people to like me. I came into it for a purpose. I grew up in the 1950s, and the hostility towards Blacks was not so different — I would hear my parents talk. You couldn’t be a frail, weepy person. You can’t run me away.

We ended up founding an organization called Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences, and it’s still going strong. We had 1,000 members at our last national meeting. There are many professionals of color that are operating in universities, government, industry, and non-profits who have come through this organization and been nurtured.

The students at MSU were the impetus. It’s been amazing for me to see the growth and the national impact, and from the beginning it was students of color saying, we want to know who else is out there and we want to recruit.

But it always has been open to everyone and nurtured everyone. We have Caucasian students, we have African Americans, Latinx, Native Americans, Asian Americans. We also have high school chapters now, which build a pipeline.

Why is it important to include minority scientists and scholars in conversations in your discipline?

In every discipline we need all of our human capital. Intelligence is not in any one race.

I gave a three-minute presentation on this recently. I started with Lue Gim Gong. In the 1890s in Florida, there was a terrible freeze, and they pretty much lost the citrus crop. This young man who came here as an immigrant by himself at age 12 from China, did research and came up with varieties that were that were freeze tolerant. He’s called the “Citrus Wizard of Florida” and most people have never heard of him.

Then I mentioned Ynes Mexia. In the 1920s, she started college when she was 51. She collected 145,000 species, 600 that had never collected before, and over 60 of them have her name in them somehow. Suppose we didn’t have her.

Then I mentioned an African American woman named Gladys West. In the ’70s and ’80s, she did some mapping with the stratosphere and the Earth’s gravitational pull and other things that led to foundation of the GPS that we have in cars and phones. Suppose we didn’t have her.

Then I mentioned a lady named Robin Wall Kimmerer, who is working with Native American concepts of plants and nature and what we’ve lost, what we need to regain, and how that we can use that.

Intelligence is not scarce and it’s not in any one race, nor any one gender. We need different viewpoints, different ways of looking at things, different ways of thinking, so that we challenge each other in a positive way.

There’s a saying that if you and your partner always agree, one of you is unnecessary. It’s not my saying I but I love it. We need constructive, positive criticism and thinking and we need everybody’s ideas.

What have you done to support and encourage minority scientists in your field?

We have a grant that’s finishing up now from the National Science Foundation to recruit more students into seven disciplines, including agronomy.

Many people don’t know of the need for science. We don’t have enough people coming into these disciplines — people of any color. The grant is for everyone, but I’m proud to say that we had 34% diversity and we’ve been very successful with 82% of our students graduating in four years or less. We spent a lot of time nurturing, encouraging, meeting monthly with the students, and bringing in speakers. We built in money for them to do internships, study abroad, and go to professional meetings.

We also go into high schools, especially three high schools in our lower socioeconomic district once a month with hands-on activities. And our college also has some summer programs. If a student finds something that interests them, we want to be able to build upon that.

I’ve gone to an Afrocentric school and talked to their first, second, third, and fourth graders about seed science and they did a garden this summer. My goal is to create a pipeline because even though I’m retiring, I would like this program to continue in high schools.

How has your lifelong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion been meaningful to you?
As an African American woman, it could not be otherwise to know from whence we’ve come and the challenges we’ve overcome, even in my lifetime. I want to know history and we have to know it. Unfortunately, it isn’t taught in school; you can’t teach history with just one race or another.

I know the struggles that my parents went through. I know that any struggles that I’ve had have been miniscule compared to what they had, and theirs were miniscule compared to the people before them. And that I know that it was not accidental. There were laws that

Plant Physic Woman

Our sincere gratitude goes out to these alumni and friends who have recently made generous gifts to Otterbein

Emily Bale Warner ’58, P’80 and Robert E. “Bud” Warner Jr. ’56, P’80 have donated $25,000 to create the Robert and Emily Bale Warner Scholarship, which will help future generations of Otterbein students achieve their dreams and goals in life.

The Annie Mary and Ashley Dowdy Scholarship endowment has been established by Janet Dowdy Granger ’69, through a pledge of $25,000, to support nursing students. The gift honors Granger’s parents, who had a deep love and respect for the nursing profession and higher education.

Undergraduate nursing students gain hands-on experiences in and out of clinical laboratories.

The Otterbein “O” Club Foundation gifted $23,000 to support renovations in the Rike Center athletic weight room. The “O” Club has been supporting athletics capital campaigns and special projects since 1955.

Emily Smith Curie ’66 has donated $27,000 to honor her late husband, Donald, by creating the Emily ’66 and Donald Curie Scholarship to support students with a passion for theatre as they work to achieve the dream of making a life in professional theatre.

Otterbein received a $100,000 gift from the Betty A. Campbell Trust to create an endowed scholarship. Betty was married to late alumnus John Campbell ’61 and was instrumental in fostering past support for Otterbein from the Austin E. Knowlton Foundation, where she worked for many years.

The Howard ’55 and Virginia ’55 Longmire Endowed Scholarship Fund will be created through a generous gift from alumna Virginia Phillippi Longmire ’55. Their four years at Otterbein were highlighted by participation in numerous musical endeavors, all made possible by financial assistance programs. Otterbein provided Howard and Ginny the opportunity to gain a valuable educational experience and this endowment is established to help future students continue their music legacy.

Ric Spicer ’61 and Will Spitler, longtime friends of the University, recently gave a generous gift of $15,000 to support the Otterbein Fund, the unrestricted fund that benefits all areas of campus.

Vernon L. Pack ’50 continued his longstanding support with a generous gift to the Otterbein Fund. Otterbein is currently working on plans for the 2024 Vernon L. Pack ’50 Lecture next spring, so watch for details soon!

 

Author Heather McGhee and Vernon L. Pack ’50

The Westerville Otterbein Women’s Club has continued its long legacy of supporting students with its recent $45,000 gift to their existing scholarship endowments. Annual proceeds from the WOWC’s Thrift Shop, located at 177 W. Park St. on campus, support their donations to the University each year.

Mark Plaumann P’22 and Marilyn Wilson P’22, parents of graduate Mason Plaumann ’22, made a generous $45,000 pledge to create the Plaumann Family Equine Endowment and support the Otterbein Fund.

Equine IDA 2023 Champions

The gift will provide support for the distinguished equine science program and award-winning equestrian riding teams.

Mary Pat Knight H’00 and Dr. Douglas R. Knight ’63 have donated $20,000 to support the purchase of a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer for the Department of Chemistry. The equipment will help to expand interdisciplinary work with the Department of Art and Art History, further enriching STEAM research at Otterbein.

The Game of Real Life

Mary B. Thomas Award Honorees 2022

Professor Rob Braun, Mariah Nevels ’19, and Chris Saylor ’17

Classic board games like Monopoly and Clue have nothing on Our World, the health education board game created by Professor of Public Health Education Rob Braun and alumni Mariah Nevels ’19 and Chris Saylor ’17.

Our World showcases how health disparities among different communities impact daily life. Players start the game by selecting a “life” card, which tells the player their education level, salary, and what type of family unit they have. From there, gameplay begins and players land on spots which require them to draw “scenario” cards that give them multiple options of how to respond, all with unknown consequences.

Saylor says that the idea to create a board game happened while at a health disparities conference in March 2017. “Rob and I were perusing the posters at the conference and started having a conversation about different ways to teach about the social determinants of health and health disparities that wasn’t just him standing in front of the class lecturing.”

For Braun, finding ways for his students to truly understand the impacts of health disparities is critical to making a difference in the public health system.

“Racial and ethnic health disparities are a huge public health issue that not everyone knows about or understands. These disparities have deleterious effects on individuals and communities, especially Black and Brown communities. I believe we need to eliminate this issue, but we cannot do anything about these issues if people don’t know about them,” Braun explained.

“My role is to educate students, individuals, communities, etc., about these issues. Understanding the root causes and increasing awareness will hopefully start conversations about how to eliminate these issues.”

While the goal of Our World is to educate players about health disparities, the creators say that this game is not just for public health students. Groups of faculty and staff across campus have played at events hosted by the game’s creators.

“People think you have to be in the health field to learn about these things, but this is geared to anyone,” said Nevels.

“People face these issues daily. We want to start the dialogue, get the conversation going, and get people aware and involved.”

Braun is always looking for impactful ways to teach about health disparities. For his health equity class, he partners with CelebrateOne, a central Ohio nonprofit that has identified eight highpriority areas where Black infant mortality is extremely high. He assigns small groups of students to visit an area and assess the positives and negatives of that particular community through the health disparity lens.

“For example, in a particular area, is there access to healthy food options, a healthcare center, a safe space to play, transportation, street lights, sidewalks, etc.? Are the houses up to date, or are they in need of repair? What’s the mean income, the education level? Those are just a few examples of what they would look for,” he explained.

“I love this assignment because the students in my class come from all different backgrounds and they, for the most part, have probably not been exposed to other communities and the issues those communities face,” Braun said. “This assignment gets them out of their bubble or comfort zone and solidifies everything we discussed for the past 10 weeks in class. It is one thing to read and talk about the issues — it’s another thing when they go out and observe for themselves. It is eye-opening for many of the students.”

In addition to his impactful teaching methods, Braun is known for being an advocate who supports and pushes students of color to pursue higher degrees, saying that representation matters in healthcare.

“People want to go see a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare professional who looks like them. Any time we can promote more diversity in our health-related fields, we must do so.”

Our World is now available for purchase and the three creators offer facilitated group training.

Learn more at ourworldsdh.com

Rolling Out the Mats for Women’s Wrestling

There are 50,000 participants at the high school level and that number is increasing every year, yet there are only 160 collegiate women’s wrestling teams in the U.S. Now there is an exciting new option, as Otterbein has started recruiting athletes for its women’s wrestling team — the first collegiate program in central Ohio. The program will begin varsity competition during the 2024-25 academic year.

Since announcing the new program in June, Director of Wrestling Operations Brent Rastetter has received a steady flow of calls from prospective student-athletes.

Get to know women’s wrestling:

  • The Ohio High School Athletic Association sponsored its first state championship in March 2023. Three of the state’s top four high school teams are in central Ohio.
  • Otterbein is the 51st school in Division III, sixth in the state of Ohio, and third in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) to sponsor women’s wrestling.
  • Across all three NCAA Divisions, wrestling has the highest percentage of first generation college students of any sport.

Any current or future Cardinal students or families who are interested in the women’s wrestling program should reach out to Coach Rastetter at brastetter@otterbein.edu.

Celebration of Otterbein

Celebration of Otterbein

Celebration Of Otterbein

Eunice Foster

Top Row (L-R): Lauren Lichtenauer ’11, Sarah H. Mabee ’07, Keeshon Morrow ’08, Andrew Tobias ’08, Jennifer A. Jackson ’03, Aaron K. Kerr ’91
Bottom Row (L-R): Shantel Weinsheimer ’99, Robert S. Fortner ’70, Eunice Fanning Foster ’70, Beth Rigel Daugherty, Coral Harris

L-R: Lauren Lichtenauer ’11, Sarah H. Mabee ’07, Keeshon Morrow ’08, Andrew Tobias ’08, Jennifer A. Jackson ’03, Aaron K. Kerr ’91, Shantel Weinsheimer ’99, Robert S. Fortner ’70, Eunice Fanning Foster ’70, Beth Rigel Daugherty, Coral Harris

2023 Alumni Award Recipients Honored

During the 2023 Celebration of Otterbein ceremony at Homecoming and Family Weekend on Sept. 16, 13 exemplary individuals were recognized for their contributions to their professions, communities, and Otterbein. The honorees included:

Rising Star Award
Lauren Lichtenauer ’11
Sarah H. Mabee ’07
Keeshon Morrow ’08
Andrew Tobias ’08

Otterbein Alumni Award
Jennifer A. Jackson ’03
Aaron K. Kerr ’91
Shantel Weinsheimer ’99

Distinguished Alumni Award
Robert S. Fortner ’70
Eunice Fanning Foster ’70

Honorary Alumni Recognition
Barbara Chapman Achter
Beth Rigel Daugherty, professor emerita of English
Coral Harris, friend of Otterbein, donor, and Lifelong Learning Community member.

Mary B. Thomas ’28 Commitment to Otterbein Award

L: Morton J. Achter H’00, professor emeritus of music
R:Barbara Chapman Achter H’23, co-founder of the Otterbein Department of Nursing.

Learn more about the Otterbein Alumni Awards at www.otterbein.edu/alumniawards/.

Concert Choir Touring Baltics in December

Mary B. Thomas Award Honorees 2022

Concert Choir, with director Gayle Walker (front row right) at a recent performance.

Special thanks to the Vida S. Clements Foundation for their donation of $25,000 to support this opportunity for our students!

The Otterbein Concert Choir will embark on a 10-day performance tour of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia on Dec. 11. The Baltic countries are known for their love of choral music and are home to distinguished choral composers Arvo Pärt, Veljo Tormis, and Erik Esenvalds.

The Concert Choir, under the direction of Director of Choral Activities Gayle Walker, will perform in the historic churches of Talinn, Vilnius, Riga, and Kaunas; share concerts with local choirs; and partake in cultural exchanges. In addition to performances, the singers will tour museums of art and history, historic town centers, and cathedrals. Since 2000, hundreds of singers have toured internationally with the Concert Choir to locations including Japan, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, China, Ireland, and Germany.

Concert Choir

Prior Concert Choir tour to New Orleans.

Otterbein Receives Fourth Choose Ohio First Grant

Otterbein has received a Choose Ohio First (COF) grant of $462,621.60 over five years from the State of Ohio and the Department of Higher Education (ODHE) for scholarship support for students from Ohio majoring in allied health, equine pre-veterinary, and veterinary technology. Otterbein currently has three additional Choose Ohio First scholarship awards, including support for scholarships for Ohio students in nursing and mathematics, computer science, and STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine) and STEMM education.

Choose Ohio First

Excellence in Academics

Systems Engineering

Otterbein’s systems engineering program has earned accreditation by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), an internationally recognized agency that accredits programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. For Otterbein’s systems engineering students, the ABET accreditation will allow them to continue their education with professional licensures, registrations, and certifications.

Master of Science in Athletic Training

Beginning in fall 2022, accredited athletic training programs must prepare students at the graduate level. To meet this new requirement, Otterbein’s Health and Sport Sciences Program has developed and will launch its new Master of Science in Athletic Training program summer 2023, with the first graduating class anticipated in spring semester 2025.

Actuarial Science

Otterbein is the only private school in Ohio with an actuarial science program recognized for an “Advanced Curriculum” by the Society of Actuaries.

Teaching Awards

Teaching in Excellence Part-Time Faculty Teaching Awardees
Victoria Frisch (History, Political Science, and Modern Languages) and Melinda Murphy (Theatre and Dance).

New Teacher of the Year Full-Time Faculty Award
Brandon Sinn (Biology and Earth Science)

Teacher of the Year Full-Time Faculty Award
Kristina Escondo (History, Political Science, and Modern Languages)

Exemplary Teaching Award from the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Higher Education
Tammy Birk (English)

Teaching Awards

L to R: Victoria Frisch, Melinda Murphy, Brandon Sinn, Tammy Birk, and Kristina Escondo.

130th Anniversary of Otterbein’s First African American Graduate

Otterbein’s First Black Graduate William Henry Fouse ’1893 In His Own Words.

Otterbein University’s first Black graduate, William Henry Fouse, class of 1893, was a teacher, a principal, a lifelong learner, a musician, and an inspiration to students and educators in his 45 years of work in public education. On the 130th anniversary of his graduation from Otterbein, there is no one better to tell his story than Fouse himself.

In 1927, Fouse wrote to Mrs. George Alexander of Westerville, thanking her for an invitation to the Westerville High School Golden Anniversary. He wrote:

“I will not be garrulous but I must say that I was born in your beautiful town 59 years ago, son of two slaves who came to Ohio from bondage and never were able to read or write. They gave 27 years of their lives without recompense. I was born in a log cabin a mile or so from Westerville.”

Fouse’s family later purchased a house on Home Street, where William and his two brothers were raised. In 1889 his father, Squire, purchased a home that had been owned by William Hanby and had it moved to a plot of land on Home Street, where the Campus Center is today. In an article written for the Westerville Public Opinion in 1938, Fouse wrote:

“Three interests dominated the life of Squire Fouse. They were a home, the education of his children, and his church. If he could speak now, (he) would say that the spirit and literary gifts of Ben Hanby had been infused into his own son, and that he, though a slave for many years, had made the correct appraisal of the magic and power of education.”

Fouse was the first Black graduate of both Westerville High School and Otterbein University.

According to Otterbein historian Harold Hancock, “[Fouse] taught school in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, serving as principal of Dunbar School in Lexington, KY, for 24 years. In Kentucky he organized the Bluegrass Oratorical Association and Bluegrass Athletic Association, instituted the Penny Saving Bank Plan in schools, and guided the development of Dunbar School into a modern school. He became president of the Kentucky National Education Association [in 1937]. Just before he retired in 1937, he received an M.A. from the University of Cincinnati.”

That same year, Otterbein gave him the honorary degree, Doctor of Pedagogy.

William Henry Fouse died on June 1, 1944. His work continues to bear fruit today in the schools of Lexington, KY, where he worked for a quarter of a century, and in his hometown of Westerville, where an elementary school bears his name, and his alma mater hosts The William Henry Fouse House of Black Culture. In addition, he continues to inspire us over a century later through his writings.

Henry William Fouse wrote of his father, Squire Fouse:

“He, though a slave for many years, had made the correct appraisal of the magic and power of education.”