Spiritual Exploration Field Period Scholarship Recipients
Headed to Uganda, Jamaica

BY DOUG LIPPINCOTT

At most colleges, students typically wait until the junior year to conduct an internship or study abroad.

Not so at Keuka College, where students conduct Field Periods every year.

That opens up some remarkable opportunities for freshmen. Cases in point: Lisa Marciniak, a social work major from Port Byron and Naomi Torres, a unified early childhood/special education major from Brocton.

Marciniak and Torres will spend January at an orphanage in Kampala, Uganda.

The freshmen received Spiritual Exploration Field Period scholarships to help fund their trips as did junior Carly Fuerst, a junior occupational science major from Avoca, who will work at the Jamaican Christian School for the Deaf in Montego Bay.

Spiritual Exploration Field Periods involve work or service in churches, missions, hospitals, hospices, and the like. They may also involve aiding and assisting churches or religious organizations in providing aid to needy individuals and groups, either in this country or overseas.

The scholarship is funded by a $5,000 Institutional Renewal Grant from The RhodesConsultation on the Future of the Church-Related College.

Marciniak wanted to conduct a Field Period in Africa because “it is one of the most impoverished continents in the world.

Lisa Marciniak (front left) and Naomi Torres receive their Spiritual Exploration Field Period awards from committee members Kathy Waye, Mike McKenzie, and Anne Marie Guthrie.

“I am a social work major and believe I can help the people in Africa no matter how small the assistance may be. I know the term ‘bleeding heart’ is at times overused, but I feel that way about Africa. My motivation is to serve the people in need and then relay the truth these people live with, every day, to the rest of the world.”

Marciniak hopes her Field Period will enhance her appreciation for different cultures and people from unfamiliar places.

“This will be a new journey for me because it is an international experience and different places have different issues at hand,” she said. “I want to learn about the needs of children, whether they be basic needs and skills, education, housing, family life, or personal obstacles.”

Torres’ motivation for pursuing a Field Period in Africa was similar to Marcinaiak’s.

She said her mission in Africa will be to “give children something to live for that will forever be implanted in their hearts long after I leave. There is nothing more rewarding or powerful than sharing the gospel. This is my way of saying 'thank you' to all the people who have helped me to take strides forward in my life journey.”

Fuerst’s Field Period at the Jamican Christian School for the Deaf is sponsored by American Ministries for the Deaf.

“It is a perfect combination of my goals and aspirations,” said Fuerst. “I major in occupational therapy and minor in American Sign Language. Because it is a residential school and the children have disabilities or are deaf, there is an element of occupational therapy as well as ASL.”

She said the Field Period will “embrace the cultural experience by combining all possible dimensions of myself, including my spiritual beliefs. Being in Jamaica will allow me to experience religion in a different country and culture. It will also allow me to grow as a person and student by ministering to these children through my faith, sign language and occupational therapy skills.”

Field Period Links Kenya, North Dakota

Recipients of Judith Oliver Brown Memorial Award
Headed Far and Wide

BY DOUG LIPPINCOTT

Nairobi, Kenya, and Grand Forks, N.D., have little in common.

Until you throw Field Period into the mix.

Thanks to the College’s required internship program and the Judith Oliver Brown Memorial Award, Nairobi and Grand Forks will be linked this January.

Bethany Bridenbaugh, a junior social work major from Rochester, will conduct her Field Period at an orphanage in Nairobi while Emily Wright, a senior biology major from Medina, will spend January in the biology department at the University of North Dakota.

Both will receive financial assistance as recipients of the Judith Oliver Brown Memorial Award, which honors Brown, a French major who spent her junior year as a Norton Scholar at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and conducted her senior year Field Period at the Lavin Perfume Co. in New York City. Brown, a 1963 Keuka graduate, died in 1986.

Bridenbaugh will volunteer at an orphanage where the children “have lost their parents to HIV and AIDS and most likely have the disease themselves.

Bethany Bridenbaugh (left) and Emily Wright receive their Judith Oliver Brown Scholarship awards from committee members Fran Crovetti and Anne Marie Guthrie.

“It has always been a dream of mine to go to Africa and do something that will make a difference in another human’s life and I believe this is the perfect opportunity to accomplish that goal,” she explained.

Bridenbaugh recognizes that it will be difficult for her to “see the children in the state they are going to be in when I get there.”

Nonetheless, she enthused about the trip and its potential.

 “Hunger, disease and abuse have left these kids in such need that I had to find a way to get there and do what I could to help,” she said. “Not wanting to bring a handful of kids home with me is definitely going to be a challenge.”

She expects to be “a different person” when she returns to Keuka Park in February.

“My life will be changed forever,” she said, “and hopefully the lives of the children, too.”

Wright will continue her study of parasites under Vasyl Tkach, assistant professor of biology at the University of North Dakota.

Wright and Tkach will focus on various parasites, including those of Australian turtles and crocodiles.

“I had the privilege to study under [Professor of Biology] James White while taking Advanced Parasitology this fall,” said Wright. “I fell in love with the study of parasites and the lifecycles.”

In addition to parasitology, Wright’s major interests are microbiology and virology, areas where she has previously conducted Field Periods.