Bethel Alumni Re­ceive Awards

MISHAWAKA--At Bethel, great minds are cul­ti­vated and bril­liant young lead­ers learn to step forth from the shad­ows. While every Bethel grad­u­ate is unique and bril­liant in their own way, every year Bethel chooses a se­lect few to rec­og­nize as be­ing clear demon­stra­tions of ex­cel­lence and ser­vice. 

This year, four in­di­vid­u­als were cho­sen to re­ceive these awards: Joel Boehner ‘05, Alum­nus of the Year, 2019; Kory and Al­i­son Lantz ‘09, Young Alumni of the Year, 2019; and Kristy Mikel ‘05, Tim­o­thy Award for Ser­vice, 2019.

“Through­out the course of the year, I col­lect nom­i­na­tions from staff and fac­ulty,” said Emily Sher­wood, Di­rec­tor of Alumni and Donor Re­la­tions. “Then, we also col­lect nom­i­na­tions from the alumni pop­u­la­tion as a whole.” 

Once the nom­i­na­tions are nar­rowed down and or­ga­nized in a form, the alumni board votes on their choices for the year. 

Boehner, the Alum­nus of the Year, is cur­rently Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor of IN*SOURCE (In­di­ana Re­source Cen­ter for Fam­i­lies with Spe­cial Needs), a non-profit or­ga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides Spe­cial Ed­u­ca­tion Par­ent Sup­port through­out In­di­ana. 

Ac­cord­ing to the Bethel web­site, the alum­nus of the year award is “in recog­ni­tion of an out­stand­ing alumna or alum­nus of Bethel Uni­ver­sity who ex­em­pli­fies the val­ues of the col­lege in his or her per­sonal and pro­fes­sional life.” 

Kory and Al­i­son Lantz, the Young Alumni of the Year, cur­rently serve at Trans­for­ma­tion Min­istries, an or­ga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides sup­port for mid­dle school and high school stu­dents liv­ing in the Keller Park area. 

Ac­cord­ing to the Bethel web­site, the young alumni of the year award is “in recog­ni­tion of an out­stand­ing young alum­nus or alumna of Bethel Uni­ver­sity, who ex­em­pli­fies the val­ues of the col­lege in his or her per­sonal and pro­fes­sional life.” 

Kristy Mikel, the re­cip­i­ent of the Tim­o­thy Award for Ser­vice, cur­rently lives and works in Mae Sot, Thai­land, lo­cated on the Myan­mar (Burma)/​Thai­land bor­der. Here, she co-founded Braverly, a cafe and sewing cen­ter that em­pow­ers women by serv­ing as a train­ing cen­ter for busi­ness man­age­ment, sewing, culi­nary arts and prod­uct de­vel­op­ment. 

Ac­cord­ing to the Bethel web­site, the Tim­o­thy Award is given “in recog­ni­tion of an out­stand­ing young alum­nus or alumna of Bethel Uni­ver­sity, who ex­em­pli­fies the val­ues of the col­lege in his or her per­sonal and pro­fes­sional life.” 

Sher­wood closed by say­ing how proud and amazed she is of Bethel’s alumni. 

“I would just like to com­mu­ni­cate how proud we are of our alumni and the work that they do,” said Sher­wood. “Every year, it never ceases to amaze me when we pick these award re­cip­i­ents… the more we dig into their story and learn about them, every year I think, ‘These are the ex­act right choices, and these alumni are wor­thy of recog­ni­tion.” 

The award re­cip­i­ents will be rec­og­nized at the An­nual Alumni Din­ner on Oct. 5.