Bethel Wel­comes Ian Thomp­son to Cam­pus

MISHAWAKA- Bethel Uni­ver­sity re­cently wel­comed Ian Thomp­son into the new role of stu­dent sup­port spe­cial­ist. Thomp­son plans on work­ing to de­velop her role as the year un­folds. The new staff mem­ber is here to sup­port and ed­u­cate fel­low stu­dents, both mi­nor­ity and ma­jor­ity stu­dents, with any ques­tions or con­cerns they might have about race and cul­ture in an em­pa­thetic way.  
 

“I am here to help [stu­dents] who may not un­der­stand, in a re­spect­ful and com­fort­ing way,” Thomp­son said. 

Thomp­son left her mark on the Mishawaka com­mu­nity prior to com­ing to Bethel Uni­ver­sity. Her his­tory is filled with ex­pe­ri­ences work­ing with stu­dents of dif­fer­ent cul­tures, in­clud­ing a job at Goshen Col­lege as a pro­gram co­or­di­na­tor in the Multi-Cul­tural Af­fairs Of­fice, per­son­ally work­ing with in­ter­na­tional stu­dents and even giv­ing ed­u­ca­tional pre­sen­ta­tions on top­ics such as racism in Amer­ica. 

“I want to see ed­u­ca­tion here,” Thomp­son said, hop­ing to bring a dis­cus­sion to sen­si­tive top­ics.  

Thomp­son’s ul­ti­mate de­sire is to learn about peo­ple’s ex­pe­ri­ences and to be an hon­est, di­rect and sen­si­tive per­son to the peo­ple she’s around.  

Ian Thomp­son will be avail­able on cam­pus to all stu­dents Tues­day to Thurs­day from 3:30-8:30pm. Keep an eye out for spe­cific con­tact in­for­ma­tion to be re­lease at a later date.