Approximately 40 colleges in each of the six geographical regions in the U.S. were selected as meeting four key criteria that make a college truly exceptional: engaged students, great teaching, vibrant communities, and successful outcomes. These are the “hidden gems” of higher education institutions - as determined by a review board of academicians, guidance counselors, and parents.

“We are truly honored to have received the designation of ‘College of Distinction’ by Students Horizons,” said Dr. Michael Collette, vice president for Enrollment Management and Information Systems. “We believe that this distinction will provide a level of pride for our students and their families for this recognition, and confidence that we have been acknowledged by our peers for having high quality faculty, uncommonly good teaching, nationally recognized programs, and very engaged students.”

Anderson University was required to go through an application process to be considered, be nationally recognized by education professionals, employ outstanding teachers that provide innovative learning experiences, have an active campus and community that allows for personal development, and be highly valued by employers for its outstanding preparation. Colleges of Distinction also recognized an impressive nine other colleges in the state including: Goshen College, Butler University, Manchester College, St. Joseph’s College, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, Saint Mary’s College, Taylor University, University of Evansville, and University of Southern Indiana.

College seekers can also visit the Colleges of Distinction website to learn more about featured schools, including Anderson University. Furthermore, visitors can read tips from high school guidance counselors and essays from college students, presidents, and other members of different campus communities.

Student Horizons, Inc. is a digital services company devoted to higher education. Founded in 2002 by concerned parents and admissions professionals, their mission is to enable students to find colleges and universities that appeal to and complement their unique personalities and aspirations. Student Horizons, Inc. is located in Bethesda, MD.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,750 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.

They’re just learning to adapt.

Kelly Kaiser and other seniors planning to graduate in May with business degrees from Anderson University said the ongoing financial meltdown, the one that’s sunk blue chip stocks and shuttered major banks, means they have to be smart and a bit more open-minded about their job search.

While Kaiser hopes to parlay her concentration in nonprofit management into work with a Chicago museum, she said she understands that the current job market means considering other options and being patient.

“You have to be optimistic, and you have to be willing to work for it,” the Anderson native said. “And if you don’t have a job in May, it’s not the end of the world.”

Students said their classes, even those outside the business school, have turned the financial crisis into an economic case study.

“It’s been a great learning experience,” said Ben Hayhurst, who will graduate in May with a finance degree. “Rather than go back and look at some random historical data, what we’re in right now will be in textbooks 10, 15 years from now. And I don’t want to say that’s exciting, but it’s interesting to be living through it and watching it.”

Like Kaiser, Hayhurst is just beginning to send out job applications. Both said they planned to ramp up their efforts beginning in January.

Hayhurst is focusing on a career centered around investments, something his internship with an Indianapolis brokerage firm could help with. The field is broad enough, he said, that he’s continuously learning of new opportunities or hearing about companies with ties to the university that could lead to an entry-level job.

Considering all available options is a top strategy Maryann Coty recommends to students.

As director of AU’s career development center, Coty prepares pending graduates across all disciplines to transition into the work force, a task that has brought increased challenges for students.

“It’s just a lot more competitive,” she said.

Compared to six percent of surveyed companies saying they were hiring new graduates in the spring, Coty said, only one percent report such hiring efforts now.

Along with going after fewer jobs, new graduates must compete against more experienced professionals who have recently been laid off, she said.

Younger job seekers “have to look at what they can offer, and the things that they can bring as a new graduate is youth and enthusiasm and new skill sets that maybe they’ve learned in the classroom,” Coty said.

She has advised students to look for jobs in expanding industries, fields like health care, technology or alternative energy. And Coty said a tough job market means students have to be experts at selling themselves to employers.

“They really have to make sure that their resumes and their interviewing skills are really sharp, and that they can really bring out their strengths,” she said.

Part of that confidence, students said, has come from preparation offered by the university.

Kaiser noted that the anticipation of leaving school and entering the working world is less nerve racking that the feelings she had four years ago as an inexperienced college freshman.

And if an ideal museum gig in Chicago doesn’t come her way, Kaiser said she’s prepared to take other avenues.

“Apply as many places you can and hope something opens up,” she said of her job-search approach.

“Apply, apply, apply. Don’t just bank on one company.”

—Barrett Newkirk is a reporter for the Herald Bulletin. Story republished with permission.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,750 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.

The Global Chicken Challenge began with more than 50 teams of students. Each team was given a live chicken. The students then traded their chicken back to the SIFE team for any one of various available items valued one dollar. The objective of the exercise was to continue trading items for objects of increasing value. Students were encouraged to barter with individuals throughout the Anderson community to find the most valuable items. After a day and a half of searching and trading, each team presented their final item to a panel of five judges. The team with the most valuable item was declared the winner and awarded a $300 cash prize. Local farm supplier Reynolds Farm Equipment provided financial support to the event.

Anderson University senior Andrew Murray completed the challenge with the winning item, an iPod, valued at $144 by the panel.

“It’s fairly easy to barter once you get out into the community and find people who are willing to work with you,” said Murray. “Other items included a freezer, rocking chair, printer, and video game. The SIFE team plans to auction off these items to support their work with communities in Africa. Teams completed a pretest and posttest that discussed ideas related to bartering in order to track their learning throughout this experience.

The event also signified the launch on SIFE’s online chicken sponsorship Web site www.giveAchicken.com where the team is encouraging others to help make the Mulunda Miaka Orphanage in Zambia, Africa a more sustainable community. For only $6, visitors to the website can participate in the Give-A-Chicken project and sponsor a chicken which will then be donated directly to the orphanage. Included with the donation are the chicken’s feed and medication, meaning that when the chicken or eggs are sold, all the profit goes directly to orphanage.

“Zambia is a land locked country located in central southern Africa,” says SIFE president Kyle Schroeder. “Chickens are a staple food and a main source of protein in the Zambian diet. They also serve as a viable revenue source.”

At Mulunda Miaka Orphanage, chickens and eggs will be used for meals and will also be sold to help the orphanage be self-sustainable.

“With the support of the university and other on-campus organizations,” says Schroeder, “this became a successful project to kick off the year for the Students in Free Enterprise.” The SIFE team’s mission for the year is to “Develop passionate leaders who are positively impacting the world.” Through a combination of global, entrepreneurial, environmental, and community impact projects, the team works to help improve the surrounding community. The SIFE team at Anderson has existed for 19 years and has a history of being one of the top programs in the United States.

Students in Free Enterprise is an international organization active in 48 countries across 1400 college campuses. Focusing on teaching others about success, market economic, and personal financial management skills, entrepreneurship, ethics, and environmental sustainability. A Business Advisory Board and team of faculty advisors provide oversight and guidance for the team. For more information about the Anderson University SIFE team, visit their website at http://sife.anderson.edu. To get involved with their Give-A-Chicken project, visit http://www.giveachicken.com/.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,800 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.

Dr. Dale Bales of the department of chemistry and physics was the eighth person at Anderson University to receive the John A. Morrison faculty award this past year. Bales first joined the faculty of AU in 1976, left for a brief time in the early 1980’s, but returned in 1987 to stay. He has served the institution for 28 years.

Chad Wallace, now chair of the department of chemistry and physics taking over the title from Bales, indicates the following: “I had the great opportunity to know Dale Bales at two different times in my life. The first was when I was a chemistry undergraduate student attending here. ‘Dr. Bales’, as I knew him then, was my teacher, adviser, and mentor. I saw a man of great knowledge, insight, wisdom, and humility. He epitomized to me the perfect blend of scientist and committed Christian.

In fact, for all of these years I have known him, he has almost always been a pastor of some local congregation while excelling in his duties at AU. He so inspired me, that I knew I wanted to attend graduate school so I might one day come back to my alma mater and hope to influence students’ lives a fraction of what he did.”

The recipient of the John A. Morrison staff award has served in various capacities in her lengthy tenure of 34 years with the university. She has been a student, taught classes, and is currently a staff member serving as Manager of Student Technology Services and Group Coordinator for Information Technology Services.

In her most recent assignment, Jan Schmidt, along with her colleagues in the ITS department, has been an integral part of equipping our campus with up-to-date technologies and training us in their use. Schmidt has also committed significant time to leading a number of Tri-S service trips around the world (including Calcutta, India, Grand Cayman and London) where she has developed powerful and meaningful relationships with students and those they served.

The Morrison award is designed to recognize faculty and staff who go beyond excellence in performance and have demonstrated a commitment to something larger than self. Each year, one staff and one faculty member will be selected from those nominated by the faculty and staff and announced at the annual Recognition Luncheon. Nominees for the Morrison Award should demonstrate a commitment to the university’s mission and core values.

—Stefanie Leiter is Web Content Manager at Anderson University.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.

As Dean Branson, director of student programming, pointed tightly-packed vehicles toward temporary parking spaces, returning students and some experienced parents waited for any chance they had to help another freshman into the dorms.

“They’re responsible for unpacking, but we get their stuff up to the room as quickly as we can,” Branson said.

Cars came loaded with all the comforts of home — lamps, rugs, television — downsized to fit into each of the single rooms that most students must share with an unfamiliar roommate.

“We have to know that the people coming here have never done this before,” Branson said. “So we have to make them feel at home.”

Hominess is what attracted Nathan Breneman to AU. The freshman from Dublin, Ohio, said the size of the campus made the school seem like a good fit. He was settling into Dunn Hall on Thursday, but said he wasn’t nervous about starting classes, although he was worried that living without his own car would take a lot of getting used to.

His parents were also wondering about how their lives would be different with their oldest son out of the house.

“I just know the home will be a lot quieter,” said Jenny, Nathan’s mother. “He’s the talker. He’s the one who always has something going on.”

Nathan is one of an estimated 600 new undergraduates enrolling at AU this fall, the school reported. The university expects the size of its full-time freshman class to increase between 12 and 15 percent this year, but exact figures will not be known until late September.

Approximately 80 percent of new undergraduate students are coming from Indiana or neighboring states, but 47 states and 30 countries are represented in the total undergraduate population of about 1,850 students, the university reported.

Callie Zelber and Kelly Thomas moved into Rice Hall on Thursday. Strangers less than a year ago, the two girls met though Anderson University’s new social networking site for accepted students, a Web site that lets people seriously considering AU to talk.

Admission’s counselor Christy Kihm said lots of students had found roommates using the site. “It was a big hit.”

Zelber, of Indianapolis, and Thomas, of Miamisburg, Ohio, said they connected over their shared love of the Disney princesses, and now their dorm room is festooned with images of Belle from “Beauty and the Beast.”

The girls said it was a challenge to decide which clothes to bring, and they both made a point to pack photographs and their beloved teddy bears.

With five days left before classes start, Kelly said she’d be using the time to relax, meet some new people, and if there’s time, find out where her classes are. dresser to herself, she joked that it was a good excuse to go buy more clothes.

VIEW FLICKR PHOTO ALBUM OF 2008 MOVE-IN DAY

—Barrett Newkirk is a reporter for the Herald Bulletin. Story republished with permission.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.

Although precise numbers are not available until the third full week of classes (week of September 22), the university is projecting an increase of 12-15 percent for first-time freshman over last year.  Within this year’s enrollment are approximately 600 new undergraduate students and a total undergraduate population of roughly 1,850 students.  The AU undergraduate student population includes persons from more than 30 international countries and 47 states.

“New students bring such promise and energy to the campus each year,” said Dr. James L. Edwards, president of Anderson University.  “We are breaking trends in our region to show a strong growth in new student enrollment.  We are prepared for all they will bring to this good place.”

“Several contributing factors can be cited for the current enrollment level,” said Dr. Michael Collette, vice-president for Enrollment Management and Information Systems. “Anderson University has a number of distinctive programs in business, education, communication, art, music and ministry.  The school also supports several efforts to provide internships and experiential opportunities for students leading to employment; as well as a longstanding effort to remain affordable despite a national economic downturn.”

Approximately 80 percent of new undergraduate students at Anderson University come from Indiana and contiguous states and represent nearly 60 religious denominations.  The average high school grade point average of new undergraduate AU students is 3.4 with 30 percent falling in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class.  The top five individual majors among new AU undergraduate students are Education, Business, Music, Communication and Nursing.

Students matriculating to Anderson University have indicated that the top five most important factors influencing their college choice were career preparation, job placement services, spiritual atmosphere, quality of faculty and the availability of scholarship and grants.

Graduate divisions of the university are also projecting strong enrollments for the academic year.  In addition, the School of Adult Learning at Anderson University will unveil a new online degree program this academic year and will be developing plans to expand their programming for all adult students during the next two years.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.

To rank schools, US News first organizes colleges and universities by category, and then ranks them within each group. Rankings are based on a wide range of criteria, including academic reputation, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, and financial resources to name a few.

“While the best college for a given student will always be measured by personal fit, we are truly honored to be listed among the best in our region,” said Dr. James L. Edwards, president of Anderson University.  “These surveys give our students and their parents the confidence that we are highly regarded and worth considering as they make their important choices for the investment of their college years.  We consider this highly regarded listing a tribute to our faculty and staff who are deeply committed to excellence and to student success.”

“We are pleased to be recognized as one of the best colleges in the Midwest by U.S. News and our peer institutions,” said Dr. Michael Collette, vice-president for Enrollment Management and Information Systems. “We are blessed with a strong faculty and we are encouraged by the financial resources provided by donors as well as the continued acknowledgment of our academic strength at an affordable value.”

The US News rankings will appear on the magazine’s web site on Friday, August 22. College-bound students can use the site to search for colleges according to their own interests, fill out interactive worksheets and search for scholarship and financial aid information. Excerpts of the college rankings will be published in the September 1 edition (on newsstands August 25) of the weekly news magazine. The full rankings will be published in the annual America’s Best Colleges guidebook, also available in libraries and bookstores on August 26.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.

Bruce Applegate, an associate professor of food science at Purdue University, thought there must be a safer, cheaper way to detect the food-borne pathogen.

“You have to be able to grow them in the host strain,” he said of viruses called bacteriophages that are used to detect the pathogen. “Do you really want to be growing 500 liters of E. coli?”

Instead, Applegate developed a process that allows researchers to use different, less volatile strains of E. coli. His method also turns the pathogen cells red, making them easier to find, and it also keeps them alive, allowing investigators to identify them during a food recall.

“We’ve really gotten around it,” Applegate said of the problem. He’s using that research from Purdue to co-found a company, West Lafayette-based Intelliphage, which he hopes to move into Purdue Research Park.

In the university’s fiscal year 2007 — which ran from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008 — 10 companies, including Intelliphage, were formed based on technology developed at Purdue. In the previous fiscal year, 15 startups were launched.

Since 2002, 56 companies have been formed at Purdue Research Park, creating 447 jobs with average pay of $58,000, according to figures from research park officials. Purdue has a long history of encouraging its faculty to move from the laboratory to the boardroom, but it is being challenged in-state by Indiana University and Anderson University.

Joseph Hornett, senior vice president of the Purdue Research Foundation, said Purdue — which applies for about 250 patents a year and is granted about three dozen annually — stresses entrepreneurship to its faculty. “This is just becoming part of the Purdue culture,” he said.

In 2006, Purdue applied for 241 patents and was issued 32. By comparison, IU sought 41 patents and received nine.

Hornett’s counterpart at IU, Tony Armstrong, president and chief executive of the IU Research and Technology Corp., said his incubator usually sees two or three companies launched each year. But he said IU is trying to help more professors launch startups, or form partnerships, based on their discoveries.

Right now there are 25 companies, ranging from two employees to “more than 20,” Armstrong said, at IU’s Emerging Technologies Center, the incubator in Downtown Indianapolis where about 150 workers are employed. On Aug. 6. Armstrong was appointed head of the RTC, which oversees the incubator.

“Certainly our goal is to increase our activity in startups and licensing and technology,” Armstrong said about IU’s efforts. “We’ve probably been a little slow, a little behind the numbers that they (Purdue) put up. But we’ve been working on that.”

Another school working to encourage economic development is Anderson University. Chuck Staley, president and chief executive of the school’s Flagship Enterprise Center, said that in five years the school’s tech park has landed 54 companies employing more than 600 people.

The private school partnered with the city of Anderson to create a campus of buildings to house startups and established companies to work with students, he said.

“We lost 27,000 well-paying jobs,” Staley said, referring to auto-industry layoffs. “We came to the conclusion it was pure folly to think we could exist and direct our mission in a community that was on economic life support. Not many private institutions are actually engaged in that direct of a way.”

While Purdue consistently leads its rivals like IU in terms of patent applications filed and issued or companies formed, Hornett lauded the new presidents at Purdue and IU — France Co´rdova and Michael McRobbie, respectively — and their focus on technology transfer. That includes a new research alliance aimed at seeking $35 million in annual funding from the General Assembly in each of the next two years to boost the life-sciences industry.

“It’s kind of a fortuitous time in Indiana,” Hornett said. “There’s a new understanding that working together is much better than working at each other.”

At IU, McRobbie has created an office of engagement to ramp up commercialization of its research and technology. Armstrong said the school also will break ground “later this year” on a 40,000-square-foot incubator in Bloomington of which more than half will be devoted to “wet lab” space. And the school hopes to raise $5 million for a seed fund for new companies.

One of the new companies at IU is Rimedion, which was founded in July and developed from work performed at the School of Medicine.

CEO Butch Mercer, who co-founded the company with Ken Cornetta, a professor of medical and molecular genetics, said it produces materials for clinical trials, does certification testing and works on orphan drug development to treat immunodeficiency diseases and certain cancers. Mercer hopes to move Rimedion into the ETC this fall.

“IU and the IU ETC have a commitment to Indiana economic development and I believe this is one,” Mercer said. “This is not an area IU is very experienced in. (But) what I find is a very serious engagement on their part to get it done.”

—Chuck Bowen is a correspondent for the Indy Star in Indianapolis, Ind. Story republished with permission.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.

Summer school students also have the opportunity to select offerings such as reading courses of assigned textbooks, journals and research documents; flexible online study; tutorial courses which regularly meet with an arranged instructor; or special Tri-S courses that provide academic credit through study abroad.

“Summer school is an opportunity for students to get ahead or catch up on graduation requirements. The rate per credit hour is approximately two-thirds less than traditional tuition during the regular school year,” said Aleza Beverly, Dean of the School of Adult Learning. “For students who are able to stay in the area during the summer, there are three- and four- week face-to-face classes in the day and evening with tutorial options. For those going home or studying abroad, an online course or reading independent study course is a good option. These options make summer school attractive and affordable.”

Registration continues until the first day of each scheduled class. View the Schedule of Undergraduate Classes [PDF] for the summer of 2008. Tuition for summer school at AU in 2008 is $310 per semester hour. All current AU students enrolled in the spring semester are automatically admitted for Summer School. New and former students wishing to enroll should contact the AU Admissions Department at 1-800-428-6414.

For further information and details about Summer School 2008, please contact Aleza Beverly, Dean of the School of Adult Learning and director of Summer School, at 765-641-4251.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.

Thousands of people still hustled to find their seats in Ward Fieldhouse as the color guard presented the flags to begin the ceremony.

VIEW PHOTOS OF GRADUATION ON FLICKR

Friends and family members of all ages, dressed in all kinds of attire, sat among each other for the joyous day—to celebrate the graduation of the university’s class of 2008.

The ceremony hasn’t changed much over the years, said sisters Nicole Fischer, 26, and Kate Lintondo, 31.

The two women sat with their grandparents in the audience as their mother, Katrinna Fischer, 49, received her master’s degree in teaching.

Katrinna Fischer teaches at Eastside Elementary School in Anderson. Her family has sat through several commencement ceremonies at Anderson University as other family members have graduated: Nicole; Kate; Kate’s husband; and Katrinna.

“We just like education,” said Nicole, who is now in law school.

Katrinna Fischer earned her bachelor’s degree from Anderson University not too long before she started the graduate program. Next year, she’ll start at Ball State University to earn her doctorate.

“She’s excited,” Kate Lintondo said. “She’s looking forward to it.”

All of the graduates, and their teachers, seemed excited for the future.

Commencement speaker James T. Morris, who was given an honorary doctor of law degree, said he was told this group of students was the most prepared class for public service from the university.

“The world is eager for you to make your mark, to do what you can,” he said.

Morris, executive director for the United Nations World Food Programme, talked about Myanmar and the world’s efforts to help the country, which was recently hit with a disastrous cyclone. He also spoke about efforts to eradicate world hunger and help the children of the world.

“Spending time on a team of people, seeking a common cause for a common good, that is the most rewarding experience that a human being can have,” Morris said. “This is a Christian university. This is a university with global outreach. … The practical application of our faith, whether you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist, brings us together in a common ground.”

Coming together is how the world will rid itself of hunger, Morris said.

“You never feel so good about yourself with someone else working for someone else,” he said. “Leadership and being an effective person is about seeing your calling in its biggest context.”

The joyous occasion ended as most do—some were laughing and some were crying, but all were ready to go on to another adventure.

—Jessica Kerman is a reporter for the Herald Bulletin in Anderson. Story republished with permission.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 60 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.