Cedarville Stories

The Impact of a Cracked Pot For 43 years, Charlie Pagnard has faithfully instructed students in trumpet, music, band, and orchestra.  His investment in their lives has gone far beyond music to include walking with them in the day-to-day decisions of faith. But for Charlie, that he’s had any impact for Jesus at all is a miracle in itself. Charlie made his decision to trust Jesus at a revival when h...

Pointing to Christ in the Field of Law John Hart, General Counsel for Cedarville University, could have had a long and distinguished career with the U.S. Coast Guard. He does love salt water and sailing, having spent most of his growing-up years on Long Island. But it was the law that captured his interest, not the sea.  Hart graduated from Cedarville in 1981 and went to work for the University in...

As a prospective student, Jeff Beste, Director of Strategic Relations, didn’t even want to attend Cedarville. He was looking for a different college experience and felt he wasn’t spiritual enough to belong on a campus with students who were more serious about their faith.  But Jeff’s parents gave him a compelling option: go wherever he wanted but pay for it himself or attend Cedarville for a year....

Hymns sung by her grandma. Big-picture questions from a college philosophy class. A three-hour conversation with Mary Alice Jeremiah. The witness of women’s sports teams from Cedarville. All were benchmarks on Pam Johnson’s unique path to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Pam, who is Cedarville Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Senior Professor of Kinesiology and Allied Health, heard hymns when...

2015 Cedarville alumna Rachel Hartley was a preoperative nurse in a Lynchburg, Virginia, hospital at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. By mid-April, she was working as a night shift ICU nurse at Brooklyn Langone Hospital, serving exclusively COVID patients.  Rachel and her husband, Taylor, have organized their lives so they can respond quickly to opportunities the Lord provides for them to s...

Angie Mickle, Dean of the Cedarville School of Nursing, had never had a headache until a couple days before Halloween 2019. But when she had her first one, it was a real doozy.  The headache that began on a Sunday stayed with her through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. When she saw her family doctor, her neurological work-up was solid, and he suggested it might be stress. But whe...

Mike DiCuirci, senior professor emeritus of music, was introduced to alcohol at age 12, and by high school it was a dominant feature of his life. Drinking, drugs, and a “riotous and hedonistic life” became the norm through his teen years, during college at the University of Michigan, and afterwards as he began his career as a school music teacher. After knocking back 25 gin and tonics one night, h...

Jesus Is the Messiah Dr. Michael Sherr, Chair of the Cedarville University Department of Social Work, grew up in a conservative Jewish home and attended Hebrew school. He even has a Hebrew name – Mordecai – like the caretaker of Esther in the Old Testament. But throughout his childhood, he had questions prompted by conflicts at home and in his extended family. After he married his wife, Stacey, he...

Why would a man happily immersed in a great family life, fulfilling ministry, and a job he loved make a major move and uproot all this blessing? Because the Giver of all that blessing had called, and His timing and provision can be trusted. 1999 alumnus Jason Grahame is Director of Cedarville’s up-and-coming physician assistant (PA) program, which is scheduled to begin in 2023, pending external ap...

Susan Plemons has learned well the lessons of Psalm 119:50: “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.” That has especially been true during the seven years she has taught vocal music at Cedarville. Born and raised in the South, and still holding a soft spot in her heart for Dallas, Texas, Susan came north when her husband, Ron, was called to serve as pastor of First Bapt...

Internship of Pandemic Proportions Sending out isolation and quarantine orders. Delivering food and water to COVID-19 patients recovering at home. Contact tracing. For Cedarville University senior Hayley Penrose, her summer internship has taken on a significance of pandemic proportions. Penrose has been serving this summer with the Clark County Combined Health District. Her work experience began w...

Informed in the Storm Dr. Zach Jenkins, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, has become one of the leading infectious disease experts in Ohio. He is also a big hit with the media. Over the last four months, Zach has been interviewed over 60 times by media from the east coast to the west coast and many places in between. His calm demeanor, insightful research, and clear presentation of the fac...

Trophy of God’s Grace Mike DiCuirci served on the music faculty at Cedarville for 37 years. He helped shape the music department into a nationally acclaimed program, founded the jazz and symphonic bands, developed the college pep band, and wrote the Cedarville fight song. Even though his accomplishments are remarkable, Mike will quickly point to the One who made it all possible, the Lord Jesus. Mi...

Dr. Kevin Jones, the new Dean for Cedarville University’s School of Education, has a vision to see Cedarville graduates teaching in every city and every country, at Christian schools and public schools. He wants to see them instructing students as unto the Lord for the glory of the Lord, living out the Great Commission.   Kevin started his career as a first-grade teacher in Lexington, Kentucky, af...

When Gabe Woodruff, a student in Cedarville’s Master of Science in Nursing – family nurse practitioner (FNP) program, got the call to serve his country, he didn’t hesitate. As a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves, he went with his medical unit to care for COVID-19 patients in downtown Detroit when the pandemic was at its worst this spring.  The sudden shift and several months of separation...

A Time for Intentionality For Dr. Patrick Oliver, the recent events surrounding the death of George Floyd have been doubly painful. As a law enforcement leader for more than 40 years, Patrick viewed the actions of the Minneapolis officers with deep disappointment as he saw police brutality and the failure to protect an individual’s constitutional rights. As an African-American man, he saw another...

Born for Law Enforcement For 27 ½ years, Dr. Patrick Oliver, director of Cedarville’s criminal justice program, served in various roles in law enforcement: a trooper with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, ranger chief with the Cleveland Metropolitan Parks, an officer with the Cleveland Division of Police, and then the city of Cleveland’s first African-American police chief. He later served as police...

Episode 23 │ Jeff Beste - People Connector Jeff Beste, Cedarville’s Director of Strategic Relations, is well suited for his role developing and maintaining connections with parents, alumni, and supporters of Cedarville University. His 32-year career, from admissions, to Christian ministries, student life, alumni relations, and serving as an adjunct math instructor, has been all about people — buil...

Two weeks after graduating from the Cedarville School of Nursing, 2019 alumna Virginia Walker was serving in an emergency room in Africa. She communicated with the rest of the medical staff, who spoke French and Lingala, with the help of a local translator. Such an unbelievable set of circumstances could only be arranged by a loving Father who knew that his child wanted to know the true meaning of...

A lot of teachers try to disguise learning as fun. But 2003 Alumna Heidi Bruder has taken it to a whole new level.  Faced with the challenge of making online learning as fun and engaging as her interactive middle school classroom, Heidi dug deep for ideas. Really. She rooted around in a costume bin and before long she was showing up in teaching videos as a pirate and a mad scientist.  Friends and...

Making an arrest in the middle of a bar fight. Running into a burning building. Chasing down a guy with a gun. Sure, Steve Norris is heroic. But would he offer his own blood to arrest COVID-19? The answer: Yes! Norris, a 2001 criminal justice alumnus who just earned his Master of Ministry degree in May, was diagnosed with COVID-19 this March. After he recovered, he heard about a local cardiologist...

At the beginning of 2020, nursing alumna Rachel Hartley was working as a preoperative surgical nurse in Virginia, helping prepare 30 to 50 patients a day for elective and emergency surgery. But when the coronavirus began to sweep across the nation, surgeries dropped as her hospital readied itself for a surge of COVID-19 patients. She began receiving emails from recruiters looking for nurses and he...

Some people might say that 2017 Cedarville alumus Drew Brandt is kind of squirrely. He loves the outdoors, makes fun out of anything, has tons of energy, and embraces the unexpected like an old friend. After he and his friends made an unplanned journey into the Grand Canyon, you might even say he’s a little nutty. Drew’s bride, Allie, can confirm that. She was planning a wedding in May, but ended...

Dr. Mark Caleb Smith is a professor of political science. His insight on politics and government makes him a media favorite, with more than 1,000 television, radio, print, and online interviews so far in his 16 years at Cedarville University. He has appeared in local, regional, and national news stories. Dr. Smith is well informed, reading up on current events from one to three hours each day. He...

For Justin Cole, pharmacy and family are forever linked. Justin, who is Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Director of Cedarville’s Center for Pharmacy Innovation, grew up in a family of pharmacists and has fond memories of family reunions where his aunts and uncles would talk about their interesting and fulfilling work.   As a pharmacy student at Ohio Northern University, Justin got to...