Cedarville Stories

Jeff Reep, Director of Career Services, had a great career playing basketball at Cedarville. The 1978 graduate was named a most valuable player for Yellow Jacket basketball, and is the fifth-leading scorer in school history.   After graduation, Jeff had a 22-year career coaching basketball. He was associate head coach at New Mexico State University for seven years when the Lobos had five-straight...

Before Connor Hart, a sophomore mechanical engineering student at Cedarville University, ever stepped foot on campus, he was already making a huge difference in the lives of others. Through the Hands of Hope Foundation, a nonprofit Connor started, children with a limb difference are able to receive a 3-D printed prosthetic. But Connor’s servant heart didn’t stop there. With the coronavirus pandemi...

Joy in Suffering Dr. Angie Mickle, Dean of the Cedarville School of Nursing, began 2019 with a series of trials that severely tested her faith. On January 7, surgeons spent nine hours removing a benign tumor from her brain, which was originally thought to be malignant. Three days after the surgery,  she had a stroke. And then while she was recovering at home in February, her seven-month-old grands...

Every now and then, you meet someone whose name totally fits their personality. That’s Rah Jacob, Director of Advancement Experiences at Cedarville University. Rah Jacob is a rah-rah kind of guy. He has a million-kilowatt smile, fun-loving personality, and a welcoming spirit that made him a beloved servant leader as a student, and now also as a staff member. He is perfectly suited in his role to h...

Resound-ing Success For Jim Leightenheimer, Associate Professor of Communication, you might say the decision to return to his alma mater was a Resound-ing success. The 1980 Cedarville University graduate worked for several years as a Dayton, Ohio radio broadcaster, but returned to Cedarville when his former professor, Wes Baker, asked him to lead the communications department expansion into radio....

Faithful Daughter While beginning college is hard for many students, it was even harder for Dalia Aknoukh. Dalia’s family moved to the United States from Egypt when she was 5. Her family is close, and she loves and respects them very much. And in Egyptian culture, it’s common for the children to stay close to home, especially the daughters. But when it was time for college, Dalia wanted to go to a...

Dick Blanc, Executive Director of the Cedarville University Beyond Startup Accelerator, is an entrepreneur influencing culture. According to Blanc, entrepreneurs have an outsized impact on American culture. Blanc believes the Accelerator can develop hundreds of new culture-creating, biblical-worldview-holding entrepreneurs who can lead and change the future marketplace. Through the entrepreneurshi...

Business Adventurer With a Biblical Compass Dick Blanc ’82 is Executive Director of the newly formed Beyond Startup Accelerator, the business incubator at Cedarville University. Blanc has always liked venturing into the unknown, whether it’s sailing across the Atlantic Ocean at age 19 with a bunch of buddies or bootstrapping an entrepreneurial venture. He thrives when he’s given a clean sheet of p...

Dr. J. Michael McKay, Assistant Professor of Biblical Theology, joined Cedarville’s faculty in the fall of 2017. This past fall he boarded 17 planes for various points around the globe. The most memorable travels were a training experience for pastors in Russia, where he taught through an interpreter, and a tour of the Holy Land with 20 Cedarville students. The trip to Israel, in particular, chang...

Dan DeWitt, Director of Cedarville’s Center for Biblical Apologetics and Public Christianity, is an award-winning author, a gifted illustrator, an influential speaker for the Gospel, a blogger, professor, and disciple-maker. He’s written apologetics books for adults and children and served as a campus church pastor at the University of Louisville. DeWitt thinks a lot about how to communicate the G...

Glen Duerr is a man of many countries. He grew up in England, moved to Canada as a teenager, and earned his Ph. D. in the United States. He now lives in Beavercreek, Ohio, with his wife and three children. His life has prepared him well for his role as Associate Professor of International Studies at Cedarville University. Dr. Duerr is also a former semipro soccer player, Cedarville’s Model United...

Dr. Pam Johnson, Cedarville’s Dean of Undergraduate Studies, can lay claim to many accomplishments. She coached women’s tennis for 30 years and has been named to multiple athletic halls of fame. Her name, along with that of Dr. Murray Murdoch, Distinguished Professor of History and former men’s tennis coach, graces the Cedarville tennis complex. She was instrumental in starting Cedarville's academ...

Dr. Pam Johnson, Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Senior Professor of Kinesiology and Allied Health, had a different kind of path to Cedarville University. Her first exposure to the school came as she competed against Cedarville athletes as a tennis player for the University of Dayton. She was moved by their compassion and kindness, and one Cedarville athlete, in particular, went out of her way t...

Dr. Murray Murdoch, Distinguished Professor of History and Government, has served at Cedarville University since 1965. He came to the University at a time of great social upheaval in American society, a time when African-American leaders, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were voicing a message of love and equal opportunity for all. These themes continue to ring strong for Murdoch, who co-leads...

How does a young man living in Bahrain discover Cedarville University? After all, the two locations are only on opposite sides of the globe, more than 7,000 miles apart and a mere 20 hours by plane from one to the other. But that’s how far Cedarville sophomore Rufus Mathew traveled to study cybersecurity at a program recognized by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). Remarkable, right? Sure, b...

Bethany Sibbitt, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice, was one of the first graduates of the Cedarville School of Pharmacy Pharm. D. program. When she imagined a future for herself in healthcare, pharmacy hadn’t been on her radar initially. But when she sat in a meeting with School of Pharmacy Dean Marc Sweeney, she realized the Cedarville program would be training pharmacists for an enlarged...

Cedarville senior Sarah Shaw is an international student who experienced the normal transition-to-college challenges but also had to acclimate to a new culture. She was extremely homesick. But her two sisters, who were already studying at Cedarville, helped, as did Mu Kappa, an international student organization. From those initial hard beginnings, Shaw has bloomed into a campus leader, serving as...

As a son of missionary parents and former U.S. diplomat to nations in the Pacific Rim, Japan, and South America, Dr. Frank Jenista has a global perspective. He infused Cedarville’s international studies program with this worldwide point of view, growing the program into a highly successful major with students serving all over the world, including in the U.S. Foreign Service. He also grew Cedarvill...

When Dr. Frank Jenista arrived at Cedarville, he vowed to never move again for the rest of his life. Jenista, former professor of international studies, attended 13 schools in 12 years as the son of missionary parents in the Philippines. He finished his education at a large American high school in New Jersey. But at Cedarville, he found a loving and supportive community of friends and faculty and...

Mechanical and biomedical engineering professor Jay Kinsinger is an interactive academic. From his days working in a tool and die shop to designing and manufacturing prosthetics to building wood-frame bicycles, Kinsinger engages head, heart, and hands in everything he does. He takes the same approach to teaching, bringing “Davids” into his everyday experiences so they can see his faith expressed i...

Hall of Famer. National women’s champion in rifle shooting. Tennis coach. Professor. Physician assistant. Dr. Dee Morris joined Cedarville’s faculty in 1977, and she continues to impact students as a Professor of Allied Health. She still serves as a physician assistant in Springfield, Ohio. She served as the Lady Jackets tennis coach from 2007 until 2018 and is a member of three different athletic...

Glen Duerr is a man of many countries. He grew up in England, moved to Canada as a teenager, and earned his Ph. D. in the United States. He now lives in Beavercreek, Ohio, with his wife and three children. His life has prepared him well for his role as Associate Professor of International Studies at Cedarville University. Dr. Duerr is also a former semipro soccer player, Cedarville’s Model United...

Dr. Kris DeWitt, professor of psychology at Cedarville University, pays close attention to her heart. Her mom and dad put all their heart into raising Dr. DeWitt and her siblings, and set an example of sincere devotion to Jesus Christ. Later in life, Dr. DeWitt experienced a health emergency which has led her to be more attentive to her physical heart, but also to her spiritual heart. As an instru...

Dick Walker served at Cedarville for 42 years, arriving at the University in 1970. His first job at Cedarville? Assistant food service manager. But he is best known for his 40 years in student life and campus activities, serving as a resident director, Dean of Men, Director of Campus Activities, and finally in the Office of Alumni Relations. He had a huge impact on the lives of hundreds of student...

This fall, 287 singers and musicians auditioned for just 32 spots on perhaps the most well-known teams representing Cedarville University — HeartSong. The number of students auditioning indicates HeartSong’s impact. Four teams of eight students crisscross the country every year, harmonizing at camps, inspiring at churches, and bringing the Gospel to thousands. Ashlynn Robinette, HeartSong’s minist...