Mission, purpose make educators ushers for students' professional and spiritual journeys
by Beverly Cobb, dean for assessment and learning support
This is the third in a series of articles in which college personnel explore the mission of Kettering College.

I love learning. To me, that’s what education is all about – a deliberate juncture in the road of life. “Today I am _____. Tomorrow I want to be __________.” You fill in the blanks for your own experience.

The time between “today” and the proverbial “tomorrow” is a crucial point in the journey we call learning. We in higher education are so privileged to share it with our students. Indeed, we educators at Kettering College of Medical Arts have a deep desire to help our students — somewhere in the place between “today” and “tomorrow” — to understand the special quality of our mission. That quality is what makes the education they receive at KCMA different from what they may experience at a secular institution.

I love to watch faculty, staff, administrators, and students make everyday choices consistent with our mission, the last part of which reads, “Upholding Christ, the College educates students to make service a life calling and view health as harmony with God in body, mind, and spirit.” While each act itself may seem insignificant in fulfilling the mission, together, the everyday choices we engage in help to form a rich mission tapestry.

These are just some of the ways that our mission is made manifest here at Kettering College:

• Devotional thoughts at the beginning of classes and clinical experiences;
• Prayer with a friend or student who is having a hard time;
• Spiritual retreats that remind faculty and staff of our responsibility to help make “defining moments” for each other and for our students;
• Service learning and volunteer experiences in the community;
• Written reflections about important spiritual concepts;
• Taking time to understand and care deeply about patients, maybe even to pray with them;
• Recognition and respect for our different perspectives — ethnic, religious, cultural, political, and gender.

Recently the Division of Nursing hosted a reaccreditation site visit with five visitors from the National League for Nursing Accreditation Commission. At the conclusion of the three-day visit, when the site
visitors presented the provisional report to College administration and faculty, one of the visitors departed from the prepared speech. With tears in her eyes she said, “I work in a public college, so obviously, we can’t do some of the things you are able to do. But I have to find a way to take back something that is different and special about what you have here to my own workplace.”

So what is the special experience that happens between “today” and “tomorrow” as our students become their dreams? Perhaps it is simply learning — and re-learning — the purpose of our work and
continually reminding ourselves for whom we work. Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”