Events

Iron Chef 2!

Last spring I posted about Iron Chef because it was so much fun and I thought it was so cool that we had such an awesome and different event on our campus.  This year, it was announced that Iron Chef would again be part of Spring Fling — a week of activities toward the end of the school year.  I wasn’t going to participate in Iron Chef this year because I was feeling the pressure of assignments and end-of-the-year tasks to complete.  However, I got asked to be on a team and I agreed to join in.  I’m so glad I did!  Not only was Iron Chef a blast, but my team ended up winning first place!

We were given 45 minutes to cook up an entree that had to contain 3 secret ingredients: chicken, avocado, and pineapple.  We also had access to a HUGE variety of other foods and spices to help make our dish delicious.  There were things like eggplants, strawberries, mangos, rice, eggs, and so many other foods available for us to use.   We had a burner to cook on, as well as pans, bowls, knives, and several other kitchen utensils.

My team consisted of myself and 4 of my fellow SGA members.  We ended up making an Asian-Pacific grilled chicken on a bed of sauteed greens with a side of avocado pepper salsa in a mango bowl.  We knew our dish was good, but we didn’t think we’d win first place!  The judges scored team’s dishes based on several factors, including taste and presentation.  I guess ours had it all!

We had more teams participate this year than we did last year.  I think everybody that was there would agree that this event is one that needs to keep happening every year!

Bethel’s Iron Chef Cook-off

Last week, Bethel hosted a number of fun activities and events as part of our 2015 Spring Fling. One of my personal favorites was the Iron Chef Cook-off.

Similar to the popular TV show, contestants were given limited ingredients and a time constraint of one hour to prepare an appetizer, entreé and drink for the judges.

Ingredients ranged from eggs, to pineapple, to whipped cream to a myriad of spices and seasonings. Oh and one catch — we had to incorporate the “secret ingredient” into our appetizer and entree. The secret ingredient was revealed to be scallops, a type of seafood. My team and I were utterly confused as how to incorporate this into our meal, as none of us had ever cooked with scallops before.

Somehow, we pulled off a bruschetta appetizer (topped with sauteéd scallops of course) as well as a mango-scallop fried rice with tropical infused sweet tea to drink.

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Bruschetta

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Entreé

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Sweet Tea

 

 

 

Although we did not win the $100 prize for first place, we had a blast cooking and laughing with each other.

My team of expert chefs

My team of expert chefs

Everyone who attended made some interesting and yummy food, and the whole thing was a great turnout. I can’t wait for next year’s Iron Chef Cook-off!

-Kiley

MCC Sale

For those from around the area or who identify themselves as Mennonite, you probably are familiar with the MCC Sale. For those who do not know what it is, allow me to explain.

MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) puts on an annual relief sale to aid various causes through MCC. The Kansas sale is located at the fairgrounds in Hutchinson. Over a two-day period, a multitude of people visit and work at the sale to buy and sell food and handmade goods, watch live performances and participate in engaging activities.

I’ve attended the sale before and worked at it as well, but I hadn’t done either in a few years. This year, I was determined to go and indulge in the delicious food and fun activities. I ran into several people I hadn’t seen in a long time too, which was one of my favorite parts of the experience.

Mennonite or non-Mennonite, I would highly recommend attending the MCC Sale next year (it’s usually in mid- to late April). You’re bound to find some yummy food or run across some exotic jewelry that you like. Plus, the best part is that all the proceeds go to a great cause!

 

Late Night Against Procrastination

IMG_0890This past Wednesday we got to experience a new event on campus which was very successful!

Paige Townley, along with many other faculty helped put on the event “Late Night Against Procrastination”. A college in Germany apparently started this idea.

This event was hosted in the library from 9:00pm – 1:00am. It was designed so that students could come into the library with their unfinished assignments to work on them. Not only this, but there were faculty, tutors, and professors there to help answer questions, edit papers, help with researching, provide moral support and fun brain breaks including Minute to Win it and yoga! Not to mention they provided lots of delicious food and drinks along with free printing all night!

I, along with several of my mod mates went to participate in this event and I was surprised with how many people showed up! I would guess there were about 50 students who came to partake in this event. It was definitely the most amount of people I had ever seen in the library at one time!

When we got there we signed in and wrote down on a sticky note what our goal for the night was. After writing the sticky note, we placed it on a dart board and our goal was to move our sticky note to the “bulls eye” which means we finished our goal. Awaiting us were healthy snacks like carrots, cheese, sugar snap peas, and apples, along with Mojos cookies, coffee, and tea!

There were professors roaming around to see if people needed assistance, ranging from the business, social work, english, and music departments to name a few. Librarians were also there along with Paige Townley and other faculty willing to come out and help.

At 10:00pm they brought in pizza and pop, at 11:00pm we had a yoga break led by Barb Thiesen, at 12:00am people who wanted to played Minute to Win it, and at 1:00am students who were still there got t-shirts for either staying the whole time or completing a goal!

I thought it was a great idea and a fun way to help students get projects done and have assistance there for them if they need it. Since there was so much of a turn out, I (along with everyone I have talked to) hope that this event continues to be a tradition, (maybe even twice a semester?)

Masterworks! The End is in Sight.

Today is an exciting day for the choir and orchestra members of Bethel College. At 4:00pm we have our Masterworks concert where the orchestra will be performing the first half  of the concert and the choir will sing the Messe De Requiem along with the orchestra and four soloists: Doyle Preheim (Base) , Joshua Powell (Tenor), Monica Schmidt (Alto) and Soyoun Chun (Soprano). This piece is wonderful and beautiful and I am excited to be able to share it with our community this afternoon!

Another exciting part about this Masterworks performance is that Tim Shade is back on campus to direct! It has been fun to work with him again, and I am looking forward to the performance with him and hope you are able to come out and enjoy the music.

Also, knowing that it is the time of the year for Masterworks, it makes me realize that the end of the school year is about here! It never fails to sneak up on me, and it always brings a lot of emotions: excitement (its almost summer!), fear (I have so much to do!), sadness (I only have one more year left with the wonderful people at Bethel College), but then more happiness (three months with no homework!).

Well, that is enough for now, I had better stop procrastinating on the fear (I have so much to do!) part of the end of the semester.

Look forward to more stress buster tips from me as finals and end of the semester business starts creeping its way into the lives of the people at Bethel.

Bubberts 2014

Mods 6A and 6C

 

This year’s Bubberts Awards were on the evening of April 12th. Bubberts was great as always! Everyone looked super spiffy and fancy. To start the night out, the Bethel Parent’s Association brought lots of homemade desserts and goodies for all of the students to snack on. Once the students were finished with the yummy food, everyone went in to the auditorium, and the show was started. We had six amazing movies directed by: Danny Barrera, Ben Carlson, Brooke Powers, Eric Preheim, Heather Eddy, and Matthew Rodenberg. First place ended up going to Danny Barrera, second went to Ben Carlson, and third went to Brooke Powers. If you have not seen the winning video, “Graduation State of Mind” here is a link for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXDP5mMKOYc

In between these videos, the students were entertained by Aaron Tschetter, Cris Nelson, and Cody Claassen. My mod mate, Alli Rudeen, about cried when they sang a Bubberts rendition of the Frozen song, “Let it go.” After Bubberts there was a dance in the library that was also very fun!

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A lovely group of ladies!

My roommate, Michelle!

My roommate, Michelle!

#MennoniteColleges

MCUSA Convention 2011

MCUSA Convention 2011

Last month I had a new, but awesome experience! First, for some background, I grew up Mennonite and, yes, I did a lot of Mennonite-y things! I went to all of the youth events that I could. I loved things like the junior high youth event, Know Jesus, put on by Hesston College, junior high youth event, Snow Camp, put on by Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp, and the Mennonite Church USA high school youth conventions during the summer. Convention, especially, was a week-long-super-exhausting-but-always-high-energy event.

What does this have to do with my new, but awesome experience? Well, at Know Jesus and Snow Camp, the people that attended were mostly from around the area. Snow Camp was in Colorado and Know Jesus was in Kansas. Most of the youth that I met there mainly knew about Hesston and Bethel College, just like I did. However, when I went to Convention, it was a whole different story! There were booths set up from Bethel, Hesston, EMU, CMU, Goshen, Bluffton, and yes I might have forgotten some others. I visited all of the booths that week, but when I left, put the other colleges out of my mind.

College Reps at Menno Haven

College Reps at Menno Haven

My new, but awesome experience was at Menno Haven Camp in Illinois this January, where I was a representative from Bethel College. Katelyn Melgren and I were the only representatives who did not know anyone else. Many of the reps started out at Hesston College and then went to a different Mennonite college. But, they were all still friends. As Katelyn and I maneuvered our way into this already tightly knit circle, I began to see the beauty of each of the colleges they were at. I had this weird sense that I was missing out on something awesome. I wanted to be able to experience places like Goshen or Bluffton, but also be able to experience Bethel. Previously I have not had any desire to experience other Mennonite colleges. I am NOT SAYING THAT I WANT TO LEAVE BETHEL, AT ALL. It is more that I want to know the people at these other colleges. Honestly, I got to know the above people for only two days… and that’s all. But, I already miss the fun of bringing community together, especially across college boundaries.

 

December is Here!

group gala This past week was very busy! I had multiple assignments due all at once, including a 30 minute presentation and multiple papers. Friday was reading day, oh, and also Gala! I do not think much “reading” was done on this day. So, Gala happened Friday night. We had a delicious meal in Memorial Hall, which was very beautifully decorated. Next was a cold walk over to the FAC for the jazz concert. All of the musicians did a wonderful job! After that, we walked over to the president’s house where we were served cookies and could take pictures with Santa! Finally there was a dance that I heard was a great time.

linaTwo days later, we had some more fun-but-distracting-from-studying events. The first was Lighting of the Green. I helped out with this event by passing out candles and then lighting them. For a person who is not very good with lighters to begin with, this was a very difficult task in the bitter cold. But, the candles, singing, and company was totally worth braving the weather.

Immediately after Lighting of the Green, everyone could head over to the caf for a nacho bar and presents from the Bethel Parent’s council. All Bethel students received a Mojo’s gift card- which is one the best kind of gifts to get! This was also a tacky Christmas sweater party. I saw some pretty tacky sweaters. However, Allan Jantz’s was not supposed to be tacky… in case you were wondering!

Today is Tuesday, the 10th of December. I had one final yesterday, took two already today, and have one left at seven tonight. After that I am done with school for a few weeks! Well, almost. I plan to stick around to finish up my service learning volunteer hours and work at my campus job for some extra Christmas money!

Worship and the Arts Symposium

This past weekend was the Worship and the Arts Symposium. The event that I was a part of was the Saturday evening Accompany them with singing worship service. The concert choir (which I am a part of), along with the Women’s Chorus, Men’s Ensemble and many church choirs from around the area sang some pieces alone as well as also singing with the congregation in attendance.  It was a wonderful service. Not only was it fun to have John Ferguson come for the symposium to conduct us, or that I got to sing with, and at the same time listen to wonderful four part harmony, but Tom Long’s sermon also touched me. 

Tom spoke about the story of how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and focused on it in a way I hadn’t thought about before. What he really focused in on was the reaction of Martha when Jesus shows up four days after Lazarus dies and she says: “Lord, if you would have been here my brother would not have died.” This message along with his personal experience he shared that related back to his message was very touching. I won’t begin to try and explain the message because it wouldn’t do Tom’s presentation of his sermon justice! I do however, want to mention one thing that really hit home for me. He totally changed my perception of “time.” He said that instead of our lives running out of time, death is running out of time because we have eternity. Instead of justice running out of time, all the injustices are running out of time. Instead of all the good things running out of time, all the bad things are running out of time. I had never looked at time like that and seeing that new perspective was something very important to me.

I also heard from many people in the audience how much they enjoyed it and how special of an experience it was for them too.

It was a lot of work to put it all together, but it was a wonderful experience and I will be looking forward to attending the next one!

The Bethel Blood Drive

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Nolan Corne donating blood

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Madelyn Weaver and myself

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Just some of the Red Cross blood drive crew!

1258 November has been a very busy month for me! As a co-leader of Bethel SCAN (Student Community Action Network) I was in charge of the blood drive this semester. While you might think this would not be very hard, there were actually many different tasks I had to finish before the blood drive could be a success.

First, I had to make sure we had pizza for people to eat after giving blood. Pizza Hut and Papa John’s were both extremely helpful and had no problem donating pizzas for the cause. We received four pizzas, plates, and napkins from both places. Any snack items besides the pizza were supplied by the Red Cross. I was also involved in multiple meetings and phone calls with our blood drive coordinator, Geneva Land.

Madelyn Weaver and I hung posters all over Bethel’s campus. Alyssa Scheuerman, Madelyn Weaver, Kathryn Kelman, and I handed out fliers after convo one day. But, by far the biggest duty I had was to get enough blood donors to sign up. So, Shianne DeFreese and I sat outside of the cafeteria almost everyday for two weeks. As I’m sure you all noticed! A few community members also called or emailed me and joined our cause to donate blood.

The day of the blood drive, some members of the Bethel football team, along with some other guys, came and helped unload the blood drive truck in the morning. There is a lot of equipment needed for a blood drive! Then, throughout the day I had volunteers coming in every hour. These volunteers included: Olivia Gehring, Javen Zellner, Alyssa Scheuerman, Katrina Regehr, Rachel Evans, Mallory Black, Jessica Ebenkamp, Aaron Topham, Lina Adame, Emily Wedel, Tana Myers, Koki Lane (who was also in charge of picture taking), Rachel Unruh, Raul Silva, Katelyn Melgren, Jared Regehr, Sarah Cunningham, and Madelyn Weaver. Michelle Unruh also picked up some supplies for the blood drive. After the blood drive was over, the Bethel tennis team came to help load all of the equipment back into the truck. Of course, I cannot forget all of the blood donors. Over all we had 68 people come to donate and of them, 57 were able to donate. This means we saved 171 lives in only four hours! Good job Bethel!

Lastly I would like to thank Ada Schmidt-Tieszen, Madelyn Weaver, and Shianne DeFreese for helping me plan the blood drive.