2006 Modified Residency Program Incoming Class. Front: Holly Anne Lux, Jean Feeney, and Sally Beth Shore. Second Row: India McCanse, Roger Grugel, and Sharon Rucker. Back: Marcia Stanard, Amy Beltaine, Karen Lapidis, Lois Cole, and Kathy Ellis.
January is the most lively month in the Meadville Lombard academic calendar, because that's when our Modified Residency Program (MRP) students come "home" to be in class with each other and in residence with our faculty, staff and residential students.
The Modified Residency Program is designed for students who are unable, due to family or vocational commitments, to reside full-time in Chicago. Our MRP students live across the continent and come to the Meadville Lombard campus each January where they take week-long courses we call "intensives." Each intensive course meets all-day for five days and the students must come to the course with readings and other academic work completed. Follow-up work (such as papers) is due upon completion of the winter quarter.
January begins with a convocation for the new MRP students and meetings between the students and their advisors, UU ministerial professionals who also come from around the country to volunteer their time and talent assisting in the formation of new ministers.
The intensive courses are taught by members of our faculty as well as adjunct faculty who include alumni/ae as well as ministers and professors from throughout the country.
There is no other way to say it: January is just a month full of hellos and goodbyes at Meadville Lombard. The month has an energy all its own, as our MRP students who support each other by phone and email throughout the year come together to do that face to face, and as our entire student body has an opportunity to gather together in learning, in service, and in worship.
This January, we welcomed eleven new MRP students to Meadville Lombard, who are all, with one exception, pursuing their Master of Divinity degree:
Amy Beltaine currently works at Cornell University as a fixer of all things computer-related. She has been involved in VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) and active in her home church, First Unitarian Society of Ithaca, New York.
Lois Cole lives in Iowa City, where she is the Lifespan Religious Education Director at the UU Society of Iowa City. She is a student at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. She brings with her the experience of growing up in a family of Methodist missionaries in China.
Kathryn Ellis was a Quaker before becoming a UU in 1997. She is a psychotherapist with her own practice, living in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where she is a member of the Unitarian Universalists of the Cumberland Valley.
Jean Feeney is a former Catholic Nun with years of experience in education and human services. She is currently working as a Social Worker and manages a VISTA community clinic in Southern California. She is active in the UU Felllowship of San Diguito, California.
Roger Grugel is a lawyer in St. Cloud, Minnesota and a leader in his lay-led church, Spirit of Life. Roger has worked as an attorney for over 20 years, specializing in poverty law. Most of his work has been for farmers in rural Minnesota.
Karen Lapidis is pursuing her Master of Arts degree at Meadville Lombard, with an interest in Religious Education. She is currently the RE Education Consultant for the Ohio/Meadville District of the UUA. She has a Nursing Degree and is currently enrolled in the UUA's credentialing program and has worked as an RE director in Kent and Youngstown, Ohio.
Holly Anne Lux works for the News & Record in Greensboro, North Carolina. She has been an active volunteer at an AIDs clinic and has a lot of experience working with people with AIDs. She is active in the UU Congregation of Hillsborough, North Carolina.
India McCanse is the President and CEO of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee. She has been the leader of all kinds of progressive agencies, including Planned Parenthood and the Cancer Society. She is active in the canvass and social justice activities of her home church, Unitarian Church, North, of Mequon, Wisconsin.
Sharon Rucker is interested in prison chaplaincy and she comes by this interest after serving as Adminstrative Officer/Public Information Officer for the Maryland Correctional Training Center since 1991. She also is an adjunct teacher at Hagerstown Community College, in the business division. She is a member of the UU Church of Hagerstown.
Sally Beth Shore is the Director of Mountain Music for Children, leading classes for children and their parents. She has a Master's degree in Environmental Science and does a great deal of volunteer work in that field. She is a religious education teacher at the UU Church of Asheville, North Carolina, where she also founded and leads the Parents' Night Out program.
Marcia Stanard works as a bookkeeper at the Oregon School of Massage. She is a lay pastoral care minister at the First Unitarian Church in Portland, Oregon and is interested in the Ministry of Education.
