Author Archives: Ricardo Fearing

EMU grads help market James Madison University

From brochures to advertisements, from emails to exhibit displays, and mobile apps to video tours, five EMU alumni help promote the James Madison University brand through graphic design, photography, videography, and web design. Four of them – Katie Landis ’12, Justin Roth ’12, Lorinda “Rinn” Siegrist ’89 and Frank Ameka ’07 – came to their […]

Fostering international student success at James Madison University

After experiencing cross-cultural studies and interacting with students from all over the world during their undergraduate years, several EMU alumni have found their perfect job in facilitating this same rich exchange at the larger university a few miles away. James Madison University has a thriving community of approximately 450 international students and scholars from 75 […]

EMU-prepared teachers earn high marks in local school systems

  More than 500 alumni living in the City of Harrisonburg or Rockingham County work in education, though only two-thirds of these seem to be employed in their home districts, according to EMU’s alumni database. “The teachers we hire from the EMU teacher education program rank as being some of the best,” says Scott R. Kizner, […]

Helping schools bridge cross-cultural divides

The baggage that comes with feeling new and out of place in a foreign milleu is heavy, especially for children who can’t communicate with their peers in the United States. Having experienced feeling like an outsider during their required cross-culturals, dozens of EMU grads employed by Harrisonburg City schools are using their cross-cultural sensitivity in […]

Fostering community-wide music through Bach Festival, Children’s Choir, Prep Music Program

BACH FESTIVAL Music lovers flock to Harrisonburg each summer for the annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. With a week of performances ranging from baroque to modern, amateur to award-winning, they aren’t disappointed. The flagship performances are held in EMU’s Lehman Auditorium, but in an effort to share the experience with the widest possible audience, concerts […]

Begun by alumni, the Farmers Market shapes community

Margaret Wenger Johnson ’69 held out a mason jar of grape juice. “It’s rich,” Samuel Johnson (class of ’75) said. Margaret nodded and smiled, like they’d discovered it bubbling from the ground — instead of steaming in a steel vat. The Concord grapes that she had methodically de-stemmed with Marjorie Nafziger ’74, MA ’97 (counseling), grew […]

Gehman vs. Goliath: “No” to flooding part of the Valley for a dam

In 1963, the United State Army Corps of Engineers published plans to build 16 large dams along the Potomac River and its tributaries, including one at Brocks Gap on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, about 15 miles north of Harrisonburg. The Army Corps’ goals were noble enough: to spare Washington D.C. from the […]

Ben Wyse ’99: bicycle lifestyle, bicycle livelihood

It’s been nearly five years since Ben Wyse ’99 launched Wyse Cycles, based on a simple, and unprecedented, premise: opening a bike shop with no shop. Instead, Wyse makes house calls and site visits on his own bike, towing a trailer full of tools and spare parts behind him. As far as he knows, Wyse Cycles […]

Bike capital, where riders are gearing up to lead the way

In 2010 , a new class made its first appearance in EMU’s course catalog: bicycle maintenance, taught by Ben Wyse ’99. That was the same year that the university cooperated with the City of Harrisonburg to paint bike lanes along Park Road through campus, while Bible and religion professor Peter Dula ’92 helped a group of […]

She became a bike-safety advocate by accident

When she woke up on May 1, 2008, Denise Martin ’08 was one of the many cyclists who “just kind of rode” without giving much thought to the complicated politics of bicycle advocacy. Things changed later that day when, as she just kind of rode through Harrisonburg, Martin’s wheel was yanked sideways by a skewed […]