The Alumni Association of Eastern Mennonite University has honored two of its graduates for their work in reflecting the school’s vision, mission and values: Myron Blosser and Melodie Davis.
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Myron Blosser
Myron E. Blosser
Myron E. Blosser, a 1983 EMU graduate and veteran educator from Harrisonburg, received EMU’s 2005 "alumnus of the year" award during the Sunday, Oct. 16, worship service of homecoming and family weekend.
The award is presented annually to a graduate who has been recognized for significant recent achievements in their profession, community or church. Melodie M. Davis, a 1975 EMU graduate who has a 30-year tenure as a writer/producer with Mennonite Media in Harrisonburg, received the "distinguished service award," also during the homecoming service.
The annual "distinguished service" award seeks to recognize graduates who have demonstrated in notable ways the Christian service and peacemaking emphases of the university.
Following graduation, Blosser taught at Strasburg (VA) High School for three years before taking a position teaching biology at Harrisonburg High School.
He has received wide recognition over the years for his efforts to instill students with a love of science by taking them beyond the classroom walls.
Blosser led a group of Harrisonburg High School students across the country in 1998 to study environmental science for several weeks. He took another group on a similar trip two years later.
In 2001, he left Harrisonburg High and joined the faculty at Eastern Mennonite High School with the retirement of long-time biology teacher David A. Mumaw, who Blosser said "made me want to be a teacher in the first place."
In 2003, he and two other EMHS teachers in several disciplines led 22 students to the Pacific Ocean, following the trail of Lewis and Clark in the year of the 200th anniversary of the explorers’ voyage of discovery.
This summer, Blosser and another 22 EMHS students followed the Colorado River by bus and raft from its source all the way to Yuma, Mexico, where it enters Mexico. The group analyzed the river’s water along the way and its effects on local farms and a major city, Las Vegas.
Blosser has received numerous recognitions for his teaching, including "biology teacher of the year" in 1993 from the Virginia Association of Biology Teachers, in 1994 from the American Association of University Women and in 1998 from the National Association of Biology Teachers. He was one of 20 teachers nationwide named to the 1999 USA Today Teacher First team and was a member of the state education committee that wrote Virginia’s science Standards of Learning.
The Harrisonburg native is married to Rhonda Graber Blosser, a 1986 EMU graduate. Their children are Kurtis, Kelsey and Bryce, all students at Eastern Mennonite School.
Melodie Davis
Melodie M. Davis
Davis, an English major at EMU, took a position with the former Mennonite Broadcasts, Inc. (now Mennonite Media), one month after graduation and has been with the agency since then.
Today, as writer/producer for Mennonite Media, she works with radio spots, writes a syndicated column, "Another Way," and does editing for the organization’s "Third Way Cafe" (www.thirdway.com) web site. The radio spots are carried on some 300 stations across the country; her column appears in 10 newpapers in North America, including the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record.
Davis also works on documentaries on difficult life issues that have aired on network and cable television.
Davis’ radio spots and other work have received awards from the church and secular media. Her "Parenting on the Edge" radio spots were recognized in the 2003 Gracie Allen Awards.
She has written eight non-fiction books and also works part time as editor of the inspirational newsprint tabloids, "Together" and "Living," published by the Shalom Foundation.
The Goshen, Ind., native is married to Rockingham County native Stuart Davis. The couple has three adult daughters – Michelle, Tanya and Doreen.