The Wildcats and Cougars may soon prowl in a brand-new jungle.

The Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation is planning a $6.5 million renovation for the athletic facilities of five Sylvania schools. The foundation’s list includes Northview and Southview High Schools and Arbor Hills, McCord and Timberstone junior high schools.

The Foundation plans to raise $4.5 million in private funds to finish the renovations and is seeking an additional $2 million to establish an endowment fund for Sylvania’s athletic and extracurricular activities. The tentative timetable is to begin building in 2012 and complete the facilities in the winter of 2013.

“We have a tremendous group of individuals including community leaders, parents and business professionals that are committed to getting this done,” Superintendent Brad Rieger said. “They buy into the vision that we really are building the next generation of champions. Facilities are really just a platform to let kids shine in different ways. These are challenging times, but we are a committed group and we are ready to get it done.”

John Ross, foundation board chairman, said people in Sylvania know how important education is.

“They know how important it is to support schools and support kids. We are talking about a multigenerational impact for our community.

Front row, from left: Glen Gillespie, Brad Rieger, Jim Findlay, John Ross, Jeanette Hrovatich and Chris Irwin.

“This project is about kids. There are over 8,000 kids in Sylvania schools and to know that they will have an opportunity to compete, play and participate in great schools with great athletic facilities is really exciting.”

What does $6.5 million buy?

Northview will add new field turf (for football and soccer), bleachers (for baseball, football and soccer) and field lights (for baseball and football). The school will also add an eight-lane, all-weather track-and-field events area, a ticket booth and a facility for concessions and restrooms.

Southview will add new field turf, bleachers, home stands and a press box for the football field, as well as portable stands for the band and a facility for concessions and restrooms. Southview also will add new bleachers for baseball and softball and additional soccer seating.

Northview and Southview will also add 32-foot scoreboards, which include a 10-foot-by-17-foot video screen and five different spaces to sell advertisements.

Arbor Hills and McCord will have their football fields upgraded to include irrigation and drainage as well as lights, an electronic scoreboard, a press box and an eight-lane track. Timberstone will receive mounding and screening for wind protection and fencing.

Challenges

Among the major problems with the schools’ current arrangement is Northview having to share its football field with Southview. Although Southview has a field, it is limited to freshman and junior varsity play due to a small bleacher area.

“Right now the issue is we have both of our varsity football teams playing at one field,” Rieger said. “There are significant scheduling and logistical issues. There are obviously issues with Northview wanting their own place and Southview wanting their own place but it’s even beyond that. We want separate facilities so we can expand the utilization into different activities, sports and community organizations.”

A rendering of the proposed Sylvania Northview High School football field and stadium.

The foundation plans to allow such organizations as Lourdes College, Sylvania Recreation and the Catholic Youth Organization youth tournament to use the facilities. Foundation Executive Director Jeanette Hrovatich said they hope to draw a national tournament to their facilities in the future.

Reaching private donors

To fund the $6.5 million project, the foundation is turning to private donors. Although the process is described as being at “the ground level,” the foundation’s goal is to raise $1 million during September. Hrovatich said the foundation is in discussions with about 40 donors.

“When you look across the country, I see no one else attempting to do what we are doing in a district with two public high schools to raise private money to help keep these extracurriculars available for kids,” Ross said. “This is cutting-edge. Things are going to change in how schools are financed. The time to involve the private sector into this has come. It is going to be very successful and a new way to look at things.”

The idea for turning to private donors came in 2005 when the board for Sylvania Schools began to look at rebuilding some of its facilities. At that time, it determined that taxpayers were growing weary of increased taxes and decided that private funding would be the best course of action. It created the Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation in November 2005 to begin the process of raising private funds for athletics, hoping it would transition to continual tax levy support that would go directly to classrooms.

“I got a sense, along with the community, that for us to accomplish some things with our outdoor facilities we needed to go a different way with a different approach,” Rieger said. “That’s when this idea of raising money in a private fashion, for seeking corporate and individual donors to fund the enhancements, really germinated.”

To help raise $6.5 million, the foundation created an Advancement Council consisting of 42 community volunteers whose sole goal is to focus on the fundraising aspects and donor development. Among those volunteers is Jim Findlay, retired from his position as president of Impact Products, who serves as one of the council’s three honorary chairmen along with Rieger and Rick Stansley, chairman of the board of Innovation Enterprises, the University of Toledo’s economic development arm.

“Sylvania is a great area,” Findlay said. “We have great hospitals, schools and industry. I’m very interested in academics but I’m extremely interested in sports because it builds character and principles. It’s hard for me not to be a part of something that’s for the youth. It’s hard for me to say no.”

A rendering of the proposed Sylvania Southview High School athletic complex.

Findlay, who has experience as a youth basketball coach and mentor, assisted at the University of Toledo in finding donors for the Savage Arena renovations. He is retired from his position as president of Impact Products.

“We would like to give everybody in the Sylvania area an opportunity to be a part of this,” Findlay said. “That’s what we are trying to do — get the industry and residents to be a part of this school system. People will move into this area because we have great schools and great facilities. This will be great for the community.”

The foundation has formed a women’s initiative group, “Girls with Goals” (GWG), which is attempting to raise money for the facilities. So far GWG, which is still accepting new members, consists of 25 women from the Sylvania community. Its next meeting is at 6 p.m. Aug. 17 at the Chandler Café, 5648 N. Main St. in Sylvania.

How to give to Sylvania Athletics

To donate and help the Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation raise money for Northview and Southview high schools, as well as Arbor Hills, McCord and Timberstone junior high schools, visit www.SupportSylvaniaAthletics.com (web site will be live soon). The website offers options to donate through PayPal or by sending in a pledge card, which can be printed from a PDF online. You can also contact Hrovatich at (419) 824-8656. The foundation accepts donations of any amount; donation levels from as low as $10,000 and as high as $5 million include varying rewards and recognition.

Foundation: Violations will not deter effort

The Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation’s renewal project faced a scare when it learned Aug. 5 that Northview and Southview had received sanctions from the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) on its football programs because of recruiting violations. With the sanctions occurring while they were in conversations with donors, there was some worry that they may have negatively impacted some donors’ decisions about giving.

“It was a concern because sometimes people don’t understand the nature of everything that happens in a district or a community but we have gotten a really great response,” said Foundation Executive Director Jeanette Hrovatich said. “We continue to meet with people this week and next week. We are excited by the opportunity to continue to work on this project.”

Among the violations, Northview Athletic Director Chris Irwin was found to have violated an OHSAA bylaw when he gave new head coach Marek Moldawsky Jr. a list of eighth grade students from the three Sylvania junior high schools so he could contact them and try to keep them at Northview. The OHSAA reprimanded Irwin.

At Southview, head coach Jim Mayzes was found to have violated an OHSAA bylaw when he inquired where a student would go to high school while at McCord Junior High School. Southview was placed on a two-year probation and was fined $500.

“It did involve recruiting but it was within the context of Sylvania,” Superintendent Brad Rieger said. “We weren’t recruiting kids from Whitmer, Springfield or Bedford. It stems from our coaches that are very passionate about their programs and want kids to experience the great things that are happening at their programs. I want that in coaches, but they might have been a bit overzealous with how they acted.

“It was inappropriate. We will learn from it and get some training in place to make sure the expectations are spelled out clearly for everyone.”

Despite the violations, the foundation sees the upcoming renewal project as a good way to bounce back and make up for the athletic department’s mistakes.

“Anytime something negative or bad happens you can use that opportunity to grow from it and that’s what we are going to do,” Rieger said. “This new project is about creating projects for kids and building champions.”

Tags: Arbor Hills Junior High School, Brad Rieger, Jeanette Hrovatich, Jim Findlay, John Ross, Lourdes College, McCord Junior High School, Sylvania, Sylvania Northview High School, Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation, Sylvania Southview High School, Timberstone Junior High School, University of Toledo

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Community, Development, Education, Featured, Prep Sports, Sports.
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With a career in nursing spanning more than 30 years, Gladeen Roberts has watched new mindsets and technological advancements transform the way patient care is provided.

As president of Nursing Excellence at ProMedica, Roberts is charged with integrating nursing practices at all ProMedica facilities to ensure a uniform standard of care. She spearheads collaboration internally among facilities as well as externally with area nursing colleges. The position, created last year, is one of only a handful of similar jobs nationwide.

“I always thought I just wanted to take care of people and I am still, but different kinds of people, not always people in beds,” Roberts said.

Gladeen Roberts

One of the biggest evolutions for the nursing field has been technology, Roberts said.

“In the past, processes took a little longer, but in some ways that was nice because you were hanging an IV or doing a tube feeding and you had to sit there and you talked to the patient at the bedside,” Roberts said. “Now everything’s automated so you go to the machine.”

Telemonitors allow nurses to monitor daily blood pressure, weight, blood sugar and cholesterol levels without the patient leaving home.

“It transmits over so we can call the patient and say ‘You forgot to weigh yourself today’ and when he does, we can see if it’s a critical value or not and we can call his doctor,” Roberts said.

Adopting a more patient-centered focus has been another major shift, Roberts said.

“In the ’70s, a lot of what we did was based on what physicians wanted. If they wanted daily weights done before they came in, we’d wake the patient at 5:30 in the morning,” Roberts said. “Now we’re about what’s best for that patient, not what’s best for the nurse or the doctor. That’s a different thought process than we’ve had in the past.”

Patients are more complex today, said Judy Didion, dean of nursing at Lourdes College.

“When I went to nursing school, patients were not as sick as they are today. Now there’s more technology to keep people alive longer and improve their quality of life,” Didion said.

“The kind of patients we may have cared for in a hospital are now in skilled care or home care. Hospitals are for the very critically ill, so everything is more complex.”

Today’s nurses specialize in areas like cardiology or orthopedics and their insight is valuable, Roberts said.

“We’re relying a lot more on the nurse at the bedside to identify the problems and improve the care than we ever did in the past,” Roberts said. “They’re closest to the patient, they make the biggest difference, so let’s empower them.”

Nurses are no longer found in just hospitals but in a variety of settings, such as hospice, insurance offices and physician’s offices.

The face of nursing has also changed.

There are more male nurses and more women in leadership roles than ever before, Roberts said.

Because of delayed retirements, nurses are also more diverse in age, Didion said. It can be tricky to help a multigenerational staff appreciate each other’s strengths — experienced nurses tend to be more intuitive, while recent graduates are typically better with technology — while also managing their differing expectations, she said.

Care navigators

One way health systems, including ProMedica and Mercy, are addressing the increasing complexity of health care is by developing navigator programs.

Navigators — like Lisa Helminski at Toledo Hospital — are nurses who work closely with patients to guide them through the system. Navigators can answer questions about procedures, medication and next steps, remind patients to set up appointments, advocate on their behalf and much more.

Lisa Helminski

“It’s a wonderful model. We’re looking at the whole picture as a puzzle and putting all the pieces together,” Helminski said. “We work with bedside nurses, physicians and social workers right beside them. It’s a huge team approach. We’re very much an advocate for the patient and family. We have time to go in and talk to patients more than the bedside nurses do. I think it’s just an awesome program, I really do.”

Not all patients are assigned navigators. Candidates include those with chronic diseases, those whose condition requires many specialists or those without family.

Helminski recalled a patient who had a chronic condition and was told his insurance would no longer cover his specialist, so the man quit going to the doctor, visiting emergency rooms instead.

“When he came here I saw that was a problem for him and worked with his insurance case manager to find a physician that would take him and also set up home care for when he went home,” Helminski said. “He was very grateful and we ended up hugging at the end.

That was someone who could have fallen through the cracks before because it took a lot of work to put it all together.”

ProMedica has 30 care navigators in its hospital system, including outpatient facilities. Mercy’s five navigators work with breast issues in the women’s centers at St. Vincent, St. Anne and St. Charles as well as with cancer patients at St. Anne and St. Charles.

Future demand

With the average age of Ohio nurses at 47, and 40 percent indicating in surveys they plan to retire, demand for nurses will be greater than ever in the next 10 years, Roberts said. Nationally, a shortage of between 300,000 and 1 million nurses is predicted in the next decade — with even the low figure three times higher than any U.S. nursing shortage in the past 50 years, Roberts said.

The nonprofit Institute of Medicine, which conducts research and offers health care policy advice, is calling for greater percentages of nurses to hold bachelor’s and doctorate degrees by 2020.

“Patients are becoming more diverse and you really have to have the education and critical thinking to be able to deliver the right care to the right patient at the right time,” Roberts said.

However, although the profession has changed, the cornerstone of nursing has remained the same, Roberts said.

“The essential reason we exist is to give the safest and best possible care to our patients and that has been true ever since I started working in nursing,” she said.

Tags: Lourdes College, ProMedica

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 15th, 2011 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Community, Health Care.
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Lucas County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak and officials from Toledo Public Schools, Toledo Federation of Teachers, Toledo Community Foundation and Partners in Education announced plans for the Committed College Coach Program at a press conference at Grove Patterson Academy on March 21.

The program aims to help fifth-grade students from Sherman Elementary and Grove Patterson Academy find a “college coach,” a mentor that will commit to help them along their educational journey until they are sophomores in college. Together with the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, Lourdes College and Owens Community College, students will have the resources and help to continue their path to college.

“We really want more and more young people to attend college,” Wozniak said. “We want all of you to attend college. That’s our goal. That’s our dream.”

Wozniak said only about 14 percent of Lucas County adult residents have a bachelor’s degree. She approached TPS and other partners to help boost that rate starting with the youth. Toledo Community Foundation is contributing about half of the funding needed for the pilot program with the rest of the funding expected from the State of Ohio through Jobs and Family Services. Initial costs are estimated at about $43,500 for a program director and material fees.

Fifth grade teachers from both elementary schools were already trained to help with the program and, eventually, the guidance counselors will be as well. In seventh grade, the guidance counselors will become involved and the students will start visiting colleges.

At the press conference, the first coach and student declaration was signed by Terrina White and her daughter, Nakiya White.

White is an employee and graduate of the University of Toledo and said she hopes that the program not only helps young students attend college, but also motivates their coaches, who might not have gone or might not have finished college, to go back and finish their degree.

“We’re going to change our community for the better,” Wozniak said.

More information on the program can be found on their newly launched website, www.committedcollegecoach.com

Tags: Bowling Green State University, Education, Lourdes College, Lucas County, Owens Community College, Partners in Education, Tina Skeldon Wozniak, Toledo, Toledo Community Foundation, Toledo Federation of Teachers, Toledo Public Schools, University of Toledo

This entry was posted on Monday, March 21st, 2011 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Community, Education.
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A new partnership will allow Owens Community College students to earn a Bachelor of Science four-year degree from Lourdes College beginning in the fall.

“We are thrilled to provide Owens Community College students the opportunity to take their first steps toward a bachelor’s degree at Lourdes College on the Toledo-area campus,” said Renay Scott, executive vice president and provost of Owens Community College, in a news release.

Students who enroll in the program can choose from eight business majors, including accounting, accounting and finance, business administration, health care administration, human resource management, integrated business, marketing and management.

They will pursue the majority of their Lourdes credit hours in College Hall on the Owens Toledo-area campus, but be taught by Lourdes faculty.

“This is a unique partnership in that it connects a public institution with a private institution — but the connection is really a perfect match,” said Janet Robinson, vice president for academic affairs at Lourdes College, in a news release. “Both Lourdes and Owens place a strong emphasis on affordability and personalized attention. We have a long history of working together to ensure student success, and this is a terrific continuation of that effort.”

Eligible students who transfer to Lourdes to complete their degree receive Pathways scholarships — renewable merit-based awards that provide up to $2,000 of tuition assistance per year.

Open houses for the program will take place March 23 from noon to 2 p.m. and April 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the College Hall Atrium at Owens’ Toledo-area campus.

For more information, visit www.lourdes.edu/owens or contact admissions coordinator Stacy Jenkins at (567) 661-2566 or 1-800-GO-OWENS, Ext. 2566.

Tags: Lourdes College, Owens Community College

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Community, Education.
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After more than a year of planning, scouting and practicing, Lourdes College in Sylvania has stepped into the world of intercollegiate athletics.

This fall, with the Gray Wolves as its nickname, the school’s first women’s volleyball team posted a winning record in its inaugural season. Men’s and women’s golf teams also competed in their respective first seasons.

Roseanne Gill-Jacobson, vice president for student life and athletic director at Lourdes College, said the program has provided opportunity for the student athletes to be successful in many ways.

“Life lessons are learned in a lot of ways and athletics teach a lot of those lessons that follow you the rest of your life,” she said.

In addition to golf and women’s volleyball seasons, Lourdes College is seeing its first men’s basketball team in action. Andre Smith, the head coach of the team, said he is excited and proud of the team as it stands, even though it was sometimes a challenge during the recruiting process.

“It was like selling a new product. We had to get people to buy into something brand new,” he said. “I give a lot of credit to the kids who took a chance on this new program.”

With players from all across the United States and even a few from outside the country, Smith said his recruiting efforts took on a wide scope.

“To be a great program, you have to look outside the immediate area and bring in different styles. Of course we wanted to keep Toledo’s talent in Toledo,” he said.

Before coming on as the coach of Lourdes College’s first men’s basketball team, Smith played at the collegiate in the United States and at professional levels in Europe. These experiences, he said, have helped him build a rapport with his new team.

“When you’ve played, they look at you differently. They know you’ve been through the trenches and been through everything you’re having them go through,” he said. “It helps the overall relationship.”

Smith said the opportunity to work with his team as students and athletes is the best aspect of his job as a coach.

“At [the college] level it’s all about the kids. You get to watch them grow on and off the court into positive people,” he said.

Gill-Jacobson agreed that Lourdes’ students are benefitting from the addition of athletics.

“This has just been an opportunity for our students to grow on campus. It has enhanced spirit, and the atmosphere has made campus even more fun,” she said. “It’s been really exciting.”

Within the next few years, the college plans to boast between 10 and 15 athletic teams. Baseball and women’s basketball will start next year, while men’s volleyball will start next spring.

Other sports will be added depending on the college’s athletic conference and other opportunities afforded to the school. The school is part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

“We plan to add two sports a year until we have all we want,” said Gill-Jacobson.

Smith said the chance to be the first coach of the first men’s basketball team at the college has been thrilling in spite of the challenges.

“The only thing we can do is improve. These kids get to be part of history,” he said.

Paige Aten wrote this report

Tags: Lourdes College, Sports

This entry was posted on Monday, January 17th, 2011 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Sports.
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John Tarpy, a student in the Master of Organizational Leadership (MOL) program at Lourdes College, is already using his newly acquired education to get into the cruise business.

Tarpy recently was accredited as an independent cruise specialist for CruiseOne, a division of World Travel Holdings. With more than 600 independently owned and operated franchises across the country, CruiseOne combines the latest technology with old-fashioned customer service to provide customers with the best possible travel plans.

In order to receive accreditation, Tarpy had to pass the company’s intensive training program with a curriculum in sales and marketing, hands-on computer orientation, product briefings by major cruise lines and onboard ship inspections.

“I researched the franchise for two or three months as I had a lot of questions about it,” Tarpy said.

The company is a global leader in the travel industry and leading seller of cruises in North America, Tarpy said.

“I fell in love with the company and I’m having a lot of fun working with them. I enjoy helping people and already helped a woman who was interested in joining CruiseOne,” said Tarpy. “CruiseOne has a mentor program and I think I would like to become a mentor with them.”

John Tarpy on the Oasis of the Seas during his training for CruiseOne.

Tarpy said the support CruiseOne provides is incredible with access to all cruise lines around the world and matching the best prices available. It also connects him with companies for land vacations.

He went for one week of training in November at CruiseOne’s headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It involved working eight to 10 hours a day with presentations by two cruise lines per day, he said.

His training also included making a ship inspection aboard the Oasis of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, in order to become professionally certified. Tarpy is a member of the Cruise Line International Association and expects to earn certification within one year.

He said he is working with Mark Bryant, a franchise coordinator with CruiseOne to open his business officially later this month. He already has a Web link with CruiseOne at www.CruiseOne.com/jtarpy.

Tarpy said that he was fortunate to get an ad for his cruise business in the local Yellow Pages directory for 2011 that is due out in February.

Tarpy credits his educational experience in the MOL program at Lourdes with assisting him in achieving his goal to operate his own business.

“The MOL changes you, opens your mind and helps bring your life and career experiences together. Everything seems possible. You learn so much about yourself and the right way to do things,” Tarpy said.

“I don’t want to send people on a cruise or vacation that isn’t right for them,” he said.

He is working on a research project about women in political leadership for the final stage of the MOL. Tarpy said that he intends to write a book about organizational structure after he completes the program at Lourdes.

“I just love it and the people at Lourdes. The professors teach with empathy, which is important,” Tarpy said.

The MOL program at Lourdes seeks to enhance critical thinking, higher-order reasoning and ethical virtue in leadership. Principles of scientifically developed leadership and their application to real-world challenges are the core of the academic curriculum, according to the college.

Tarpy had worked as a controller and chief financial officer for two companies after earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting from UT. After being unemployed for a couple years, he decided to go into business for himself and enrolled in the MOL at Lourdes.

Tarpy had never been on a cruise or ship before getting involved with CruiseOne.

“My parents had been on several cruises and I thought it would be exciting and it is,” he said.

Tags: CruiseOne, John Tarpy, Lourdes College

This entry was posted on Friday, January 7th, 2011 at 10:30 am and is filed under Entrepreneurs, Toledo Business Link.
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The Lourdes College Drama Society presents its third annual production of “Uh-oh, Here Comes Christmas” Dec. 3 through Dec. 5.

“Uh-oh, Here Comes Christmas” takes a comedic look at the struggle to find the holiday spirit. The performance is a series of small sketches based on best-selling author Robert Fulgham’s (“All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.”) short stories.

“It’s funny and it’s kind of poignant,” said Keith Ramsdell, the drama society’s advisor. “I refer to a sense in the play that there are kind of ‘Linus’ moments. It’s not just the funny ha ha moments of Christmas, but what are some of the real reasons for Christmas.”

The shorter performance is family friendly and fits in with other holiday classics and traditions such as “Nutcracker,” Ramsdell said.

Performances are Dec. 3 and Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 5 at 2 p.m. at the Ebeid Student Center on the lower level of McAlear Hall. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door.

Tags: Christmas, Holidays, Lourdes College

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Community, Entertainment, Events, Holidays.
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“Slice,” Five for Fighting’s latest single, pays tribute to Don McLean and his classic, “American Pie.”

John Ondrasik was excited to receive feedback from the legendary singer-songwriter.

“Don McLean for the first time responded to his homage, and he was very pleased with the song,” he said. “You never know when you write a song that references other songs how the songwriter is going to react, but he seemed to be very happy.”

Ondrasik wrote the track with composer Stephen Schwartz, best known for writing the musicals “Wicked” and “Godspell.”

“We were in a coffeehouse and looking through my book and hit upon this ‘Slice’ idea and, very cliché, but he grabbed a napkin and started writing lyrics down,” Ondrasik recalled. “About a half hour after we started working on it, ‘American Pie’ came on the radio in the coffeehouse, so we’re like we’re doing something really right or really wrong because some of the music gods are giving us a sign.”

The song is peppered with nods to some of Ondrasik’s favorite musicians.

John Ondrasik

“It references how music now is kind of so niche-driven we don’t have those big songs that we can bond together as a country, as a nation, mark our lives by,” he explained during a call from Los Angeles. “When I was a kid, we had music and sports and Pong. Now we have a thousand cable channels, the Internet, video games, so obviously music is less relevant in children’s and young people’s lives to a certain extent.

“But I do hope that it can still have a cultural impact, and that’s the message of ‘Slice.’ ”

The singer-songwriter who records under the name Five for Fighting penned the influential “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” a Grammy-nominated hit in 2001.

“I was definitely in a stage of my artistic career that most songwriters go through: I was being rejected by every record label, I was being passed on, I was kind of frustrated,” the pianist and guitarist said. “Thinking back on ‘Superman’ right now, I’ve had the experience over the last 10 to 15 years of meeting people with real challenges, folks like our troops who face serious challenges. ‘Superman’ is not a song I could write today because, frankly, it is pretty easy to be me.”

He added, “I did always feel that people who heard it could relate to the sentiment, the kind of at-the-end-of-the-day-we’re-all-human sentiment, and never could have imagined it could have obtained what it did. I still enjoy playing that song; I did a show last weekend and probably played ‘Superman’ for the 8,000th time, but I still enjoy singing it.”

Fans will hear an acoustic version of that number and more from the 2009 “Slice” disc when Five for Fighting plays an 8 p.m. show Nov. 13 at the Franciscan Theatre at Lourdes College in Sylvania. Tickets are $26.

“Music can be many things: It can be an escape, it can be an inspiration, it can be a distraction, it can be a teaching tool, it can be cathartic, it can be something fun to jog to — that’s what music is for me and, hopefully, some of my songs resonate that way for other folks.”

Tags: American Pie, Don McLean, Five for Fighting, Franciscan Theatre, Godspell, Grammy, John Ondrasik, Lourdes College, Slice, Stephen Schwartz, Superman (It's Not Easy), Vicki L. Kroll, Wicked

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 at 10:23 am and is filed under Featured, In Concert, Star.
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Since Lourdes College in Sylvania opened its Veterans Affairs Center in 2009, the school has increased the number of attending veteran students from 31 to 53. The Veterans Center, in conjunction with the other services Lourdes offers to students with backgrounds in military service, has led to the college’s rank in GI Jobs Magazine’s top 15 percent of military friendly institutions in the U.S.

Lourdes has partnered with the University of Toledo’s division of ROTC to offer their training program to Lourdes College students. One of the ROTC students at Lourdes, Adam Fricker, was discharged from three years of active duty so he could train to be an officer.

“I was looking for a more adult campus, a smaller campus. The recruiting officer at the University of Toledo’s ROTC told me about it,” Fricker said.

Fricker, 23, is finishing his second year at Lourdes in the nursing program. Prior to attending Lourdes, Fricker served in active duty with the 3rd Brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia.

“It’s been outstanding,” Fricker said of his experience with the Lourdes College staff. “They bent over backward for me.”

Upon graduation, Fricker said he will be commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant with the Army.

Through the Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program that resulted from the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, Lourdes is able to waive fees and offer free tuition to veteran students. In addition to free tuition, Lourdes also awards an Ohio National Guard “Hero” Scholarship, a ROTC Housing Scholarship and an Air Force ROTC scholarship for students of nursing.

Kim Grieve, dean of students at Lourdes, cites the numerous services the college offers as a driving factor of the increased enrollment by veteran students.

“We’ve seeen increased enrollment because of the Yellow Ribbon program and because our veteran assitant gets out into the community. Plus I think the nature of the school; we’re a real small school. With the 14:1 class size, it’s really helpful for students.”

In the Veterans Center, students work with counselor Michael Gill-Jacobson, a member of the support staff who has previously served in the military, Grieve said. Gill-Jacobson helps direct veterans to services available to them, including financing and housing options.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 7th, 2010 at 8:32 pm and is filed under Community, Education.
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Lourdes College is offering a hybrid version of its Master of Organizational Leadership program this fall.

The original program was designed for traditional students who could commute one night a week to the college campus in Sylvania.  The hybrid version allows businesspeople and students outside commuting distance or who work during the evenings to enroll in the program.

The hybrid program will meet on campus two Saturdays for eight hours each day during the seven-week fall term. The remainder of the course can be completed online, according to Keith Ramsdell, director of graduate admissions.

“It will significantly benefit professionals who want to pursue their masters degrees at Lourdes but couldn’t.

“We are still accepting applications for the fall program,” Ramsdell said.

Keith Ramsdell (left) and Dean Ludwig, of Lourdes College.

Chrys Peterson, news anchor for WTOL, is enrolled for the fall term.

“The weeknight classes just didn’t work for my schedule, but I was excited to learn about the Saturday class, which works better for me and my family, as well as a lot of people in the same situation,” Peterson said.

The hybrid program is just one way Dean Ludwig, the new chairman of Business Leadership Studies, is making Lourdes more accessible.

Formerly, two separate programs, business and leadership, were combined into a single department under Ludwig’s direction for the upcoming academic year.

“Business and leadership will play an important role in the future with aggressive opportunities for growth,” he said. “We want business to grow along with the college’s goal to become a university.”

Business students comprise 20 percent of the 3,000 student population at Lourdes. Ludwig foresees that growing to 30 percent in the future.

Enhancing the interaction between the business programs at Lourdes and the local business community is a primary goal of Ludwig, who has both an academic and business background.

Ludwig helped to establish the Center for Family Business at UT. He served on the UT College of Business faculty in marketing and business management for 10 years and directed the university’s business honors program.

Ludwig earned his MBA and Ph.D. at the Wharton School of Business and studied theology at the University of California at Berkeley. He served at John Carroll University and spent 12 years as a member of the Jesuit religious order before leaving for the business world.

“My corporate, consulting and entrepreneurial experience in the private, nonprofit and public service sectors will help achieve our goals for business growth at Lourdes,” he said.

Ludwig worked at The Andersons, where he managed a new product launch for the company. He served as vice president of sales and marketing for a former subsidiary of the Sauder Woodworking Company in Archbold.

He later established Dean Ludwig Furnituremaker Ltd., designing and building custom wood furniture.

Ludwig said that he “was looking for the right opportunity to get back into academia, wanting to work with ideas and people.”

“I love to teach and plan to teach some business courses here,” he said. “The mission-driven character at Lourdes is why I came here. It’s all about the care of the whole person — intellectually, emotionally and spiritually — in this terrific academic atmosphere.”

Lourdes was recently named among the “10 Great Colleges To Work For” by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Tags: Lourdes College

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Community, Education.
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