Ken Clark (2008)

Ken Clark keeps in touch! He and Alysha celebrated their one year wedding anniversary August 1. Now they're expecting a baby in late December!

Ken says,

"Life is really taking off on us; it's all we can do to keep up. Also I recently began a career with New York Life and we moved to Byron, Illinois just south of Rockford to build my practice.

"I feel the Lord has provided this opportunity for me to utilize my business degree and move closer to friends and family."

Mary Strahm ('08)

No, this isn't Mary's bike but it's fun to think that she might have had a part in bringing it to the U.S. Market!

Mary writes: "I worked part-time in Trek's Oconomowoc warehouse while still a student at Maranatha. Around May 2008, I have the opportunity to interview for a starting office position. I applied, got the job, and worked as an Export Document Specialist for about 4 months. I was in charge of processing all Canadian shipments that were leaving our Wisconsin and California warehouses. I had to create spreadsheets that listed all parts exporting out of the country and forward the spreadsheets to our brokers so they could clear the shipments.

"In September, I accepted a promotion to a newly created position. I am currently one of two International Compliance Specialists at Trek Bicycles. (I didn't see that coming or I would have taken International Law!) The main responsibility of my current job is post entry. Post entry involves lots of auditing so attention to detail is a huge must! I currently spend 95% of my time auditing U.S. customs entries. I take entries that have errors to our different brokers and work with them on correcting the entries with customs. I also am working with a team from my department to help resolve an issue that we currently have with our vendors. We have Kaizan meetings about once a month and are working on updating our Import SOP to solve our issue."

Mary was an Assistant Team Leader during the Senior Capstone Project. It's good to see that Trek is recognizing some of the qualities that her faculty and peers recognized while Mary was a student!

John Voorhis ('08) (and Sam and "new addition")

John says, "we are doing good here in ole TX. I have been working for Chrysler Financial for five weeks in the remarketing department and Sam just got a job as a teacher for a pre-school. We love it down here. (the weather is great!:) We joined a church here a month ago and we did a puppet show for the kids this past Sunday. We are now looking at a duplex to purchase for us to live in one side and rent the other side (the beginning of our real estate investing also). The Lord has been so good!"

Sara Anderson ('08)

Sara now knows what it's REALLY like to be busy -- no more school days and easy schedules!

She works in Madison, Wisconsin, as a Leasing Consultant for JEK Properties. Sara says that she has "learned Quickbooks and I actually enjoy it:) I also get to go to the courthouse every so often to file for evictions and other small claims cases."

At Calvary Baptist in Sun Prairie Sara shares: "I am the Sparks Director in the AWANA clubs and I help in Jr. Church on Sunday mornings. I stay pretty busy with that but I love it!"

Her former professors are excited to hear how Sara is putting her training and her enthusiasm to work.

Zach Zepke ('08)

Zach says:

"Sarah and I are still living in Watertown. I am working at Kayser Chrysler as a sales professional and enjoy it so far. I am probably going to be doing some of the financing work in the future, or at least training for it. It is nice to know that I can work at a dealership, and that I do not have to compromise my Christian standards.

"Being married is wonderful, and I am loving everyday that God has given me with Sarah. She has been a great encourager for me since things are going slow at work. God continues to provide for us on a daily basis."

Micah Pfaffe ('08)

Micah and Mica took off last Friday (11/7/08) for some camping! They live in Cary, NC, where Micah is the IT Manager at Colonial Baptist Church.


Here's his quiz question:

On Friday (11/7/08), General Motors and Ford announced that they had spent down a combined $14.6 billion of their cash reserves in the past three months alone. Which of the following plans has been announced to offset the losses?
A. The two companies are mouthballing a combined 15 US manufacturing plants
B. Ford is slashing more than 2,000 white collar jobs
C. After having recently separating from Chrysler LLC, German automaker Daimler AG is purchasing General Motors.
D. The "Big Three" auto makers are merging under the leadership of CEO Rahm Emanuel

Zach Zepke ('08)

Check out the happy groom (and Sarah, his bride)!

Micah Pfaffe ('08)

Micah and Mica (Lemke) Pfaffe exchanged vows on Friday, June 13! They're moving to North Carolina where Micah will be the IT Manager at Colonial Baptist Church in Cary. Dan Kaminski ('08) and Tim Reinert ('08) arrived from Oregon and Maryland to join the wedding party.

Bob Shaffer ('08)

Bob popped the BIG QUESTION to Amanda Barrie while they were on Maranatha's Team Turkey trip! Congrats!

Paul Shirk ('08)

At the May 2008 Commencement service, Paul received the Department of Business's second Student Achievement Award. A statement of Paul's qualifications as stated by the faculty follows.

"The Department of Business recognizes Mr. Paul T. Shirk as the 2008 Student Achievement Award recipient. As an Accounting Management major, Mr. Shirk earned a grade point average of 3.91 while maintaining an active extracurricular schedule and gaining the respect of his peers and professors. Mr. Shirk served as Detachment Commander of Maranatha’s ROTC Charlie Company while pursuing his education. He received the University of Wisconsin’s highest award to the senior Army cadet among its Madison, Wisconsin and partnership schools who has demonstrated superior leadership ability, excellence in academics and military studies and involvement in extracurricular activities. He serves in the children’s ministries at the New Testament Baptist Church of Columbus, Wisconsin. His fellow seniors consistently acknowledged his superior leadership skills as a Team Leader for his Senior Capstone team project. The faculty is pleased to announce this year’s recipient of the Student Achievement Award, Mr. Paul T. Shirk."

The Department of Business in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal offers distinctive recognition of an exceptional business graduating senior at Maranatha Baptist Bible College. The recipient has demonstrated excellence in academics and spiritual leadership, and holds great promise as a future Christian business professional.

The graduate receives a commemorative award medallion, a one-year subscription to The Wall Street Journal, and publication with other winners in a full-page announcement in the nation’s number one business newspaper.

Trevor Waltho II ('08)

Trevor and his fiance (Shelly) are preparing for their wedding day.

Meanwhile, Trevor "started at Fiduciary Real Estate Development (FRED) in downtown Milwaukee on Monday, May 19. My job title is Accountant and I will be in charge of monthly/year-end statements, approval of bank reconciliations, journal entries, etc. I am very excited to have begun my accounting career at "FRED". It will be a great place to take the accounting principles learned in my classes and see them at work in a real life work environment.

"FRED will be able to work with me when I start classes again in a few months. They will be flexible as far as letting me leave early to make it to my classes in Whitewater. This was a precondition to any job that I might have accepted. Speaking of Whitewater, I was accepted into their MPA (Masters in Public Accounting) program and will begin night classes on a part-time schedule in spring of 2009."

Congratuations, Trevor! We look forward to hearing great progress in your career and life.