Alumni Awards

Each year the Alumni Association Board selects alumni to honor at Homecoming Weekend. Awards provide an opportunity for the school and classmates to celebrate lives of service, professional contributions, and personal engagement. They also provide an opportunity to inspire each other, particularly for students to hear about and from people who share their alma mater.

 

Award categories:

  • Lifetime Service Award: Recognizes an alumnus celebrating their 40th reunion or more and who demonstrates a lifetime of service in the name of Christ, exemplifying Christian teaching, goals, and objectives of the school.
  • Alumnus of the Year: Recognizes an alumnus of any age or stage of life who is using their gifts to contribute to the common good through professional, church, service, social, and other engagement in keeping with the mission and vision of the school.
  • Community Engagement Award: Recognizes an alumnus who is making a significant contribution to the community where they live and work, bringing people together for the common good. The recipient is someone who has been recognized by peers or other organizations as a collaborative change agent in keeping with the mission and vision of the school.
  • Young Alumnus: Recognizes an alumnus who is age 35 or younger and who is using his or her gifts to contribute to the common good through professional, church, service, social, and other engagement in keeping with the mission and vision of the school.
  • Science Alumnus. This award is presented periodically by the EMHS science department and is celebrated at homecoming or in the spring of the year. The recipient is at any stage of their career and contributions.

 

Kirsten Nafziger Moore, Community Engagement Awardee, speaking in chapel

Submit a Nomination!

Nominate an alumnus for the Association to consider any time of year. Complete the online nomination form, email alumni@easternmennonite.org, write a letter or phone Andrea Wenger, director of advancement, 801 Parkwood Drive, Harrisonburg, Va., 22801 or 540-236-6026.

In making their selection, Association members consider how the nominee presents or supports the mission of EMS.

Nomination Form
Keith and Ellen Helmuth, '55, Lifetime Service Award 2020
Keith and Ellen Helmuth, '55, Lifetime Service Award 2020
Lifetime Service awardees
2017 -- Dr. Robert Eshleman '52
2016 -- Miriam Mumaw '56
2015 -- Ron Brown '70
2013 -- Edward Stoltzfus '48
2012 -- Sam '52 &Sarah '52 Weaver
2011 -- Steve '66 and Elsie Weaver '66
2010 -- Eugene Diener '60
2009 -- Willard "Bill" Helmuth '58
2008 -- Milton '53 & Mary Ethel '55 Heatwole
2007 -- George R. Brunk III '52
2006 -- Willard Heatwole '51
2005 -- John Lederach '50
2004 -- Glendon L. Blosser '47
2003 -- Mary Katherine Deputy '32 Brubaker
2002 -- J. Alton Horst '42

Alumnus of the Year Recipients

2017 -- Beryl Jantzi '77
2016 -- Tim Brenneman '76
2015 -- Joseph Longacher '55
2014 -- Earl Burkholder '64
2013 -- Harry Kraus, Jr. '78
2012 -- Titus Peachey '67
2011 -- LuAnn Miller ’81 Bender
2010  -- Aletha Stahl '85
2009 -- Becky Stoltzfus '79
2008 -- Carol Schrock ’73 Jordan
2007 -- Lawrence E. Ressler ‘72
2006 -- Ken '56 and Kass Seitz ‘56
2005 -- John W. Miller ‘45
2004 -- Esther Kniss ’49 Augsburger
2003 -- Harry Kraus, Sr., MD  ‘43
2002 -- Paul D. ‘59 and Carol D. ‘59 Yoder
2001 -- D. Rohrer Eshleman ‘41 & Phillip Guengerich ‘66
2000 -- Don Jacobs ‘45 & Eugene Souder ‘45
1999 -- Dwight ’39 & Ellen ‘43 Hartman
1998 -- Eugene Stoltzfus ‘58
1997 -- John A. Lapp ‘50
1996 -- J. Lester Brubaker ‘42
1995 -- George ’30 & Margaret ‘29 Brunk
1994 -- Nate Miller ‘60
1993 -- Harold ‘29 & Arlene Heatwole  ‘26 Eshleman
1992 -- J. Daryl Byler ‘74
Community Engagement Award
Kirsten Nafziger '89 Moore, Commulnity Engagement Award 2019
Kirsten Nafziger '89 Moore, Commulnity Engagement Award 2019
Andrew Jenner '00, Community Engagement Award in 2020, with Rachel and their children.
Andrew Jenner '00, Community Engagement Award in 2020, with Rachel and their children.
Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir under the direction of Janet Hostetler (EMHS class of 1983).
Janet Hostetler '83, Alumnus of the Year 2018. Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir under the direction of Hostetler .

Young Alumnus awardees

2017 -- Matt Weaver '92
2016 -- Obe Hostetter '96
2015 -- Allison Yoder '00 Seabeck
2014 -- Laura Bomberger '04
2013 -- Rev. Alexander MacPhail '93
2012 -- Jan Emswiler '92
2011 -- Alicia Horst '96
2010 -- Amy Glick '90
2009 -- Emily Troyer Mellet '99
2008 -- Timothy Heatwole Shenk '03

 

Nathan Hershberger '08, Young Alum of the Year 2018, with his wife Katilin Heatwole and Leo on the roof of their house in Ankawa, Iraq. Photo by Joel Carillett.
Nathan Hershberger '08, Young Alum of the Year 2018, with his wife Katilin Heatwole and Leo on the roof of their house in Ankawa, Iraq. Photo by Joel Carillett.
Lori Snyder '79 Garrett, Alumnus of the Year 2019
Lori Snyder '79 Garrett, Alumnus of the Year 2019