Fun
How do Messiah students, alums and faculty have fun? They do it with purpose—with a zest for life in their jobs, their families, their communities and their hearts.
Fun in careers
Tim Morgan ’04
Tim Morgan ’04 gets paid to talk. What does it take to build a voice acting career? Patience and perseverance.
In his senior year at Messiah, the communication major studied at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center in Los Angeles, California. He graduated and then married Deborah (Schultz) ’05. The couple moved to California in 2007 and spent the next decade on the West Coast.
Upon arrival, Morgan pursued a career in acting and comedy. After working as a substitute teacher and appearing on an episode of “Wipeout,” he found his niche, which combined his love for comedy, theatre and communication: voice acting.
Providing his voice to various projects, Morgan has played the role of an animated watermelon for Snapple and recorded more than 17,000 words for a text-to-speech system. Currently, he’s writing a pilot for a TV series he hopes to pitch later this year.
“What I do lends itself to fun regardless. I’m getting paid to talk, and that never gets old,” he said.
Voice acting is versatile, flexible and, if you have the right sound equipment, you can do it from anywhere in the world. So, after 10 years in L.A., the couple returned to their hometown in Camp Hill, near the Messiah campus, to raise their two children. They converted their basement into a home studio.
Los Angeles will always be a part of my heart and my career, but we entered a season of life where family was most important,” said Morgan. “I give my wife so much credit for being the consistent income as a nurse. She provided our stability.
In Pennsylvania, he’s now involved with the Harrisburg Improv Theatre and does on-camera work for Webpage FX, an internet-marketing service.
“I don’t think I’ll ever retire from voice acting,” said Morgan, “since I’m doing something I fundamentally love that will last.”
—Jake Miaczynski ’20
Zach Specht '13
Imagine wearing a press pass and watching your favorite NFL team from the sidelines—all season. You interview players, take photos, shoot video and interact with fans from all over the world. It’s just another day at the office for Zach Specht ’13, the social media editor for the Buffalo Bills.
A Buffalo, New York, native, he’s passionate about the team and his city. After graduating from Messiah in 2013 with a communication degree, he began working for the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres. By 2015, he’d switched from hockey to football to begin his career with the Bills.
Social media is the mouthpiece of an organization,” explained Specht. “I love the diversity of events that I cover with social media. I cover tent pole events such as the NFL Combine, NFL draft and Pro Bowl. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by extremely talented individuals who collaborate and execute these events at the highest level.
The job is fast-paced. Going to work each day means planning, creating and executing all content posted on the Buffalo Bills’ social media platforms—including creating new hashtags and memes while monitoring analytics to make sure the audience is engaged. Working closely with coaches and players, Specht is key to the team’s public and community relations.
And it’s fun, too. “The unpredictability of the NFL is one of the most challenging yet exciting elements of my position,” said Specht.
That unpredictability includes all the news generated from practices, wins and losses, roster changes and more. Everything that happens within the organization impacts what content Specht delivers to the fans.
Next time you watch a Bills game, keep an eye on the sidelines. You might just see a familiar face carrying an iPhone and a video camera. Then head over to Instagram and see how Specht reports on the game.
—Jake Miaczynski ’20
Fun in fitness
For Messiah employees, group exercises at the Falcon Fitness Center provide a 45-minute energy boost during the workday. Taught by staff, alumni and even some students, the classes run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., depending on the schedule of the academic year, and change each semester.
You simply sign up through the IM Leagues application, and you’re ready to workout.
Although students can participate in the group exercise class, 25 percent of the participants are employees, according to Kevin Ogden ’14, director of the center.
“I have seen employees come to class exhausted and dragging. After completing a class, they walk out with more energy and excitement,” he said.
Queenax, a circuit-training class using suspension system equipment and battle ropes, is just one of the offerings available for an afternoon pick-me-up.
As a former Messiah College student athlete, Queenax feeds my inner competitor and pushes my physical and mental limits,” said Brooke Good ’03, Messiah women’s field hockey coach. “It keeps me energetic for the remainder of the day.
For those looking to start the work week in a healthy way, Will Franken ’15 teaches the early-bird Spin class on Monday mornings.
“Messiah employees and students, both grad and undergrad, who participate in my Spin class leave more energetic than when they arrived,” said Franken. “Together, we work hard, and we have fun.”
Fellow Spin instructor Luiza Cliver, assistant director of International Student Programs at Messiah, said, “I love teaching Spin class at Messiah, because it allows me to meet new people who I might not otherwise get to know. I love creating a space for Messiah employees to escape the worries and stressors of their days and simply focus on themselves.”
These group exercise classes create a sense of accountability and camaraderie that might otherwise be missing from the usual 9-to-5 grind.
“Group exercise at Messiah offers a fun and engaging workout that gives Messiah employees a distraction from the fullness of life, while simultaneously developing new relationships with other employees,” said Ogden. “The Falcon Fitness group exercises classes are an incredible benefit to Messiah employees.”
—Emily Koontz ’20 and Anna Seip
Fun in the moment
“Music speaks. It resonates. Particularly, it resonates with music that members sang in their late teens and early twenties,” said Professor of Conducting Rachel Cornacchio.
She conducts the Sing for the Moment choir, a group of patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia along with their caregivers.
The majority of choir members range in age from their 70s to their 80s. They meet each Wednesday at Bethany Village in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
Alzheimer’s hits close to home for Cornacchio. Her grandmother suffered from the disease. Also, her mother worked as a nurse in a nursing home’s memory care unit. “[My grandmother] loved music and she loved to sing, even though she wasn’t terribly gifted in it,” recalled Cornacchio. “Until her last week of life, she was singing hymns, recalling every word to every verse.”
How could her grandmother suffer from memory loss yet remember hymns she sang in her teens?
I could ramble off a good bit of data to help make scientific sense of what happens neurologically when members interact with music, but the nuts and bolts of it are actually quite simple,” said Cornacchio. “There is a part of the brain that stores musical memories. Research tells us that memories stored there between the ages of 15 and 22 are unaffected by Alzheimer’s disease.
As a result, you’ll find this choir singing hits like “She Loves You” by the Beatles or the well-known standard, “Route 66.”
Not only does the music help with memory, but it boosts mood, too. “When people hear a song with which they have familiarity, it brings with it a sense of calm, because it is just that: familiar,” she explained.
Cornacchio says working with the choir has become the highlight of her week and invites volunteers to future rehearsals. “We’re always looking for folks to sing alongside members to help turn pages and get them from sitting to standing,” she said. “Singing experience is not a requirement.”
—Jake Miaczynski ’20
Fun in faith
Working as a youth pastor means so much more than hanging out with kids for a few hours a week. For Christian ministries grads Evan Lebo ’17 and Cody Sherry ’12, it’s about intentionality, forming relationships, hanging out and pointing the younger generation toward Christ.
The two alums work at Mechanicsburg Brethren in Christ Church as youth and young adult pastors. Lebo works with middle schoolers while Sherry takes charge of the high schoolers.
Youth ministry has to come out of a deep passion for the next generation and a strong belief that these students are worth the time and energy it takes to get to know them,” said Sherry.
Supporting students comes in many different ways. It’s much more than playing a few fun games, singing some songs, listening to a Bible lesson and going home. On any given week, these pastors attend sporting events and theatrical performances of the youth from their church. Sherry also writes more than his share of college recommendations.
While they hope to leave a lasting impact on the children they’re in charge of, youth pastors might not see the results. Patience is key. Lebo said, “I’m realizing more and more that my job often looks like planting seeds in students that may not come to fruition for years down the road.”
And, let’s face it: Kids want to have fun.
“You can’t take yourself too seriously if you want to relate to middle school students,” said Lebo.
Youth group is a place where kids can burn energy and be goofy while also establishing meaningful relationships with others. Sometimes, the path to conversation is as simple as a trip to Chick-Fil-A, where the value of breaking bread together forms solid relationships.
Realizing that the world has a monopoly of fun for students already, the two pastors work to offer something the world cannot: human connection. Sherry said, “When you demonstrate that your ministry is a place where students can talk, laugh, share and be safe, they connect.”
—Jake Miaczynski ’20