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Brian Rosenau, Class of 1996
1990, Brian Rosenau, 17 years old:
A chilly autumn Saturday... Senior year of high school... Visited
the Hope College athletic training room... Met Rich Ray... Watched
football players get their ankles taped (one player forgot which
ankle was to be taped)... "Worked" the sidelines
of the football game... Halftime... Rich gave me something
heavy to carry all the way up to the team locker room... Watched
as orange slices were distributed to the players... Game over... Pondering
the future.
And so it began...
I do not recall what school Hope played or if Hope won or lost.
I know it was chilly because I remember wearing my Cadillac High
School varsity jacket (played baseball, soccer, and the trumpet).
What I do remember about that day is watching people enjoy themselves
through helping others. My following years at Hope College would
"set the tone" for my current lifestyle. Rich taught
me how to learn and just simply, "how to be" in so many
ways. Over the following years I would come to know a cast of "pilgrims
on a similar journey." As Hope College student athletic trainers,
we worked together, learned together, had fun together, and looked
out for one another. Seasonal internships at a local high school,
sports medicine clinic, and a family practice were instrumental.
So were summer internships at the Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp
and the University of Michigan High School Football and Baseball
Camps.
2003, Brian Rosenau, 29 years old:
A sunny, yet cold, February day... Henderson Ice Arena Athletic
Training Room, Culver, IN... Anticipating arrival of Tom Zabkowicz
to tape his ankle for hockey practice... Hope I tape the "right"
ankle... Thoughts conjure up a serene feeling as I write this
retrospective piece... Pondering the past.
And so it continues...
The Culver Academies are a ninth through twelfth grade college
preparatory (boarding) school for boys and girls. I've been
here seven years as a certified athletic trainer and teacher. At
this place, people of all ages, cultures, and "stories"
live and learn together in community. I've graciously been
given two major grants from The Culver Educational Foundation as
encouragement to obtain my master's degree through California
University, PA. Spent the summer of '99 on Cal's campus
taking courses, finished the remaining courses via correspondence,
and am now working on my graduate thesis. The boarding school setting
is a unique and rewarding lifestyle environment. I am committed
to the Culver mission of educating the whole person, especially
through exposure. The Hope College Athletic Training experience
did this for me.
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