Chicken Soup for the College Soul

by Jack Canfield

  Mary J. Davis began writing when the "empty nest" syndrome hit. She also enrolled in college and earned two bachelor's degrees. Mary writes magazine articles, short stories, Christian stories for children and teens, as well as Sunday school curriculum, devotions and greeting cards. Mary's thirty books have been published by Rainbow, Legacy and Shining Star. She speaks at Christian Education Seminars, ladies' groups and children's rallies. Mary also presents writing workshops for children. Mary and her husband, Larry, have three grown children. She can be reached at P.O. Box 27, Montrose, IA 52639.

  Kathy Johnson Gale knew even as a freshman at U.C.L.A. that she would someday be a writer. Her work has been published in numerous national magazines and anthologies, including Guideposts' Best Loved Stories and the Institute of Children's Literature Success Stories for the '90s. Also as a freshman, she met her husband. They now live in Frankfort, Kentucky and are the parents of three daughters, the oldest a college graduate and the two youngest in college.

  Zan Gaudioso is a freelance writer whose stories have appeared in newspapers across the country. Zan earned her degree in special education for the

  Page 329

  deaf and went on to teach sign language, as well as teaching deaf children and adults. She became part of a landmark program that was the first to utilize sign language in order to foster verbal language skills in autistic children. From there, with additional training, she went on to become a surgical nurse. With writing as an integral driving force in her life, she continued to write and be published in newspapers and in family medical journals. She is presently negotiating with a major network to bring to television a one-hour drama based on her true life story. She currently lives with her fiancé, and their dog, Delilah, in Santa Monica, California. She can be reached at justzan@usa.net

  Randy Glasbergen has had more than twenty-five thousand cartoons published in magazines, books and greeting cards around the world. He also creates The Better Half, which is syndicated to newspapers by King Features Syndicate. You can find more of Randy's cartoons online at www.glasbergen.com

  Miriam Goldstein's body cast now resides in her basement, slowly dissolving under the combined assault of dampness and insects. However, Miriam herself has no plans for dissolution in the immediate future. She is a native of Manchester, New Hampshire and is currently attending Brown University, where she is double-majoring in biology and English. She enjoys wandering through tide pools, swamps and woods, haphazardly hammering bits of wood together as a theater techie, making sounds that vaguely resemble music on the flute and tenor sax, meeting unconventional people, and tweaking the nose of popular culture. She despises conformity and intolerance. She can be reached by writing c/o Martin's Associates, 817 Elm St., Manchester, NH 03104 or by e-mail at khory@juno.com

  Arlene Green is a thirty-one-year-old mother of four boys, all of whom are brilliant and handsome. She lives in Northern California with her family, two dogs and numerous cats. She is a computer programmer by trade and a mommy by profession.

  Scott Greenberg is a nationally recognized motivational speaker, humorist and leadership-training consultant. He is also the author of the popular Jump Start Leadership Workbook series for students. Each year Scott works with thousands of people at schools, businesses and associations. He can be reached at 800-450-0432 or by e-mail at ScottGree@oaol.com

  Cynthia Hamond is a freelance children's writer. This is her third story for Chicken Soup for the Soul. Cynthia volunteers at St. Henry's as a teacher, lecturer and visits the homebound. She enjoys her school visits and answering her e-mail from readers. She can be reached at 1021 W. River St., Monticello, MN 55362 or by e-mail at Candbh@aol.com

  Stephen Hopson has been deaf since birth. He graduated from Marist College with a B.S. in business/finance in 1982. After working on Wall Street for fifteen years, he is now a highly acclaimed inspirational speaker. He has spoken to thousands of corporations, colleges and associations about his humorous and inspiring journey in the pursuit of what his mother once told him were "pie-in-the-sky dreams." Stephen specializes in teaching people his unique formula for success through the willingness to take risks, the ability to change and the

  Page 330

  willingness to accept ourselves as spiritual beings having a human experience. Stephen will be coauthoring Chicken Soup for the Challenged Soul (working title) about people with disabilities. His first book, The Possibilities Are Deafening, will be released in late 1999 or early 2000. To schedule him for a power-packed presentation, contact your favorite speaker's bureau or the Chicken Soup for the Soul Speaker's Bureau at 805-563-2935, ext. 12. He can be reached directly at 35820 Jefferson Ave., Ste. 206, Harrison Township, MI 48045, by fax at 734-629-0480, or by e-mail at sjhopson@ibm.net

  John Javna is an innovative and irreverent thinker whose books constantly break the mold of what an author, editor and publisher should be. His instinct for trends is impressive and his output has been both prodigious and popular. Since 1983, Javna has written, edited, created and/or published over fifty books. His 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth, the first book published under his own Earth Works imprint, was on the New York Times bestseller list in 1990 for thirty-two weeksat #1 for seventeen of themand has sold over 3.5 million copies. Javna's next book, 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth, stayed on the Times list for eleven weeks and sold 1 million copies. As for the ten books in the Uncle John's Bathroom Readers seriespublished yearly since 1988 by Javna's other imprint, Bathroom Readers' Presssales have not only passed the 2 million mark, but have spawned a host of imitators and legitimized an entirely new book genre.

  Paul Karrer has published over fifty articles and short stories. His story "The Babyflight' had over 300,000 copies published in A 4th Course of Chicken Soup for the Soul. He has taught in Western Samoa, Korea, England, Connecticut and currently teaches in California. He can be reached at 457 Archer St., Monterey, CA or by e-mail at pkarrer123@yahoo.com

  Will Keim holds a Ph.D. in higher education with an emphasis in college student services administration from the Oregon State University. He completed his B.A. and M.A. in speech communication at the University of the Pacific in California. A four-year varsity letterman in baseball, Will has been selected as an Outstanding Young Man of America, Outstanding Professor of the Year, and was awarded the prestigious Durwood Owen Pi Kappa Phi Award for Outstanding Interfraternalism. Dr. Keim has lectured personally on over one thousand campuses across North America and has spoken directly to 2 million college and university students from every state in the U.S. and several provinces in Canada. His corporate clients include Delta Air Lines, AT&T, IBM, State Farm Insurance, Rotary International and the National Employer's Council. Dr. Keim is married to Donna and the father of four children. He resides with his family in Corvallis, Oregon.

  April Kemp, M.S., is an award-winning motivational speaker and sales trainer. She is dynamic with a high-energy delivery style dedicated to the education of audiences nationwide. Along with her husband, April developed a motivational software product, "Motivational Mind Bytes." She can be reached at 800-307-8821.

  Brandon Lagana is assistant director of admissions at Ball State University in

  Page 331

  Muncie, Indiana and is cofounder of the Student Association for Volunteer Opportunities at West Chester University, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Over the past eleven years, he has combined creatively his love of music and volunteering by performing at numerous churches, nursing homes and prisons throughout Delaware and Pennsylvania.

  Jeanne Marie Laskas publishes essays and articles in numerous national magazines, including Esquire, GQ, Allure, Good Housekeeping, Glamour, Redbook, Reader's Digest and others. Her column, Significant Others, appears weekly in the Washington Post magazine, and focuses on the trials of tribulations of relationships in the 1990's. Her first book, The Balloon Lady and Other People I Know (Duquesne University Press, 1996), is a collection of essays and stories, and her second, We Remember (Morrow, 19
99), is a series of stories about one-hundred-year-old ladies looking back on the century. A professor of creative nonfiction in the graduate writing program at Goucher College in Baltimore, Jeanne Marie has an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing from the University of Pittsburgh, and a B.A. from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. She is currently working on her third book, Fifty Acres and a Poodle (Bantam, 1999), about life on her farm in Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania with her husband, three dogs, horse and a mule.

  Lisa Levenson graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. She was editorial-page editor of the Daily Pennsylvanian, house manager of her sorority, Phi Sigma Sigma, and a member of the university team that appeared on the MSNBC game show Remember This? During college, Lisa also wrote for the commentary page of the Philadelphia Inquirer. A Pittsburgh native, she is currently a management consultant and freelance writer in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at lisalevenson@usa.net

  Eric Linder graduated from the University of Florida after five years of friendship, late-night pizza and football games. He currently is teaching outdoor education to children in Dahlonega, Georgia. He enjoys laughing, spontaneity and thinking about "matters of consequence."

  Sarah Lockyer was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario and has been writing for most of her life. She is currently enjoying a year off from school, but plans to attend a university in the future, majoring in journalism. She plays guitar and writes a lot of poetry in her spare time and loves to travel. She can be reached at 416-281-1707.

  Paula Lopez-Crespin lives in Denver, Colorado and is a wife and the mother of two children. "I Passed the Test" is her first published work. She hopes to have several of her children's books and a novel published soon.

  Tony Luna is founder of Tony Luna Creative Services, a creative consultancy, as well as cofounder of New Media Marketplace, a digital production service. He is also an instructor at the Art Center College of Design in the field of creativity and business. Tony is a member of the board of directors of U.P., Inc. a nonprofit organization that encourages young people to enter education and employment in the entertainment industry. He can be reached at 819 North Bel Aire Dr., Burbank, CA 91501.

  Page 332

  Elsa Lynch is a single parent currently residing in Missouri. She graduated from Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, Virginia. Elsa recently left her position in customer service and is planning to take the plunge into full-time free-lance writing. She can be reached at Elsa@socket.net

  Robert Tate Miller is an internationally published writer who has also worked as a television promotions writer/producer. He has written four screenplays and a number of essays on his early years growing up in a small North Carolina mountain town. He can be reached at 950 Highland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024.

  Beth Mullally is the editorial-page editor and a columnist for the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, New York. She is also a regular contributor to Reader's Digest and author of the book the Best of Beth, a collection of her columns. She and her husband, Bob Quinn, have two sons, two dogs, two cars, two televisionsand two mortgages. She can be reached at (914) 346-3181 or by e-mail at bmullally@th-record.com

  Megan Narcini transferred from Virginia Tech to the College of New Jersey in January 1999 to major in nursing. Although she has been writing since her early teens, this is her first published work. She would like to thank her family, friends and her high school creative writing teacher, Ms. Olsen, for supporting her dream to write. She can be reached by e-mail at tigereyz@theglobe.com

  Kristi Nay really enjoyed attending Westmont College (a Christian college in Santa Barbara, California). She majored in English literature because of her love of reading and writing, which she inherited from her family. She graduated in 1983, but later returned to Westmont to get her teaching credential, and then taught for four years at the Santa Ynez Valley Christian Academy. She left teaching to start of private, nonprofit bed and breakfast in 1989, called Shepherds' Keep, for 'tired Christian pastors and their wives. She and her husband Steve now operate Shepherds' Keep in Colorado. They have been married fourteen years but didn't meet until they had both graduated from their respective colleges. (He attended Fresno Pacific whose basketball team is a rival of Westmont's). Steve is a technical writer and, hence, makes a great editor for Kristi's pastime of writing. She can be reached at GoodPirate@aol.com

  Kent Nerburn is an author, sculptor and educator who has been deeply involved in Native American issues and education. He has served as project director for two books of oral history, entitled To Walk the Red Road and We Choose to Remember. He has also edited three highly acclaimed books on Native American subjects. Kent won the Minnesota Award for his book, Neither Wolf Nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads in 1995. Kent holds a Ph.D. in theology and art and lives with his family in Bemidju, Minnesota.

  Vicki Niebrugge has successfully combined academics with the corporate and association arena. She is an associate professor at Cleary College of Business in Ann Arbor, Michigan, teaching in the management department. She is also an internationally recognized speaker, trainer, author and consultant with the

  Page 333

  NOVA Group. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from Eastern Michigan University and a J.D. from the University of Toledo.

  Dorri Olds is an illustrator and graphic designer in New York City. She illustrated the children's book, Irving Goes to Town (PPC Books), and book covers for Avalon Books. Her design work includes brochures, newsletters, logos and books. Ms. Olds's paintings have been exhibited in numerous New York City galleries and private collections.

  Varda One is a self-explorer who translates her discoveries into essays, poems, short stories, plays, novels, songs and pamphlets, many of which have been published worldwide. Her hobbies include reinventing herself by doing the impossible; her values are growth, enjoyment and usefulness. Her work also appears in A 4th Course of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

  Kevin Randall has been a leadership trainer and public speaker for the past seven years, having spoken at the National Association for Campus Activities National Convention, NACA Great Lakes Regional Conference, and to high school students across Michigan. In 1997, Kevin developed his most requested presentation, entitled Leadership as a Lifestyle, and has presented this session to rave reviews at high schools, colleges and conferences nationwide. For more information about Kevin Randall or his leadership programs contact, Randallkev@hotmail.com

  Eva Rosenberg, M.B.A., E.A., affectionately known as "TaxMama" to her tax clients and fans, writes a weekly newsletter, Ask TaxMama. She is a moderator of the Internet's HelpDesk, a popular speaker on tax, marketing and Internet topics, and the visionary behind the world's first universal gift registry, My Wish List. Visit her at http://taxmama.com

  Christa E Sandelier received a B.S. in horticulture from Delaware Valley College in 1996 and an M.S. in counseling from Shippensburg University in 1999. She is originally from Clayton, New Jersey and currently is a residence director at Shippensburg University.

  Richard Santana, Ed.M, was born in California and became the third generation of his family to join one of the largest gangs in California. After several years of hate, drugs, and violence on the streets, he experienced a transformation, which he credits to education. In 1995, Richard graduated from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Human Development and Psychology. He offers a valuable opportunity to understand the complexities of diversity in the workplace, schools and communities. For more information, call 510-336-1780 or e-mail him at mr.chocolate@earthlink.net

  Adam Saperston is an emergency medicine physician who loves sharing stories about life and transformation. He has had the privilege and opportunity to make a difference by speaking at universities and high schools. He is currently completing a book about his experiences as an ER resident and student.

  Eric Saperston has spent the last six years traveling the country in a 1971 Volkswagen bus with three of his friends, a golden retriever and a video camera. The purpose of their travels is to bridge the
generation gap and open up

  Page 334

  a dialogue between those in our country who want to learn and those who want to teach. Currently, they have captured 380 hours of footage and have interviewed over 175 of our nation's greatest teachers such as former President Jimmy Carter, actor Henry Winkler, musician Jerry Garcia, Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis and astronaut Kathy Thornton. Eric and his team are currently making a film with Walt Disney Studios about their adventures, writing a book and on a national speaking tour. "The Journey," as it's known, can be reached by calling 805-377-7378 or by e-mail at Pushthebus@aol.com