Tippecanoe Valley High School
Distinguished Alumni
Class of 2010
In the spring of 2010 the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation (TVSC) in cooperation with the Tippecanoe Valley High School (TVHS) Alumni selected a group of TVHS graduates to be recognized as the TVHS Distinguished Alumni Class of 2010. Graduates from the 1970's, the 1980's, the 1990's, and from the 2000's were selected. A new group of TVHS Distinguished Alumni will be selected annually.
The TVHS Distinguished Alumni are graduates of Tippecanoe Valley High School, living or deceased, who have led successful lives while making substantial contributions to their chosen field of work or have provided outstanding service to their community, state, or country.
Individuals selected as TVHS Distinguished Alumni will share their experiences with current TVHS students and serve as mentors. A digital display at TVHS will honor the TVHS Distinguished Alumni.
The TVHS Distinguished Alumni will be honored each September during a full day of Induction Day activities concluding with a Community Dinner and the introduction of the inductees at halftime of a home football game.
Each year the selection committee will consist of the previous year's inductees and TVSC administrators.
Anyone who would like to nominate a TVHS graduate for the TVHS Distinguished Alumni Class of 2011 may obtain a nomination form from the
TVSC website here, the Tippecanoe Valley Alumni website at , www.valleyalumni.ning.com the TVSC administration office, or the office of any TVSC school. Nominations for the 2011 TVHS Distinguished Alumni are due no later than May 1, 2011.
Questions about the TVHS Distinguished Alumni may be directed to TVHS Principal Kirk Doehrmann at 574-353-7031 or TVSC Superintendent Brett Boggs at 574-353-7741.
AMANDA ALEXANDER "˜96
Amanda Alexander's passion for international causes took root at TVHS long before she graduated in 1996, followed her to Indiana University's Kelly School of Business and was tucked into her backpack when she volunteered on an organic farm in Spain after trekking most of Europe.
As marketing specialist at Teachers Credit Union, she planned events for Kids Helping Kids and People Helping Families. She volunteered with Big Brothers, Big Sisters and the South Bend Regional Museum of Art.
She joined the Peace Corps in 2002 and was sent to Peru where she established rapport with the indigenous people of a northern Andes village and taught artisans basic business concepts that enabled them to promote their products locally and internationally.
Fluent in Spanish and conversational in Portuguese, she traveled through South and Central America before being accepted into The Ohio State University with a full tuition fellowship. She earned an M.A. in arts policy and administration in 2007.
She recently completed her doctorate at OSU by focusing on Peruvian artists, returning there several times to do case work and to help artisans set up a website to further their abilities to sell their products and maintain a better quality of life.
Now an assistant professor at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania and known as Dr. Alexander, she teaches art education, cultural policy and arts administration. She continues to advocate for international social justice and education and is unrelenting in her protests against unfair trade, child labor and environmental degradation.
DION ANGLIN "˜89
By the time Dion Anglin graduated from TVHS in 1989, he had earned TRC awards in basketball, baseball and football and was ready for new challenges.
After playing varsity football and basketball at Manchester College, he transferred to Ball State University and played football one year before opting to concentrate on academics. Majoring in Entrepreneurship, he also took ROTC classes.
He joined the U.S. Marine Corps while a senior and, four days after graduation, reported to San Diego, CA, for training. After two years as an enlisted man, he entered officer candidate school where he received a Military Occupational Specialty in ground intelligence that made him eligible for top secret security clearance. His first duty station was in Okinawa. Eventually he deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Desert Fox, earning a Navy and Marine Corps achievement medal.
He interrupted active duty to earn an MBA at the University of Notre Dame but returned to the front in 2004 when he led his platoon into combat in Iraq, earning commendations for meritorious service as an intelligence officer. Following a second tour in Iraq, he returned stateside to help train reconnaissance Marines and joined Oshkosh Corporation's Defense Division. Through online classes, he graduated from Command and Staff College.
Now regional manager for Oshkosh Defense in Asia, Australia, India, Turkey and Israel, he has traveled more than 100,000 miles this year.
In spite of his success at meeting new challenges, he says, "I do not see myself as famous. I try to better myself through education, national service, working hard and doing the right thing."
BRITTON BURKHART "˜04
While at Valley, Britton Burkhart was active in National Honor Society, Peers, Student Government, baseball, football, swimming and basketball, but he really wanted to learn to fly.
As a senior, having earned his coveted private pilot's license, he flew a single engine Piper Cherokee over the school's football field with members of his class waving and cheering while spelling out "2004." The photos he snapped remain treasured possessions.
Three and a-half years later, with a major in professional aviation flight technology and a minor in business administration, he earned a BS from Indiana State University, graduating cum laude. He served as social chair and president of ISU's Alpha Eta Rho aviation fraternity, was a member of Indiana State Flight Team and worked for Air Support, an air show logistics company.
He holds commercial single and multi engine land certification, commercial single engine sea certification and is a certified flight instructor for instrument ratings and multi-engine planes. While at ISU, he spent two years as a certified flight instructor. So far, he has logged over 2,000 flight hours without incident.
His community service includes two years as a member of the Burket Volunteer Fire Department, occasional assistance serving at soup kitchens and trash pick-up for Adopt-a-Highway. As a member of the Park Valley Estates Neighborhood Watch, he chased and caught two of three burglars breaking into a neighbor's car.
He and his wife, Jenni, reside in Indianapolis where he is a First Officer with Chautauqua Airlines, a regional carrier.
JOSEPH COOK "˜06
Joe Cook completed high school at Burket Educational Center, graduating from Valley in 2006. He immediately began his career in the United States Marine Corps.
Now a corporal, he has served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. While in Iraq, he led three hundred combat patrols, served as mentor to Iraqi police in the field and was in charge of armory, logistics and supplies.
In Afghanistan he assumed many of the same responsibilities he filled in Iraq but took his work with the police a step further by helping establish a police station from scratch. He also served as a team leader, vehicle commander and patrol leader.
During those two assignments he had to familiarize himself with several native languages, including Arabic.
He has earned the Navy-Marine Commendation Medal and ribbons for Combat Action, Afghanistan Campaign, Iraqi Campaign, Sea Service Deployment, NATO ISAS and Good Conduct. In addition, he earned distinction as "expert rifleman," the highest possible marksmanship award.
Joe and his wife, Megan, currently are stationed in North Carolina.
JERROD FELDMAN "˜89
According to Jerrod Feldman, a member of the class of 1989, he is most famous for being a husband, father and coach.
That's a statement several hundred area youngsters would dispute. To them, he is Dr. Jerrod, their beloved pediatrician at Woodlawn Hospital in Rochester.
Jerrod began his medical studies after graduating TVHS where he excelled in academics, athletics and 4-H. He played football while earning a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Indianapolis and went on to acquire his medical degree from the Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed his pediatrics residency at the I.U. Medical Center, spending many hours at Riley Children's Hospital.
A board certified Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, he is former Chief of Staff at Woodlawn. He has served as consultant for community organizations and school functions regarding health education. He enjoys coaching and working with children.
He and his wife, Brooke, live in Rochester with their children Andy and Emma.
KIRK ROBINSON "˜77
Being the only member of the TVHS class of 1977 to earn ten varsity letters in basketball, cross country and track paved the way for Kirk Robinson to continue collecting honors, titles and things.
Although he earned a degree in mortuary science, he opted to become purchasing director at Pike Lumber Company. Deeply involved in the Akron community, he is president of Akron Revitalization Committee, past president of the Akron Chamber of Commerce, past chairman of the Fourth of July committee, a member of the Akron Lions Club and its tree planting committee, assistant project chairman of the Akron Community Center, Pike Memorial Park trustee, vice president and soon to be president of the Fulton county Community Foundation
In the past 25 years he has officiated ten IHSAA state championships. In 1998, he started a "To Be Your Best" mentoring program for high school officials that gained national recognition. He has been ranked No. 1 volleyball official five times in the last eight years and was the 2006 IHSAA Volleyball Official of the Year. Head clinician and sport rules interpreter in both IHSAA volleyball and basketball for the past 12 years, he chaired basketball clinics in 2006 and 2008.
He and his wife, Kim, the parents of two grown children, annually crank about 150 gallons of cider. The rest of time Kirk continues collecting. He has the world's largest stash of cereal prizes and a fleet of bicycles he rides countless hours each week.
ERIC RODENBERG "˜96
Currently a research scientist at Cook Biotech, Inc. in West Lafayette, Eric Rodenberg was valedictorian of his TVHS class of 1996, graduating with an Indiana Academics Honor Diploma.
He continued his studies at Purdue University where he earned a B.S. degree in chemistry in 2000. In 2006 he earned a Ph.D. in cellular and integrative physiology from Indiana University. His dissertation was on the development of a biocompatible small-diameter vascular prostheses derived from small intestinal submucosa.
During this time he earned a medical biophysics/bimolecular imaging predoctoral fellowship, participated in the Sigma Xi research competition and married Jenny Stover, a fellow doctoral candidate at I.U. While Jenny completed her degree, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology at the I.U. School of Medicine.
The couple moved to Houston, TX, in 2008 where Eric was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College. They returned to Indiana in 2010 when he accepted the position with Cook Biotech.
His Curriculum Vitae includes major awards from the Society for Physical Regulation in Biology and Medicine, Baylor College and the American Society for Bone and Mineral Search and a number of professional affiliations. He has published two original manuscripts and many abstracts and scientific conference proceedings. He is co-holder of two patents.
His community service includes American Cancer Society Relay for Life, I.U. School of Medicine Spring House Calls and program lecturer/mentor for USA Biology Olympiad.
SARA KERKHOFF RUNDELL "˜99
Sara Kerkhoff Rundell likes to say she is especially famous for making the world's best chocolate chip cookies. However, the 1999 Valley graduate and Fulbright Scholar has a lot more going for her than that.
While at Manchester College, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude, she received recognition from the Indiana Collegiate Press Association for three articles published in the college paper and was a member of Alpha Mu Gamma National Collegiate Foreign Language Honor Society.
As a Fulbright Scholar, she went to Morocco to study literature by women. She found libraries rare and private, with most research projects dealing more with interviews than with writing. "I ended up mostly talking with Moroccan women, some of whom were kind enough to write down their stories that reflected on the realities of being a Moroccan woman," she said. These included their struggles to get an education, finding a balance between being a traditional woman dedicated to husband and family and being a professional.
Sara became Manchester College's first graduate to attend Harvard Law School, earning her degree while serving as supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review.
She now lives in Denver, Colorado, where she just finished clerking for Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Eid. She will become an associate in the law office of Holland and Hart in late September.
She has worked with Habitat for Humanity and prepares and serves meals to Denver's homeless.
MATTHEW SHILLING "˜00
Matt Shilling graduated from Valley in 2000 and later from IPFW where he was active in student government, served as student senator and student body president.
He found those skills valuable assets when he moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
During the 2004 presidential election, he was responsible for the re-election campaign of Vice President Dick Chaney in the western half of the nation. When President George W. Bush and Vice President Chaney were re-elected, he became associate director of the White House office of public liaison, serving as the president's connection to agriculture, conservation, energy and fire and law enforcement communities.
While he and his wife, Abigail, currently live on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, their home is several blocks from the White House. That's not to say, however, that his life is any less exciting.
As president of Ocearch, an ocean research organization dedicated to the protection and management of the world's marine resources, he recently visited Panama, the first Central American country to prohibit purse seining within its waters. (Purse seining is a type of fishing in which a long rectangular net with a weighted bottom edge and a buoyant top, floated by the cork line, is run around a school of fish to contain it. The net forms a "purse.")
Matt describes Ocearch as focusing on research, education/awareness, sustainability and marine debris. In 2009 Ocearch assisted National Geographic in producing a series on great white shark research.
PAULA SHIREMAN "˜82
As a preschooler, Paula Shireman wanted to be a veterinarian, but by third grade she decided "People were okay too" and began telling everyone she wanted to become a doctor.
The 1982 TVHS graduate did exactly that. She earned a B.S. in nutrition science at Purdue University, her medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine and an M.S. in clinical investigation from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, TX.
A vascular surgeon at the UT Health Science Center where she is a tenured professor, she has earned recognition for her research in blood vessel formation, skeletal muscle regeneration and tissue engineering. She also serves as staff physician at Audie L. Murphy VA Hospital in San Antonio where she treats veterans with vascular disease. She has received grants from the National Institute of Health, Veterans Administration and the American Heart Association.
She currently serves on the board of directors of the South Central Affiliate of the American Heart Association (AHA) and chairs its research committee.
Her 30-page Curriculum Vitae contains dozens of scholarships, professional development courses, publications, board certifications and areas of expertise. She has received awards from Purdue, UT, Loyola University Medical School, The Chicago Surgical Society, American Venous Forum, IU School of Medicine and others. She was named Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Vascular Surgery in June of this year.
Paula and her husband, Patrick Conroy, reside in San Antonio with their three children.
