December Student of the Month stays busy-very busy

Mindy Brown is a Student Ambassador for Cowley County Community College. She also serves as president of Campus Christian Fellowship, is secretary of Phi Theta Kappa, is a member of the Student Affairs Committee, was named to the National Dean's List, and to Who's Who Among Students at American Junior Colleges. She holds a 3.83 grade-point average, and has a work-study job at Renn Memorial Library.

Did we mention that she's enrolled in 28 credit hours this fall? That's right, 28. It's a schedule that keeps Brown in class day and night.

"In the beginning, I didn't plan to graduate in December," said Brown, the daughter of Jenny and Carl Brown of Wichita. "At the beginning of this semester I wasn't planning on it, either."

Brown recently was named Cowley's December Student of the Month, an honor bestowed upon students who have various talents.

"I'm very excited about it," said Brown, who has three sisters: Crystal Kondo 24, Casey Brown 17, and Lauren Brown 7. "I think a student of the month has to be a leader and someone who is on campus and known to at least the faculty. They also have to do well in school and have goals set and meet them."
Brown is a sophomore business administration major who attended Faith Christian Academy in Wichita. Several visits by Mike Packard from Cowley's Mulvane Center persuaded her to enroll.

"I wasn't going to go to college up until two months before," Brown said. "Then I went back and forth between a private college and staying home. Then I received a Presidential Scholarship in the mail. It really didn't hit me until a couple of months before school started that I needed to do this."

Packard had served as principal at Faith for a couple of years, so he was no stranger to Brown. She's pleased with her decision to attend Cowley, and now has her sights set on another venture.

"I think Cowley has prepared me for the world," she said. "I've been in Christian schools and haven't been around the world a lot. The Lord says to be in the world, but not of it. Cowley has prepared me that way."
One reason Brown has tackled 28 credit hours this fall is another calling in January. She has been accepted to attend the Focus on the Family Institute in Colorado Springs for the spring semester. Focus on the Family began in 1977 in response to Dr. James Dobson's increasing concern for the American family.

"There are only about 88 students accepted from around the nation, and they teach you how to implement God into the work place and how to deal with family and how to build your own family with God's instruction," said Brown, a member of Country Acres Baptist Church in Wichita. "The Lord laid on my heart that I needed to apply to Focus on the Family, so I decided I would graduate in December if it was God's will."

Brown, who held a 3.83 cumulative grade-point average entering the fall semester, said maintaining solid grades was her goal.

"I was going to make sure my GPA stayed up," she said. "If not, I was going to drop a class or two. I've gotten through it pretty well."

After a semester in Colorado Springs, Brown plans to enroll at Oklahoma Baptist University to complete a bachelor's degree. Sister Crystal graduated from OBU.

"My plans are to eventually take over my father's business, All Size Shed Co.," Brown said. "And I would like to start a photography studio, but I don't know if that will happen."

When Brown isn't immersed in her studies, she enjoys volleyball, movies, shopping, hanging out with friends, and her church activities. But there's another cause in which she's involved.

"I'm involved in Operation Save America, which used to be called Operation Rescue," she said. "It's a national organization that goes to different cities that have abortion clinics. We protest those, and eventually get them shut down. It's not God's will to have babies killed."