Always looking to grow
Cindy Langenkamp
Administrator, Vancrest Health Care and Rehabilitation Center
Delphos, Ohio
BCOMP '97, MBA '06
Major: Organizational management
When Cindy Langenkamp wanted a bachelor's degree so she could become a nursing home administrator, but also had to keep working full time, she chose Bluffton's Cohort-based Organizational Management Program (BCOMP).
Several years later, as an administrator who felt she needed both to learn more about business and "to continue to grow," she returned to Bluffton for her master of business administration (MBA) degree program.
And six years ago, the Celina, Ohio, resident turned some of her energies to serving with Legacy of Healing, a medical mission initiative that has taken her to Africa, South and Central America, and the Caribbean.
Building a career.
Langenkamp, who had an associate degree in social work, was social services director
at Shane Hill Nursing Home outside Rockford, Ohio, when she decided to pursue her
bachelor's degree in the mid-1990s.
BCOMP allowed her to keep working while attending class one night per week. Because a student project was required, the 15-month program was also where she developed a proposal for what became the first assisted-living facility in Mercer County, called Shanes Village.
The assisted-living facility was added on to the nursing home, and "we pretty much had it filled shortly after it was built," Langenkamp says.
Moving up, and on.
After receiving her Bluffton bachelor's degree in 1997, she completed a nine-month,
administrator-in-training program, then earned licensure. She became administrator
of Shane Hill and, a year or so later, moved into the same position at Vancrest Health
Care and Rehabilitation Center in Delphos, Ohio, where she has now worked for about
13 years.
"The thing I love the most about it are the residents I have been given the opportunity to care for," she says. They include roughly 125 residents in long-term care and rehabilitation at a given time, plus 56 in assisted living. "That's the reason I come to work every day."
Back to Bluffton.
Langenkamp's MBA experience helped solidify her opinion of her alma mater. "Bluffton
just works really hard to meet the needs of the nontraditional student," says the
married mother of two adult children. And "it's an awesome networking experience as
well," she adds. "I learned things in those classes I brought back to my department
heads."
She has since been an adjunct business instructor for the university, a move that resulted, too, from her need "to get into something more," she says.
Medical missionary.
Langenkamp got into something on a larger scale after learning that a friend had gone
to school with a volunteer for Legacy of Healing. She has since become manager of
a Legacy "clinic team" that has provided residents of several countries with access
to medical care.
"I think I've always wanted to be able to serve and help people who are in need medically," says Langenkamp, whose next Legacy of Healing trip will be to Argentina to aid an Indian population. "We all need a little help from our friends once in a while."
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