Flexible H arding students had studied in Zambia to learn about mission work and nursing since 2007. The 3-month trips were a special experience, cherished by every student who attended. The students came to love the people, the babies, the landscape, the lessons and Associate Professor of Nursing Janice Bingham. Bingham was the nursing faculty member who assisted and traveled with the HIZ program since its inception. She also cochaired the nursing department with Associate Professor of Nursing Jerry Myhan and took a group of upper-level nursing students to Tanzania every summer. When she was not with a group overseas, she was planning a trip with a new group, preparing them for their mission work and teaching classes. She had no plans to slow down. "I hope to continue as long as the Lord gives me strength," Bingham said. Bingham's semester-long absences caused changes within the nursing department. She let Myhan take care of the chairman duties in her absence and teach Bingham's NURS 413 course, Health Care Missions, in the fall semester in addition to his regular course work. Other teachers within the department shared her fall workload, so no one person was responsible for all of the work, Myhan said. "We believe in the program so much and want her to be involved in it that we, all of the instructors in the College of Nursing, absorb the work that she normally would do in the fall," Myhan said. "We feel this is well worth anything that we might have to do." Bingham spent more than 10 years working in Nigeria, Zambia and Tanzania and had been on many short-term trips with students. Bingham said she believed she was chosen as the HIZ faculty advisor position due to her extensive medical missions experience in Africa, and she enjoyed the experience. "I love medical missions, and this gives me an opportunity to & w~ ···ff Teacher travels between Zambia and Searcy continue to do what I love," Bingham said. "Also, I feel that I get to work with the best and the brightest students on Harding's campus. These are students who have servant hearts and are willing to get out of their comfort zones to serve the poor and less fortunate." Although Bingham was the constant nursing faculty member in Zambia, nursing graduate students assisted her, and this year Assistant Dean for the Pre-Professional Programs Dr. Debbie Duke helped her. Bingham said she would love for another nursing faculty member to join her on the trip, but she understood that it would be difficult for the department to lose two faculty members for one semester. Various organizations commended Bingham's work, and she received two awards in the 2011-12 school year: the Henry and Grace Farrar Service Award for service in medical missions from the International Healthcare Foundation in Searcy, and the Woman of Hope Award in February 2012 from Healing Hands International, also for medical missions. She also received the Distinguished Christian Service Award from Harding in 2009. To know Bingham and her impact on Harding, one only had to ask her students. The nursing students on campus had the same reaction to her name every time. They gave a contented sigh and smiled. "She's like the perfect role model because she's sweet, she's funny, she's got this spunk, and she is able to take the hard stuff because she is strong," junior nursing major Heather Brantley said. "God gets her through, and she will tell that he's what gets her through." Bingham had a significant impact on everyone around her. Whether leading a group in Zambia or teaching nursing classes in Searcy, Bingham encouraged others to serve as diligently and selflessly as she had. Chaney Mitchell Tom Hook, Dir. Harding University in Latin America Mike James, Dir. Harding University in Greece Lauren Knight, Dir. Harding University in Paris/ Harding University in England Pam Little, Dir. Harding University in Australia Roy Merritt, Coordinator Harding University in Zambia Robbie Shackelford, Dir. Harding University in Florence Overseas Directors 1 37
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