Connecting Columbia Union Seventh-day Adventists

Kettering College

In addition to working with Seventh-day Adventists to build a hospital that would espouse Christian-based compassion, Eugene Kettering, son of inventor Charles F. Kettering, and his wife, Virginia, wanted to establish a college to train medical professionals. In 1967, three years after the opening of Kettering Medical Center, that college opened with 137 students.

Kettering College, a coeducational school owned by Kettering Medical Center and chartered by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, began as a junior college offering two-year associate degrees. The school grew and in 1973 launched the first physician assistant program in Ohio. In 1997, Kettering College graduated to the four-year level, offering a Bachelor of Science in health professions. The Bachelor of Science in nursing was added in 2001, and in 2006, the physician assistant program became the school’s first on-campus master’s degree. Today, Kettering has more than 920 students and over 100 full-time faculty and staff members.

To complete the puzzles and determine the best way to care for the patient, the students located clues that were tied to course lessons and concepts.

“Today’s students learn differently,” said Taryn Talbott. “This is a generation that has grown up with technology in their hands, so they don’t learn by regurgitating memorized facts on paper; they learn by reflecting on experiences. An escape room is a perfect way to bring learning to life.”