Reaching New Heights
Ashton Jerger, a senior zoo and conservation science and biology double major, has been fully invested in rock climbing ever since she was inspired by famous climber Alex Honnold’s free solo climb of El Capitán in Yosemite National Park.
Participating in a rock climbing class with her friends at Columbus’ Vertical Adventures only fueled Jerger's passion for the sport even more. In August, she combined her studies in zoology with her newfound love of rock climbing to plan Vertical Adventure’s Climbing for Clouds, a fundraising event dedicated to raising money for research on clouded leopards.
Jerger, who works directly with clouded leopards at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, called the event “very humbling.” Half the proceeds raised at Climbing for Clouds went toward funding future research projects on the vulnerable species.
After a year of mastering two of her initial climbing styles, top rope and bouldering, Jerger is now training to become a lead climber, a climbing style requiring intense training and experience.
Heading to Nashville
When he’s not hitting the books, Devin Henry, a senior nursing major, straps on his guitar and gets behind a microphone whenever he can. Henry began playing the guitar when he was 10, teaching himself the basics from YouTube videos.
Despite how confident he is performing in front of large crowds now, he used to be incredibly shy and would only perform in front of close friends.
“When I first began at Otterbein, I sang for a fundraiser concert and got up on stage to play a couple songs and got over my fear, which made me want to pursue my music career,” said Henry.
During his freshman year, Henry wrote a song about his hometown that he posted on Facebook. It quickly went viral within his county, eventually getting played on the radio.
To get his foot in the door of the music and arts scene, Henry played at The Bluebird Cafe and Belcourt Taps in Nashville, Tennessee, where individual artists are welcome to play their own music.
“I want to use my music to help other people and build a platform that encourages others,” said Henry.
Hitting the Big Screen
Otterbein psychology professor Dr. Noam Shpancer is a licensed psychologist by day and screenplay writer, fiction novelist and blogger by night.
Shpancer co-wrote the screenplay for the film “The Other Story,” which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was named Israel’s most successful movie of 2018.
It all started when the director, Avi Nesher, who has worked on dozens of other films throughout his career, became intrigued with some of Shpancer’s writing and asked him to co-write “The Other Story” with him.
“It took a long time to write the film,” said Shpancer. “We started writing in 2011 and changed the direction and plot until we got something that was good and could be done.”
Shpancer, who was born in Israel, balances his 20-year teaching career at Otterbein and his work at a private practice in Columbus with his career as a fiction novelist as well.
Of the three novels he’s written, his second novel, "The Good Psychologist," was a bestseller in Germany, Turkey and Israel, translated into six languages, and published in the United States. Shpancer’s third novel, "A Measure of Mercy," was published in Israel and Germany.
Shpancer also writes a blog for "Psychology Today."
“After my second novel [was] bought by my American publisher, my agent looked for public relations stuff and essentially arranged a gig with "Psychology Today" to do a blog for them, which started in 2010,” said Shpancer.
Shpancer’s blog, called “Insight Therapy,” involves topics like psychotherapy, child development and social psychology, which are his main interests.
The blog has gotten 1 million hits and is a popular platform in today’s medical field.
