Alumnus Profile
Matthew Janning, ’09 B.S.B., ’11 M.B.A.
To say that Matthew Janning (’09 B.S.B., ’11 M.B.A.) was actively involved in campus life during his days as a Wright State student would be an understatement.
Janning served as president of the Raj Soin College of Business Dean’s Student Advisory Board and president of the Newman Catholic Student Association. He also represented the Raj Soin College of Business as a Student Government senator. He was an active member of the Society for the Advancement in Management Student International Board, the Wright-Patt Credit Union Young Adult Advisory Panel, the Student Alumni Association, and the Wright State Relay for Life Committee.
As Janning looks back on all of his student experiences, the most rewarding and memorable moments were the four missions he made to Jamaica with Catholic Campus Ministry.
For the last four years, Janning has joined a group of 20 members of the Newman Catholic Student Association for a 17-day service mission at the St. John Bosco School for Boys.
“Each of these boys comes from a troubled background,” explained Janning. “They’re orphans or they’re from families that cannot take care of them by themselves.”
Janning and the other students from Catholic Campus Ministry helped with daily activities around the school and organized music, sports, and Vacation Bible School activities for the 160 boys.
“It’s very humbling,” said Janning. “It’s an experience that’s unlike any other where you see a whole different culture.”
Janning said the missions to Jamaica, along with other Catholic Campus Ministry activities, gave him the opportunity to connect with students on a different level. The experiences also enhanced his personal growth.
“It has helped me become who I am today,” he explained. “The inclusiveness of Wright State and, specifically, the inclusiveness of Campus Catholic Ministry, has been something that has brought back me back time and time again to this university.”
Staying connected to his alma mater has been important to Janning. After being so committed to the campus community as a student, it was only natural that he would remain involved as an alumnus.
“Even though you’re done with your education, the connections that you make and the networks you build are so vast that it is worth your time and energy to be able to keep that connection alive,” said Janning.
Janning graduated from Wright State in 2009 with a B.S.B. in accounting and finance and completed his M.B.A. in 2011. He works at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where he is a financial specialist and cost specialist for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Propulsion Directorate.
“It definitely ties back into my education at Wright State,” said Janning. “Everything that I learned in my master’s program was geared towards my job. I was able to take this information and apply it to my job directly.”
Janning has also carried forward from his college days a commitment to community service. He volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Miami Valley, where he enjoys introducing his 10-year-old little brother, Kevin, to some of his favorite experiences from childhood, such as going to museums or the local skating park.
“I believe the more you give, the more you receive,” Janning explained. “My education instilled a burning desire inside of me to go out and do something that will not only change the lives of others but also change the view of myself.”
Faculty Profile
Professor William Mosier, Early Childhood Teacher Education Training Program
Professor. Minister. Peace Activist. Humanitarian. Those are just a few of the many hats worn by William Mosier.
On the Wright State campus, he is best known as an associate professor of teacher education and advisor to the Early Childhood Teacher Education Training Program in the College of Education and Human Services.
But the path to becoming a university professor was not an easy one for Mosier. As a child with ADHD and dyslexia, he often struggled in school. “My poor mom didn’t know from one year to the next if I was supposed to be lazy, crazy, or stupid,” he recalled.
While many children in Mosier’s situation would have despised anything to do with learning, Mosier couldn’t get enough—thanks to his mom.
“She had so much patience with me,” said Mosier. “It isn’t that I grew up in classrooms that were great. No, I had a mother that just fired me up for learning.”
Today, Mosier is making learning as much fun for his students as his mother did for him.
To encourage optimal learning, he refrains from lecturing and invites his students to openly discuss and engage in the classroom.
“What you want to do is nurture the person’s intrinsic motivation to whet their appetite so they’re enthusiastic about learning,” said Mosier. “The research is very clear that even more important than the professor or teacher is the level of active participation by the learner.”
Mosier is so passionate about the profession of teaching that he refers to it as “the most important career outside of the home.”
He helps his students understand how pivotal their role is in making a positive impact on young children. Mosier said, “If you are touching the life of a young child for six hours a day in a classroom, there is no way you won’t have an indelible imprint on that child.”
Mosier is frequently invited by his former students to visit their classrooms and see firsthand how they are implementing what they learned in his class.
“I feel like I’m doing something useful,” said Mosier. “It’s just heartwarming for me to see how I can touch lives that will touch so many more lives.”
Mosier is also changing lives away from Wright State.
Being a resent cancer survivor has sparked a commitment to helping others cope with the uncertainties that accompany this diagnosis.
An ordained minister with the Dayton Compassion Free Methodist Church, Mosier’s congregation consists of refugees from Rwanda and other East African nations. Many of them spent 20 years or more in refugee camps before coming to the United States.
To help the refugees generate a source of income, Mosier and his wife, Gabriela, created the Hands Art Work Project. Refugees learn how to use recycled paper to make jewelry and other handicrafts that can be sold at local markets while also learning English as a second language. Part of the proceeds from the handicrafts the refugees and immigrants make help to support them and part goes back to Africa to help pay for the education of vulnerable orphans.
A licensed family therapist, Mosier also provides mental health counseling for the refugees, many of whom had to endure watching their family members be killed in their home countries.
“Part of what we do is help people feel better about themselves,” Mosier explained. “It’s all tied in with our commitment to world peace and nonviolent problem solving.”
The Mosiers also helped establish Missing Peace Art Space, a nonprofit gallery and studio that provides an artistic forum for exploring issues of peace and nonviolence.
The need for nations to co-exist in peace and harmony is something Mosier saw firsthand during his 30 years of military service. A former international health specialist with the United States Air Force, Mosier participated in humanitarian missions to Africa, as well as Central and South America.
Whether it’s in his Wright State classroom or a remote African village, William Mosier has planted the seeds to help others grow and flourish.
“I’m really committed,” he said, “to the importance of helping the community develop a sense of personal empowerment.”