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The Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS) is very pleased to announce that AIIAS president Dr. Ginger Ketting-Weller has been chosen as one of five individuals to receive an award for excellence from the Charles E. Weniger Society, to be presented at their 49th Annual Awards Presentation at Loma Linda University Church on February 17, 2024. 

The prestigious Charles E. Weniger Award and accompanying medallion presented by the Society honor the qualities of excellence and kindness that were paramount in Weniger’s life as an educator and educational administrator. The Society states that “through its award program, the Society seeks to identify and recognize the contributions made to the world by people with similar significant traits of character.”

Charles Weniger was an English teacher, a seminary professor, and a vice president for graduate studies. He was known for integrating academics with real life as he taught and for his personal relationship with God, as evident in his humble and intimate prayers. Weniger died sixty years ago, in 1964, but his deeply spiritual influence and emphasis on excellence live on through the society set up by his students and through its annual awards and scholarships.

“I like to call these awards the equivalent of the Oscars,” commented Dr. Richard Osborn, president of the Weniger Society and host of the 2023 awards program. Past awardees include well-known Seventh-day Adventist individuals from all walks of life, including denominational leaders, academics, physicians, artists, musicians, authors, evangelists, TV personalities, and philanthropists. The award comes with no monetary component, but the stories of those who are honored serve to inspire. The list of previous awardees may be seen below.

In the upcoming 2024 program, in addition to AIIAS president Dr. Ketting-Weller, the Charles E. Weniger Society will be honoring Walla Walla University president Dr. John McVay, Loma Linda University Church organist Dr. Kimo Smith, retired General Conference vice president Elder Lowell Cooper, and award-winning author Sunny Lockwood (Merikay McLeod), whose legal action in the 1970s resulted in equal pay for equal work for women employed by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.

Dr. Richard Nelson, AIIAS vice president for academic administration, has attended previous Weniger Awards programs. He comments, “The group Dr. Ketting-Weller is joining includes some of the most influential characters of our lifetime in the SDA church.  She is joining the founders of the Loma Linda Overseas Heart Team, the author of the 5-day plan, the world’s greatest infant heart surgeon, some of the brightest theologians, and institutional leaders. The list goes on. She has served the church with great distinction, and her life reflects the character values of excellence that the Weniger Society recognizes.”

In addition to in-person attendance at the annual awards presentation, the program can be watched via streaming video on February 17 at 4:30 p.m. (California time) at the Loma Linda University Church YouTube channel.

Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies

The original post of this story was posted on the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies website.