Dr. Krista Kaups ’79 fondly remembers the adjacent connections she built with her highly skilled and dedicated professors astatine Bethel. Today, not lone is she dedicated to ensuring students tin person akin experiences astatine Bethel, she is sharing her expertise arsenic a surgeon with learners astatine location successful California and astir the world.
By Jason Schoonover ’09, contented specialist
November 28, 2022 | 9 a.m.
Since Dr. Krista Kaups ’79 graduated from Bethel, she’s gone connected to enactment arsenic manager of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit astatine Community Regional Medical Center successful Fresno, California. She besides serves successful the enactment of respective nonrecreational organizations. She is seat of the Trauma, Burns, and Surgical Critical Care Board, and is progressive with the American Board of Surgery and the Committee connected Trauma, which is portion of the American College of Surgeons. She besides remains dedicated to supporting and serving existent and aboriginal Bethel students.
When arriving astatine Bethel successful the autumn of 1976, Dr. Krista Kaups ’79 planned to lone be Bethel for 1 twelvemonth earlier transferring. A fewer weeks later, she told her parents she planned to stay. “It was conscionable the feeling of inclusivity and the easiness of gathering people, the consciousness of intent passim the campus,” she says.
That consciousness of intent helped propel Kaups to aesculapian school, wherever she recovered her calling arsenic a surgeon. Today, she serves arsenic manager of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit astatine Community Regional Medical Center successful Fresno, California. She besides serves successful the enactment of respective nonrecreational organizations and plays a cardinal relation successful grooming caller surgeons and doctors. Decades later, Kaups remains committed to helping students person akin experiences astatine Bethel.
Kaups’ clip successful Bethel’s Department of Chemistry prepared her good for aesculapian school. She earned a biochemistry degree—a non-standard specialization astatine the time—and recovered a beardown consciousness of community. She fondly remembers barbecues astatine her professors’ homes, a “biochem buffet,” and different amusive activities. And Kaups besides forged adjacent connections with her professors, who knew her by sanction and were disposable for students to halt by their bureau and sermon topics and issues. “They were precise unfastened and they modeled excellence successful learning and they conscionable modeled humility,” she says. Overall, her clip successful the chemistry section helped her larn however to learn, which prepared her for aesculapian schoolhouse and a beingness of learning.
Kaups continued to aesculapian school, readying to beryllium a household signifier doc successful a tiny municipality until her clinicals exposed her to surgery. She appreciated the contiguous accidental to code a occupation erstwhile country is required. Today, she specializes successful wide country and besides focuses connected trauma and captious attraction surgeries. “We get to instrumentality attraction of immoderate of the sickest patients successful the hospital,” she says.
And Kaups has utilized her skills to springiness back. She spent 2 months successful West Africa astatine a missions infirmary during her last twelvemonth of aesculapian school. Since, she’s traveled to South Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and more. While she has traveled overseas to execute operations, she has recovered it’s lone a driblet successful the bucket of helping those successful need. Instead, she strives to walk connected her skills to doctors overseas truthful they tin execute surgeries and scope much people. She is besides progressive with groups that supply continuing acquisition to doctors overseas.
Along with her enactment arsenic a surgeon, Dr. Krista Kaups ’79 has traveled overseas for aesculapian ngo enactment since her clip successful aesculapian school. Here, she poses with unit members from Lui Hospital successful South Sudan successful 2001.
Similarly, Kaups household besides carries heavy ties to education. Though she ne'er expected to go a teacher. Kaups besides works with the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship astatine the UCSF Fresno Center for Medical Education and Research. “I’ve discovered implicit the years there’s truly the joyousness successful sharing information,” she says. Though Kaups seldom teaches successful a classroom, she serves a cardinal relation teaching aesculapian students and surgical residents. She shares her expertise with them and guides them arsenic they summation hands-on grooming and experience. Though it comes with challenges and frustrations, Kaups says moving with young doctors encourages her to proceed learning arsenic well.
Throughout her career, Kaups has profoundly appreciated the transportation she forms with patients and their families. She serves families successful a challenging time. Most trauma patients were good earlier suffering a calamity that sent them to intensive care. While Kaups loves seeing her patients instrumentality to their homes, jobs, and families, she strives to enactment families successful bully times and bad. “Stories don’t ever person blessed endings, and sometimes the champion happening we tin bash is enactment families,” she says.
While Kaups is dedicated to patients and families, she says it’s God who heals. Driven by the cognition that each idiosyncratic is created successful God’s image, Kaups strives to dainty her patients, colleagues, and learners arsenic if they carnivore that image. Kaups says COVID-19—and the isolation and loneliness it caused—helped her bespeak connected the request for a faith-driven worldview successful medicine. “There’s surely a request for radical who tin curate to different people, who tin listen,” she says.
Seeing the payment of equipping men and women of religion to service successful the aesculapian field, Kaups has supported Bethel arsenic a donor for galore years. For her 60th birthday, respective adjacent household members who had traveled from retired of municipality amazed her by helping her signifier the Krista L. Kaups Scholarship Fund. It helps Bethel students with fiscal needs prosecute careers successful medicine. It was the latest measurement Kaups has taken to assistance students person a life-changing acquisition astatine Bethel. Similarly, Kaups has supported efforts successful caller years to grow Bethel's subject programs and facilities. Bethel has added degrees similar computer engineering, electrical engineering, and software engineering. But Kaups is astir excited astir the state-of-the-art spaces added done the three-story, 18,000-square-foot Nelson-Larson Science Center, which opened successful 2020. Kaups says Bethel present has the abstraction to lucifer the skill, acclaim, and prime of its professors successful the sciences. “You’ve got these high-quality module who could beryllium teaching astatine immoderate fig of places with bigger resources. Now this ensures they person the facilities they need,” she says
“It was conscionable a existent privilege to conscionable ticker and beryllium portion of a radical of radical who were truthful profoundly committed to the ngo of Bethel, to Bethel students, to preparing radical to beryllium brackish and airy successful the world."
— Dr. Krista Kaups '79
Along with besides including Bethel successful her will, Kaups served 2 terms—12 years—on Bethel’s Board of Trustees. The acquisition helped her summation a caller appreciation for those who service Bethel and its students. “It was conscionable a existent privilege to conscionable ticker and beryllium portion of a radical of radical who were truthful profoundly committed to the ngo of Bethel, to Bethel students, to preparing radical to beryllium brackish and airy successful the world,” she says. It besides helped her spot that each gifts to enactment Bethel matter. Though ample gifts are important, she says it’s much important that arsenic galore radical springiness what they can. “I bash deliberation the important happening is everyone giving what they’re capable to, supporting the mission,” she says.
Pursue a aesculapian vocation astatine Bethel.
Bethel offers galore opportunities to prosecute a vocation successful healthcare. Along with pre-med pathways, assorted undergraduate and postgraduate majors supply students with the skills and cognition they request to prosecute careers successful medicine, nursing, dentistry, doc assistant, carnal therapy, pharmacy, and more.
English (US)