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No ghouls, just Girl Scouts, on mortuary trip

Jenna Esarey
Special to The Courier-Journal
Girl Scout Sydney Zuckschwerdt, 10, and others use restorative wax to create  ears during a tour of Mid-America College of Funeral Service in Jeffersonville on Thursday.

Turning their thoughts from cookies to cadavers, Girl Scouts from Louisville and Southern Indiana learned about women in mortuary science as they toured Mid-America College of Funeral Service in Jeffersonville on Thursday.

Wearing Halloween costumes, uniforms or street clothes, just over 30 Girl Scouts and 20 adults eagerly explored the anatomy classroom with its skulls and large, colorful diagrams, and the reconstruction room where a skeleton and embalming tools were laid out for their perusal.

The girls were able to try their hand at creating a human ear out of restorative wax under the direction of recent graduate Laura LaJoie. Restorative wax modeling is commonly used in funeral service to return trauma victims to their natural appearance.

The event was part of the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana’s Spark series, focusing on creating an interest in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Spark events provide girls an opportunity to meet women working in STEM fields and to ask them questions.

Girl Scouts build beehives at GE FirstBuild

Heather Jackson, left, and Michelle Byrne, talk with anatomy instructor Lee Gohmann as Girl Scout Katie Green, 10, looks on during a tour of Mid-America College of Funeral Service in Jeffersonville on Thursday.

Before the tour and hands-on work, the girls heard from several female STEM mentors including the director of clinical embalming, a chemistry professor, a certified crematory operator, and Lauren Budrow, president of the college and a licensed funeral director.

“It’s awesome,” said Sydney Zuckschwerdt, 10, of New Albany. “I love science. It’s my favorite subject. But I’m more a fan of animal sciences than human science.”

Carolyn Cromer, STEM program specialist for Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana, said the events are called Spark because "we hope they will spark an interest in some of the girls. I was hoping that they could see themselves in the place of one of these women.”

“STEM jobs are growing at three times the rate of others,” she said. “But women hold only about 25 percent of STEM jobs. We want that to be at least 50 percent.”

Budrow, who was a Girl Scout, said, "Nobody came and talked to us about funeral arts. It’s nice to see them encouraging girls to go into what have traditionally been considered male fields.”

Recent Mid-America graduate Laura LaJoie, now an apprentice with a funeral home in Louisville, came back for the event and demonstrated the steps involved in creating a human ear.

“This place is great,” she said. “I’m glad to give back, especially since I was a Girl Scout. It’s nice to see women leaders and to see women becoming more prominent in funeral services.”

The tour was the first of its kind for the funeral college.

“I want to start reaching out to the community more,” said Budrow, who was appointed president one year ago.

The college, located at 3111 Hamburg Pike, offers several degree programs, including an Associate of Applied Science, Bachelor of Science, and a Funeral Director and Service Certificate program.

Lauren Budrow, president of Mid-America College of Funeral Service, begins crafting an ear out of reconstructive wax during a tour of Mid-America College of Funeral Service in Jeffersonville on Thursday.