Funeral Home and Cemetery News • May 2022

BROADVIEW, IL— Pierce Mortuary Colleges offer exceptional educational opportunities that meet state requirements and prepares students for a fulfilling career in the funeral profession. Pierce Colleges provide theory and practical applications for a complete and well-rounded funeral education. Mid-America College of Funeral Service (MACFS) in Jeffersonville, IN, one of three Pierce institutions, has recently brought 21st century, hands-on, practical applications to the classroom with an all-new, state-of-the-art preparation lab room. In addition to the varied degree programs offered by Pierce Mortuary Colleges, this lab room will now offer practical and near-accurate training with advanced equipment and tools. This “learn by doing” approach is the foundation of Pierce Mortuary Colleges. All three Pierce Mortuary Colleges, Mid-America, Gupton-Jones Collegeof Funeral Service in Decatur, GA, and the Dallas Institute of Funeral Service in Texas now have similar lab rooms.

Don Madelung is the president and chief operating officer of Pierce Mortuary Colleges and is excited about the timeliness of the lab’s opening. “We are now challenged with getting students back on campus after so many months of virtual education due to the pandemic,” Madelung said. “We Continued on page A26 are enormously proud of our distance learning program, but this new prep room is something the MACFS students can look forward to as they return to in-person learning.” The project began in 2020 and Mid-America president, Mitch Mitchell, managed the project to completion in December 2021. “We had a very good team for getting this constructed,” Mitchell said. “Potter Architects designed the building addition, Metts  Construction was our general contractor, and the Duncan Stuart Todd Company developed the embalming equipment.” The lab officially went online for student use in January 2022.

Students at the college will also have the added advantage of working with SynDaver®, a synthetic human product which reproduces the human anatomy with remarkable accuracy by
utilizing highly realistic synthetic tissues, called SynTissue®. SynDaver includes extraordinary features allowing for realistic learning such as customizable pathologies and injuries, an injectable vascular system for arterial embalming procedures, cosmetic feature settings, body cavity compatibility for clinical embalming, and limitless reusability with proper care and maintenance.

Melissa Traino is program director at MACFS and says the students are the ones who will benefit the most. “There are mortuary students who never have the chance to be exposed to an embalming preparatory lab until they are affiliated with a funeral home and finally perform an actual embalming,” Traino said. “Our students will now get comfortable
in a lab, with the instruments, the machinery, ask their questions, and really experience a deep dive into the science of embalming and preservation procedures.”

Mid-America hosted an on-campus reunion for all MACFS graduates and its two predecessors, Kentucky School of Mortuary Science, and Indiana College of Mortuary Science, on April 2 where a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for the preparation room. Ronald “Ronnie” Raymond, who currently serves on the Kentucky State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers had the honor of being the earliest graduate in attendance. He was a 1966 graduate of the Kentucky School of Mortuary Science.