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His job titles range from stage director to director of Credo to professor, but after this semester, Randall Burghart will say goodbye to his many titles and goodbye to Cornerstone.

“Cornerstone was, for a long time, a really joyous place to be,” Burghart said.

This joyous experience began when he attended Cornerstone as a student, and he found some of his professors to be “significant mentors.”

“They modeled exactly what I wanted to be … once I ended up teaching,” he said. “[It] was genuine care for me, certainly as a student and a musician.”

Among other professors he mentioned, he said his trumpet teacher Greg Good was more like a Zen master to him because of the respect Burghart had for him and the example Good set.

Burghart said he was not only held accountable “in the name of some abstract idea of excellence, but a mutual accountability with each other before God.”

He said his professors taught him a teacher does not just dispense knowledge, but also invites people into the space in their life in which they can flourish.

“I have found in the practice of music to bring life and flourishing to my community,” Burghart said. “If we aren’t offering what we have as a gift, I wonder whether we are ever able to serve.”

Not only has Burghart gained knowledge from his mentors when he attended college, he has also found “intellectual iron” in the persons of Michael Stevens, professor of English, Matthew Bonzo, associate professor of philosophy, and Michael VanDyke, associate professor of English.

“I have to thank my dear friends Stevens, Bonzo and VanDyke who have taught me so much,” Burghart said as he choked up, almost unable to continue.

In addition to Stevens, Bonzo and VanDyke, Burghart said Rick Railsback, assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies, was also a valued colleague and mentor.

“His style of scholarship and his breadth and depth of … erudition is quite an inspiration to me,” he said.

The final mentor Burghart thanked was Dave Landrum, “whose easy-going manner made him so approachable,” he said.

Burghart also mentioned how much the students at CU have had an impact on him individually and on his family.

“Cornerstone has been a really joyous part of my family life,” he said.

Over the years, Burghart has had more than 100 students visit his house and said, “Nothing is more heartbreaking to face the prospect that my children aren’t going to be exposed to that anymore.”

“There is no efficient formula for the relationship between a student and a teacher,” he said. But he said nothing can replace sitting with each other face to face and communing with each other around great ideas.

“I have had some incredible students whose inquisitive spirits, thirst for knowledge and love of music making had made the task of teaching and all the things that go with it pure joy,” Burghart said.

He named several of these students; Lauren Root, Nathan Reynolds, CU graduate Elizabeth McDaniel, Megan Tibbits, Rachel Schaefer, Kyle Juresich and Reagan Boomershine. Most of these students he worked with during “Little Women,” CU’s musical last year.

These students have not only touched his life, but Burghart also affected their lives.

Sophomore Reagan Boomershine, who has been influenced by Burghart in fine arts class, Chorale, Credo and “Seussical the Musical” in addition to “Little Women,” said, “He’s a really strong father figure. He really has a heart for students.”

“He’s shown me what our job as Christian artists is and how we should cultivate our skills and use them for the Lord, not for ourselves,” Boomershine said.

While she said Burghart has taught her a lot about music, that knowledge has taken “the back burner” to what she has learned from him spiritually.

Another student who has been touched by Burghart is Junior Megan Tibbits.

“Burghart is a light to this campus,” Tibbits said. “The way he loves his students is so evident. His heart shows through his work.”

“I have been blessed by how much he cares for his students individually,” Tibbits said. “Burghart asks about our lives. He is sensitive to our needs outside of the classroom. He invites us over for parties.”

Tibbits said she had been “inspired by his intelligence and his wisdom … intrigued by his stories … [and] grown in music by watching his leadership.

Even though Burghart must leave the place where he has grown so much, affected many and been touched by so many individuals, he has still learned several things as he faces a new season of his life.

“Life isn’t fair,” Burghart said. He has learned there is a time to downsize as he joins the other 12 percent of Michigan residents unemployed, and he said it has not been a fun lesson to learn.

However, he said, “It is also a great opportunity to turn and learn to trust in God. I’ve not lost a minute of sleep [with] anxious thoughts over the future.”

And through his overall experience at CU, he has learned, “The best any of us can do is pour our lives into other people.”

Tibbits believes he had done so and said, “He wears his love on his sleeve, and it blesses everyone he encounters.”

Burghart attended CU from 1989 to 1994 and has worked at CU since 1995, but because of harsh economic times and school cuts, he will not be able to experience CU much longer.