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Page A44 JUNE 2017 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A
Caring for every need,
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NEWS Educational CONTINUED
end of 2017 and two new
programs were admitted to
candidacy status. In 2016,
1638 graduated from ac-
credited programs across
the country and 2511 new
students enrolled. Females
were more than 63 percent
of the graduates and less
than 10 percent of all grad-
uates had parents in funer-
al service.
Updated curriculum out-
lines for ethics and com-
munication skills were ap-
proved and plans were
made to initiate review of
the chemistry, merchandis-
ing and business law teach-
ing outlines during sum-
mer 2017. ABFSE reviews
teaching outlines on an an-
nual basis with input from
the association members.
The scholarship commit-
tee recommended 8 un-
dergraduate awards and
1 graduate scholarship.
Names of recipients will
be reported on the ABFSE
website upon confirmation
with the recipients.
The program commit-
tee discussed plans for the
2018 annual conference
in California while the
constitution and bylaws
ABFSE Holds 55th Annual Conference
trade show which included
banking, answering servic-
es and grief related resourc-
es, embalming chemical
and restorative art com-
panies, providers of death
care products, potential
employers and scholarship
providers, textbook pro-
viders, ID and cremation-
oriented companies along
with the association mem-
bers.
During the business ses-
sion, Cremation Association
of North America (CANA)
was accepted as a new asso-
ciation member of ABFSE.
Orientation for new mem-
bers was included in the
conference agenda and
Martha Thayer (Arapahoe
Community College, Little-
ton, CO) led a mentoring
session designed to con-
nect new program direc-
tors with experienced col-
leagues.
On the final day of the
Conference, 18 program
representatives attended a
self study workshop to re-
view the requirements for
writing an accreditation re-
port. At least every 7 years,
every program undergoes
a comprehensive review of
its activities. The review is
conducted by a team con-
sisting of two educators
and one funeral service
practitioner.
Formally established in
1962, ABFSE grew out of
the efforts of NFDA, ICF-
SEB and the associations of
funeral service schools and
colleges. Currently, ABFSE
is recognized by the US
Department of Education
and the Council for High-
er Education Accreditation
as the accrediting agency
for the colleges and univer-
sities teaching funeral ser-
vice/mortuary science edu-
cation in the United States.
ABFSE strives to cooperate
with all groups and agen-
cies having an interest in
the advancement of the
principles and standards of
funeral service education.
ABFSE meets annu-
ally in April. For fur-
ther information, contact
ABFSE at 992 Mantua
Pike, Suite 108, Wood-
bury Heights, NJ 08097.
Call 816-233-3747 or
visit for
a directory of accredited
programs. To reach Rob-
ert C. Smith III, execu-
tive director, email ex-
or Deb
Tolboom, executive As-
sistant
committee initiated dis-
cussion of adequate rep-
resentation on all ABFSE
committees.
The annual conference
opened with a review of
the ABFSE Strategic Plan
and also included meetings
of the NBE Liaison Com-
mittee and COA Liaison
Committee. The Interna-
tional Conference of Fu-
neral Service Examining
Boards (ICFSEB) provid-
ed an update of their ac-
tivities; NFDA presented
their ‘Arranger Training’
program which is avail-
able to the schools. Each of
the association members,
NFDA, NFDMA and IC-
CFA, provided a summary
of their education related
activities.
Attendees participated in
sessions for Best Practic-
es for teaching, chemistry,
ethics and merchandising,
received a status report on
the 6th edition of the Em-
balming textbook and were
treated to a reception cour-
tesy of Service Corpora-
tion International dur-
ing which the results of the
SCI scholarship program
were presented.
Twenty-two exhibitors
participated in a mini-
George Forleo, senior surgical recovery special-
ist, and Ashlee Davis, funeral home/medical exam-
iner liaison, from the New Jersey Sharing Network
recently talked to the embalming class at Eastwick
College about organ and tissue donations. Davis
talked about the benefits of organ and tissue do-
nation and how an individual can register as an or-
gan donor while Forleo discussed the specific pro-
tocols about the recovery of organs and tissue. The
two hour lecture was well received by the students
and the speakers were asked many questions about
the procedures during the lecture.