Posts by Saloma Furlong
Look what Amish Women Can Do!
Today I would like to honor the founders of the Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund, Emma Miller and Naomi Kramer Yoder. With only the eighth-grade education of her Amish childhood, Emma had earned her GED, then began taking college courses at a community college before enrolling at San Diego State University. She writes: “The idea for ADSF…
Read MoreWebsites: One, Two, Three
Until a year ago, I only had only designed my own two websites. Then last year, there was a need to redesign the website for The Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund (ADSF). So Eythana Miller and I built that together over several months. We expanded our outreach through the website and blog, which led to us…
Read MorePlain Roots: Community, Story, and Support for Higher Education
We are getting glimpses of Spring up here in northern Vermont. David and I spent the first week of March in Pennsylvania and Virginia. It was good to have a change of scenery, and experience some warmer weather. However, as luck would have it, we had snow in Harrisonburg on Tuesday, while Vermont was experiencing…
Read MoreTraveling South to Meet up with Spring
By the time you read this blog post, David and I will be on the road south to visit friends in Ephrata, Pennsylvania and Harrisonburg, Virginia. I am so ready for Spring, I can barely contain myself. Since it will not come to northern Vermont for another six weeks, David and I are hoping to…
Read MoreHow an Amish Boy Became a Physicist, Part 3
Leon graduating from Florida State University Today we bring you the conclusion of Leon Hostetler’s story. I first knew of him when he was writing a blog more than ten years ago before he started college and he was clearly upset, even bitter, that his schooling had been interrupted after the eighth grade. I remember…
Read MoreHow an Amish Boy Became a Physicist, Part 2
Photo by Leon Hostetler of his childhood home Leaving the Amish By Leon Hostetler By my mid-teens there was constant pressure from my parents and the larger community to formally join the Amish church. But how could I? The big picture was too fuzzy for me. I was not convinced that the Amish worldview…
Read MoreHow an Amish Boy Became a Physicist, Part 1
Today I bring you the amazing story of Leon Hostetler’s educational journey that took him from his Amish childhood to becoming postdoctoral fellow in the Physics Department at Indiana University. This story will be published in three parts. Ever since I left the Amish more than forty years ago, I’ve always wondered if anyone could…
Read MoreLearning How to Learn
I have been bringing you stories of current applicants of the Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund who have persevered to find their path to college or university. Today I bring you the remarkable story of Michael Walker, who grew up among the Swartzentruber Amish (the strictest of the strict) and became a software engineer. It is…
Read More“A Character that is Truly My Own”
Many years ago, when I was a young girl attending an Amish school in northeastern Ohio, I had a friend named Ruth. I felt privileged to have her as a friend because my family’s reputation was so poor in the community. Ruth’s family was considered “mission-minded” because they talked openly about what it means to…
Read MoreA Chance for a Different Future
In our last post, we shared one of the outstanding scholarship essays that we received. Today we are offering another, this one from Anna Mae Troyer in Ohio. She does a beautiful job of introducing herself, so let’s go right to her essay. I have never authored an essay that is formed with the assumption…
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