New Horizons

Today I bring you updates for both The Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund, (ADSF) and for what is happening in my personal life. I will start with ADSF. July 10 was the deadline for students to submit their scholarship applications. We are considering a record number of students this year … 25 in all. It is…

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Reflections of the Plain Roots Conference

Our Plain Roots conference in Middlebury, Indiana went well last week… so well! The stories that speakers had to tell were as heartwarming as they were inspiring. Many of the stories were about overcoming major obstacles on the way to academia, and the deeper the struggle, the greater the triumph. We will be going into…

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A Mind Set Free: Part 2

Photo: Sharon Beachy’s graduation from SCF A Mind Set Free: Part 2 By Sharon Beachy Upon receiving my GED, I immediately enrolled for my first semester of college at Indian River State College in Vero Beach, FL. Not knowing where to begin, I met with an academic advisor to discuss next steps in my path…

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A Mind Set Free, Part 1

Photo: Sharon receiving her GED diploma from Treasure Coast Technical College in Vero Beach, Florida As promised on Thursday, today I bring you Sharon Beachy, our new ADSF board member. Her story speaks for itself, but Sharon brings to the board new, innovative ideas, energy that only a young person can offer, and yet she…

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Amish Roots Conference: Breaking the Eighth-Grade Barrier

The deadline for signing up for the Amish Roots Conference is four days away. If you have been meaning to register and haven’t yet, now is your chance. Or if this is your first time hearing about it, you still have time. You can go to our Events page to learn more and register. Just today I decided to…

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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…

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Websites: 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…

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Traveling 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…

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How 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…

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