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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…
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 MoreA Pennsylvania Dutch Story
Today I bring you a piece that was originally published at the DailyCal by Eythana Miller titled The fastest growing American language you’ve never heard of. Eythana grew up in Northwest Montana in a traditional Amish community that slowly modernized as she was growing up. She moved to California at 17 and is set to…
Read MoreThe Hope in Me by Katie Miller
Katie Miller and I have been in touch over the months since the Symposium at Elizabethtown College. She was not able to attend, though she has offered part of her story to publish on the blog. Today I continue the series of former Amish who went on to college after leaving their respective communities. I…
Read MoreBridging Two Worlds
When I was living in Pennsylvania, I met Ruth, who has become a dear friend. She is warm, loving, insightful, and brilliant. She is a wife, a mother of five, teacher of sign language, a grower of roses, builder of a “she-shack” (along with her mother) and an assembler of a vintage bubble Scotty mobile…
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