Plain 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 warm sunshine. It seems Spring was eluding us. We did come back to warmer weather here in Vermont.

Eythana Miller and I have been busy at work for The Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund. This week we were able to roll out our plans for a summer conference in Indiana. Here is what we posted on the ADSF blog today:

Did you grow up in a Plain community and dream of attending college? Do you still have this dream?

Are you a formerly Amish college student who needs support to continue this difficult journey?

Have you earned a college education and enjoy the idea of exchanging stories with others who were raised Amish or Plain?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions, know someone who could, or are simply curious about Amish in education, you are invited to Plain Roots: Community, Story, and Support for Higher Education, a conference at The Essenhaus and Conference Center in Middlebury, Indiana on June 26 and 27.

Good stories, good company, and good food will be in abundance. Two delicious Amish-style meals will be provided: Friday evening and Saturday lunch. To learn more, see the schedule, and register, visit our Events page. If you have any questions, email us at amishscholarship@gmail.com.

Help us spread the word by sharing widely in your social circles. You can also download, print, and put up our poster in your community by clicking here.

We’re excited about this conference and hope to see you there in June!

I am finding the work I’m doing in partnership with Eythana to be tremendously rewarding. There have been several times in my life when I have felt like I was doing exactly what I was meant to be doing: raising our two sons, studying at Smith College, writing my books, conducting book tours, and now I feel that way about the work I’m doing for The Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund.

Our application period will be opening on April 1. I will have the pleasure of reading the inspiring stories of those who are overcoming many obstacles that have stood between their limited Amish or Plain childhood education and their college/university education. We will keep publishing these remarkable stories.

If you are inspired to attend the conference, I hope you’ll visit the Events Page. If you cannot join us in Indiana, yet you would like to offer your gifts, I hope you will click over to our Donate page where we now have the option of donating online. Thank you for reading, and thank you for your generosity.