At Emma Miller’s graduation from San Diego State University, the president asked the graduates to stand and thank their parents. All Miller could do was sob. Her parents were not in the crowd.

Miller grew up in an Amish home. The Amish, who do not send their children to school beyond the eighth grade, disapprove of higher education. Miller left home at age 16 and pursued more education without any support from her family.

She searched for scholarship opportunities that would help formerly Amish people to afford college, but she found none. After graduating in 2011, she decided to create the Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund.

Financing higher education is difficult, said Miller in a recorded video at the “Plain Roots: Community, Story and Support for Higher Education” conference in Middlebury, Ind., June 26-27. But “it’s the lack of emotional support” from family that’s the hardest, she said. Some who decided to pursue higher education are no longer welcome in their parents’ homes.

The Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund, co-founded by Miller and her cousin Naomi Kramer Yoder, offers funds and mentorship support to formerly Amish and other Plain Anabaptist students. Miller and Kramer Yoder awarded the first ADSF scholarships in 2012. Two women in nursing school received $1,500 each.

Since then, the ADSF has awarded a total of $291,300 to 138 recipients. Although the awards are only a few thousand dollars, the scholarships provide hope for many formerly Amish people. One recipient wrote that the scholarship “strengthens my resolve to achieve education.”

The funds have supported students to study nursing and medicine, psychology, political science, computer science, physics, engineering, social work and other fields.

“I have been honored to be part of your stories,” said Kramer Yoder, addressing previous and current scholarship recipients at the conference. These stories are the “driving force behind the fund,” and “the reason we kept going.”

“Plain Roots,” an ADSF conference, drew 38 attendees for a weekend of storytelling and inspiration. All the speakers grew up Amish or as Plain Anabaptists and were either in a degree program or had already reached their academic goals.

Leon Hostetler, originally from Montana, wrote on ADSF’s blog that he was unsure if he could finance his education and was tempted to give up. Saloma Furlong, vice chair of the ADSF board, read his comment and encouraged him to apply for a scholarship, which he received.

“ADSF’s scholarship is not just money,” he said at the conference. “It is permission, encouragement and evidence that someone believes your future can be larger than your past.”

Hostetler is now a postdoctoral scholar at Indiana University, where he uses supercomputers to study particles and forces through lattice field theory. His story is not just about an Amish kid who became a physicist but about “how curiosity survived, help arrived at the right moment and one step led to another,” he said.

Sharon Beachy’s sense of calling to be a surgeon came early on. “I wanted to be a doctor,” she said. She knew one day she would leave her Ohio Amish community to pursue her vocation.

Undergraduate students are required to submit their parents’ financial information to receive financial aid, but Amish parents are unwilling to do this. Beachy was able to get aid because of a dependency override from someone in the financial aid office.

“That moment mattered,” she said, because it seemed like the whole system was against her. She completed her associate’s degree and is now pursuing a B.S. in biomedical sciences.

“Embrace the adversities,” Beachy, who is now an ADSF board member, told the audience. “Welcome the pressure. Your adversities are your advantage.”

Formerly Amish people face difficulties in pursuing higher education. First, they need to complete high school or obtain a GED. An Amish eighth-grade education does not teach science or advanced math, both required to pass the GED. Once they are in college, formerly Amish students have found it challenging to navigate financial aid and new technology.

Another challenge is isolation. Furlong, who started her undergraduate education when she was 47, said, “Even though my college education was better than I ever dreamed it could be, I often felt alone in my journey. I just thought there had to be other formerly Amish who were attending college . . . yet I knew no one.”

Despite the difficulties in pursuing education, a panel of current students agreed that one of the advantages of growing up Amish is the work ethic. The “drive for more” and the willingness to put in long hours has been a huge benefit, said Katie Fisher, who studied social sciences at a community college and wants to pursue a bachelor’s degree in social work.

Several panelists pointed out that education is important to personal growth, not simply job training. MJ Kempf said education broadens horizons, especially when it comes to learning about other cultures.

Michael Walker, who grew up in a Swartzentruber Amish community, believes education has helped him understand his Amish upbringing better. “I understand why they do what they do,” he said. “But I can also see where it’s bad.”

Speakers who are now in established medical careers said their Amish upbringing formed them.

“I have a better personality for being with people,” said Albert Miller, a retired family doctor.

Helping people is part of being Amish. “I love the sciences, but I [also] want to be of service,” said Harley Yoder, a family doctor in Elkhart, Ind. Yoder volunteered in Brazil when he was a Goshen College student and did a rotation at the Shirati Mission Hospital in Tanzania.

Freeman Miller, who grew up Amish and is now a retired pediatric orthopedist and has lectured in 40 countries, said the conference itself reflected the humility of an Amish upbringing. Everyone addressed each other by first names and used no academic titles.

The ADSF, which recently became a nonprofit, is funded by formerly Amish people and other non-Amish donors. The board wants to establish an endowment and seek grants and other fundraising opportunities. The organization also accepts donations on its website.