Seven alumni of Mennonite schools share their personal stories.

What happens to students after they leave the campuses of Mennonite colleges, universities and seminaries? What stays with them as they take the next steps in their lives? In this article, seven alumni share their personal stories—each is uniquely theirs but also contains an appreciation for what they experienced and the impact that Mennonite educational experience had on their lives.

Window to opportunity by Melanie Zuercher

Daniel Hege came to Bethel College, North Newton, Kan., with “a passion for music, but it wasn’t channeled.” So at Bethel, he tested that passion from a variety of angles.
He played trombone in the jazz ensembles and tuba in the wind ensemble, then heard and fell in love with the sound of the oboe and began studying that instrument. He sang in the Bethel College Concert Choir, formed a madrigal group and performed in Bethel music theater.

About halfway through his time at Bethel, Hege says, he began hearing about a professor “whose classes were not to be missed.” So Hege began developing his love of history in Keith Sprunger’s classes, beginning to see, he says, “how history and music were related and that my whole life I had been thinking like a historian.” He ended up with a double major in music and history.

Hege’s “musical epiphany” came, he says, in his junior year, when one day Walter Jost, Concert Choir director, asked Hege to direct a rehearsal in Jost’s absence. As a result of that experience, Hege says, “I became curious about conducting.

“You have to enjoy the process of taking the music apart and putting it back together,” he continued. “It takes a lot of study. It involves coaching. It means knowing the music 100 percent and being able to gauge people’s [players and audience] reaction to it. It’s not just beating time.”

Recalling his Bethel years, Hege, currently conductor and music director of the Syracuse (N.Y.) Symphony Orchestra and the Wichita (Kan.) Symphony Orchestra, says, “I had opportunities I would maybe not have had at a larger school. It enabled me to go out and do it myself, gave me confidence and helped me think: ‘I can do this.’

“Bethel had great [musical] training for me and allowed me to be involved in many things. It led me to a window where I was able to look out and see what was possible.”

Daniel Hege is a 1987 graduate of Bethel College, North Newton, Kan., who lives in Jamesville, N.Y. Melanie Zuercher, Bethel College institutional communications writer, wrote this article.

Learning and faith intertwined by Amy Nissley

My first taste of Mennonite education came at Iowa Mennonite School (IMS) in Kalona, Iowa, where I completed grades 9-12. In that setting I discovered the beauty of combining learning with matters of faith. This was a refreshing change from my early school experiences, where those types of conversations did not happen within the school walls. The teachers at IMS were committed to providing a safe environment for students to question and interact with life and faith. My time at IMS laid a strong foundation on which my other educational experiences were built.

I am grateful for the stellar education I received at the University of Iowa, yet during my course of study there, I missed the interaction of learning and faith in the classroom. It was refreshing when I began studies at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind., where these two elements of life could once again be intertwined. I appreciated the interactions I had with other students in and out of the classroom setting, where this weaving together could continue.

The course of study at AMBS was not narrow in focus. It called me to engage in learning while including expressions of faith. Learning in that setting became multifaceted. I was challenged to view the various learning situations through the lens of spiritual development. Tending my spiritual life was as important as tending my studies.

Amy Nissley, a 2004 graduate of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind., lives in Mountain Lake, Minn., and is associate pastor at Bethel Mennonite Church.

A lasting impression by Jenna Liechty Martin

During my time at Bluffton (Ohio) University, I joined Camerata Singers on a choir tour through Europe, where we sang, connected with local Mennonite churches and heard stories of peace and conflict transformation. During our time in Paris, we met two long-term Mennonite workers who shared their story and subsequently left an impression on my life. Recently, as I was cleaning out old boxes of college papers and journals, I came across my reflections on the time spent in Paris: “Perhaps I will find myself doing similar work someday.”

My experience at Bluffton has left a deep impression on my life, one that I am continuing to discover as I find my way in the world. While experiences like the one above were significant, as was a semester-long program in Northern Ireland, there were also more mundane and routine encounters on the Bluffton campus that clearly have shaped me and led me to where I am today. In and out of the classroom, I was challenged to consider what a commitment to Jesus and to the church means for my life.

These conversations did not take place solely in the context of religion courses but permeated discussion in business, science and writing classes. Mennonite higher education provided the backdrop for which pertinent questions to life could be wrestled with and lived out within community. Relationships with classmates and professors played an important role in my experience as they helped guide, encourage and discern with me along the way.

Today, along with my husband, I am living and serving with Mennonite Mission Network in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where we are working with a reconciliation program. As I continue to wrestle with the questions of faith and life, I value and am grateful for the four years of discovery and learning that took place at Bluffton.

Jenna Liechty Martin, a 2007 Bluffton (Ohio) University graduate, lives in Northern Ireland.

A soldier taught to think by Ike Porter

When I first arrived at Eastern Mennonite College (now EMU), Harrisonburg, Va., I felt like a fish out of water. I had been discharged from the military at the conclusion of an unpopular war. I was a warrior entering a faith community that did not believe in war. I genuinely wanted peace and wholeness for my soul but was unable to articulate such a profound concept. I had not been raised in a Christian tradition but had a conversion while in the military.

EMU taught me how to think. This is a simple yet profound statement. Many religious-based educational institutions do not teach students how to think; instead they teach them what to think. I remember many times being confused about an issue I was studying only to have the professor encourage me to work through it. I wanted answers; my professors wanted me to think.

Today, I serve as the chief chaplain at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Battle Creek, Mich. My work in anger management and as a federal mediator grows out of the theology of peace and reconciliation I learned and embraced at EMU. My work in ethics is enhanced by my formal education, but it is driven mostly by living with, taking communion with and becoming one with a people who are willing to pay a price for standing up for what is right.

God has taken what I learned and experienced in the military and combined it with what I learned at EMU, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Ashland Theological Seminary, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and Western Theological Seminary. This has enabled me to be a minister of hope and reconciliation in a realm where many are devastated and wounded physically, emotionally and spiritually by the worst that humanity can do to humanity.

Ike Porter, a 1979 graduate of Eastern Mennonite College (now Eastern Mennonite University) in Harrisonburg, Va., lives in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Anabaptist tradition deepens faith by Marvin Lorenzana

My years at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Va., were probably the most intense, formative years of my life. As a Pentecostal minister for almost 15 years before coming to EMS, I experienced firsthand the perils and excitement of real-life ministry. I had been in the trenches long enough to know what to expect. Nonetheless, I always felt that my “doing” ministry desperately needed an overhaul. It soon became clear to me that just my good intentions of supporting people in the pew might not be enough to succeed in ministry long term.

Many times I felt overwhelmed by a sense of dissatisfaction about my task as a preacher, teacher of the Bible and counselor. The reason for such feelings of frustration and inadequacy probably came from a shallow theological understanding of Christian faith. I knew my Christian ministry needed to be rooted in a sound theological Christian tradition, and that’s when my journey to EMS started.

EMS gave me a wonderful opportunity to learn about and experience the Anabaptist tradition of Christian faith. Rooting my Christian faith and experience on this tradition has given more substance and depth to my ministry. Today, I credit my seminary experience for fostering in me the need to reflect theologically about life, God, faith and Christian ministry. EMS nurtured in me a profound need to assign the highest importance to Scripture so that devotional reading, in time, has become a light that has guided my path in life. I also learned about the importance of following Christ as a disciple.

Finally, I became familiar with the concept of service as a superior way of being a Christian in the world and learned the importance of discerning God’s will in the midst of a community of believers. I have applied what I learned at EMS in my work as director of Eastern Mennonite University’s Multicultural Student Services Office.

Marvin Lorenzana, a 2008 graduate of Eastern Mennonite Seminary, lives in Harrisonburg, Va.

Living out one’s beliefs by Tim Manickam

I was delivered into this world by a Mennonite doctor but had to wait 18 years to learn who the Mennonites really were. More than 30 years later I continue to learn.
Growing up as a son of Indian missionaries in Thailand, I was raised in an ecumenical Christian community—Anglicans, Presbyterians, Baptists. But Mennonites were not in that mix.

Spending four years at Goshen (Ind.) College, living in a Mennonite community, was eye-opening and life-changing for me. The college years are usually when a young person develops critical thinking skills, making the choice of the institution a crucial part of the equation. During class discussions or campus debates of important life issues, I was often struck by the “new” Anabaptist perspectives. Whether it was in biology class or through inductive studies of the Old Testament prophets, I added new dimensions to my faith that could only come from being in that environment.

While academics are primary in higher education, the social aspect can sometimes provide an even greater opportunity for learning. You can teach someone all you want about faith, religion, philosophy, politics and life skills, but it is the people living out those beliefs that create the greatest impact. This was certainly true for me, someone coming from a non-Mennonite heritage. I could have read all the books in the world on being a Christian, following Jesus, living a life of service or being a peacemaker. But it would not have been nearly as powerful as spending those four years at Goshen, learning from those professors, being in their homes and seeing for myself the meaning of living a Christian life as a Mennonite.

What does that mean for me today? Although I live 2,500 miles away from Indiana in a clearly “unchurched” part of the country, I can’t escape the influence of those four significant years of my life.

Tim Manickam, a 1982 Goshen (Ind.) College graduate, lives in Portland, Ore.

Community of faith by Terry Shue

Mennonite higher education has been a part of my life from the beginning, well before I was even around.

I come from a family that has a connection to Hesston (Kan.) College that is much more than an educational degree to build upon. My mother and 12 of her 13 siblings, my siblings, my wife and our three children share the formative experience of a Mennonite educational lens for two years at Hesston. While this foundation was laid to go “everywhere,” as Hesston says, there were learnings I took away from that experience that were not part of the graded curriculum or objectives.

My experiences at Hesston, Bethel College, North Newton,Kan., and later Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind., have been my way to connect not only to education but to the larger Mennonite church community. Traveling with choir tours and other small groups, I discovered and created a network of people that continues to be part of my broader world even today. Cities, towns, families, pastors and congregations all had a reference point through relationships in these formative years. I experienced faculty, staff and students with a concern for justice in our world—people really striving to live as a community of faith.

In these schools, the faculty and staff were concerned for me as a person while intending to stretch me. As a community of learners, we learned to look beyond the polarized voices around us to seek to understand the complexities of our world as followers of Jesus. Whether in the sciences or the humanities, I experienced both competency and character of the faculty and staff who have shaped my life and for which I am thankful.

Through my experience in Mennonite education, I grew to understand the faith of my community. And it was primarily through the Mennonite educational setting that I owned this faith and value system as my own.

Terry Shue, a 1977 Hesston (Kan.) College graduate, lives in Kidron, Ohio.