greater-updates-fall-2016

The prayer garden, a joint gift from the classes of 1966 and 2016, with funds from online giving day 2016, was dedicated in August.

Here are some examples of the GREAT momentum building on campus as we strive to become GREATer, for the greater glory of God.

G: GROW
• In the last year, traditional admissions has brought 15 percent more high school students and 55 percent more elementary and middle school students to campus. Since the GREATer launch, there has been a 36 percent increase in applications.
• In May, Bethel launched a Hispanic Initiative, offering bilingual adults a new option for obtaining a college degree.
• Bethel’s Center for Professional Development partnered with WorkOne and local unions and employers to provide a two-week building trades program, designed to put area workers on the path to a career in the building trades industry. The first session launched April 18.

R: REVIVAL
• The ReDiscover series continued this year with a focus on the theme of grace. Brian Shelton, Ph.D., provost of Tocoa Falls College and Kevin Mannoia, Ph.D., professor of ministry and chaplain at Azusa Pacific University, presented to pastors and professors at two separate sessions.
• On Aug. 26, local pastors visited campus for a prayer walk, chapel and lunch to pray over the new semester.
• Five Bethel task force teams traveled to Nepal, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico and Indonesia this summer. They included 41 students, 10 faculty/staff members and two friends/alumni.
• Chapel services in September featured students three deep at the altar, kneeling all the way up three aisles in Everest-Rohrer Auditorium. After an evening service concluded, students remained in prayer for one another for more than an hour.

E: ENCORE
• This summer, every engineering student who wanted an internship got one. In fact, some employers had to be turned away! Students interned at AM General, ASA, Bosch, Boston Scientific, Cooke Nuclear Plant, DCS (Detroit area), DLZ, Elkhart Brass, Jamko, Plasan (Grand Repids) and Southwire.
• Songwriters from three different states, including alumni, had the opportunity to attend a Christian songwriting master class with Dove-nominated producer and songwriter Billy Smiley at Bethel.

A: AESTHETICS
• Bethel’s 2016 Online Giving Day resulted in $22,500 raised and three fully funded projects: a prayer garden (pictured), a classroom refresh (which was finished in time for students to use this fall) and the renovation of the Weaver Art Gallery (plans are underway with a grand re-opening scheduled for Feb. 10).
• New stone-paved walkways have been added to both entrances of the Huffman Administration Building.
• We have reached our $1 million challenge match in gifts and pledges for new clinical simulation labs for our School of Nursing. A groundbreaking ceremony will take place Oct. 20, and construction is expected to begin this fall.

T: TESTIFY
• For the sixth year in a row, Bethel has been named a College of Distinction. We are one of nine Indiana colleges to be recognized, and one of 59 schools in the nation to be named a Christian College of Distinction.
• Washington Monthly has ranked Bethel College No. 6 of 367 colleges in the Midwest on their 2016 list of the “Best Bang for the Buck Colleges.”

Read more at BethelCollege.edu/Greater