The Bethel College General Scholarship fund supports student scholarships and areas of greatest need. Unrestricted gifts enable more students to afford the academically challenging, Christ-centered education that Bethel provides. Gifts help improve facilities, expand opportunities on campus and provide better quality of life for our students … students like Rebekah Miller ’18 whose Bethel experience has truly been life-changing.

Miller gave up a full-ride scholarship to Yale, where she was planning to study premed, to follow God’s call to ministry — and to Bethel College.

“I chose Bethel over the Ivy League, because I felt God calling me to ministry. I was all set to go to Yale to study pre-med and to become a doctor, but I felt like God was telling me a different path — a path that wasn’t necessarily going to be what the world wanted me to do … it more or less came down to the decision of whether I wanted to follow the world or whether I wanted to follow Christ. I ultimately chose Christ,” she says.

At Bethel, Miller has flourished both academically and spiritually, with majors in Intercultural Studies and Sociology. Learning from a Christian worldview, with professors and mentors who really care about her as a person, has had a great impact on her life. It’s built her confidence and opened her mind and heart to the things God cares about.

“Christian higher education is important to me, because I think a lot of times we focus so much on the worldly things — of making money and of pursuing [excellence] for ourselves — but I think when you bring Christ into that equation, you find what you’re designed for.”

During her Bethel experience, Miller spent a semester abroad in South Africa, which she says “opened her eyes to the world and also to bigger issues like race and social justice.” She has also served as student council president. Both are opportunities Miller may not have had outside of Bethel.

“I’m a different person today because of Bethel College,” Miller says. “I feel like I see the world differently, I see the world uniquely, and Bethel has really allowed me to step beyond just my brain, my intelligence … and stepped into my heart, and what it bleeds for.”

In May, Miller will graduate from Bethel, equipped to make a difference in the world. And that is due, in part, to the gifts of alumni and friends of Bethel.

Learn more about how you can help students like Bekah through giving at BethelCollege.edu/DayofGiving. Hear Bekah speak at the 2018 Give Back Gala, held May 12 at Bethel College. Get all the details at BethelCollege.edu/GiveBackGala.