Cedarville Magazine, Spring/Summer 2015

kids also relied on money they made themselves. One summer, our son Scott ’00 held eight jobs at once! His goal as a premed student was to make it through college debt- free, and he did. PT – Another thing we took into account was that when Alex was entering college, he wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to do. He had looked at engineering as a possibility, but was increasingly interested in the medical field. Cedarville had essentially any pre-professional program he would have wanted, so the fact that kids usually change their major was not concerning, as he wouldn’t have had to switch schools if his career aspirations had changed. Describe how you worked through the cost of a private Christian college. What financial aid avenues were available to you? GW – The tiered merit aid system has really leveled out Cedarville’s costs in comparison to many other schools, and that has made attending a possibility and a reality. TR – My wife is an amazing scholarship finder. She did research online, and she found our kids thousands and thousands of dollars. She had a whole notebook full of opportunities: $500 from the Rotary Club, some from VFW, a bit from Kiwanis. There were so many opportunities! She still helps other people who say they can’t afford it. Well, we couldn’t afford it, either! You have to go find scholarships. It might be weird, like when the kids got a scholarship from the Elks Club and we’d go to the banquet and sit in the smoke-filled room, but we got the scholarship and a buffet meal. PT – As a middle-income family, we didn’t expect to get a ton of need-based aid, so Alex worked throughout the summer to pay for all of his incidental expenses, and we had set aside money targeted specifically to pay for his education. Cedarville is not inexpensive, but the cost is well in line with the quality of education, and that quality of education did not represent any sort of compromise compared to other well-known schools on the East Coast. Can you talk about any professional experiences your kids have had at Cedarville that specifically prepared them for their current position or professional work in general? TR – Both Michelle ’02 and Melissa ’15 worked with various hospitals around Cedarville as a required part of their nursing degrees. While in the premed program, Scott also had to go out into medical facilities to gain experience. As an education student, Karen ’07 went out into several schools to complete her student teaching hours, which put her right on the front lines of the educational world. PT –This past semester, Alex helped out at a local hospital, and he’ll be going on a medical missions trip over spring break to use the skills he’s learning. Cedarville is obviously very concerned about spiritual development, but we’re also preparing students to succeed in the professional world. In what ways have you seen that preparation go from promise to reality? GW – I work with a lot of engineers in the aerospace industry, and I run into people I know here all the time. Why? Because if you have a student who wants to go into the STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Math] and wants to go to a Christian school, Cedarville is the first choice. You won’t find a school that reinforces Christian values quite like this one, and you won’t find a school that prepares its students quite like Cedarville does. GW – Cedarville has a very good regional reputation, but its reputation extends beyond the Midwest. When we went out to California to visit other Christian schools with my two older kids, people would say, “Wait a minute, you’re an hour away from Cedarville?Why are you visiting a school out here? If we lived anywhere near Cedarville, we’d go there instead!” TR – We challenged our kids to have a marketable skill, and that’s what happened. One of our kids is an orthopedic surgeon, one is a registered nurse, one has a Master of Education degree, one is an insurance broker, and one is about to graduate with a nursing degree. Of Greg and Kay Watson’s six children, two are current Cedarville freshmen and one is enrolled in Cedarville’s College Now program. Greg is retired from the Air Force and now works for the Department of the Air Force as a civil servant, while Kay homeschools their two youngest children. Five of Tom and Becky Ruhlman’s eight children have graduated from or are currently attending Cedarville. Tom is the Lead Pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Seattle, where he has served for the past 35 years, and Becky is a homemaker. Phil and Sue Treide have two children, including one who is a senior biology major at Cedarville. Phil is a Marketing Manager for EMC2, a multinational IT management firm, and Sue is a homemaker. 22 | Cedarville Magazine