Cedarville Magazine Summer 2022

said. “The Graduate School of Nursing program has been transformed by that scholarship.” PASSION FOR MINISTRY Another scholarship transforming Cedarville students’ lives is the John Lutsi B.A./M.Div. Pastoral Ministry Scholarship. Lutsi established the scholarship in 2019 to assist undergraduate and graduate students on the pastoral ministry track; 18 students received this scholarship in the 2021–22 school year. Lutsi learned about Cedarville through his granddaughter, Sophia Smith ’21; grew to love it with his wife, Ella; and felt moved to contribute to the University following Ella’s passing in 2020. “Mr. Lutsi is passionate about youth garnering theological training to contribute as lay people at local churches,” Kate Cooper, Scholarship and Annual Giving Manager, said. “He’s thankful to Cedarville for building up his granddaughter’s faith, and his scholarship allows other students to be built up in the same way.” SUPPORTING MKS The Gershom Scholarship is named for Moses’ son from Exodus 2:22, whose name means “I have been a stranger in a foreign land,” and is designated to assist children of full-time missionary families, particularly missionary kids from the Middle East, where the donors' family lived for a time as “strangers in a foreign land.” The Gershom Scholarship began in 2006 when a couple sent the first of three children — all Cedarville graduates — to the University. At the time, the husband’s company offered a three-to-one match for f inancial gi f ts to educat ional institutions. They began giving $7,500 to Cedarville each year, which multiplied to $30,000 with company matching. Their eldest son, a 2010 alumnus, began working at the same company as his father after graduation, and he has continued to take advantage of the company’s matching policy with regular gifts. The Gershom Scholarship’s market value is nearing $1 million. It is the single largest endowment fund to which current gifts are being made. “When the family lived overseas, they met missionaries there, and they wanted missionary kids to be able to come to Cedarville,” Voorhies shared. “They knew as full-time missionaries, those parents couldn’t afford to send their kids as this couple could, so they wanted to do what they could to help,” Voorhies explained. “It’s obvious that they are faithfully following what the Lord has put on their hearts.” “It’s beautiful to see people who want to give,” Cooper added. “There’s this thought that people don’t want to contribute to a cause, but our donors want to give to our students — to make Cedarville a possibility for them — and it’s truly what the Lord is doing. He’s moving in donors’ lives, and we get to be conduits in that.” CONTINUING A LEGACY Julie Deardorff, Director of Library Collection Services and Associate Professor of Library Science, serves as another example of such generosity as she honors the memory of her husband, beloved University professor Don Deardorff. Establishing the Don and Julie Deardorff English Scholarship Roger and Charlotte Kuriger It’s beautiful to see people who want to give. Kate Cooper 16 | Cedarville Magazine