October 12, 2010

A Message from Ralph Phillips, Assistant Dean for Adult Education

E-mail is an excellent way to stay connected. I receive letters from missionary friends by e-mail. My family members let me know about reunions, address changes, deaths, weddings, new children and they even send me a host of (mostly) unwanted forwards which clutter my inbox. Nearly every day I receive an invitation to be a friend on Facebook or to join someone on LinkedIn. 

Our e-mail inboxes, our vocabulary, our entire culture is saturated with terms that highlight ways we are connected to others. Sometimes we become connected just for the fun of it, and sometimes for professional reasons. And what a blessing from God those connections can be!

The potential blessing of being linked to others came home to me this morning as I was beginning to write this article and the phone rang. It was a Geneva College Adult Degree Completion Program graduate looking for a new employee to hire in her company. From her own experience in the ADCP, she was familiar with the “high standards of the program” and was looking for someone who would uphold those standards in her organization. She was happy to find that in one of Geneva′s ADCP alumni.

Since its beginning in 1988, Geneva College ADCP has sent nearly 2,500 alumni into the field to serve. These alumni form an immense network connected by their common ADCP experience. And the network is even larger if one considers all Geneva alumni from the College′s traditional and nontraditional undergraduate programs as well as graduate programs. 

These alumni are often looking to “link” with other alumni to help them fill positions for which they hope to find those who share their values and knowledge. I think back several months ago to hearing a cohort′s final oral presentations. There I learned that during the prior week a student had been hired by a classmate to fill a position that turned out to be a professional promotion. The two had not yet officially become alumni, but they were able to link up to help one another serve the people in and through this particular organization. 

From linking with other members of their cohorts, to linking across generations of cohorts, to linking with others outside the ADCP experience, Geneva′s ADCP graduates have experienced God′s blessings in their relationships. Indeed God is the very source of the satisfaction and joy we gain as we carry out our work and life in the relationships to which God has called us.

My missionary friends are happy to use the technological tools to link them across vast distances with those who support them and pray for them.  In a similar way, I am happy to welcome you to this first issue of “The Complete Link.” Our hope is that it will be an effective tool to bring together, across the barriers that divide, students, alumni, future students, faculty and staff as we seek to encourage one another in our callings in Christian higher education for adults. 

Alumni News

Elizabeth Painter ′99

ADCP Human Resources Class 079, Butler, has graduated with her master′s degree in professional writing from Chatham University and is pursuing a certificate in children′s literature. Currently, Ms. Painter is working as a freelance writer and as the Customer Service Manager for Oxbridge Researchers.