The Study Center, December 2016

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THE S T U DY C E NT E R

Annual Fund 2016-17

THIS ISSUE: A MOTHER’S REFLECTIONS

by Linda Newsome, page 3

NOTES FROM OUR FAMILY

page 4

STUDY CENTER STAFF BILL WILDER

HOW TO GIVE

Executive Director bill@studycenter.net

page 6

LARISA ALEKSANDROV

ON THE COVER: From left to right, Elzinga Residential Scholar Courtney Morgan, intern Nonye Onokalah, former intern and alumna Marian McCullough, and student Naana Ewool at the Homecomings Tailgate on October 15, 2016. (Photo by Rosa Yoon) The Study Center newsletter is published for our friends and supporters.

University Christian Ministries, Inc. (dba Center for Christian Study) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation EIN 51-0192618.

Engagement + Program Assistant larisa@studycenter.net

RICK CAMPANELLI

Director of Graduate Ministries rick@studycenter.net

LANE COWIN

Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Women lane@studycenter.net

FITZ GREEN

DEAR PARENTS, ALUMNI, AND FRIENDS, Welcome to this Annual Fund issue of The Study Center newsletter. As the year draws to a close, I hope that you’ll take a moment to reflect on the Lord’s good work at the Center for Christian Study along with your own part in it.

You’ll see that we’ve asked a variety of folks to share their experience of the Study Center’s impact on students’ lives.

To begin with, Board member Linda Newsome tells how she has encountered the Study Center’s hospitality and care over the years, beginning with her first Move-In Day Lunch. Then you’ll hear from students, alumni, faculty, and others who witness to the commitment to biblical teaching, student care, and Christian unity that continues to mark this place after forty years.

At the end we invite your participation, whether it’s new or renewed. Don’t miss the invitation to sponsor or serve at Exam Snacks on the last page, but first, have a look at those ring charts. There you’ll see that 70 percent of our support ($865,075 this year) comes from you. You’ll also see that 84 cents of every dollar goes to ministry (and only 4 cents to fundraising). You can be sure your contributions are well spent.

I hope you’ll take a moment to give, and perhaps even to consider an ongoing monthly contribution. When you do, you’ll be investing in students who need truth and care in the name of Jesus during this most formative time of their lives. You’ll also be enabling the ongoing presence of a ministry that has blessed the University of Virginia for several generations.

Director of Educational Ministries fitz@studycenter.net

JAY MCCABE

Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Men jay@studycenter.net

JOSH OSWALD

Hospitality + Program Assistant josh@studycenter.net

TRISH OWEN

Librarian trish@studycenter.net

SHELLY PELLISH

Director of Administration + Development shelly@studycenter.net

DEBBIE RODRIGUEZ Director of Finance debbie@studycenter.net

LISA ROHRER

Development + Administrative Assistant lisa@studycenter.net

CARLY VANNESS

Hospitality + Program Assistant carly@studycenter.net

AMY ZELL

Director of Counseling Resources amy@studycenter.net

WHO WE ARE We are a non-profit education and outreach ministry serving the University of Virginia and Charlottesville since 1976. We seek to serve Jesus Christ by fostering the serious consideration in the

May the Lord bless each of you in this season of thanksgiving and hope.

Above all, may we rejoice in his amazing Gift to us.

Yours with gratitude, Bill Wilder Executive Director, bill@studycenter.net

university environment of a Biblical worldview, and by encouraging and facilitating wise discussion of the Truth in light of the challenges of contemporary culture.

CONTACT US Phone: (434) 817-1050 Email: info@studycenter.net Website: www.studycenter.net Instagram: @studycenteruva Facebook: studycenteruva

A MOTHER’S REFLECTIONS The Center for Christian Study is a place where students can explore Christianity and how belief in God intersects with contemporary culture. Its unique and vibrant ministry of hospitality is what draws in students initially, but it is the warm staff that provides a welcoming and safe environment that serves as a center of community throughout their time at U.Va. Within these walls, students grow up as they grapple with complicated issues during this unique season of their lives.

For each of my three children who attended (or are attending) U.Va., their first experience with the Study Center was the Move-In Day Lunch—my very favorite Study Center event. The lunch I remember best is the first one I attended in 2005. Although I found it a bit hard to believe at the time, friends had told me that some of their kids had met their best friends at that lunch! I was eager to experience it myself. On top of all of the heightened emotions that accompanied taking my oldest son to college, I was sweaty, dirty, tired, and hungry after moving all of David’s stuff into his non-air-conditioned dorm room. We headed over to the Study Center where we were greeted by dozens of student volunteers, joyfully serving in every capacity imaginable. We were welcomed into a very crowded, lovely, air-conditioned house, served a delicious lunch, and, after meeting many students and parents, got to hear a message from long-time Study Center supporter and beloved economics professor Ken Elzinga. I’ll never forget his exhortation to the students that day. He encouraged them to be intentional in pursuing their relationships with Jesus Christ while at U.Va.—not to live in a Christian bubble, but to fully engage in all that U.Va. has to offer, and to be intentional in establishing friendships that would encourage them to grow spiritually and hold them accountable.

After Ken’s talk, I was having such a good time meeting people that I would have liked to have stayed all afternoon, but it became clear that our son was really, really ready for us to leave. I still remember the drive home so vividly (the one that so many friends had described to me as them sobbing in the car all the way home after dropping off their kid at college.) But my heart was so full. I could not believe how blessed I felt and I couldn’t imagine leaving my child in better hands.

Sending a child to college is an emotionally charged event.

In addition to the inevitable changes in family dynamics, the media, friends, and acquaintances paint a terrifying picture of collegiate life as a “spiritual dead zone:” four years of debauchery as they pursue physical pleasure unfettered by any parental or adult supervision. What I have discovered, however, is that the bigger challenges students tend to face at U.Va. are things like living in a pressurecooker of perfectionism, over-achievement, competition, and ultimately figuring out who they want to become when they grow up. As they strive to navigate social and academic pressures, they are barraged with competing voices that scream that they don’t measure up, aren’t pretty enough, aren’t involved enough, and even the suffocating voice that they have ultimate agency to choose which version of themselves they want to be.

The Study Center provides space where students can simply exhale. They can face all of these pressures and ask themselves the tough questions with adults who are steady, reliable, theologically and intellectually sound, and truly committed to walking through these important years alongside our children.

I have been surprised by what the Study Center has meant to me over the years. I have made new friends and learned generosity and hospitality by observing those things done so well by the staff and volunteers at the Study Center. But mostly, I have learned—through first-hand observation and testimonies of students over the years—the importance of adults being willing to come alongside those who are in a different season of life to offer love, acceptance, perspective, and genuine hope in Jesus. God uses His people to do this and nowhere is it done more beautifully and intentionally than at the Study Center.

Linda Newsome Board Member, Parent ‘09, ‘13, ‘19

YOUR GIFTS MAKE THIS HAPPEN The Annual Fund seeks support from U.Va. alumni, parents, students, and community members through gifts made on a monthly, yearly, or one-time basis. Most of our services remain free of charge to the University and local community. The majority of this year’s ministry support (70%) comes from individuals who make gifts to the Annual Fund. Our goal this year is $865,075 STUDY CE NTE R NE WS LE TTE R DECE M BER 201 6 S PAG E 3

NOTES FROM OUR FAMILY “Through my first three years at U.Va., I’ve had busy semesters and I’ve had ones that were a slower pace. I’ve had semesters where all my classes were in health systems and ones where my classes were over in the Engineering School.

Extracurricular commitments, living locations, and friendships have all changed, as well. Through all of this change, the Study Center has been a constant. I’ve always felt welcome to walk through the front door.Whether I needed to get a project done, eat lunch, escape the rain, or just sit for a couple minutes between classes, I knew the Stud was mine to use. It’s been as much of a refuge for me as it has been a place of academic study.”

-Nick Asby, ENGR ‘17, Hospitality Intern

“Since starting college I have been exposed to a wide variety of worldviews and differences in beliefs, both inside and outside the Christian community. This has led me to ask more questions about my faith and further refine what I believe and why I believe it. Last spring, I participated in the Study Center’s Nature, Grace, and the Church reading group, which focused on church doctrine, creeds, confessions, and historical beliefs. The group taught me how to study church documents

in light of Scripture .

I learned that studying (and re-studying) and engaging with Scripture is a lifelong process that will continually grow and shape my faith and my love for Christ.”

-Margaret Veldman, CLAS ‘19

“It is so valuable to have a place like the Study Center where we can explore the depths of the Christian faith

across

denominational lines . The small groups that I have been a part of have been able to discuss theology in a group of Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christians in a way that allows us to delve more deeply than those conversations normally venture.

More than drawing out battle lines and entrenching views, the members of these groups have been able to

pursue Christ

and His truth as brothers and sisters.”

-Nate Smith, CSM Campus Minister

PAG E 4 S ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R D E C E M B E R 2016

“In the storm of academic life, the

“The Study Center is a beautiful

“College is such a formative time in

Study Center is a haven for our

expression of Christian hospitality.

the life of young adults. The Study

students. Much of what they do is

Students come with their questions,

Center is dedicated to rigorous

forward-looking:

hopes, doubts, and desires and are

Christian

they

help

give

welcome of

thought

met with the very

studies, vocation, and relationships.

Christ —either through their own

these students face. It creates a

But college is a rough time for many

peers or through the staff. In a

critical space for young men and

students. They need a place where

cultural context that is increasingly

women to

they can retreat and sometimes lick

marked by loneliness and alienation,

and

their wounds and the Study Center

the Study Center offers a place

truths of the gospel to their lives.

is a place where they can confidently

where students can become known

I wish I had a Study Center on my

seek and find restoration. ”

and relationally connected.”

campus when I was a student!”

-Robert Cunningham, RUF Campus Minister

to

the

attentive

students a biblical foundation for

-Lee Coppock, Board Member, U.Va. Professor

engagement

and

complexities

ref lect, question, practically apply the

-Kate Harris, Guest Lecturer

“I’ve had the incredible privilege of remaining a part of the Study Center community after graduation as a part of the Trinity Fellows Program. This fall, the Fellows took Bill Wilder’s seminary course, God and Vocation, alongside students in the Elzinga Residential Scholars Program. The course provided me with a deep and thorough biblical understanding for thinking about my vocation. Though many may think that the concept of vocation only applies to career choices, Bill emphasized that God intends something richer and fuller for His image-bearers.We are called to live as both priests and kings: to live a life in worship of our Creator, and to be agents of God’s goodness in this world.

I can approach my future career with both purpose and peace.”

-Nikki Perrier, CLAS ‘15, Trinity Fellows ‘16

“The Study Center places significant emphasis on

spiritual and theological

formation of students so that they are better prepared to serve God—both in their studies and in whatever capacity they are called to thereafter. As a law student, the Study Center continues to prepare me vocationally through its support of ministries like Law Christian Fellowship and through individual care of people like Fitz Green.

This theological formation has strengthened me spiritually through perhaps the most formative—and vulnerable—years of my life. I am most grateful for it.”

-Mark Gruetzmacher, CLAS ‘13, Law ‘17 ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R D E C E M B E R 2016 S PAG E 5

WILL YOU PARTNER WITH US THROUGH GIVING? Annual Fund Goal: $865,075 July 1, 2016-June 30, 2017

WHERE OUR SUPPORT COMES FROM: 70% ANNUAL FUND CONTRIBUTIONS 15% SERVICE REVENUE 10% ENDOWMENT INTEREST 5% RESTRICTED FUNDS REVENUE

Our operating budget for the 2016-17 academic year is $1.22 million. The Annual Fund provides 70% of the Study Center’s ministry support.

HOW THIS MONEY IS ALLOCATED: 39% UNDERGRADUATE OUTREACH 21% EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS 12% GENERAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES 10% ALUMNI AND PARENT RELATIONS 7% EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES 7% GRADUATE OUTREACH 4% FUNDRAISING

Expenditures are heavily weighted towards the Study Center’s primary missions of education and student ministry, which accounted for 84% of total expenses for 2015-16. These figures were provided by our accounting firm, Hantzmon Wiebel LLP, as part of our annual financial review.

PAG E 6 S ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R D E C E M B E R 2016

HOW TO GIVE:

1

SEND A CHECK Make checks payable to “Center for Christian Study.”

STUDY CENTER REMITTANCE ADDRESS: Center for Christian Study 128 Chancellor Street Charlottesville, VA 22903

2

DESIGNATE A GIFT THROUGH THE U.Va. FUND U.Va. alumni, parents, and students can support the Study Center by making a gift through the U.Va. Fund. This is a great way to set up monthly or quarterly giving.

U.Va. FUND ADDRESS: Attn: Margaret Anderson U.Va. Fund P.O. Box 400314 Charlottesville, VA 22904 Please write “Center for Christian Study” in the memo of your check.

3

4

MATCHING GIFTS Several employers match their employee’s contributions, enabling you to easily double or triple your gift to the Study Center! If you are a U.Va. alumni, parent, or student, the easiest way to do this is to give online through the U.Va. Fund.

GIVE ONLINE Arrange an online payment through your bank or visit our website and donate online using your credit card via PayPal.

For giving-related inquiries, please contact our Director of Administration and Development, Shelly Pellish: shelly@studycenter.net | (4 34) 817-1050 | www.studycenter.net

ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R D E C E M B E R 2016 S PAG E 7

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage

Center for Christian Study

PAID Charlottesville, Virginia Permit No. 144

128 C H A N C E L LO R ST R E E T, C H A R LOT T E S V I L L E , VA 22903 (434) 817 - 10 5 0 W W W. ST U DYC E N T E R . N E T A D D R E SS S E R V I C E R E Q U E ST E D

DECEMBER 8-10 + 12-15

Photo by Brittany Fan

Merry Exam Snacks!

Join us for studying and snacking at the Center for Christian Study throughout 2016 Finals Week. We anticipate hosting 175-350 students per snack, 2-3 times per day! If you are interested in serving at Exam Snacks, please contact Shelly Pellish, shelly@studycenter.net.