Picture this: You're a college freshie. New meat primed for roasting, cooking, grilling, frying up for God's banquet. The only question is, WHICH of those ways will you choose to be prepared? You're at a community college, getting all your gen eds done for much cheaper (smart idea, BTW), but are heavily considering transferring... but to WHERE?
If you rewound my life's metaphorical VHS tape back two years, that's what you would have seen. I was a young and somewhat naive freshie, had visited several Christian colleges, even a couple secular ones, mostly in-state, a few out of state. Here are a few I looked at:
Regent, St. Vincent's, Waynesburg, Messiah, and Geneva. (Mostly in-state, as said, but when we were down south visiting extended family, we hit a few southern colleges/unis on the way, too.) My top three picks? From least to greatest: Waynesburg, Geneva, Messiah.
Messiah was at the top of my list for a very long time; and don't get me wrong, this is NOT a college or uni bash post where I lam-blast other schools. I nearly chose Messiah for several reasons, including bigger and more advanced facilities, better study abroad programs, better and more extensive things to do (i.e., a MOVIE THEATER on campus....), more majors, etc. However, the more I thought and prayed about my decision, which was something I often did on long nature walks with God on ACM's little college-side nature trail, the more I felt Him gently tugging me away from Messiah.
I didn't fully realize it at until I started going to Geneva College that it was exactly where God wanted me to be. Here's why:
1. The people. Although I'm certain there are very nice, great people at ALL colleges and unis if you look for them, at Geneva I found out there are AWESOME people ALL over campus. Everyone is super friendly, considerate, and helpful. Need a late-night vent? They've got you covered. Arms too full to open that door? Most people will gladly help you. They are thoughtful, caring, and wonderful. Most of all, they are REAL. They don't put on plastic, fake smiles and pathetically phony-nice personas to greet prospective new students. They are the real thing.
2. The professors. An old acquaintance of mine once claimed there was no real difference between TEACHERS and PROFESSORS ("Professors PROFESS knowledge; teachers TEACH." Um, yeah, pretty sure that's almost the same thing, unless a Humanities Professor corrects me on that. LOL). Although I don't think that that's necessarily true, I will say outright that teachers AND professors are some of the most delightful people I've been privileged enough to get to know, and Geneva professors are certainly no exception. They work hard to help you learn to the best of your ability, and make the effort to get to know you both inside and outside of class. Nearly all will start off class time with prayer, asking for prayer requests or praises, and will show genuine concern if a student's particularly struggling with something; they are always there for students and I LOVE my professors and being friends with them. :) (In fact, I'm still friends with some of the professors that I no longer HAVE as professors.)
3. The community. What really drew me in is the community at Geneva College; it reminded me immensely of my late public school, Kingwood Elementary: they were like a family, always encouraging, helping, and supporting one another. (Additional bonus: free and confidential counseling. Beautiful and helpful.) People are crazy-supportive at sporting events and even fundraisers. The community atmosphere as a whole is really tight-knit; the classes are even a LOT smaller and more personal than they would be if I had, say, attended a much larger university. This affords more one-on-one with the professors, better knowledge of the material, and thus, a higher success rate in class overall.
4. The Academic Challenge. Geneva's motto is, "Accept the Challenge." They really do pick your brain on a LOT of different things (ESPECIALLY in courses like Humanities and Intro to Literary Study and Research), and are always pushing you to do better, go harder, be a stronger, better student, person, and Christian. This is one of the main reasons I wanted to attend this college: I wanted to grow academically.
5. The Spiritual Growth. I'm sure at most colleges/unis, if you really dug, you could find some group or Bible study where you could dig in and get support. But really, for me, I NEED spiritual support. Like the WHOLE way around my whole life. Growing in my faith is the other main factor of my college decision, and, while I felt most colleges were well-intentioned when it came to things like that, they never really, well... hit home for me. Not like Geneva. Geneva was the ONLY one that struck me as REALLY sincere in really helping students grow in their spiritual lives as much as their academic ones, and that drew me like a magnet.
6. The rules are both laid-back and reasonable. They aren't out of reason or out of the ballpark so much as you'd deliberately WANT to break them, and they're generally pretty lax on most things. No dress code, although they prefer you dress modestly (most folks I know do.). No curfew, although they do have quiet hours for those who like to go to bed early/for those who like to sleep in; they also have "open hours" (basically, you're allowed to hang out in your friends-of-the-opposite-gender's rooms from sometime in the morning to 1 am, on the weekends, that sort of thing. Oh, and if someone the opposite gender's in your room, door needs to be open a certain amount, lights on, and you both can't be lying down. Just common sense stuff. :) ). Campus security prowls around if truly necessary on safety things. Honestly, the ONLY rule I can really think of that'd I'd consider to be "unreasonable" is no dancing on campus (because some bozo ruined that for us long ago...); however, I often have "private, in-your-dorm-only" dances, and they often sponsor events like Christian concerts and such that encourage dancing and praising God with it (my guess is that not all faculty are for that rule, either. :) Yaaaaaaayyyy).
7. They are unafraid to stand up for God and for what is right. As evidenced in our fight against a terrible federal mandate that demanded we back down and permit employers at the college to be given contraceptives THROUGH the college, we will not bow to peer pressure or cruel laws that openly go against God, His Word, and the life He has gifted each and every fearfully and wonderfully made person. And that is something I deeply, deeply admire.
8. Bonus: The food's pretty good. Granted, there ARE mixed reviews about food at Geneva (especially Alex's, our cafeteria), but it's generally pretty good. I love their fish nuggets, their Belgian waffles, their rotisserie chicken, and their skillet-made bacon and mac and cheese (The last is bae.), to name a few. We also serve Starbucks coffee in Riverview Cafe, next to the Brig, for coffee lovers (I am not, but I know several people who are), and the Brig (a grab-and-go eating place, aside from Alex's), where they often have special menus cooked up every now and then (i.e., Chik-Fil-A Day, on Tuesdays' lunch.).
Overall, I love my college, and all the crazy awesome people and things about it, and I thank God that I wouldn't trade it for the world. Lord, as Hollyn would say, You know me so well!
