Is EMU worth the money?

With an extra $25,000 in my pocket this year I could buy a decent car, make a down-payment on a house, or travel a large portion of the world. But instead, I am spending $25,000 to attend EMU.

It would be irresponsible not to question whether this is a worthy investment.

For seniors in high school, the time comes to decide where to attend college, assuming that the individual is going to college. During my senior year, I was deciding between Hesston College and the University of Oregon.

According to a USA Today report in Aug. 2002, I would have paid $10,646 for both tuition and room & board my freshman year of college. Instead, I decided to go to Hesston College, where I paid $17,998. Neither of these figures include the cost of textbooks or other miscellaneous fees. Plus, these figures don't take into account the money spent on plane tickets to get to and from Wichita, Kan. four times a year.

The prices go up for full-time undergraduate tuition at EMU. This year the cost is $19,500. In addition, room & board is an additional $5,950, creating a grand total of $25,450.

Granted not all of this money comes directly out of my pocket, but the principle still exists. $25,000, made up of money from my family, scholarships, grants, and student loans went to Hesston College for one year of undergraduate education. And the trend has continued every year I've been in school since.

Clearly there are many questions that arise when deciding if this is a worthy investment. I have questions as to whether leaving college with a $45,000 debt is 'worth it.' It's taken some time, but I've found three reasons that it is.

Hesston had an undergraduate student body of about 400 my freshman year. For me, this was perhaps the most valuable asset. I attended public high school, and arrived at Hesston with poor social skills, low self-esteem, and a naive view of the world.

I never visited before hitting campus that fall, and entered a state of shock once I realized it wasn't going to be easy to make it feel like home. But I persevered, and ultimately grew more in those two years than I ever would have if I'd remained close to home.

When I'd be walking on the sidewalk, nearly everyone I passed by would at the very least smile if not say hello. How often does this happen at state schools? Because the student body was so small, I believe we developed community as perhaps no other college can. I probably knew the names of everyone in my class, if not the whole school. Plus, I was given leadership roles during my first two years of school that would have to wait until the third or fourth years at a bigger school.

Second, I know and call each of my teachers by their first names. We don't realize how strange this is to our state school peers. There's the danger of students losing respect for the professors, but I think it ultimately enhances the learning process by encouraging dialogue between teachers and students.

But perhaps the greatest attribute of a Mennonite college is the faith-based education we receive. As a social work major, I was attracted to EMU because my faith is what attracts me to social work as a profession. I desire to be educated with a Mennonite perspective because of the traditional emphasis on social justice and service.

The classes I've taken at Mennonite colleges, such as Biblical Literature and Peacemaking and Justice, influenced and inspired my faith in very unique ways. They helped expand my ethnocentric worldview to see things on such a larger scale.

My experience at Hesston coupled with my term of Mennonite Voluntary Service instilled in me a passion for social justice. These experiences have convinced me that social work, leading into possible counseling or seminary is where God has called me and has been preparing me for my entire life.

I could have gone to school back home for a lot less money. But in my case, discovering my calling in life was worth so much more. I still get the chills when I think of paying off my student loans, but I have to truly believe that this is how it's supposed be. I have no reason not to when I look at all I've gained from my Mennonite education.