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Annual Report 2006

Strategic Step #3: Reconcile cultures and races.

Students

Success story: Linking with an urban community
For nine years, Bethel has teamed up with leaders of a low-income St. Paul community known as Frogtown/Summit-University (FSU), an area with a high population of young immigrant families. Bethel students like Mike Ernst work as after-school tutors, student teachers, child care workers, agency interns, and next-door neighbors, seizing opportunities to serve one-on-one. "Schools have to rely on human assets to fill the gaps left by funding shortages," says the principal of the school where Ernst mentors 16- to 20-year olds. In return, FSU residents enrich Bethel students with a wider perspective, providing opportunities for true reconciliation. The partnership is a candidate for The Rosalyn and Jimmy Carter Award for Campus-Community Collaboration.

Due to recent world events, our nation is making it a higher priority to understand other cultures. But Scripture has always compelled Christians to do so. Reconciliation with our Creator and one another is God's one-item agenda. The issue is right here on our doorstep. Students of color will account for 80 percent of college enrollment growth through 2012, and all graduates will live in a global society. Christian campuses must be models of reconciliation, integrating multicultural leadership, faculty, curriculum, and student services.

Bethel Steps Ahead

  • The 25-member Bethel Anti-Racism and Reconciliation Commission, appointed by the president and board of trustees, works strategically to make Bethel thoroughly anti-racist in its policies and campus environment. National church and business leaders who are African-American, Hispanic, and Asian serve as trustees and Foundation Board members. Anti-racism training is conducted for all Bethel employees.
  • Academics are changing to strengthen students' intercultural competencies. In 2006, entering students will be required to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language and participate in a cross-cultural experience in order to graduate. Besides French, German, and Spanish offerings, courses in Mandarin Chinese and Swedish will be options for study.
  • Bethel offers a robust Off-Campus/International Studies program, with more than 360 students participating this year. "Christians can be the cultural interpreters in our world," says Associate Dean Vincent Peters, who directs the program. Semesters are available at more than 20 affiliated schools abroad, and for many the cost is the same as a term at Bethel.
  • A year after launching one of the first Christian college degrees in reconciliation studies, more than 60 students have chosen to major or minor in the program, learning to solve racial, cultural, and ethnic strife through biblical principles. Students spend a semester at Cornerstone Christian College in South Africa, participating in the reform of that post-apartheid culture.
  • Bethel Seminary's locations near such ethnically diverse cities as Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and San Diego serve student bodies that are more than 45 percent non-white. In St. Paul, a lively network of campus organizations works with full-time staff in the Office of Diversity to sponsor multicultural luncheons, student dinners and retreats, reconciliation chapels, and other means of welcoming and supporting students of color while helping all Bethel community members celebrate God's gift of cultural diversity.
   
Munya

We are reconcilers– honoring the worth and dignity of people from all races.


"Bethel was a wonderful growing experience," said Munyaradzi (Munya) Chimukangara of Zimbabwe, who plans to study medicine in graduate school. "I was able to do well in a number of things. [Bethel] was also a place where I could develop relationships with faculty and other students. The Office of Student Life was a good support network."

Strategic Steps