Posts by Saloma Furlong
A Pennsylvania Dutch Story
Today I bring you a piece that was originally published at the DailyCal by Eythana Miller titled The fastest growing American language you’ve never heard of. Eythana grew up in Northwest Montana in a traditional Amish community that slowly modernized as she was growing up. She moved to California at 17 and is set to…
Read MoreThe Hope in Me by Katie Miller
Katie Miller and I have been in touch over the months since the Symposium at Elizabethtown College. She was not able to attend, though she has offered part of her story to publish on the blog. Today I continue the series of former Amish who went on to college after leaving their respective communities. I…
Read MoreBridging Two Worlds
When I was living in Pennsylvania, I met Ruth, who has become a dear friend. She is warm, loving, insightful, and brilliant. She is a wife, a mother of five, teacher of sign language, a grower of roses, builder of a “she-shack” (along with her mother) and an assembler of a vintage bubble Scotty mobile…
Read MoreRose Fisher: From an Amish Childhood to a PhD in Linguistics
Today I return to the theme of stories from others who found their way to college from an Amish education. At the symposium at Elizabethtown College in June, there was a group of us who had struggled a great deal before we found our way to college partly because we were recovering from an abusive…
Read MoreA New “Outlook” and a Wedding
David and I have been busily taking on house projects. The most complicated one yet was installing a new window in our master bedroom. When the house was built in 1987, it was common for windows in bedrooms to be small. And these were. The one we replaced was tucked into the far corner of…
Read MoreWelcome to the Shores of Crystal Lake
I am not writing this while on vacation. I’m writing it from our new home in northern Vermont. I have very much enjoyed bringing you stories from others who have left a Plain community and found their way to college and beyond. I will continue to do so as they come in, plus I will…
Read MoreStepping off the Tightrope: A Journey of Faith, Struggle, and Redemption, Part 2
You can read Part 1 of this story here. This is Part 2 of 2: By Marilyn Coblentz When I was nineteen, I received a phone call that completely shook my world. My 17-year-old brother Joel was in a car accident and had died at the scene. As I traveled the road from Ohio to…
Read MoreStepping off the Tightrope: A Journey of Faith, Struggle, and Redemption
Today I bring you Part 1 of a story: By Marilyn Coblentz I was born in the hollows of Virginia. My parents met at a children’s home on the other side of the mountain and when they got married and started raising their young family, they chose to stay with the church community there. In…
Read MoreUnveiling the Unseen: Navigating Obstacles and Opportunities on the Way to College–Part 2
Today I bring you the second half of Naomi’s story. You can read the first part here. By Naomi Clark, PhD Taking Ownership of My Literacy Leaving the Fold A few years after finishing high school, I moved with my family to western Oklahoma. In keeping with the tradition, I was ein großes Mäd who…
Read MoreUnveiling the Unseen: Navigating Obstacles and Opportunities on the Way to College–Part 1
Today I bring you another triumphant story of someone who grew up in a Plain community where education was used as a means of social discipline and how she found her way to college and beyond. The joy is obvious in Naomi’s story of how she thrived with an education designed for self and professional…
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