{"id":3085,"date":"2016-01-13T10:27:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T15:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/?p=3085"},"modified":"2016-12-22T11:38:42","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T16:38:42","slug":"some-connecticut-yankees-in-emus-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2016\/01\/13\/some-connecticut-yankees-in-emus-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Connecticut Yankees in EMU’s Support"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Todd

Todd and Diann Bailey came to know EMU through their sons Ben ’12 and Nate ’14.<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s sort of a long and strange story, <\/strong>warns Diann Bailey, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC) who ministers in Suffield, Connecticut, and lives with her husband Todd in Granby, an adjacent town. The story goes like this:<\/p>\n

Some years ago, it came time for Ben, the oldest of the Baileys\u2019 two sons, to think about college. His interest in peace studies of some sort guided their first forays into that good old \u201ccollege search.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around this time, the youth group at the Baileys’ church (they were then attending a different UCC congregation in Simsbury, another nearby town) was planning a mission trip to Atlanta. The trip was arranged through an organiza\u00adtion called DOOR, which belongs to the Mennonite Mission Network.<\/p>\n

In the process of planning the trip, the Baileys\u2019 youth minister learned more about Mennonites and became aware that the Mennonites have several colleges that heav\u00adily emphasize peace studies. Knowing that this was key to Ben\u2019s college search, the youth minister passed the Baileys \u2013 who then knew nothing about Mennonites aside from some vague Amish associations \u2013 a tip to check out Goshen College.2<\/p>\n

With Goshen atop the list, Ben, his younger brother Nate, and Diann headed off to Atlanta for the mission trip. While there, they heard good stuff about another Mennonite place called EMU, so after returning home, they set up a campus visit.<\/p>\n

The admissions interview went as well as any admissions interview could go; immediately afterwards, Ben said he was coming to EMU. They\u2019d already set up a few other col\u00adlege visits to make the long trip worthwhile, but after EMU, they were just going through the motions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just one of those things where we just knew. This was the college,\u201d recalls Diann.<\/p>\n

Two years later, when Nate was ready for his own college search, Ben called him and told him not to bother. EMU was the place for him. Ben graduated in 2012 and now works at EMU (he is married to Hannah Beachy ’12 Bailey<\/strong>); Nate finished up in 2014.<\/p>\n

After Ben\u2019s first year, Diann and Todd \u2013 who works in real estate finance for UBS Realty \u2013 were invited to join EMU\u2019s Parent Council. Through this experience, the Baileys learned more about the \u201cinner workings\u201d of the university where both their sons thrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community and friendships that both boys made are very deep and strong,\u201d says Todd. \u201cCommunity building and education are really important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Baileys have continued to support the university after their sons\u2019 graduations. They\u2019re excited about things like EMU\u2019s cross-cultural programs, the annual School for Lead\u00adership Training held at the seminary, and the work of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding; they\u2019re grateful that a series of coincidences during the college search brought them and EMU together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not just supporting the university. We\u2019re supporting future leaders \u2013 from local leaders to global leaders \u2013 and it\u2019s grounded in our own faith tradition,\u201d says Diann. \u201cWe are called to be peacemakers and love one another and reach out to those in need. EMU\u2019s doing all of that and more!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s sort of a long and strange story, warns Diann Bailey, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC) who ministers in Suffield, Connecticut, and lives with her husband Todd in Granby, an adjacent town. The story goes like this: Some years ago, it came time for Ben, the oldest of the Baileys\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":3129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[674,6],"tags":[696,715],"class_list":["post-3085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-winter-2015-16","category-magazine","tag-diann-bailey","tag-peacebuilding","issues-fall-winter-2015-16"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3085"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3130,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3085\/revisions\/3130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}