Dear Berean,
I am a Berea College alumna and an Appalachian woman from eastern Kentucky, so the bond between Berea College and my home region is deeply meaningful to me. With more than a century of shared history, Berea College and Appalachia are intricately woven together. The home you grow up in and the college you attend both do so much to shape your life, and having such a strong connection between the two is a true blessing. In fact, my time as a student at Berea was crucial in helping me understand my Appalachian identity more deeply.
My family and our life were Appalachian to the core. My father and all the men in my family worked as coal miners. We hunted for and processed our own meat and grew our own vegetables. I was raised in a holler, my grandfather made his own furniture, my father played the banjo, and I was baptized in a creek. In hindsight, it’s almost as though my family were ticking off an Appalachian checklist! But until I enrolled at Berea College, I had no idea that my family’s way of life might be considered special or unusual to much of the country.
When I arrived at Berea, I learned two surprising things: that the way of life I had considered “normal” growing up was in fact characteristic of a special regional culture that scholars devoted their lives to studying. I also learned that there were hundreds of students from the mountains who had grown up in very different situations from mine. In fact, before Berea I hadn’t even realized that my family’s tradition of quilting was common in Appalachia—I just thought of it as something functional that we put a little flair on.
Berea gave me opportunities to study my own culture in a rigorous academic way and develop a pride in my Appalachian roots that I had never experienced before. It helped me see the elements of Appalachian life to conserve and those that needed to change.
The story of Dani ’25 is much like mine. Like me, she grew up in an Appalachian family with a strong tradition of quilting. And just as Berea helped me connect with my roots and deepen my understanding of the culture I grew up in, it’s done the same for Dani. Her work position (all Berea students work at least 10 hours a week in more than 120 departments) is in Student Craft, where the opportunity to explore crafting traditions like quilting gives her a connection to home and family even while away at college. “I’m so happy that quilting is actually something we get to do, because that’s something I did before I got to Berea,” she said.
Student Craft gives Dani the opportunity to learn about and work with classic Appalachian crafting techniques and patterns, but that’s not all—it’s also given her the chance to create her own designs. This opportunity meant a lot to Dani. “Receiving feedback on how to make a design better and just getting to have that experience is something that I probably wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else,” said Dani. One of her favorite projects is a woven placemat and table runner set that she designed herself, based on the beautiful lakeside sunsets at a place dear to her heart.
Dani’s time at Berea has been crucial in helping her find herself and discover her path in life—the same gift that Berea provided me. Because of the opportunities Berea helps create, she was able to find her purpose. “Being here at Berea,” Dani said, “I was able to explore so many different pathways that all helped me narrow down not only a major but also an actual career path.”
At Berea, Dani had the opportunity to weave her own pattern—both in her crafting work, and also in her education and personal growth. Because of alumni and friends like you, that’s something Berea College offers all its students. Thank you for giving to Berea College. Because of your generosity, Appalachian students like me and Dani can not only learn from the patterns of the past but also piece together our own new designs for the future.
Gratefully,
Candis Arthur ’11
Associate Vice President of Philanthropy Operations
Berea College