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Old campus

Sharon Standard

Jaan Vaino at Columbia

Testimonies

Life After Yale: The View from Wall Street

If there is life in the “real” world after Yale College, odds would favor looking for it in the Wall Street district, where I have worked since 1972: you would scarcely believe the number of Yale graduates who come looking for life’s fulfillment in this corner of Manhattan.

The Power that Changed My Life

I had never seen a single picture of Yale when Phelps Gate welcomed me to the Old Campus. The man at the campus police switchboard supplied a key and steered me left of Harkness Tower to find Vanderbilt Hall, where I was assigned. Two large suitcases accompanied me across the sidewalks, and up four flights of stairs. Monday began the impressive whirl of registration, receptions, and course selection. Even the genuine ivy that nearly covered our living room windows seemed to say that I had arrived in the world.

From Gloom to Gladness: Why I Felt So New

I could hardly believe my ears when my friend asked if I would like to try “pot.” I was fifteen, very introverted and rather “straight”. But I was bored too, and ready for something new. “Why not,” I said. We stole a blown-glass water pipe from a Harvard Square shop and went to my friend’s house.

A Woman’s First Steps at Yale

It was the first year that Yale College had officially become coed. As an entering woman freshman, I was filled with the usual anxieties and expectations. How would I adjust to the social and academic pressures of college life? Though I had been away from home before, I had never been presented with so many opportunities and freedoms as at Yale, and I wanted to explore as much as possible.

The Daniel Voll Story – “I Took the Road Less Traveled By…”

An icy 16-degree night—the frozen sidewalk of 119th Street, New York—two husky men, one black, one white, in trench coats grab 20-year-old and force him kicking into car driven by woman—car rolls downhill with door wide open, youth’s head hanging out, pursued by 25 New Yorkers responding to desperate cries for help—driver goes through red light, is blocked by four police cars….

The Story That Changed My Life

Yale seemed to be the ideal place for a Good Samaritan, and I had already made a fairly earnest stab at filling that classic role. I’d gone to church regularly ever since I could remember. But, the only story I could understand was about the Good Samaritan. Though I didn’t realize it, I had settled what Christianity meant to me – it meant helping others.

Living For Applause

At Yale, I lived a lot on the surface of things. I suppose I had a good excuse. I was on the stage a lot. In one small production, I had the leading role. The producers advertised the play by plastering a dramatic black and white photo of me on posters everywhere. I couldn’t walk down a single street in central New Haven without seeing my image hanging from a lamppost.

Fulbright Blessing

In the former Czechoslovakia, conditions for Christianity and other religions were not favorable. The official and only reputable philosophy in the country was Marxism-Leninism. Basically, it is a pure materialism. All the schools taught it, from basic schools to graduate institutes. Religion was considered an “opium of mankind” (Karl Marx), used (abused) by rulers to rule, or more generally to exploit men. Religion was counted an obstacle to progress and a potentially dangerous tool to control public thinking.

On Baptism: Getting Thoroughly Wet…

The water took more and more of our legs as we stepped further out into the Atlantic. The rocks and sand below felt natural to my bare feet, and the saltwater, cool and clean. I never thought that I would be getting baptized, but a lot of changes had taken place since I had become a Christian.

Seeing is not Believing

I had always taken my sight for granted, but I was having problems seeing out of my right eye, so I thought to have it checked by my ophthalmologist. He checks my left eye, and it seems fine. He then spends a long time looking at my right eye. He tells me there’s blood inside my eye, and I should go see a specialist. At that point, I am getting nervous.

Fresh Faces: Found at Home

Not too long ago I was roughly where you are today. I was a Yale freshman unpacking on campus, feeling a bit overwhelmed but eager to seize my new opportunities. More than a year before, a thick acceptance packet arrived, but since I was headed to Russia as an exchange student, I deferred Yale admission for a year. But before I saw Russia, I met the unexpected at home.

Fresh Faces: Found at Yale

I viewed it as the weak way. I was above having to go to or trust someone else in order to live. But was I? My life was in shambles and on the brink of termination by suicide.

Dawning Faith

When I first came to Yale as a freshman, I thought God was going to make me the greatest doctor in the whole world. I must say I was very ambitious and enthusiastic. I was quickly absorbed into the intensive academic life at Yale, and soon I became entirely occupied with my studies. God was, if anything, one of the least concerns of my life. Although I considered myself a Christian, I did not like to talk about God.

When My Life Hit the Rocks

When my friends from Atlanta and I headed out for a weekend of backpacking in North Carolina, just two months after my graduation, we did not plan for the trip to end with three rescue squads air-lifting my unconscious body out of the Smoky Mountains.

Straight Talk for Koreans at Yale

The faith I thought I had did not help me in my first year at Yale…. Yale so proudly and alluringly offered a life separate from God, and I could not resist sampling it.

A Senior’s Epilogue: I Found the Way

Yale became important to me for the first time when my friend George was accepted here in April, 1964. George, voted “most likely to succeed” by his high school class, was to end his college education with a nervous breakdown from the pressures that he encountered at Yale. But before I became a freshman here in 1966, a revolutionary change took place in my life that gave me a purpose and confidence throughout my years at Yale.

Odyssey at Yale: From Start to Finish

At 6:30 in the morning of April 16, 1970, I received a telephone call from one of Yale’s alumni representatives, a sanguine, early rising doctor, in Spokane, Washington, my hometown. Looking at the world through drowsy, half-opened eyelids I heard him say: “You’ve been accepted.” Four months later I boarded the first airplane of my life and headed east to begin my college career.

Audition Kisses

Three Plays by Chekov were announced on the giant sign board leaning against the post office. It was early September, and I didn’t know that I could expect dozens more such advertisements throughout the year. The carefully painted message read “AUDITIONS: September 14th, 15th,” red letters dancing against purple, and I had to assume that these auditions were everything, that my about-to-bud career as an acting star hinged upon them.

An Unseen Voice

As a freshman coming to Yale last September, I decided to walk more closely with the Lord, because He loved me with an unconditional love. I wanted to love Him back by allowing Him to work in my life. All the same, I admit it wasn’t easy. I looked at my brothers and sisters in Christ for clues to find my own special gift.

Ruth’s Story

Not long ago, I heard a pastor speak on this story of the prodigal son…. The pastor lingered over the abundant love the father showed to his wretched son. To draw a comparison, the pastor told how his wife had urged him, as a father, to comfort his crying son with a hug.

The Other Face of Love

On humid summer trip days, taking my complaining sixth graders through the busy streets of New York City has often made me think of the Exodus of the Israelites through the wilderness to the Promised Land. In the face of physical hardship, my kids would become utterly irritated with each other, with the heat, weariness and thirst….

Getting to the Top

I’m sure many freshman did not arrive here at Yale by being lackadaisical about studies and future plans. I don’t know what the most important thing in your life is, but for a long time for me it was excellence—perfection, actually.

Storm-swept

I was walking down a steep hill. In less than a minute the sunshine vanished from between the clouds, and the Hudson River’s waters seemed dark and angry a little further downhill. “The storm’s begun!” I thought, and I was in the middle of it, lost.

Digging Down Deep

I had gone to church faithfully…. People looked up to me, gave me responsibility and talked about me as a “faithful Christian.” Yet there was something missing from my life. I knew that after the meetings ended, my heart was still empty and cold.

Medical School Migraine

As college students, we know selecting a major or future profession will affect our life’s course. God says He has a “chosen way” for each person, much like a father would have in mind a course best suited for his child. Many people would regard the idea of God having a specific plan for our lives as very confining. “Does that mean I have no freedom to choose what I want to do?”

My Answer Was, “Yes!”

I was born in a Christian home in Nigeria. But I did not fully understand it then, until shortly after I met Bill Roberts. Bill was a traveling secretary for the Scripture Union, living then in Nigeria. It was then that Bill visited me at my home and became my friend. I observed Bill’s lifestyle very closely and saw in him something I desired.

Sweet Water

I was pressed from every side. It was Thursday, December 15th, and my book review and music project were due the next day. I was glad that I had asked the Lord to help me not to be anxious because I knew that my old ways, how I thought and acted before I met Jesus, tended to “reappear” in times of stress. But as always He was faithful.

A Paratrooper’s Tale

On the bleak winter day that set it all in motion, I knew only one thing: my father was dead, and I had some fast growing up to do. I was 15, the eldest of three children, when my father had a heart attack and died. A woman relative took me aside at the funeral and said that as the number one son it was now up to me to become the man of the house.

A Mighty Long Way

My testimony to all: Well, let me start out with, ‘God is a great God!’ and the reason for this is, He’s brought me a mighty long way today. My life started as a child in horror. My father I never knew. My stepfather was an alcoholic. He was very abusive towards my mother. I watched terrible beatings all my life.

Israel’s God Won My Gentile Heart

I was shocked when my Jewish teaching assistant said to me, “Aren’t Christians God’s chosen people now instead of the Jews?” He was equally surprised when I responded, “No, the Jews are always God’s special, chosen people. Jews will always hold a special place in His heart.”

Spring Thaw

Spring is here. Volleyball players set up their nets on CCL Lawn, soccer players take out their cleats, mothers take walks with tots in strollers. Cafes and eateries spill out onto the sidewalks and clothing stores display their merchandise to passers-by. And the Yale student getaways—the quiet courtyards, New Haven Green, the Divinity School grounds, Albertus Magnus, East Rock, Sleeping Giant, and others—regain their popularity.

As Seen By Napoleon: Jesus, the Incomparable

In his final exile on the Isle of St. Helena, looking back on the tumultuous events of his life, Napoleon said about Jesus, “I know men, and I tell you, Jesus is not a man. He commands us to believe, and gives no other reason than his awful word, I AM GOD.

How I Found God at Columbia

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“Christ is the only, the true, the living way of access to God. Give up yourselves, therefore, to Him with a cordial confidence and the great work of life is done.”

Timothy Dwight