All religious educational institutions are experiencing growth with the
clear exception of Catholic schools. Seventh-day Adventist schools are
growing as projected.
According to www.nadeducation.org (the official website providing
enrollment information regarding Seventh-day Adventist educational
institutions), all projected enrollment figures are becoming reality.
The total for enrollment in SDA schools in North America is 79,369
students. This includes K-12 through college/university levels.
K-8 SDA schools are experiencing a projected small decline in enrollment
but 9-12 and college and university enrollment is way up.
More than 1.5 millions students attend SDA schools worldwide, making the
SDA schools one of the most influential of all religious schools.
The success of SDA schools is echoed around the world. The Polish
College of Theology and Humanities in Poland has surpassed its own
enrollment projections. The college, is now the largest Adventist
institution of higher learning in Europe, partners with privately and
publicly owned schools that provide facilities, advertising, local
management and some teaching staff. The college operates five satellite
campuses, or “institutes,” throughout Poland.
This type of growth is typical in the US and around the world.
Homosexuality is not tolerated in the SDA Church or in its educational
institutions. This is what prompted GLBT SDA’s to found
www.sdakinship.org.
SDA Kinship provides to support to those coming from an SDA background.
Self-acceptance is paramount.
Many of the students who have come to HeartStrong over the past decade
come from SDA schools. There are so many students injured during their
time in these school environments.
Like students from Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Jewish and other
religious schools, SDA students are not to be forgotten in their
struggles to find self-acceptance.
The statistics provided in this newsletter are not here to show the
impossibility of reaching everyone but rather to show you our confirmed
commitment to reach one more student as often as we can with what we are
given to do it.
HeartStrong’s financial resources are enormously smaller than those of
these schools. Andrews University, an SDA university in Michigan not
only announced exploding growth, but on April 12, announced a $8.5
million private donation to the university. Andrews University does not
have a non discrimination OR non harassment policy on the books for GLBT
students. A university which also includes in teaching materials the
fallacy that homosexuality stems from sexual abuse.
While HeartStrong has never raised a full year’s support for any one
year, the outreach programs developed and implemented continue to make a
difference in the lives of students who hear the message of hope and
help.
