C. Katherine and M. Pauline Yoder Scholarship

Sisters Kathryn and Pauline Yoder knew they were interested in teaching, but who could have predicted they would teach a combined total of 72 years in Ohio and Indiana? That interest was planted in their early childhoods, nurtured at Goshen College, and came to full flower during those years of service and hard work in the classroom. And it’s flourishing still. Kathryn and Pauline have established a scholarship fund to help future teachers acquire an education at Goshen College. These young people would do well to look to Pauline and Kathryn as models.

Kathryn was born in West Liberty, Ohio on November 5, 1916. Following graduation from high school, she was undecided about the college she would attend. However, a conversation with Goshen’s President S. C. Yoder at a Sunday School Conference, convinced her to choose Goshen College. For three years she took a Christian Workers course. At the end of her junior year she decided to work towards a degree in elementary education. She began her teaching career in a two—room country school near Celina, Ohio. After two years she was fortunate to be located nearer home, teaching in Logan County. In total she taught nineteen years in Ohio and twenty in Indiana.

Pauline was born fourteen months later than Kathryn, on January 22, 1918. Her early childhood goal was to become a school teacher. In fact, she established a private kindergarten in her home before attending Goshen College. Prior to enrolling at Goshen College, she attended the Ontario Mennonite Bible School, later transferring to Goshen College and graduating in 1946. During summers she continued her undergraduate work at both Goshen College and Ohio State University, and after moving to Indiana, completed her B. A. degree in the class of 1960. While at Goshen, she worked in the kindergarten lab during its first year of operation. Her career encompassed 12 years of first and second grade, and one year of kindergarten teaching in Ohio, and the balance of her 33-year-total, teaching kindergarten in Indiana. During this time, Pauline was vice president of the Association for Childhood Education in Indiana, and in this role developed the slide presentation “Let’s Visit Kindergarten,’ which was produced and sold throughout the country.

Pauline and Kathryn both received their master’s degrees in education from Ball State University.

Both Kathryn and Pauline have been actively involved over the years in many aspects of church work. Workshops and conferences on teacher education which they attended have proved applicable to both school and church related activities. Their profound interest in teacher education served them in their own work, and, through this scholarship fund, will serve students and teachers alike in years to come.