Lloyd and Verda Hershberger Good Elementary Education Scholarship

Verda Hershberger was born in Nappanee, Indiana in 1920 and attended Goshen College in 1937 – 1939, earning a 2-year Elementary Teacher Training Diploma that qualified her to be a school teacher in the State of Illinois.  She taught in a series of one-room schoolhouses in Illinois and Indiana for several years until marrying her husband, Lloyd Good.  While Lloyd was fulfilling his CPS service (an alternative to military service for conscientious objectors) in Wisconsin during WWII, Verda taught preschool in public schools in Madison, and then established a preschool program in a local church.

When the war ended, Lloyd and Verda began farming near Rantoul, Illinois.  Even in this very rural environment, Lloyd and Verda were very conscious of a much wider world, often hosting foreign graduate students at their farm from nearby University of Illinois for Sunday dinners and following the efforts of missionaries and voluntary service workers around the world.  After raising four children, Verda returned to teaching, this time as a remedial reading educator under the newly established Title I Reading Program.  She completed her Bachelor’s degree in education at the University of Illinois in 1973.

Verda’s years as a reading teacher were especially rewarding for her as she was able to work one-on-one with many students and help them overcome their struggles with developing reading skills.  Even in retirement she was active in educating students.  During the years of immigration of many Vietnamese families after the end of the Vietnam war, she regularly tutored their children, helping them both with their English language skills as well as their reading skills. This life-changing impact on so many students throughout Verda’s life as a teacher motivated the establishment of this scholarship in memory of her work.