The Institute for GOD to launch new “Professional Development” (ProDev) program in Fall 2023, offering students a way to pay for college and graduate with a guaranteed job offer. 

Since The Institute for GOD began in 2004, President Gregg Garner has held to the conviction that students should be given a quality biblical education without accruing the debt that he and many of his friends accumulated as a result of attending private Christian colleges and universities. 

For many years, The Institute was able to meet this goal by offering very low tuition prices, made possible by the sacrificial efforts of faculty and staff. 

In 2011, President Garner created strategic business partnerships that allowed the Institute to offer flexible jobs to students to help them afford their education, maintaining the goal of graduating students debt free. 

About four years ago, The Institute raised tuition prices to better reflect the value the students received, as well as to attend to the additional expenses brought on by growth, including new faculty and staff and a brand new facility. This was offset by generous scholarship packages, the continued sacrificial efforts of faculty and staff, plus the flexible jobs offered to students by partnering businesses.  

Each of these initiatives has enabled The Institute to keep a 100% success rate of graduating students with zero college debt. 

This year, we will formally launch the Professional Development (ProDev) program, the latest iteration of this mission to graduate students debt free, developed and initiated by President Garner. 

ProDev is a unique work-and-learning opportunity that connects skills gained in the workplace with the biblical ethics derived in the classroom. Incoming students in the Fall of 2023 can participate in the optional program that plugs them into Christian workplaces where they gain experience alongside Christian businesses and mentors, acquire job skills and experience, and integrate their biblical education into various occupational fields. Participation in ProDev guarantees both cash in students’ pockets through employment and access to the ProDev scholarship, enabling them to pay for college without accruing debt. 

The occupational experience gained in ProDev connects with The Institute’s “Occupational Focuses,” which each student chooses, whether on a Biblical Studies or Community Development degree path. Each occupational focus graduates a student with a certification or something equivalent within their respective field, making the student eligible for jobs. For example, if a student’s occupational focus is Human Resources, then they would graduate with not only their degree in Biblical Studies but also a certification in Human Resources by a nationally recognized organization in the Human Resources field.

In short, Professional Development does three important things for a student: 

1. It provides a way for a student to afford their education. Participants in ProDev qualify for the most significant scholarship offered to students at $12,625 a year. Students also work and earn an hourly wage, allowing them to pay other costs of living.

2. It gives them the resume for a specific career path in a particular field, making them job ready while obtaining a Bible education.

3. It guarantees a job offer after graduation. Upon graduation, students who successfully complete ProDev and The Institute’s academic program are guaranteed a full-time job offer within their certification and career path.

ProDev doesn’t only save students money. It saves them time. An undergraduate degree takes most Americans six years to complete, before they begin exploring the job market. In the ProDev model, students gain familiarity with a future career as early as their first year. This program helps them identify what occupation is a good fit before graduation, not after. That way, students can graduate and enter the workforce they feel confident God called them into, with professional perspective and job experience already under their belts.

Many college programs prepare students in the classroom but not the workplace.

The Institute does both. Our academic and professional development programs hold hands to produce its mission: “spiritually mature, competent professionals for global impact.” 

The ProDev program is integral to the overarching mission of The Institute. There’s a lot more going on in the ProDev program than just connecting students with jobs. The skills students learn in these curated work opportunities will develop their ability to effectively serve God in the workplace and on the mission field. 

We believe that the skills learned in a supportive work environment – such as communication, cooperation, professionalism, and work ethic – are necessary for Christian service. 

Along with these highly valuable soft skills, students will also learn skills related to their field. In the developing world, skills like construction, marketing, and entrepreneurship are often needed to make an impact. 

Not all first-year college students know what occupational path they’d like to take, so students hone their career focus over time. Students can explore up to four different work opportunities in their first year. In their second year, they’ll narrow it to two. In their third year, they will choose one area of focus. By their senior year and approaching graduation, students may even have the opportunity to be hired into an official full-time position. 

Students will benefit from regular ProDev meetings to discuss how their biblical education intersects with their workplace experiences and monthly “DevTalks” where Institute alumni share necessary professional skills.  

The job opportunities help students acclimate to business culture and expectations. Still rooted in the Scriptures, the academic program teaches students how to become professionals who honor Christ in everything they do. 

ProDev would not be possible without the many successful alums who graduated from The Institute. With alums in construction, health care, maternal health, hospitality, food service, media, accounting, HR, education, tech, film, and more, current students can glean from the hard work and dedication of countless alums who have chosen to bring God’s illumination into a variety of occupational fields. 

Sources

Nika Anschuetz, Waynesburg University. “Breaking the 4-year Myth: Why Students are Taking Longer to Graduate.” USA Today. Dec. 16 2015. https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2015/12/16/breaking-the-4-year-myth-why-students-are-taking-longer-to-graduate/37409747/

Mariah Stewart. “The Average Student Takes Six Year sto Earn a Four-Year Degree. Some States, Schools, and Organizations are Working to Change That.” Insight into Diversity. May 19, 2020. https://www.insightintodiversity.com/the-average-student-takes-six-years-to-earn-a-four-year-degree-some-states-schools-and-organizations-are-working-to-change-that/

Jon Marcus. “Most college students don’t graduate in four years, so college and the government count six years as “success,”” The Hechinger Report. October 10, 2021.

https://hechingerreport.org/how-the-college-lobby-got-the-government-to-measure-graduation-rates-over-six-years-instead-of-four/