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On any given day, a few hundred students will walk through the

front door of our building on Chancellor Street. Each student comes with a purpose — to attend a small group, study in the library, find a staff member, meet with a Grounds minister, grab a fresh cup of coffee. Each student also comes with a need. This is why we love working here.

In so many ways the Study Center serves as a gathering spot for people coming from various corners of the University —undergraduates, Grounds ministers, grad students, faculty members, alumni. In the heart of a fraternity and sorority neighborhood and steps away from

Jefferson’s University, the Center is a focal point for a ministry and ministry partnerships that offer the love and truth of Christ to all who come through the door.

But the Study Center’s ministry extends well beyond the walls of our building or even those places we meet on North Grounds. Those who come to the building don’t stay here — not even our residents. At some point they head back out the door, back to their sorority houses and dorms, to the library or the South Lawn, to a faculty office or a science lab. And they take with them the things they learned, the ways in which they have grown, the relationships that have been fostered at the Center for Christian Study. They take with

them God’s good work in their lives through His good work in this place.

Those of us at the Study Center have the privilege to see, from the front row, how God is at work in these lives. But we would be remiss if we didn’t give you a chance to share in these stories as well. So we have asked a few people from different corners of the University to tell in their own words how the Study Center has made an impact on their lives. We hope that you will read the following pages as a testament to God’s good work in the Study Center, on the U.Va. Grounds, and beyond.

The Center at a Glance

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Bill WilderExecutive Director

Jay McCabeDirector of Undergraduate Ministries

Tim McConnellDirector of Graduate Ministries

Shelly PellishDirector of Development,

Alumni & Parent Relations

debbie RodriguezDirector of Finance & Administration

Ashley WootenDirector of Communications

Amy ZellDirector of Counseling Resources

The Annual Fund seeks support from U.Va. alumni, parents, students and community members through gifts made on a monthly, yearly or one-time gift basis. Most of our University and community services remain free of charge and we do not receive funding from the University of Virginia. The majority of this year’s operating support comes from individuals who make gifts to the Annual Fund. Our goal this year is $681,410.

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The Annual Fund

Gifts to the Study Center affect lives in every corner of the University. The following pages present a few glimpses of how.

If you had the opportunity to meet second-year student Natalie Kirchner, you

would meet someone who is full of life, who loves people, who has a heart for evangelism, who is growing in her faith and knowledge of Scripture, and whose life has been changed by Christ.

Natalie grew up in Fairfax, Virginia, and while she didn’t regularly attend church, she learned a lot about Christianity by observing the lives of close friends who were believers.

“Believing in something I couldn’t see did not come easily to me. I had a lot of questions and was searching for answers. I wanted to believe in God, because I saw that his believers were different. There was a hope that glimmered in my friends’ eyes that I didn’t feel or see in other people.” Over time, she attended church with friends and began to call herself a Christian, but it wasn’t until she came to U.Va., where she got involved with the Study Center and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, that she says Jesus

became Lord and Savior of her life.

Just as others saw hope in her, Natalie has a heart for her friends here at U.Va. who are not believers. She feels blessed to be surrounded by great Christian community, especially being one of 12 girls living in the Yellow House as part of the Elzinga Residential Scholars Program, but her heart longs to see her unbelieving friends find their identity rooted in Christ.

Natalie chose to be in the

residential program this year because she wanted to be a part of intentional Christian community and to grow in her Christian knowledge. “The classes are incredible! I hope to continue learning how to interpret the Bible because I have learned already this year how elegant and beautiful it is the way the Bible weaves in and out of itself and picks up old metaphors — it is AMAZING. I love the way I can sit with Bill Wilder or Jay McCabe and ask the same questions that were plaguing me in high school.”

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nATAlie KiRChneRUNDERGRADUATE STUDENT, RESIDENT

“The Study Center has shaped the way I think about my faith in light of my academic calling by first of all reminding me that academics are relevant to my faith. As a

relational person, it can be very easy to think that relationships are most important and schoolwork can fall by the wayside. The Study Center focuses on the bridge

between the academic and the spiritual.”

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She says, “The Study Center has shaped the way I think about my faith in light of my academic calling by first of all reminding me that academics are relevant to my faith. As a relational person, it can be very easy to think that relationships are most important and schoolwork can fall by the wayside. The Study Center focuses on the bridge between the academic and the spiritual.”

Natalie points to something Bill quoted at the opening residential cookout when he prayed for the residents as Paul prayed for the

Philippians: “that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God.” For Natalie this is a reminder to focus on the mind as well as the heart.

“I am learning that I need to learn to desire to love the Lord with my mind even in my academic studies, because that is something that I have specifically struggled with this year. As Jesus

says in Luke 10:27, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

So how will Natalie’s time as a resident and her involvement affect her future? She says, “What I want to do when I get older is up in the air, but at the same time, seeing the Study Center and its purpose and loving what it does for students so much has definitely made me consider being involved with something similar when I graduate.

Regardless, the Study Center has shown me that I definitely want to make sure that whatever I do I am somehow serving God’s kingdom.”

At the Study Center we love being a place that welcomes undergraduate students. We invite them to connect with one another, to consider the claims of Christianity, and to make wise decisions with their lives. Your financial support is needed to provide critical resources — ministry staff, educational programs, learning materials and comfortable meeting space — for engaging students and equipping them for a life of faith.

UndergradUate ministry

Day in and day out, Jason Eldred has been one of those students

writing their Ph.D. dissertations at the Study Center. Jason was introduced to the Study Center by another graduate student in his department, Andrew Witmer. Andrew had asked Bill Wilder to lead a Bible study for his fellow students and then invited some of his believing and non-believing friends. “Both Bill and Andrew ministered to all of us,” Jason says,“and I continue to be impressed with the way Bill could discuss Biblical truths

in a way that was thoroughly grounded in the Gospel, intellectually thorough, yet sympathetic enough to converse respectfully with men who were skeptical of that Gospel. I continue to think of Bill as the embodiment of the Christian scholar: rigorous in his Gospel truth yet gifted in being able to engage anyone in a respectful conversation about what the truth of Christ means for the world.”

Jason began attending Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF) and regularly came to the Study Center’s lectures, talks and small groups. However, his primary connection with the Study Center involved Christian study of another sort: he worked on his dissertation in the Study Center library on a daily basis for two years. We asked him why:

“I came for the fellowship, conversations, and ability to pursue my vocation amongst fellow believers. While our wonderful library does not happen to have any books on the Spanish or British empires, it

is a great place to read and write amidst a group of professing Christians. In a state school that is historically and self-avowedly secular, the simple pleasure of being able to work and have conversations with other Christians was a nourishing gift.”

“I believe so strongly in the mission of the Study Center. Testifying to the truth of Jesus’ coming, death, and crucifixion is vital in the academy. How can we as scholars and students pursue truth and beauty if we ultimately do not understand where it came from and what it means? College and graduate school is such a time of exploration and wonder that offering students the water

of life during this period of personal change is a powerful, life-changing ministry.”

gradUate ministryFor three decades, the Study Center has supported graduate students pursuing their academic callings as scholars, teachers and future leaders. Today we sponsor three student-run fellowships serving at Darden, the Law School and on main Grounds. These fellowship groups provide students with opportunities for faith and learning through weekly teaching venues, small groups, prayer, and Bible studies. Individual discipleship and mentorship is critical for graduate students. This is why we staff the fellowship groups with a full-time Director of Graduate Ministries, who meets individually with students throughout the week.

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JASon eldRedGRADUATE STUDENT, TEACHER, FATHER

With the current strife in the Muslim world between Islamists and

secularists, this University professor hopes to offer useful insights for how the West interacts with Muslim countries by looking at similar conflicts in history. This fall Professor John Owen is taking a break from teaching in order to write a book entitled What History Can Teach Us About Radical Islam. In the spring he will resume teaching two seminars, one related to his book and another that explores how powerful countries become so powerful, stay that way for

so long, and decline — and how they deal with weaker countries during these periods.

While John’s academic background has prepared him for these assignments (undergrad at Duke,

Masters at Princeton, Ph.D. at Harvard), it is his faith that gives a unique perspective to his research and teaching in the realm of political science. “My faith has led me to reject a cynical tradition within the study of politics that insists that politics is always and only about power or money. It is true that many leaders care about nothing but their own power, but I believe, with St. Paul, that the political realm is under God.”

John first heard about the Study Center while he was teaching at

Bowdoin College in Maine and contemplating a job offer from U.Va. Shortly after he and his family arrived in Charlottesville in the fall of 1997, Ken Elzinga (U.Va. Professor of Economics) invited him and his wife, Trish, to a dinner at

the Center. “What I heard and saw at the dinner confirmed what I had suspected: that the Study Center was a place I very much wanted to be involved with, an institution doing the important work of helping students, faculty, and townspeople apply God’s word in every area of life, including intellectual life.”

A few months later, John joined with a few graduate students in the Politics Department for a weekly reading and discussion group. For three or four years they met to hash out how their Christian faith ought to affect their scholarly work. He also began attending the Faculty Christian Forum, a monthly faculty group sponsored by the Study Center.

Now as a tenured professor at U.Va. and chair of the Center’s board, John is grateful to have the Study Center as a resource for the University community. “I continue to refer students to the Center because I believe its work is vital. I am convinced that what the Center does can shape a Christian’s life both now and after graduation and hence can help strengthen the Church. Most churches do not have

the resources to minister in precisely the ways the Center does — getting them to think deeply about Christ and culture, or science and faith, or vocation. I love the way the Study Center cooperates with local churches and Grounds ministries in encouraging Christians to bring every thought captive to Christ, and also to remove at least some of the barriers to faith that non-Christians stumble over these days — barriers such as the perception that Christians stop thinking when they open a Bible or enter a church.”

UVa FacUlty PartnershiPsWe are often asked by parents and students, “Where are the Christian professors at the University of Virginia?” Here at the Study Center, we love answering this question! Our small groups and special lectures often give students the chance to get to know Christian professors. We connect students with professors who model a vibrant faith in the midst of their academic callings. We also serve as an avenue for Christian professors to meet one another through the Faculty Christian Forum, which meets at the Study Center.

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John oWenPROFESSOR, AUTHOR, BOARD MEMBER

Donell Woodson is a busy man — but you’d never know it by his demeanor.

On any given day at the Study Center he can be found chatting away with students in the front lounge or lighting up the hallways with his carefree laughter. Donell is Campus Minister with OneWay Christian Fellowship, the Black Campus Ministry Chapter of InterVarsity, but he is also finishing up his undergraduate degree in religion and music, working full-time in retail, and planning a wedding with his bride-to-be and (also busy) Ph.D. student in microbiology, Evonne.

It is his humble recognition of the important ministry role that he has been given at U.Va. that keeps him motivated. “As the only black staff for Christian fellowships at U.Va. I am both honored and challenged with the task of sharing and presenting the gospel through the culture and experiences of black students, many times in a way that is starkly different from what other students and faculty are used to.”

Donell grew up just an hour outside Charlottesville in Nelson County as the eldest of three children. He was later adopted by Dr. Bruce and

Gardenia Beard, who at that time were local pastors of First Baptist on Main Street in Charlottesville.

Donell first came across the Study Center when his church would use the Center’s meeting room for special events. Now he has an office with other InterVarsity staff on the main floor of the building. “The Study Center, especially the staff, have created a welcoming environment for students and myself. I have appreciated the care taken to engage and involve minority students in the everyday life of the ‘Stud’.”

Donell’s calling to campus ministry came through a natural love for ministry and community, especially with college students. He took on leadership responsibilities as a volunteer and eventually became the official (and only) staff for OneWay at U.Va. “I am excited about the ever-increasing desire students have to engage in community no matter the race, ethnic or denominational differences. The passion through which they each develop authentic relationship shows forth the glory of what I truly believe is the kingdom of God on earth.”

Within the last decade, the Study Center has become a hub and intersection point for 15 different Grounds Ministry groups at U.Va. This makes for a busy building every day of the week. We highly value these partnerships and seek ways to support and encourage their work as we co-labor together daily. This means collaborating on student ministry projects like Move-In Day Lunch or bringing Professor John Walton to town to speak on Genesis 1 and the Claims of Science. It means meeting regularly for corporate prayer at our Grounds Ministry meetings. It also means helping with the daily logistics of their ministry work — providing free coffee, meeting or study space, copy services, library or online resources — at our building on Chancellor Street.

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donell WoodSonINTERVARSITY CAMPUS MINISTER, PARTNER IN MINISTRY

groUnds ministry PartnershiPs

A s a student at U.Va., Jodie Berndt spent a lot of time at this place — studying,

writing papers, and attending a fellowship group. The fellowship group, she notes, had a lot of “draws,” including the cute guys, one of whom would become her husband, Robbie.

“Between the two of us,” Jodie says, “Robbie and I probably represent where a lot of University students are today. I came to U.Va. as a pretty excited Christian, eager to grow in my faith and share it with others. Robbie grew up going to church, but he’d be the first to tell you that his head knowledge about who God was didn’t make a whole lot of difference in how he lived his life. When he came to U.Va., finding Christian fellowship wasn’t even on his radar.”For Jodie, the Study Center was a

place where she could invite her friends, classmates, and sorority sisters, knowing that they could come and see what Christianity was all about. “The Center was geographically easy for students to access,” she says, “and spiritually, it wasn’t at all intimidating. It was full of vibrant, interesting people. It was fun.”

For Robbie, whose spiritual curiosity was piqued via conversations with Jodie and other students, the building represented a place where he always felt welcome. It didn’t

matter that he was — as Jodie describes him — a “lacrosse-playing, beer-drinking, fraternity rush chairman,” he knew he could come to the Center to talk to the staff and ask hard questions about faith and life.

Robbie and Jodie were married just a few months after he graduated, in 1985. “As a young married couple, we began supporting the Study Center financially,” Robbie remembers. “I think we gave $15 a month. Back then, we could not have dreamed how that investment would pay off as we saw the Study Center flourish — and, 25 years later, play a role in impacting the spiritual lives of our own children.”

As parents of two U.Va. daughters (with two more Wahoo hopefuls in high school), Jodie and Robbie delight in seeing how the financial gifts of so many people over the years have positioned the Study Center to have a strategic and measurable spiritual impact on a top-notch secular university. “I love knowing that U.Va. students — our kids or others — can come here for a simple cup of coffee, “ Jodie says, “or to

engage on a deeper level, through small groups and thought-provoking lectures. I love that they have a place where they can go (especially when they are confused, stressed-out, or hungry), where they will find a staff member who can come alongside them with the hope of the Gospel. I love that this is a place where kids can find out about professors who might share their worldview, find a fellowship group, or make new friends who cross typical U.Va. lines. And,” she smiles, “I love thinking that maybe one of our girls’ husbands might just be here, too.”

inVesting in PeoPleA place for faith and learning would be incomplete without talking about the individuals who facilitate its work. Like most ministries, our largest ministry cost (59%) is people. We think that is money well spent. The Study Center offers six gifted, trained directors who love students and invite them into conversations that matter about the truth of God’s Word and how that impacts their academic calling and living in God’s world.

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Jodie BeRndTALUMNI, PARENT, DONOR

AnnuAl Fund GoAl: $681,410(July 1 , 2010 – June 30, 2011)

WheRe ouR SuPPoRT CoMeS FRoM

hoW ThiS Money iS AlloCATed

The Annual Fund provides 79% of the Center’s operating budget for the 2010-11 academic year.

Expenditures are heavily weighted towards the Center’s primary missions of education and student ministry, which accounted for 76% of total expenses. These percentages are based on audited figures for the 2009-10 fiscal year ending June 30, 2010.

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revenue from rent & tuit ion Fees: 16%revenue from counsel ing resources : 3%endowment interest : 2%

annual Fund contr ibut ions: 79%

general & administrat ive ser v ices : 15%

educat ional Programs: 14%graduate outreach: 13%

Fundrais ing: 9%

alumni & Parent relat ions: 7%

Undergraduate outreach: 36%

educat ional resources : 6%

You may make an unrestricted gift or pledge to the Annual Fund to be used for general ministry costs. You may also direct your annual fund gift to a specific area, such as undergraduate ministries, the library or Graduate Christian Fellowship. Several giving opportunities are listed on the reply envelope attached to this brochure. Regardless of how you designate your gift, every gift is genuinely appreciated. And every gift will make a difference.

The Center for Christian Study is approved by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and all donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law. The Center’s Federal Identification Number is 51-0192618. The Study Center is committed to financial accountability and donor stewardship through its membership in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). Copies of our latest financial statements are available upon written request.

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donation QUestions?For giving related inquiries,please contact our Director of Development, Shelly Pellish. Phone: 434.817.1050Email: shelly@studycenter.netOr visit: www.studycenter.net

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Pa r t n e r Wi t h Us

H o w t o G i v eG I V E O N L I N E Arrange an online payment through your bank or visit our website, www.studycenter.net, and donate online using your credit card.

S E N D A C H EC KOur remittance address:Center for Christian Study | 128 Chancellor Street | Charlottesville, VA 22903

DE S IG NAT E A G I F T T H ROUG H T H E U.VA . A LU M N I A S S O C I AT I O NU.Va. alumni, parents and students can support the Study Center while helping U.Va. reach its Capital Campaign goal. To make an online gift through the Alumni Association, visit:http://hoosonline.virginia.edu/studycenter.

U.VA. FUND ADDRESS:Attn: Jennifer Bonenfant | U.Va. Fund | P.O. Box 400314 | Charlottesville, VA 22904

M ATC H I NG G I F TSSeveral employers match part or whole of their employee’s contributions, enabling you to easily double or triple your gift to the Study Center! If you are a U.Va. alumni, parent or student, the easiest way to do this is giving online through the U.Va. Fund at http://hoosonline.virginia.edu/studycenter.

128 CHANCELLOR STREET CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA 22903 | TEL 434.817.1050 | FAX 434.817.1053 | www.studycenter.net

Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDCharlottesville, Virginia

Permit No. 144128 ChAnCelloR STReeTChARloTTeSville, vA 22903ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Pictured here and on the cover is Logan Gates, a second-year majoring in Global Development. Logan made headlines this fall after getting into final round of a college video competition sponsored by Dr. Pepper. In his video submission, Logan demonstrates his ability to speak five languages while talking about his desire to address global injustices. Logan is a member of the Elzinga Residential Scholars Program, a one-year program for undergraduate men and women at the Study Center.