Driving up to her dorm on her first day as a freshman at Hillsdale College in Michigan, Erin McCormick couldn’t help but notice a crowd of students wearing colorful InterVarsity shirts. Among them she recognized a Resident Assistant she had met on her campus visit weeks earlier. They were helping the new students move in.
Training in leadership
“It was my first link to InterVarsity and after that I got plugged in pretty quickly,” she said. Her sophomore year she led a Bible study for freshmen. As a junior she coordinated the chapter’s weekly large group meeting, called Crossroads. Her senior year she was a part of the Vision Team that directed chapter activities. “I was pretty involved.”
InterVarsity is the only Christian group on the Hillsdale campus with 200-300 students actively involved. For Erin it offered a lot of the Christian fellowship and friendships that she was looking for as she went off to college, as well as leadership training.
“InterVarsity provided a good means for spiritual growth,” she said. “I grew spiritually throughout my college years. I felt like I had a very strong support system.”
InterVarsity experience makes law school easier
After graduating with a degree in history Erin worked in governmental affairs with Prison Fellowship in Washington D.C. for two years. Then she applied to the Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, VA. As she studied the Regent website she learned that the school offers a scholarship to InterVarsity students. The scholarship helped pay for her first year at Regent.
Regent University has been offering scholarships to InterVarsity students since 2006. So far eight students have received over $170,000 from the program.
Today, newly married and in her final year of law school, Erin McCormick Deboer remains thankful for her InterVarsity experience at Hillsdale.
“The leadership opportunities that InterVarsity provided molded my ability to lead today,” she said. “The skills I learned while leading InterVarsity’s weekly Crossroads meeting at Hillsdale helped me this year as Symposium Editor of Regent’s Law Review. I coordinated Regent Law Review’s National Security Symposium. This involved tons of planning, including soliciting speakers, marketing, etc. My experience as large group coordinator helped make this Symposium a success.”
After graduation Erin has a clerkship lined up with a Virginia Supreme Court justice. After that she’s not sure where her law career will take her, but she feels well prepared by Hillsdale College, Regent University and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
