Malone partners with the Zollikon Institute to provide educational initiatives for the Amish and Mennonite communities

The Zollikon Institute is a non-profit organization that provides contemporary skills-training relevant within an Anabaptist context. Holmes County native, historian, author, and educator Norita Yoder will serve as director of the combined programs. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history at The Ohio State University and a master’s degree from Yale University in the History of Christianity.

“My collegiate experience allowed me to feel the joy of learning, as well as the difficulty of crossing cultural barriers to access that learning,” said Yoder. “My desire is to find ways of crossing the cultural barriers to better facilitate educational opportunities and career training among the Amish and Amish-Mennonite groups. We named the Zollikon Institute after a village near Zurich, Switzerland where the 16th-century Anabaptist movement emerged. It was a place where faith and learning came together in a changing world and was walked out in the shoe-leather of life.”

Malone President David King, who was raised in the Mennonite church and grew up in Wayne and Holmes counties, explains that Yoder’s vision for the Zollikon Institute aligns with the mission of Malone and the program is filling a need for the Plain Community.

“The Anabaptist community in our region has a need for educational opportunities that is deemed trustworthy, safe, and faith-aligned,” said King. “We are the perfect partner to fill that need. From its founding, Malone has welcomed students from all backgrounds. We respect, welcome, and mentor students to prepare them to serve their communities, their churches, and the world. Our partnership with the Zollikon Institute is born of God’s providence and rich common ground that includes shared vision, shared values, shared objectives, and strengths that dovetail well together, as well as a shared desire that our outcomes honor and glorify God.”

Yoder will partner with Malone faculty to develop the accredited portion of the programs to be offered at the Amish and Heritage Center in Berlin, Ohio.

“We want to equip the young person to serve well in the future, but it’s not just the young person,” said Yoder. “We want to equip people of all ages with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in a rapidly changing world. In doing so, we don’t lose our faith in God, instead our faith becomes more sure, more steadfast.”   

Inaugural classes of the partnership are expected to be offered this fall. More information will be shared as program offerings are finalized.

Learn more about Malone's partnership with the Zollikon Institute here.