Criminal Justice major
Softball and a Christ-centered campus initially drew Shaelyn Mulder ’24 to Bethel. A criminal justice major, Mulder was originally looking at another school. She knew she wanted to attend a Christian university for the guidance and support that she wouldn’t expect at a state school. However, the invitation from Bethel University’s softball coach and the offer of an athletic scholarship ultimately swayed her to change her mind.
Bethel has lived up to Mulder’s expectations with consistent times of chapels, spiritual life events, and relationships that challenge her to grow in her faith. She learned the importance of sharing her own testimony when she had the opportunity to tell her story in a student-led Vespers service. Sharing the impact God has had on her life is one of the greatest ways to connect with others, but it sometimes takes more than just words.
“We speak Jesus [by] showing Jesus’ love to other people and in the way we interact and speak to them so they can just tell there’s something different about us,” Mulder says. “It piques their interest and starts them wondering why we have such hope and brightness in our eyes.”
In her final semester, Mulder has taken an internship in Indonesia with Free & Safe, a foundation started by another Bethel alumnus. She is working with women and children who are in jail and with anti-human-trafficking efforts. It’s an opportunity to develop the international aspect of her criminal justice degree.
Going forward, Mulder and her fiancé are looking to take their skills to the mission field. Seeing how God has provided scholarships has taught her a dependence upon God for what may come.
“It’s giving me more confidence to be able to be okay with whatever happens in the future,” she explains, “just giving more time for me to be able to rely on God for Him to provide for us and for whatever happens.”