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Homecoming

Alumni & Family Weekend 2024

October 11 & 12

CSU is thrilled to warmly welcome the CSU family for Homecoming: Alumni & Family Weekend. Families of our students, alumni and their families will join students, staff and faculty for two days of activities and fun!

Homecoming crowd and booths
CSU's homecoming
CSU's homecoming
CSU's homecoming
CSU's homecoming

2023 Alumni Award Winners

God has greatly used many of our alumni around the world in a variety of capacities to bring honor and glory to His name. The annual alumni awards celebrate how God is working through the lives of CSU alumni.

Alumnus of the Year
Dr. Don Shirk ('78, '82, '97)

God used Teen Leadership Conference at CSU in 1971 to lead Don to make a profession of faith. Then, at TLC 1972, God called him to pursue pastoral ministry.

As a student at CSU, Don was part of the choir and the Collegians Brass Quintet. He also earned his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees at Baptist Bible Seminary.

Don retired on February 1, 2023, after more than 40 years of pastoral ministry. For the last 36 years, he served as the senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Batavia, New York. He served on the Empire State Fellowship Council of 10, the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches Council of 18 and was on the Advisory Council of the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism. He was a trustee at CSU for approximately 10 years. For the past 22 years, Don has served as the police chaplain for the City of Batavia Police Department and achieved senior-level credentials with the International Conference of Police Chaplains. He is a certified biblical counselor with the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors.

Don and his wife, Claudia (Smith, ’78, ’82), will be married for 45 years in September 2023. They have five adult children and 14 grandchildren.

Don is incredibly grateful for how God blessed and shaped his life through the positive, godly influence of the many professors and staff at CSU. Psalm 71:17-18 is his new “life passage” for his retirement years. It reads, “O Lord, you have taught me from my youth and to this day I declare your wondrous works, now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God do not forsake me, Until I declare your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come.”

Alumna of the Year
Dr. Sherrie Holloway ('85, '10, '23)

Sherrie remembers a time as a child when God’s Spirit showed her a personal need for a Savior. She knew it wasn’t enough to be in a good family, attend church or do anything else she could manage in her elementary-age mind. So, she asked God to forgive her. “God’s grace saved me, and it is His grace that continues to sustain, lead, correct, teach and guide me today,” she says. “It is His mercy and His steadfast love that I need more than anything.”

Sherrie grew up in South Jersey and still enjoys the Jersey Shore, Philadelphia pretzels and chicken cheesesteaks. She is the oldest of four children to Jerry and Jean Holloway and “Aunt Sherrie” to 17 nieces and nephews. She enjoys reading, good coffee, good conversation (especially with the good coffee!), being outdoors in the summer, quiet times with God, music and doing almost anything with good friends.

She is a professor at CSU, where she has spent over 35 years teaching in the Health and Human Performance Department and coached women’s basketball for 21 years. She continues to serve in athletics as the faculty athletics representative, helping to connect academics and athletics. Sherrie finds great pleasure in her “official” role as a teacher, enjoying the opportunities God gives her both inside and outside the classroom, learning with and from the students He places under her tutelage.

Sherrie is the associate director of the LYFE Women’s Conference held annually on the campus of CSU and is a frequent speaker at women’s ministry events across the globe.

Her passion is to know God and His Word and help others to know Him and experience the abundant life He desires for us. Her desire to know the Word and grow in her ability to communicate it motivated her completion of the Doctor of Ministry at Baptist Bible Seminary in May 2023.

Sherrie’s greatest passion is to speak the Word and help others connect its truth to their own lives. As a sought-after Bible teacher, she engages audiences internationally through her ministry, Wellspring Overflow. The author of “For the Love of God,” Sherrie’s second book is currently in the works. When she speaks, audiences love to hear her passion—to know God and to help others experience the abundant life He desires for us.

Young Alumnus Award
T.J. Dalenberg ('14)

T.J. Dalenberg transferred to CSU in 2011 after making a profession of faith the previous year. In 2014, he earned a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Communications. He was involved in Chamber Singers, Student Missions Fellowship and other ministries at CSU. T.J. and his wife, Nichole, live with their son in Smithville, Ohio. They are active members at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church.

T.J. works in business full-time while running a non-profit ministry, Breathe Hope Twenty-Four, Inc. T.J. began working at Jarrett in Orrville, Ohio, in 2015. He is a human resources leader of corporate training and employee development. He has unique opportunities to share the gospel with those he works with. He and his wife founded Breathe Hope Twenty-Four, Inc. in 2022 after the tragic loss of their toddler, Noah Lane. The ministry focuses on sharing gospel hope with those grieving from loss. While they are just beginning their grief journey, T.J. and Nichole feel burdened to walk alongside others who share the pain of grief.

 T.J. and Nichole focus on ministering to their son, to the junior high and high school teens at their church and to the people they interact with in their daily travels.

Outstanding Service Awards
Ron ('77) & Val ('73, '75) Berrus

Ron made a profession of faith just before entering SUNY Morrisville, where he was discipled by Dale Marshfield and John Austin. He followed them to the CSU campus in 1974. Ron and Val (Schrage) met at CSU and married in 1976.

God blessed them with three sons, Josh, Jason and Jeremy and one daughter, Janelle, who all serve Christ faithfully—three of them are CSU grads!

Ron served as a youth pastor and then as lead pastor at First Welsh Baptist Church in Edwardsville, Pennsylvania, in the ’70s and early ’80s. Then, from 1985-’04, he served as lead pastor at First Baptist in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

While there, Ron became a board member at ABWE. Val developed women’s ministries and trained and mentored women’s ministry leaders. In 2004, Ron and Val went on staff at ABWE as Ron created the Missionary Care Department at the mission and traveled to over 40 countries teaching, training, counseling and encouraging missionaries and national church leaders. They served in this capacity until 2010.

They joined Bible Baptist in Shiremanstown, Pennsylvania and were involved in discipleship ministries. One of Ron’s significant efforts at ABWE was working with Wayne Haston to create the Good Soil evangelism and discipleship materials and training. In 2010, Ron became lead pastor at Bible Baptist, where he and Val served until 2017.

Dan ('05) & Janelle ('05) Francis

Dan and Janelle (Berrus) Francis were actively involved in campus life during their time at CSU. Dan was a resident assistant, class president and served as the student body president. He sang in the Concert Chorale, traveled on a summer ministry team and acted in several stage productions. Janelle accompanied the Concert Chorale, played in the chapel worship band and traveled on a summer ministry team.

After graduation, Dan and Janelle married. He served as the pastor of youth and worship at Bible Baptist Church in Shiremanstown, Pennsylvania, for 12 years. It was here that both of their children were born.

In 2017, they moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina, for Dan to serve as the student and family life pastor at Christ Community Church. In 2020, Dan assumed the role of interim senior pastor during a pastoral transition before eventually being voted in as the permanent senior pastor in March of 2021.

Dan and Janelle are incredibly grateful for their time at CSU, where God brought them together and prepared them for a life of ministry.

Dale ('77, '80) & Karen ('76) Marshfield

Dale and Karen (Fansler) Marshfield both came to know the Lord during their junior years of high school—Karen lived in Toledo, Ohio, and heard the gospel on a Youth for Christ canoe trip, Dale lived in Webster, New York, and heard the gospel through the teen ministry, Young Life. The two met while students at Clarks Summit University and were married after graduation in 1976. Karen earned her degree in education, and Dale went on to study at Baptist Bible Seminary.

While Dale studied and worked on a construction crew, Karen taught in a Christian school. In 1980, they joined the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, and in 1982 they moved to Durban, South Africa. They lived and served in South Africa for 26 years. During that time, they worked together in three church plants, developing, leading and teaching in the Baptist Bible College of KwaZulu-Natal and leading the missionary team there. While in South Africa, Dale earned degrees at the University of South Africa and the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. They moved back to the States in 2009 to work with ABWE International Theological Education, ABWE Corporate Training and Education by Design Services.

At the beginning of 2015, the couple joined Grace Global Ministries/Tri-M to focus on leadership education in rural India. Dale works with a team of theological educators providing professional development through Education by Design, LLC, and is an Operating Committee member and adjunct faculty for Asia Biblical Theological Seminary of Cornerstone University. He is also an adjunct faculty member for Liberty University Online and John Rawlings School of Divinity.

Dale and Karen have two children. Jonathan, a law professor at the University of Florida Law School, is married to Vanessa; they have two boys. Jaime, a part-time Christian counselor, is married to Joe Luethy and is a full-time mom to two girls.

Stephen ('13) & Hannah ('13) Merkh

Hannah (Sayre) grew up in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, and Stephen was born and raised in Atibaia, São Paulo, Brazil. God used Hannah’s passion for theatre and Stephen’s interest in music to bring them both to CSU, where Hannah excelled on stage, and Stephen focused on studying music.

While at CSU, Hannah served as a resident assistant, Student Leadership Council member, teacher’s assistant and faculty secretary under Dr. Jim Lytle. Stephen was the senior class president, teacher’s assistant and student leader of the worship team One Accord. During this time, God continued to refine them and called them to a life in His service.

They married in 2013 and began attending Hillside Haven Community Church in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. At the time, they believed the Lord was calling them to ministry in Brazil; instead, God called them to stay. In 2014, Stephen was hired at the church as a part-time worship leader, and in 2015 he became the associate pastor.

In 2020, God called Hillside’s lead pastor Don Roe into His presence through a tragic motorcycle accident. God proved His strength and compassion as He sustained the Merkhs and the rest of the congregation at Hillside Haven through that tumultuous time. In January 2021, the church unanimously asked Stephen to assume the lead pastor role.

God has given Stephen and Hannah four children on this earth and one precious life awaiting them in Heaven.

Look back at Homecoming 2023

We are praising God for an amazing time of celebration during Homecoming: Alumni and Family Weekend! So many alumni, parents and friends joined us, and God allowed us to have unexpectedly beautiful weather.

 Enjoy a few highlights from the weekend below!

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