{"id":1783,"date":"2018-02-07T17:52:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T22:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?p=1783"},"modified":"2025-07-26T16:55:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T20:55:59","slug":"faith-in-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith in the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

It is the early 1960s, and a computer programmer named James has debugged the most powerful computer\u00a0in the world, codenamed Agnes. He is\u00a0so pleased, he finally asks out his crush, Millie. But the super-smart Agnes gives James bad dating advice, sending Millie into the arms of someone else. Agnes then declares its own love for James. When he rebuffs the computer, Agnes breaks down.<\/p>\n

So goes the plot of \u201cFrom Agnes\u2014With Love,\u201d an episode of The Twilight Zone that aired in 1964. Minnie Waters Shorter \u201973<\/strong><\/span> watched it from her home in Rockville, MD. She was 12 years old and instantly in love\u2014with computer programming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it was kind of strange but I was like, \u2018Oh, man, this is really cool,\u2019\u201d says Shorter. A sci-fi fan, she was fascinated by how James wrote and fed notes to the computer, which printed out notes in response. She wanted to work with computers like that, sans jealous A.I.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

She tried out a few careers after college, pausing to raise her first son. \u201cThis is when PCs were really starting to come to the forefront,\u201d says Shorter. Itching to get back to work, she took a computer training class at the insurance company USF&G, which promptly hired her to work in management information systems. In 1999, the Social Security Administration recruited Shorter, who worked there until retirement. Over her career, she worked on all kinds of systems: financial, national transit, claims, HR, payroll, and more.<\/p>\n

Retirement allowed for other pursuits. Shorter loves to travel, most recently to Iceland last summer. She likes that 100 percent of Goucher students study abroad and scholarships are available to cover costs. But in having conversations with alumnae friends, she began to think about all the little incidentals from traveling that end up costing a lot of money, even from just getting a passport. For students without many resources, \u201cit can be quite daunting to get that or to have even a modest amount of spending money,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

During their last reunion, she and fellow African American alumnae from the Class of 1973 had an idea. \u201cBessie Yvonne (Owens) Everett<\/strong><\/span> was the one who presented it to me, and that\u2019s when we decided with some other folks to create the Imani Fund,\u201d says Shorter.<\/p>\n

Imani is Swahili for faith. Along\u00a0with others, they decided to start an endowment for students from underserved and financially disadvantaged Maryland communities. According to Everett, \u201cWe had faith that these students, with help, could make significant contributions to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fund is particularly meaningful for the college, which holds that learning global perspectives is essential to a 21st-century career. Shorter has given generously to the fund over the last several years.<\/p>\n

For Shorter, every bit of help on a student\u2019s path to self-discovery counts. And that path is lifelong: Shorter is now pursuing a doctorate in management, with a sub- specialty in information systems technology. \u201cThere\u2019s no way I could have visualized my career when I was at Goucher because my career didn\u2019t exist. What I found was that, with my education from Goucher, I was able to make my own career.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnie Waters Shorter \u201973 and fellow alumnae have created the Imani Fund. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":1784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[54973,55234],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[87484],"class_list":["post-1783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","category-giving-to-goucher"],"yoast_head":"\nFaith in the Future | Goucher Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faith in the Future | Goucher Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Minnie Waters Shorter \u201973 and fellow alumnae have created the Imani Fund.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Goucher Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-07T22:52:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-26T20:55:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/Minnie-Shorter-photo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"4688\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"3516\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Molly Englund\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Molly Englund\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Molly Englund\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca\"},\"headline\":\"Faith in the Future\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-07T22:52:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-26T20:55:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/\"},\"wordCount\":531,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/Minnie-Shorter-photo.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Alumni Spotlight\",\"Notable Philanthropy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/\",\"name\":\"Faith in the Future | Goucher Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/Minnie-Shorter-photo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-07T22:52:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-26T20:55:59+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/Minnie-Shorter-photo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/Minnie-Shorter-photo.jpg\",\"width\":4688,\"height\":3516,\"caption\":\"Minnie Shorter.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Faith in the future\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/\",\"name\":\"Goucher Magazine\",\"description\":\"The magazine for Goucher College's alumnae\/i since 1921.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Goucher College\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif\",\"width\":300,\"height\":150,\"caption\":\"Goucher College\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca\",\"name\":\"Molly Englund\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b58c87739d7e579ba3fa778f0f114c2b\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Molly Englund\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/author\/moeng001\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Faith in the Future | Goucher Magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Faith in the Future | Goucher Magazine","og_description":"Minnie Waters Shorter \u201973 and fellow alumnae have created the Imani Fund.","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/","og_site_name":"Goucher Magazine","article_published_time":"2018-02-07T22:52:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-26T20:55:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":4688,"height":3516,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/Minnie-Shorter-photo.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Molly Englund","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Molly Englund","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/"},"author":{"name":"Molly Englund","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca"},"headline":"Faith in the Future","datePublished":"2018-02-07T22:52:30+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-26T20:55:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/"},"wordCount":531,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/Minnie-Shorter-photo.jpg","articleSection":["Alumni Spotlight","Notable Philanthropy"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/","name":"Faith in the Future | Goucher Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/Minnie-Shorter-photo.jpg","datePublished":"2018-02-07T22:52:30+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-26T20:55:59+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/Minnie-Shorter-photo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/Minnie-Shorter-photo.jpg","width":4688,"height":3516,"caption":"Minnie Shorter."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/faith-in-the-future\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Faith in the future"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/","name":"Goucher Magazine","description":"The magazine for Goucher College's alumnae\/i since 1921.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization","name":"Goucher College","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif","width":300,"height":150,"caption":"Goucher College"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca","name":"Molly Englund","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b58c87739d7e579ba3fa778f0f114c2b","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Molly Englund"},"url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/author\/moeng001\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":87484,"user_id":352,"is_guest":0,"slug":"moeng001","display_name":"Molly Englund","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Molly","last_name":"Englund","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1783"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6898,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions\/6898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}