{"id":2978,"date":"2026-05-08T21:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/?post_type=exhibit&#038;p=2978"},"modified":"2026-05-08T21:55:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:55:57","slug":"the-student-volunteer-movement","status":"publish","type":"exhibit","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/exhibits\/abbie-g-sanderson-1914\/between-colby-and-china-1914-1918\/the-student-volunteer-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"The Student Volunteer Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\"  class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/files\/2026\/05\/ilovepdf_merged.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of SVM Applications.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-896a3333-0986-43f3-9344-7ba4ec9fd3ff\" href=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/files\/2026\/05\/ilovepdf_merged.pdf\">SVM Applications<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/files\/2026\/05\/ilovepdf_merged.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-896a3333-0986-43f3-9344-7ba4ec9fd3ff\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Sanderson&#8217;s path to China ran through the Student Volunteer Movement, the interdenominational organization that recruited American college students for foreign missions under the slogan &#8220;the evangelization of the world in this generation.&#8221; She signed her S.V.M. pledge on December 12, 1912, halfway through her junior year at Colby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second document above caught her three years later, on December 21, 1915, by then teaching at Ricker. The S.V.M. &#8220;Volunteer&#8217;s Report of Progress in Preparation&#8221; was a tracking form the movement sent out to keep tabs on its committed volunteers between college and the mission field. Her handwriting reports a year and a half of teaching English and history, the position of preceptress at Ricker, and ongoing correspondence with Mrs. Chivers of the Woman&#8217;s Baptist Foreign Mission Society about her eventual placement. The remarks section at the bottom of the page explained why she had not yet formally applied: &#8220;My plans now are to teach three to four years before taking my special preparation, by that time my brother will be out of college and I shall feel free to leave the country.&#8221; Her commitment to China was already three years old in 1915, and she could already name the year she expected to sail. She was holding off until her younger brother Arthur was able to be fine on his own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sanderson&#8217;s path to China ran through the Student Volunteer Movement, the interdenominational organization that recruited American college students for foreign missions under the slogan &#8220;the evangelization of the world in this generation.&#8221; She signed her S.V.M. pledge on December 12, 1912, halfway through her junior year at Colby. The second document above caught her three [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":1152,"menu_order":0,"template":"","institution":[],"place":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibit\/2978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibit"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/exhibit"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibit\/2978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2981,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibit\/2978\/revisions\/2981"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibit\/1152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=2978"},{"taxonomy":"place","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/place?post=2978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}