Greenville graduates: ‘What’s in your suitcase?’
Published: May 18, 2026
Author: Dave Bell
As business professor Jane Bell prepared to deliver this year’s Baccalaureate address at Greenville University, she carried a suitcase onto the podium.
But that suitcase didn’t hold her belongings for a trip. Instead, she pulled out various items graduates might take with them – GU apparel, a résumé, a trophy, a textbook, a wedding planner, a diploma, and perhaps a cup and silverware from the Dining Commons (which she promptly instructed students to return before leaving).
“What’s in your suitcase?” she asked. “First, make sure you take Jesus with you. You won’t believe the surprising and wonderful places he will take you if you submit to his leading.”
The key, she said, is to make Jesus the Lord of your life … ALL your life.
“My relationship with God began when I decided to follow Jesus in my teens,” said Bell, a Champaign native. “But my relationship with him was on-again, off-again – especially during my college years. I wanted to do life my way.”
“But it didn’t take long for me to realize I wasn’t doing so well calling the shots; I needed direction from the Lord,” she added. “As God says in Malachi 3:7, ‘Return to me, and I will return to you.’ So I returned. And I found that he does a much better job of running my life than I did.”
After graduate school, Bell was selected for an internship in the University of Virginia's athletic promotions department. But when UVA athletic officials learned that she had been a four-year starter on the University of North Carolina volleyball team, they quickly realized she was the ideal candidate to continue the transition of the Virginia program from a club sport to a varsity sport. It was a monumental shift in her role, but it was also an answer to prayer. She’d long dreamed of coaching a Division I volleyball program, and now, at 23, she had the job.
The euphoria didn’t last long. She learned that launching a competitive program is very difficult. But she tackled it with the same tenacity that had earned her many athletic and academic accolades in high school and college. That first team endured a 3-27 season. Once again, she realized her need for God’s guidance.
“Proverbs 3:5-6 were verses that guided me in those early days of coaching the Cavaliers,” she said. “In those verses, we are instructed to ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.’ I knew I couldn’t do that job on my own; I needed God to give me wisdom.”
The following summer, at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes conference, she met her future husband, Dave Bell, when he interviewed her for an FCA magazine story about the challenges she faced – and the creative solutions she introduced – while coaching the fledgling UVA volleyball program. They were married two years later.
With solid recruiting and hard work, she righted the ship and kept the program on a winning streak for the remainder of her six years there. She then took time off to start a family, eventually having three sons and a daughter. They moved to Vandalia, IL, for Dave’s job as publisher of the local newspaper. As the kids grew up, Jane returned to coaching – serving for several years as an assistant coach on the Vandalia High School volleyball team and as the head coach of the track team.
Her academic career began 25 years ago, when she was asked to teach business courses at the Kaskaskia College campus in Vandalia. It was a career path she hadn’t considered, but she accepted the challenge – and discovered she loved it. She later became an adjunct professor at GU and, 12 years ago, secured a full-time professorship at the University.
“The big question is: ‘Will you yield your life to Jesus and let him be the Lord of your life?’” Bell said to the GU seniors. “Don’t leave Greenville without a dynamic relationship with Jesus. Yield your life to him and let him lead you in the wonderful things he has planned for you. Similarly, immerse yourself in the Bible; it will be a valuable guide for your life.
“You’re launching out on a grand adventure that will be both exciting and challenging,” she concluded. “As you pack your suitcase, take more than memories with you. Take Jesus.”
