When Martin Eller Fitze ‘29 started looking for a college, he knew one thing for certain: he wanted a Quaker school. A place that, in some small way, might feel like an extension of the quiet, grounded community he’d grown up in back home in Maine.

Martin has been part of Quaker youth groups in New England since the second grade. Those gatherings, he says, were a kind of second home for him..

“They’ve always been a really supportive community, and I wanted my college experience to be like that,” he says. “I was searching for a college that was thoughtful, open and grounded in something deeper.”

That search led him south to Guilford College, one of the nation’s few higher education institutions founded by the Religious Society of Friends. Now a first-year student majoring in Theatre Studies, Martin says the Quaker values that shape Guilford — simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship — were a big part of what drew him in.

Those values, he’s quick to add, aren’t preached at Guilford as much as they’re practiced.

“You see Quaker values in the classroom and around campus, in the way people act and respond to one another,” he says. “That spirit, if that’s what you call it, feels real, not forced.”

But it wasn’t just the College’s Quaker roots that convinced him. He remembers visiting Guilford as a high school junior in the spring of 2024.

“It was like 80 degrees, which felt unreal coming from Maine,” he says, laughing. “People were outside throwing Frisbees, and the whole campus just felt alive and welcoming. That sense of community reminded me of home.”

Martin grew up attending Quaker meetings, where worship begins in silence — an experience that didn’t come naturally to him as a kid. Or, as he admits, as a college freshman.

“I’m still not great at sitting still,” he says, smiling. “But over time I’ve learned to appreciate the quiet and the reflection that comes with it.”

At Guilford, he finds that same quiet depth in the classroom and even on stage.

“My professors encourage deep thinking,” he says. “They’re not afraid to speak their minds, and they really listen. It feels like a place where everyone’s voice matters, which is very Quaker.”

Martin is currently part of Theatre Studies’ fall production of The Witch, where that same sense of community is center stage. “By the first night of rehearsal, I already felt like I was part of something close-knit,” he says. “Everyone’s supportive, and that makes it easy to grow.”

He says the campus itself — green, sun-dappled and alive with the sounds of conversation and laughter — carries its own quiet spirituality. “It’s a very lush, urban campus,” he says. “You can sit outside and just feel connected — to nature, to people, to something bigger. It feels like being part of something good.”

For a Quaker from Maine, it’s a long way from home but, in a way, right where he belongs. “This place and the community, it feels right for me,” he says.