It wasn't until I completed my first semester in college that I realized I was not too late to pursue my dream of higher education. I grew up in Syracuse, NY, in a family that saw little value in college. Opportunities to pursue academia were discouraged and considered irrelevant. It took years of unfulfilling jobs and the wise words of pastor Mike Webster to help me unearth my desire for research and education. After years of feeling forced into a management position at a job I was tired of, pastor Mike pulled me aside and told me that dreams and goals don’t have expiration dates. If God designed me to impact the world through higher education, it didn’t matter if I was twenty or sixty. I began college in my thirties, balancing a family of five and working two jobs to afford the tuition and turn on the lights in the house simultaneously. The experience was initially uncomfortable: I was significantly older than most classmates, and relationships did not build naturally because I was in a different phase of life than most others. But I found myself far more eager to learn in this stage of life than in my teenage years. I began recognizing what education could do for my personal goals and for the world I wanted to impact. Every class felt valuable, and every bit of information empowered me to live with a clearer purpose and appreciate knowledge. I loved college right away, but the overwhelming sense that I would do this for years, work multiple jobs while spending twenty to thirty hours a week in school, and still make time for my family, felt like a weight I would not be able to carry for long. I almost gave up after six weeks into my first semester. But then I finished, and realized I could do this. I can graduate college and continue my education, no matter how difficult. Since then I’ve completed my undergraduate degree and am enrolled in a Master of Divinity program for the fall. I’ve been working in pastoral ministry for three years, using my education to renew the teaching curriculum in our church, educate leaders on biblical literacy, and start blogging and producing a podcast on Christianity throughout history. I’ve seen firsthand sectarian Christian communities segregate over poor biblical literacy, making doctrines from biblical passages used out of context. I am passionate about breaking down walls of separation in religious communities and using education to promote a clearer understanding of Biblical faith and Christian history that results in unity within diversity. I believe in a future where Christians come together to serve their communities, meet the needs of the marginalized and the poor, and train the next generation of leaders to carry on the life-changing work of Jesus’s gospel with clarity, faith, and love. I am determined to become an educator in the field of higher academia, where I can influence that future and bring it into existence.

Growing up in a family with a ministry background, I've been privileged to share in the beautiful work of rebuilding impoverished communities most of my life. Since my youth I worked with two local crisis pregnancy centers, providing counseling, resources, and aid to women and young families. I spent nine years working with Central New York's local Rescue Mission program where men detoxing from substance abuse built beds for families living within low-income developments. I'm currently employed at a church in Northwest Florida where I get to partner with Haven House, a halfway house for men recovering from substance abuse and violence-induced trauma. Haven House is uniquely equipped to help men suffering from opioid addiction in the region and implements practices that develop both social and job skills. Our student program within our church has allowed me to form relationships with local elementary and middle schools in our community that provide meals and educational resources to low-income families. Lunches, backpacks, books and school supplies, instruments, and tutors have been provided to more than twenty-five hundred students in my time here. One of the most exciting opportunities I’ve had in the past three years is working with foster care students who can be reunited with their parents. We’ve been honored to work with local programs that provide groceries, utilities, transportation, and counseling to students and parents navigating these transitions in and out of the foster care system. Nothing has been more fulfilling than using my time serving my local community, both in New York and in Florida. Still, I am most excited to one day make a greater impact on families through spiritual formation by educating pastors, teachers, and authors on how to better love and care for those entrusted to them. Many ministers have the best intentions but rely on dated assumptions of the causes of poverty, divorce, abuse, and gender dysphoria. Culturally appropriated beliefs about faith, American values, the bible, and mental health have led many influential leaders to feel unequipped to provide care for the hurting as culture progresses and needs change. From my journey through higher education, I will help reform the church and ministerial programs that influence communities churches are planted in. By offering my voice in biblical studies and history I will use every opportunity available to educate people on how to rethink caring for the marginalized and neglected neighbors in our communities. My goal is to teach in the sphere of higher education, with direct ties to churches both in my region and across the country, sharing a new approach to care that resonates with the historical understanding of God's love for the world across denominations. Christianity has been a contentious and polarizing religion throughout portions of history. My life will be spent practicing my Christian faith by feeding the poor, healing the broken, redeeming the outcast, and sharing my life with the marginalized.

It wasn't until I completed my first semester in college that I realized I was not too late to pursue my dream of higher education. I grew up in the city of Syracuse, NY, in a family that saw little value in college. Opportunities to pursue academia were discouraged and considered irrelevant. It took years of unfulfilling jobs and the wise words of pastor Mike Webster for me to recognize my buried desire for research and education. After years of feeling forced into a management position at a job I was tired of, pastor Mike pulled me aside and told me that dreams and goals don’t have expiration dates. If God designed me to change the world through higher education in biblical theology, it didn’t matter if I was twenty or sixty. I began college in my thirties, balancing a family of five and working two jobs to afford the tuition and turn on the lights in the house simultaneously. The experience was initially uncomfortable: I was significantly older than most classmates, and relationships did not build naturally because I was in a different phase of life than most others. But I found myself far more eager to learn in this stage of life than in my twenties. I had a better revelation of what education could do for my personal goals and for the world I wanted to impact. Every class felt valuable, and every bit of information empowered me to live with a clearer purpose and appreciate knowledge. I loved college right away, but the overwhelming sense that I would do this for years, work multiple jobs while spending twenty to thirty hours a week in school, and still make time for my family, felt like a weight I would not be able to carry for long. I almost gave up after six weeks into my first semester. But then I finished and realized I can do this. I can graduate college and continue my education, no matter how difficult. Since then I’ve completed my undergraduate degree and am enrolled in a Master of Divinity program for the fall. I’ve been working in pastoral ministry for three years, using my education to renew the teaching curriculum in our church, educate leaders on biblical literacy, and start blogging and producing a podcast on Christianity throughout history. I’ve seen firsthand sectarian Christian communities segregate over poor biblical literacy, making doctrines from biblical passages used out of context. I am passionate about breaking down walls of separation in religious communities and using education to promote a clearer understanding of Biblical faith and Christian history that results in unity within diversity. I believe in a future where Christians come together to serve their communities, meet the needs of the marginalized and the poor, and train the next generation of leaders to carry on the life-changing work of Jesus’s gospel with clarity, faith, and love. I am determined to become an educator in the field of higher academia, where I can influence that future and bring it into existence.