When looking for a college, common questions include: Will this school prepare me for a successful and fulfilling career? How will it affect the rest of my life? Will it really help me learn to live out my faith in the real world? Is it truly worth the investment? For answers, we asked six Christian college grads in a wide range of fields to tell us how their education prepared them for life after graduation.

Joshua Peters ('02) had just started his senior year at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, when the September 11 terrorist attacks sent shockwaves through the nation. In response, the Christian education major joined the military as a combat medic.

Joshua graduated, trained and was soon deployed to Iraq, where even seemingly small decisions like which road to take became matters of life and death. "It's very frightening at times," says Joshua of his service in Fallujah, Ramadi and Tallafar. "There are occasions where you see that God must have a purpose for your life because of the number of close calls he brings you through."

In those scary times, Joshua saw the blessing of having attended Taylor. "You have to have something to fall back on in those moments of tension and fear," he says. For him, those things were the steady love of his wife and family and the deep faith he developed at Taylor.

"In those college years, you start to make your parents' faith your own," he says. "If I had gone into combat with something that only my parents believed, I couldn't have held onto it."

Joshua had been skeptical about attending a Christian college, but went to Taylor at the urging of his parents. "I didn't realize how good I had it until I talked with friends who went to other colleges," he says. "I actually enjoyed going to class. My friends at other schools didn't. And my classes were small enough where I felt comfortable asking questions."

That environment helped Joshua develop a steady and growing faith. Joshua says his faith now enables him to be a better medic. "As a combat medic, you realize that you can't save everybody," he says. "But I've been the last person a lot of people saw, and I've had the opportunity to pray with them during their last minutes on earth. I think I was put there for a reason."

Some college students get autographs when bands visit campus. Jena Lee ('04) got a job.

Jena wanted to address the AIDS crisis in Africa. So did Grammy Award-winning Christian band Jars of Clay. After they met during her senior year at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, she drafted a proposal for how they could impact lives in Africa. And the band promptly hired her to do it.

As executive director of Blood:Water Mission, Jena quickly turned the nonprofit organization into a million-dollar ministry that has started 58 aid programs in nine African countries and brought clean water to 50,000 people.

Jena entered Whitworth as a nursing major but had a hard time connecting her science classes with her passion for social problems. Then a class on the integration of politics and faith opened her eyes. "I never made the connection that you can take what you're passionate about and live it after college," says Jena. "Whitworth gave me permission to dream and imagine myself living out my passions."

As a Whitworth student, Jena was involved in study trips to Mexico and South Africa, took a three-week cross-country tour to examine prejudice throughout the United States, and had many other cross-cultural experiences. All of these experiences equipped her to work well with many different groups and cultures. "Professors would take you outside of the classroom and integrate learning with real life," she says. "They were interested not just in papers, but in how you were processing the information."

Jena found herself just as prepared as other development workers. In fact, she says the leadership skills and "heart skills" she learned at Whitworth gave her an additional advantage. "In development work there is a tendency to focus on facts and statistics," she says. But Whitworth taught her to infuse compassion, care and relationship into the process—even in the face of challenges. "My first six months I had every reason to turn around, pack my bags and say, 'This isn't going to happen,'" Jena says. "But Whitworth taught me that you can push through challenges.

"You could use your education to gain more status and money and pad yourself from the suffering in the world, but what if you were to use your education to enter into suffering and do something about it?" Jena says. "If I hadn't gone to a Christian college, I wouldn't have seen academics as a tool to serve."

As one of the world's top decathletes, Bryan Clay ('03) won silver in the 2004 Olympics, gold in the 2005 World Championships, and earned a Nike sponsorship. Practice, determination and physical ability have brought him success. But so did attending Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California.

"I could not have accomplished what I have if I'd gone to a different school," says Bryan. "Attending a Christian college allowed me to build relationships that have ultimately set me up for success."

Growing up in Hawaii, Bryan had dreams of being a professional track athlete, but his time at APU helped him believe it could be a reality. "Everybody is on your side, and their main goal is to help you succeed," says Bryan. "People believed in me before I believed I could do it myself."

Bryan became personal friends with faculty and staff, barbecuing with the college president and attending the birthday parties of his coach's son. "I don't think you see that at other schools," says Bryan. "People care about more than just your athletic career or your education. At APU, they cared about me as a person."

Competing as a decathlete requires lots of rigorous training, mental preparation and sacrifice to be competitive nationally and internationally. Bryan trains six hours every day, competes weekly in different track events, and can be gone weeks at a time for major decathlons. He has no teammates to rely on.

"It's too hard for someone to do it on their own," says Bryan. He's thankful for the strong network of college friends and faculty who not only support him, but also help his wife and young son when he is away.

Bryan continues to train at APU's facilities and helps coach track. "They really make it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing," he says. "Many schools think their job is over once you have graduated. But I don't think APU ever thinks their job is over."

When Amy Hawkins ('03) thinks of her college days, she thinks of roaring lambs.

This isn't because Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Michigan, has a shepherding major (it doesn't); but rather because the college equipped Amy to live out the message of Roaring Lambs —a book that encourages Christians to be salt and light by working in the mainstream world.

Having read the book when she was a freshman at Spring Arbor, Amy uses its lessons to help her be a "roaring lamb" as the executive director of Citizens for Traditional Values, a nonprofit organization that works within Michigan politics to preserve Judeo-Christian values. Amy has promoted defense-of-marriage legislation and spent three months on the 2004 reelection campaign for George W. Bush, encouraging church and college voters to get to the polls.

Relationships formed with faculty and friends at Spring Arbor gave Amy confidence in her faith and in herself. "I don't think I'd have the confidence to do what I'm doing if I had gone to a non-Christian school," she says of working with state leaders at only 25 years of age. "You have to be confident in politics, which is all about people, but also about spreading a vision."

Amy enjoys being a Christian in the often-secular world of politics, where her responses to stress and other setbacks bear witness to her faith. And in her work, she often relies on her Spring Arbor public speaking and psychology background, whether she is addressing her advisory board, working the phones, or meeting with state legislators.

"In order to communicate with people, you have to understand them," she says. "And in order to understand people, you have to communicate with them. You can't have one without the other."

Ira Bates ('04) is in many ways a "proven product" of the University of Mobile (Alabama) business school. He runs United Way fundraising campaigns, co-owns a graphic design business and is working toward his MBA. But this business administration major wouldn't even have finished school if not for a Christian college.

Ira didn't want to go to college, and spent three years in and out of community colleges before getting a job at Pizza Hut, trying to make it on his own. "I hit a brick wall and was extremely frustrated that my life wasn't going anywhere," he says.

Then in 1998 a friend got him to enroll at the University of Mobile where he found faculty and students who were kind and attentive—a big difference from his community college days. When he walked into the registrar's office after taking a year off to get married, he was greeted by name.

"It really got to me. I hadn't been there in a year and they remembered me," says Ira, who frequently received e-mails from the dean asking about his family and his degree. "Those people made a conscious effort to get me back in classes and wanted me to do well."

Ira says he could have learned his business skills at a non-Christian school, but he wouldn't have the strong work ethic and balanced perspective gained from classes that "brought God" into business. "You can go to any school and get your education," says Ira. "But at a Christian school, there is an added value: the opportunity to express your faith." Ira was able to grow in his faith, while also making the contacts that led him to his position as director of resource development with the Mobile chapter of the United Way.

Ira also runs a graphic design and printing business with a longtime friend and fellow alum, Everage Thomas ('97). They use their business to create work opportunities for those in need of jobs. "It's more than making money," says Ira. "You've still got to make the bottom line, but in the meantime it's about the people."

Theater major Jeremiah Gamble ('95) spent his first three years after college "paying his dues." He waited tables at his restaurant job. He served coffee at Starbucks. And he pursued his dream career by performing a one-man show about the life of Christ.

Now, he and his wife Vanessa ('95) run a full-time ministry called Theater for the Thirsty, bringing to life over 85 characters in original plays that convey biblical themes.

The Gambles began performing at churches and other faith-based institutions and are now branching into the secular theater scene, looking to communicate scriptural truths in non-religious ways. "We believe everybody is hungry and thirsty for real life, which is found in Christ," says Jeremiah. "And the pieces we perform allow others to taste and see that God is good."

Jeremiah entered Bethel University, in St. Paul, Minnesota (formerly Bethel College and Seminary), planning to major in music education. But an influential professor inspired him to pursue theater as a form of ministry. "I redirected my focus," he says. "I still wanted to educate, but not necessarily as a music teacher."

Jeremiah says the personal care of his professors allowed him to discover a career path that fit his gifts and his faith.

The world of theater can be full of difficult moral and ethical decisions for Christians, but Bethel's theater and music classes taught Jeremiah to integrate his faith and his art and exposed him to guest speakers who could serve as examples. "When you live in the theater environment, it's very necessary to have a sense of security in who you are," says Jeremiah. "I can take my faith and be who I am as an actor, and other actors will respect that."

Though Bethel wasn't specifically a theater school, Gamble was able to create opportunities to improve and practice his craft. "If I had gone to theater school, I would have pushed harder to get into full-time theater sooner, thinking that might be what success is," says Jeremiah. "But I've learned to hold things loosely and sense where God is leading me, rather than being out to grab and get what I can."

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Campus Life magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Campus Life.

Subscribe to Ignite Your Faith!

• Risk-free trial issue
• Give a Gift Subscription