Getting on Course in College

The beginning of the school year provides many opportunities for InterVarsity chapters to connect with new students on campus. Those connections can have life-changing consequences for students, as one of our California InterVarsity staff members illustrates.

In high school I was a self-proclaimed atheist until my senior year. As I was preparing to leave for college, God orchestrated a series of events so that by the time I arrived at UCLA as a freshman, I was open and curious about spiritual things.

Having been a typical over-achiever in high school, I signed up for dozens of clubs and organizations for more information – Christian, non-Christian, it didn’t matter. I just wanted to get involved at my new school and make new friends. One of the groups that I signed up with was InterVarsity. Within the first week, a friendly sophomore, named Tracey, came by my dorm room and invited me to a Welcome BBQ. I was eager to meet new people. And who can pass up free food?

At the BBQ I was quickly introduced to several other people from my dorm and enjoyed a rigorous game of volley ball. “Maybe Christians weren’t complete dorks,” I thought. Throughout that first quarter, Tracey and other InterVarsity folks invited me to Bible studies in the dorms and to their Fall Conference at Catalina Island. She prayed for me during my first set of mid-terms and helped me to navigate the systems at UCLA. I began to fall in love with Jesus through a Gospel of Mark Study that first year, and I was deeply moved by how genuine Tracey’s care and friendship was towards me.

After that first year, Tracey and I remained close friends, and she began to teach me to love other incoming freshmen just as she had intentionally reached out to me. By my junior year I had experienced so much joy in seeing others learn to follow Jesus that I wanted to be part of a larger team of staff focused on creating these opportunities for spiritual growth.

I spent 3 years on staff at UCLA and then left my alma mater for a local community college to launch a new ministry. It troubled me that a school would have zero Christian groups on it while others had thirty or more. I also realized that God was still growing in me a heart for missions, and I knew that this creative experience at Compton Community College would be excellent preparation for cross-cultural ministry. After 4 years of urban work, God has opened the door for my husband and me to serve in the Middle East as Link Staff.

In looking back at that first week as a freshman at UCLA, I would never have imagined that I would become an overseas missionary. I was on a very specific trajectory towards medical school, and then God got involved through a book table, a BBQ, a dorm Bible study, and a circle of friends who invited me into the journey of following Jesus.