I grew up in Traverse City, Michigan with a great family. My dad was chief mate on LNG ships and sailed around the world, and my mom carefully raised my brother and me. My mom is a wonderful example of a Christian and she raised us in church. I was very involved with my youth group and mission trips throughout high school. In college, I started off in chemistry at Albion College. I had a great small group there and continued growing with God. However, I wanted more opportunities for application and field work, so I transferred to Michigan Tech for my sophomore year to study engineering. I was a part of another great small group there and had a ton of fun working on big infrastructure projects during summer internships. In 2009, when the economy was going through the recession, I applied to graduate school at Purdue. During graduate school, I became more focused on my professional identity in my education and work. I was attending church, but God was not at the center of my life. In my last year of graduate school, my church got a new pastor from Auburn, Alabama. One day, my pastor invited college students over to his house for a small group and I couldn’t believe a pastor would do that. I was quite nervous about attending, but what I found was a great group of college students and amazing support from my pastor and his wife. After finishing graduate school, I joined the faculty at the University of Alabama. When I got to Tuscaloosa, I jumped right into small groups and went “all in” with God. I had tremendous support from mentors and small group members pouring into me. I went through a lot of spiritual growth my first year, but I was still finding my identity in my job and looking for others to value me based on my academic work and achievements. As I was reading through the Bible, I began to see how important obedience was to God and how much blessing He offered. Finally, I was ready to submit to Him and surrender my career for His glory and purpose. From then on, He has blessed me tremendously! Now I find my worth and value in God and love working in my field to honor Him!