Pentecostal Evangel

18 College students you need to meet

Students at Assemblies of God institutions of higher education are fast at work preparing for their futures. With 19 Assemblies of God colleges, universities and a seminary to choose from, students have access to high-caliber, Christian-based education and quality training. Some have plans to be tentmakers in the business world. Others have their sights set on becoming teachers, doctors, journalists, music executives, performers, engineers, chaplains, missionaries or ministers.

For this year’s special College Commitment Day edition, the focus of each story is on people rather than institutions.

The reason?

Each student’s story tells the bigger story of the impact and influence a Christian education can have on one’s life. Most of the students featured are just ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things with the opportunities, training and tools they have been given. Some students have overcome great odds, others have gone above and beyond their natural abilities and a few have broken barriers that will change the course of their life for the better.

Though all of their stories are unique, each student would tell you that an education at an Assemblies of God institution of higher education is preparing him or her to influence and impact the 21st century for Jesus Christ.

American Indian College
Michael Johnson
God’s will is everything

Navajo, N.M., lies within the Navajo Nation about 40 miles northwest of Gallup. Michael Johnson grew up there in a Navajo family of five children.

“My childhood wasn’t easy,” he says. “I was in boarding school, so I spent a lot of time away from my family. I struggled for several years with drug abuse. I was unhappy and always arguing.”

Assemblies of God Theological Seminary
Hedy Hung
Multitasking for ministry

As Hedy Hung leans back and closes her eyes for a brief break, she feels the warm Caribbean sun on her face. This is the perfect vacation for Hung, a student at Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Mo. But when Hung opens her eyes, the sun’s radiance is replaced by the light of fluorescent tubes, mixed with the blue-green glow from her computer screen.

Bethany College
Roberto Mata
From the fields to Harvard

After graduating from high school Roberto Mata spent more than three years laboring alongside other migrant workers in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The work was backbreaking and monotonous. Even more agonizing for Mata was watching his dream of going to college slowly dissipate like the morning dew.

Caribbean Theological College
Ruben Figueroa
Taking theory to the pulpit

As senior pastor of Templo Oásis in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, Ruben Figueroa relies on his training at Colegio Teológico del Caribe (Caribbean Theological College) in Bayamon to lead his flock. And he’s going at his own pace — three classes a semester — until his degree in theology is completed in May.

Central Bible College
Felicia Robinson
Vital training for powerful ministry

Felicia Robinson thought she had enough street smarts growing up in Pontiac, Mich., outside Detroit to enter the ministry without furthering her education beyond high school.

“I was adamant about not going to college,” Robinson says. “I didn’t figure I needed training for the ministry.”

Evangel University
Nafisa Shah
From India to the Ozarks

Nafisa Shah’s search for a Christian university took her almost halfway around the world. The Hyderabad, India, native followed her heart to Springfield, Mo., to study applied psychology and social work and prepare for a career helping the poor of her country.

Global University
Helen Carpenelli
Education is not age bound

Helen Carpenelli believes learning is a lifelong process. That’s why Carpenelli, at 77, is taking classes from Global University, the distance-education provider based in Springfield, Mo., that trains people in more than 160 countries. Carpenelli, a Pennsylvania coal miner’s daughter, didn’t obtain her general equivalency diploma until age 67.

Latin American Bible Institutes (Texas and California)
Antoinette Aguirre
Biblical foundation in a cultural context

Antoinette Aguirre, 23, says God has called her to plant a Spanish church. And she credits her three years at Latin American Bible Institute in San Antonio for playing a large role in preparing her for a life of ministry. More than 100 enrolled students each year choose to study for the ministry at LABI-Texas, not only for the quality of a bilingual education — students at LABI come from a variety of Spanish-speaking countries — but for the camaraderie that forges lifelong friendships.

Native American Bible College
Sandra McMillan
Finding a 25th hour

There are days her feet hurt and her back aches from a full day of nursing her patients. Yet, at the end of each shift, Sandra McMillan is excited about her commute home. After wading through the congestion of traffic pulsing about Fayetteville, N.C., she turns southwest onto state highway NC 71 and counts the miles until she arrives home.

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