Easter with a Ph.D.

I am a tele-counselor in the Regent University Undergraduate department. Basically, I call 17 and 18 year old kids and try to convince them that Regent University should be in their future and then I talk with them a little bit about what they want to major in and generally do with their lives. Most of the time I get the apathetic student who would rather talk to the wall in their bedroom than discuss their academic future.

Occasionally I do get an interested student who likes to talk. What do they ask me? They ask, "Why do you like Regent?" As my superiors teach me to do, I have about five stories lined up to share about why the Regent experience is the best experience.

I do love Regent; it has been a God-send to me as it has been to many others. What I love most is when I am here on Easter Sunday in Virginia Beach hundreds of miles away from home and a fellow student invites me have Easter dinner with their family. They invite me into their home, give me food, laugh and let me hold their children. They treat me like family when my my family is far away. It then that I am remember that I am surrounded by people at Regent are nothing ordinary and actually quite unique.

I am reminded of this when the famous undergrad professor, Dr. William Lyons, Ph.D., invites me over to his house on Easter Sunday to have chai tea with him and his wife and other students. We talked religion, school and food. Then, of course, we ate dinner and talked more. . I believe this is the definition of going above and beyond. This is something Regent asks of all her students in their individual studies, so it is nice to see our faculty lead by example.

Each moment I am at Regent, despite the times when school is hard and it feels like a fishbowl because of the small size, I am reminded on days like this that choosing Regent has made a difference in the direction of my life and I am so glad I did.