The writer of the e-mail had just finished her first day at a prestigious medical school. When she got back to her apartment, the first thing she did was send an e-mail to some of her major professors at Samford University. In two short paragraphs, she illustrated the values and goals of Christian higher education at her alma mater, as well as at the University of Mobile (UMobile) and Judson College.
She wrote that during that first day, “all I could think about was how thankful I was to have had the opportunity to go to Samford and learn from each of you.” Instead of being overwhelmed by the demands of medical school, she felt confident. Her academic training had been first-rate. She had done research and understood that process. Her writing and oral communication skills had been honed. She had learned how to think, evaluate, draw conclusions and act accordingly.
This young woman had applied herself, taken advantage of the opportunities offered by her Christian school and achieved at high levels through it all. As a result, she felt prepared and eager to begin, while some of her new peers were frightened by what lay ahead of them. That is supposed to be the result of a college education. The graduate is to be competent and prepared to achieve in his or her chosen field.
The e-mail writer noted the “enormous lecture hall,” saying, “I couldn’t help but notice I wasn’t at Samford anymore.” Enormous lecture halls may be a staple in some colleges but not in Alabama’s three Baptist institutions of higher learning. There the student-faculty ratio allows for personal relationships between faculty and students.
The writer made that point as she continued, “I know that if it weren’t for the role that each of you have played in my life and education, I wouldn’t be here today.”
But the new med student wrote, “There will be times (here) when I will not always be reminded and pushed to reach my highest potential.”
Imagine an academic setting where faculty members have personal relationships with students, hold up the importance of learning and push students to do their best. That creates a different kind of atmosphere than a place where students are numbers or the professor’s goal is delivering a lecture.
Christian higher education is supposed to be person-centered and expressed through interaction between students and faculty. That was certainly the case for this young woman.
“And to do all for the glory of God” — that is how she described her efforts. She acknowledged her faith in Jesus Christ and how her years at Samford had influenced her spiritual life. “This (faith) is something that has been a part of my whole life and was further integrated into who I am during my time at Samford and especially by my [department] family.”
Like its sister schools, Samford works hard to be a Christian school, a Baptist school. Chapel services, student missions groups, special religious emphases, student-led prayer groups, other religious activities and much, much more characterize the culture of the school as Christian, as Baptist.
For this recent graduate, the religious experience went further than school-sponsored events. It included the relationships with her professors. In the classroom, personal conversations and projects, she learned of her professors’ Christian faith, and together they took a journey that helped the young woman “further integrate (faith) into” who she is.
Can one expect more from a Christian university?
The experience at a Baptist university helped this person determine who she is and what she is about. “I know why I am in medical school,” she wrote. Her academic preparation, her personal relationships, her walk with the Lord had all combined to give her clear direction about who she is and what she is to be about. She has found her purpose, her calling in life.
“It is only through each of you that I have truly begun to understand what it means to serve,” she continued. That is an expression of values, and values is what Baptist colleges are about. Baptist colleges are not places where one masters information or is only equipped to earn money. In the educational process, meaning must emerge. At Samford, UMobile and Judson, one learns that as Christ gave Himself for us, we are called to give ourselves for others. This young woman learned that lesson, and her life was changed forever because of it.
The influence of a Christian higher education is not limited to the years spent on the campus. The writer shared, “As I started the next big phase of my life, each of you played a role in that, and in a way, each of you were there with me as I walked into that lecture hall today.” Indeed the influence of her faculty mentors will be with her every day for the rest of her life.
Unfortunately not every student’s experience is as positive as this one’s. There is what theologians call “free will,” and some young people make choices that result in bad experiences. Some young people in our churches make similar choices.
And just as one cannot condemn a church for a youth’s choices, one cannot condemn a college for a student’s mistakes.
What can be celebrated is that for all who enter the gates of Samford, UMobile or Judson, the opportunity is there for success like that of this young woman. All are places where academic standards are high, personal attention from and personal relationships with mentors are available, purpose is sifted out amid the information, God is honored and lives are changed.
As classes begin on the three campuses this week and the next couple of weeks, Alabama Baptists can be thankful for their partnership with these institutions of higher learning and thankful to God they are places where young people can be impacted as positively as the writer of this e-mail.
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