I’m going to answer a question that tends to get asked in students’ minds quite often and is perhaps not verbalized as often.  What can a degree at a Christian college like Oak Hills do for me in the real world?  The truth is a biblical education can do a lot and you can be a great influence in your work environment too.

I am currently reading a book called “Good Faith: Being a Christian when Society Thinks You are Irrelevant and Extreme” by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons.  They tell a story of a woman they know named Anne Snyder, who attended a Christian school and got a job as an assistant to well-known New York Times journalist, David Brooks.  After Anne had been working for David a few years, he published a book called “The Road to Character” which includes a lengthy excerpt about Anne’s influence on him in the acknowledgments:

Anne C. Snyder was there when this book was born and walked with me through the first three years of its writing.  This was first conceived as a book about cognition and decision making.  Under Anne’s influence, it became a book about morality and inner life.  She led dozens of discussions about the material, assigned me reading from her her own bank of knowledge, challenged the superficiality of my thinking in memo after memo and transformed the project.  While I was never able to match the lyricism of her prose, or the sensitivity of her observations, I have certainly stolen many of her ideas and admired the gracious and morally rigorous way she lives her life.  If there are any important points in this book, they probably came from Anne.

What a great influence Anne was to David!  Did she have a degree or career in ministry? No, but she had a Christian background and let her moral character and faith shine in a way that significantly influenced her non-Christian boss.  You may not be getting a ministry degree right now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a light in this world in whatever career you choose!

A college degree can definitely help you get a great career, and at Oak Hills you will receive the added bonus of having a Christian education where you will learn and be equipped in biblical teachings.  You will be ready to take on the world in whatever path God sets before you AND you will be able to do it with his teachings in mind.  Shine your light and make a difference!  Be a positive influence to those around you by showing them what Christian Faith truly looks like in a person and in the workplace.