The 2002 AFA alumna and practicing nurse discusses how Ad Fontes Academy has impacted her life, shaped her beliefs and inspired her vision for helping others.

Interview by former AFA Journalism Teacher Sheryl Blunt

Q: Tell us what you are doing since graduating from Ad Fontes?

A: I went to James Madison University for my BSN in Nursing. I started working at Fairfax Hospital in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). I am still there almost three years later, and I love it!

Q: How do you feel AFA helped prepare you for what you are doing now?

A: AFA taught me how to apply a biblical worldview to all subjects and situations. This tool served me through college and continues to be a gift as I face various ethical challenges at work.

At Ad Fontes I learned about absolute truth through Plato. In his writings about the cave I was introduced to the idea of ultimate truth and reality. Those conversations helped prepare my mind for what I would face at college. There has to be truth, and we can stand on it if we stand on God’s word. That’s the truth I stand on at work, and it started in high school. I never knew how much [reading Plato’s Republic] would influence me— that it would be so significant.

Q: How do you think Ad Fontes differs most from other Christian schools?

A: At this school every subject is taught through Scripture. Also, you have to be able to provide support for every argument you make. AFA wants you to present what you think based on the facts you have gathered. There’s an academic view that uses knowledge to promote oneself, but at Ad Fontes, it’s about having knowledge in order to promote God. AFA was developing me as a person to understand what life was about. It wasn’t just preparing me to be a success in the world’s eyes. It was preparing me to be ready and able to give an answer for what I would encounter as a believer.

Q: To what extent do you believe AFA helped shape your career choice?

A: I know that my love for the sciences grew while I was at AFA, which influenced my decision to go into nursing.

Q: What teachers or courses do you remember being particularly influential?

A: The teachers at Ad Fontes want to hear you defend your views. They want us to speak with confidence about our faith. I learned how to be comfortable with my faith and how to articulate it. Mr. [Kurt] Wellington really encouraged me in my love for science. He and Mrs. [Linda] Mathwin, my senior thesis advisor, really impacted me. She’s awesome! She helped me articulate and build sound arguments to defend both the scientific and biblical facts I presented in my thesis regarding the over-diagnosis of ADHD and the detrimental effects this has for children.

She always asked me, ‘Do you have something to back that up?’ or, ‘Where’s the proof that drug is effective?’ I went to a college library to do research and I’d ask myself, ‘What is this high school?’… As a college freshman my teachers were impressed by how I used sources and backed up what I thought. Also, having to look at ethical issues in my thesis was critical. I am now able to use that every day in my healthcare profession.

Q: How does your faith mesh with the scientific worldview that dominates the practice of medicine?

A: This idea of biblically-sound truth and science can be likened to God and the Holy Spirit. Some see an omniscient God as pure knowledge and reason, and the Holy Spirit as spiritually [distinct], but the two are combined. Faith and science can combine, but you have to be a believer and a studier to experience the beauty of the two uniting.

In high school a lot of it is doing what you’re told—it’s building the groundwork. I think Ad Fontes does a lot of the groundwork. It gave me that idea of science as something that is God’s, and is used by God. You combine this with your love for God. Then you learn to live it out.

Q: You recently returned from a short-term mission trip to Uganda. What are some of the eye-opening experiences you had?

A: We met an awesome pastor who had started a church in a remote town called Kabara in southern Uganda. We came alongside this pastor and were able to serve him and meet his medical needs. The people there understood that God had sent a team to serve them in this way. I could just see the Gospel in action. Jesus could have done it himself—like he fed the 5,000—but the truth is, He works through the lowly. It was so Gospel! So not about us! It was about God! We went to serve, but these works were already cut out and prepared for us.

We interacted with a man who had two wives. At one point we had to tell his second wife that she needed AIDS testing since her baby was HIV positive. That night both families gave their lives to Christ. Praise God!

Q: Were you anxious at the prospect of attending a secular college after having been homeschooled and then attending AFA?

A: It’s such a gift to know you’re going into college with such a basis for what you already believe. In some ways you feel like you’re in a little Christian bubble for a while, but they don’t just dump you into the ‘real world’ afterwards. They gave us all these tools to use—spiritually and academically—so all of us were very prepared.

Q: What advice do you have for students considering mission work?

A: Pray Pray Pray. God is always speaking. Make sure you’re listening to where He is calling you. It may be to your next-door neighbor. Missions is not just a trip, it’s a state of heart, and having a heart that is ready to serve wherever God is calling.