Archives: Alumni Success Stories

In my political science degree I had a range of professors—liberal, conservative—and all were great at doing the same thing: They wanted us to push our limits and understand the other side of an argument at all times. A big thing that sticks out in my mind is my capstone project my senior year. Once a week, three other students and I would sit with our professor in the BBC (Bootsma Bookstore Cafe). Since our professor had known us for years, he understood our political viewpoints. He would make us argue the opposite side of our personal beliefs, which helped us understand why people hold their viewpoints and how they logically support their side.

Through this, I learned about perspective—that perspective comes from how a person was raised, where they were raised, what they are experiencing at the time. Instead of thinking I am right and this person is wrong, I learned to add in the dimension of perspective and life experience.

This is one of the most valuable things I’ve learned in life. It applies personally, with family and friends, and professionally. In life, you are constantly in discussions and often you may disagree or have opposing viewpoints or end goals. Prior to learning this lesson, my instinct when hearing something I disagreed with was to say, “You are wrong, and let me explain to you why.” I still sometimes have this gut reaction, but if I can remember, I now try to understand the reason and perspective behind the opposite side. I think, “They are saying that because they had this life experience, they grew up this way, they have these pressures on them right now.” Because of this, I can come around, or at least better empathize with a person’s viewpoint. It helps us find a middle ground much easier. It’s no longer about right or wrong, but about understanding one another.

This has been crucial at work, because in the working world, you are always facing opposing viewpoints or deadlines. Whether it’s a coworker with a different political view, or maybe pressure from a client. When a client seems angry, instead of being angry back, I think, “This person may be doing this because they are feeling pressure from their boss.” It applies in all aspects of life.

The number one thing I learned at Trinity is that, if you work hard and do your best, there are results. That may not be right away, but people will notice. One thing I struggled with in college was test anxiety. In almost every class every semester I would fail one test, but after, I could sit with professors and tell them all the answers. It was clear to the professors that I knew what I was doing. They noticed the hard work I was putting in day-to-day. That helped energize me and teach me that even if there were small failures that seemed really big, I could do it. Because the professors were patient with me and worked with me, I was able to gain the confidence to graduate with high honors and pass my CPA—things that at one point I thought were unattainable.

While I was a student I worked in the bookstore. Those people became my second moms. They would get to know us, check in with how things were going. Even people in the business office spent time getting to know every student.

I am currently using this lesson, and it’s helping me advance my career. As much as my job is technical and about numbers, I have the opportunity to teach people and invest in them. I can take the time to ask my staff, “Is this how you learn best? If not, let’s find a different way.” The lesson helped me understand that giving time to people matters. The product I give to my managers is only as good as the people under me. If I don’t work to get to know them, there won’t be the results and progress we are looking for. Because of these understandings I learned at Trinity, I have been given a lot of responsibility early in my career. People have trusted me faster and given me more opportunities.

I double majored in accounting and music, and I’m currently putting both sides to work. While at Trinity, the professors found me an internship at insurance brokerage firm. A senior-level staff member had connections to Trinity, and I was able to use this network to find a job at Deloitte after graduation. I moved to the city, where I’ve been for the past few years. I took and passed the CPA test in 2015, and my license was official one year ago. I was recently promoted to the senior level at Deloitte. I am also using my music degree through my involvement at Park Community Church in the city. I volunteer during worship there, playing piano and singing during services.

I am currently very passionate about learning how the Lord wants to use me in Chicago. I feel called to serve here. I’ve been praying for how I can live out my faith here. I am intentional about staying here and being present as I spend my time experiencing and living in this city. Eventually I may move into an underserved community and get to know my neighbors and see where conversations lead.

In my junior year, my advisor lent me a collection of essays called Liturgy and Music. After racing through the book, I returned it and said with wonder, “Wow—people get to think about this for a living?!” My advisor eventually connected me with the editor of that book and I ended up studying with him in my Masters degree program at Yale Divinity School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Now, in my doctoral program at Duke, I study under another advisor whose writing had also sparked my imagination back at Trinity. I understand that these people aren’t rockstars to everyone else, but to me and people in my field, these opportunities are crazy and wonderful and amazing.

I am now in my second year at Duke Divinity School in the Doctor of Theology program, where I study music in the recent history of worship in America. My studies are aimed at becoming a college or seminary professor. I hope to teach pastors and worship leaders who will be serving local congregations about how music and Christian worship go together. Practically, we often think only about Sunday morning and what songs we should pick to go with the theme of the service. But more importantly, I want to help my students think about what’s at stake when we make choices about music in worship: how will it encourage Christian discipleship and how can we wisely assess the factors that make a song ‘good’? These are the kinds of questions I want to teach people to ask because my sense of vocation exists somewhere between the academic setting and the ministry of congregational music.

I feel honored and blessed to be able to do these things—and to do them at this level—with the people who literally wrote the book on it. Because of the incredible influences my advisors and teachers have had on me, I have deep hope for my own impact on the life of the church and the budding leaders with whom I will work. I am grateful that the seeds my advisor at Trinity planted, were nurtured by many, and are now growing into this wonderful life of study and worship that I hadn’t even known how to hope for.

I spent my first two years of undergraduate at another bigger school pursuing a nursing degree. But something about that school didn’t feel right. Not only did the degree I was pursuing feel off, but I felt like a number, like professors didn’t seem to care if I made it through. I visited Trinity while searching for a better fit, and the staff and professors I encountered helped me to realize that this was the place for me.

At first I wasn’t 100 percent sure on a social work career, but the program was so impressive. As I learned more about the various opportunities in social work, I realized this was what had been missing—I wanted to know and feel like I could make a difference.

Over the course of my time, I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue work directly with children, or if I wanted to work on the administration side. I appreciated the flexibility the social work degree allowed as I explored both of those options. Throughout my time at Trinity, both in the classroom and around campus, professors took the time to talk to me, get to know me, to understand my interests, what I like, and what career would best suit me. They guided me and helped me to see that I was more geared toward the bigger picture—setting up, evaluating, and guiding programs. Knowing that was my niche, my professors encouraged that in me. Everything they did was so that I would have the skills, impressive items for my resume—if they thought it would help, they would advise me to do something. I got to go to a few important social work conferences. Once, after doing research with a group, a professor encouraged us to submit the work to a conference, and we were selected and able to lead a conference session for the North American Association for Christians in Social Work (NACSW).

All of this prompted me to go to the University of Michigan, where I’m pursuing a Master of Social Work in Social Policy and Evaluation at the number 1 program in the country. I start classes in the Fall with a concentration on macro work and an internship at the Community Mental Health Partnership of Southeast Michigan. After my Masters, I’m hoping to go into administrative work doing program evaluation, possibly in the area of community building. I would love to help rejuvenate communities in lower income neighborhoods.

In 2010, Emily (Buter) Rusticus graduated from Trinity’s nursing program and answered a call to the health care industry. She now works in the Pediatric Neuro unit at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, serving a diverse population of children from newborns to late teens.

She often cares for children with cancer before they are moved to oncology and gets to know many of them well. One child in particular prompted Rusticus to think of her oldest sister who died of a brain tumor at the age of nine. “I see lots of kids in those situations, but she especially reminded me of the sister I lost,” she said. “I can be there for the family and give them my full attention in the small moments. That’s when I know why I’m here, to serve God and this population.”

Although she can’t often share her faith, Rusticus does pray with Christian families and is challenged by working in the city. Growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and worshipping in a Christian Reformed church, Rusticus believes it is important for everyone to live outside of their comfort zone.

She credits her Trinity professors with that excellent teaching. “My experience at Trinity was wonderful, beginning with our first nursing class,” said Rusticus. “The teaching staff was superb. Not many nursing schools can say that their staff knows each student by name and genuinely cares about them as individuals.”

Because of the College’s location and the partnerships the nursing department has formed with local hospitals, Rusticus had “amazing, real world experiences.”

“Less than .05 percent of the total resources of the Church in the west are being sent to help share the Good News,” said Genevieve Trieu ’06. “I want to give more than .05 percent. I want to give my life.”

As a hometeam missionary on Gospel for Asia’s broadcasting and media relations team, Trieu helps the department meet its goal to broadcast the gospel domestically and internationally in over 100 languages to unreached people groups in the subcontinent of Asia.

One of Trieu’s responsibilities is coordinating campaigns with radio stations across the United States to provide much needed physical and spiritual relief to many of the forgotten and oppressed in Asia. Such campaigns bring supplies to recent tsunami victims and the love of Christ to downtrodden women and widows.

As a freshman at Trinity, Trieu hadn’t imagined herself in her current career. In fact, she voiced her anxiety about the future job market to her advisor Dr. Craig Mattson, professor of communication arts. “He told me that it didn’t matter how well I did or how influential I became in the world’s eyes. He told me that as long as I did my work unto the Lord, God would be pleased,” recalled Trieu. “This was groundbreaking for me. It laid the foundation for my major in communication arts and later for my entire life.”

After college, Trieu accepted an internship at Gospel for Asia after months of prayer over the decision. “After interning for one year, I knew I was making a global and eternal impact I would be hard-pressed to find anywhere else,” she said.

She then joined the staff full time and serves in the home office in Carrollton, Texas.

For people like Chris Verstrate ’96, Chicago, a hub of international business, provides an ideal place in which to practice corporate law.

“The type of business law that I am involved in as a partner with McGuireWoods, LLP, requires me to live in a major metropolitan area and business center,” said Verstrate. “After attending both Trinity and Northwestern University School of Law, it was a natural fit to find a firm to work for in Chicago.”

Verstrate, who majored in business and communication arts, decided he wanted to attend law school after graduation and earned a juris doctor from Northwestern.

Verstrate didn’t share the interest many students have in studying litigation and arguing cases in court. “You don’t see a lot of TV shows focused on the legal practice of a corporate lawyer, but I knew that I wanted to be part of the business side of things based largely on my experience at Trinity.”

Verstrate said the location of Chicago was ideal for pursuing his law degree, because of the choice of excellent law schools. As a partner at McGuireWoods, Verstrate handles corporate transactions including mergers and acquisitions, international business transactions, complex contracts, and corporate formation and reorganization. “I love the fact that I get to work with different companies across different industries and even throughout different countries.”

Besides Trinity’s business program and the influence of Verstrate’s former professor John Kooyenga ’66, more notable experiences included meeting his wife Kadie ’96 and forming the lasting friendships he maintains today. Verstrate also mentioned the many opportunities he had to participate in student government, intramurals, the student newspaper, and residence life.

“What stands out the most for me are the number of opportunities at Trinity, the experiences that I had, and the people that I met along the way.”

Matthew Lanser ’05 stands at a small wooden table, a Bible open in front of him, as he teaches Nigerian villagers who have gathered beneath the generous shade of a tree to hear the gospel. He and his wife Laura ’05 currently serve in Nigeria with Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM), the world missions agency of the Christian Reformed Church of North America.

The Lansers live in a fairly remote and undeveloped area and spend much of their time engaging with the people they live among and taking care of daily needs, such as getting food and water.

Matthew teaches at Warari Bible School, a school with approximately 30 students that trains functionally illiterate church leaders and their spouses in reading and writing. He also teaches a basic knowledge of the Bible and various ministry and vocational skills. The goal of this training is to help students either serve as pastors in the area churches or start new churches in areas where the Gospel has not yet been received.

Laura is busy with the couple’s newborn son Micah and their two-year-old son David. She has also taught at the school and, using her skills as a nurse, has trained several of the students and their spouses in basic medical care.

After graduating from Trinity with degrees in philosophy and theology, and nursing, respectively, Matthew and Laura lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Laura worked as an oncology nurse, and Matthew attended Calvin Theological Seminary, earning a Master of Divinity. But their shared interest in cross-cultural work was growing, as was their desire to serve the global church. After talking with recruiters from various missions agencies, the Lansers decided to work in Nigeria with CRWM.

“I think Trinity’s focus on developing a Christian worldview that reaches to all of life was good preparation for us to think in healthy ways about how we fit into the story of God’s work around the world,” said Matthew.

Kurt Schemper ’97, a former Trinity communication arts and theology major, received an Emmy for his work as a producer on Intervention, the A&E Television Network docuseries. The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards aired September 20.

Speaking then of his faith, Schemper recalled a quote by Frederick Buechner that a Trinity professor shared with him: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

“My deep gladness is Jesus,” said Schemper. “The entertainment industry is no different than any other place with lonely people searching for gladness.”

Harold Boyd ’10 grew up in the Roseland community on the south side of Chicago and began attending Roseland Christian Reformed Church around the age of 10. As a child, he enjoyed the fellowship he found at Roseland Christian Ministries (RCM) and remembers the year Joe Huizenga ’01, pastor of Roseland CRC, was an intern from Trinity.

Today Boyd, who also served as an intern as a Trinity student, works with Huizenga at RCM to bring the message of salvation to the community, as well as support services such as interim housing for homeless mothers and their children. Boyd recently began a newly created position as youth director and pastor, roles he fills with several years of experience of working with children and a heart for being a missionary to his community.

Soon after he began his work, Boyd was featured by CNN in a story about Mission Year and the low numbers of African Americans in the mission field. “We can be missionaries to our communities, and once we live a mission life there, then we can go out to other places,” he said.

Although Boyd’s time in Atlanta ended in July, he continues to work as a Mission Year alumni mentor with team members serving in Roseland for the next year.

At RCM, two of the youth offerings Boyd oversees include Transforming Minds, an after-school program, and Daughters of Zion, a program that helps girls develop their self esteem and reinforces moral messages. He hopes to develop a similar program for boys called Men of Honor but emphasized the great need for more long-term volunteers to serve the children.