I feel so blessed to serve at Southern Methodist University in the heart of Dallas, Texas. Beginning my ministry this coming fall semester on campus, I hope to begin forming authentic friendships with students all over campus. While I have a background in fraternity and sorority outreach, I look forward to connecting with as many students as possible and inviting them to have a relationship with Jesus through Bible studies, discipleship, and true companionship.

Growing up in the Catholic Church, I experienced the love of Christ at my local parish in Southport, North Carolina, and among my parents and three siblings. While in high school, this deep love continued to grow, and I hoped to share it with my friends and community. Once on campus at East Carolina University, I began to fall into the world’s pleasures and live as a lukewarm Catholic. During this time, I longed to live a life fully alive but continued to fall to peer pressure and college temptations. After hitting rock bottom during the spring semester of my sophomore year, I vowed to change my life. I immediately turned to Christ and the FOCUS missionaries on my campus for answers. I felt robbed and defeated as I soon realized that the things the world told me would bring me happiness only brought despair and loneliness. Learning this lesson the hard way, I soon began mentoring men in my fraternity and encouraging them to strive for holiness alongside me. Now, as a FOCUS missionary, I hope to bring as many students as possible to know Christ. Todays college students will soon become the future leaders of tomorrow, and I look forward to bringing the love of Christ to them so that they may walk by His side in all their future endeavors.

While in college, I had the incredible privilege of mentoring many men on campus through Bible studies, formal discipleship programs, and authentic friendships at East Carolina University. After first being taught by FOCUS missionaries how to lead Bible studies and discipleship activities, I set out with the daunting task of forming my own Bible study among my fraternity brothers. I quickly discovered how much my fraternity brothers desired to have a relationship with Christ. Many had grown up as Christians just like me but also caved to the pressures of the college environment. My bible study continued to grow from five or six men to eighteen by the end of my spring semester. Along with running my weekly bible study, I asked three men to take a step even more profound and make Christ the center of their lives through weekly spiritual formation and discipleship. By the end of my time at East Carolina University, I hoped I had shown Jesus’s love to each man in my fraternity through bible study, discipleship, or loving them as Christ would.