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St. Andrew Lutheran Church, Portsmouth, Va.
Personal care assistant, Riverside Smithfield (Va.) Hospital Emergency Department
St. Andrew was my mom’s first call as pastor. She’s been there for 10 years! The church has changed and grown into something beautiful since I started attending at age 15. Community outreach has always been one of my favorite ways to spread God’s love. For example, during COVID-19, the local community would refer to us as the “feeding church” because we had a well-stocked food pantry that was accessible to everyone. I would go in and help stock, organize and clean the food pantry, or put together care packages for unhoused neighbors.
St. Andrew has also been a place where I can always come in and play my instruments as part of worship, which has led to me being a more versatile musician and feeling a deeper connection with my own expression of faith and worship through song. It’s important to me to be involved because sometimes people in the community outside the church doors need a safe space to come and sit or share their story, and helping to provide that safe space for everyone makes my heart full.
I was a music education major at Norfolk (Va.) State University (NSU). That was an interesting journey for me and didn’t work out the way I wanted—but, of course, God had different plans.
I am a 2026 graduate of ECPI University (Virginia Beach)—a technical and vocational school with satellite campuses up and down the East Coast—with a degree in medical assisting.
PCAs (personal care assistants) work with nurses and do most of the intake and sample collection for testing. I do phlebotomy, perform [electrocardiograms], take vitals and assist with mobility and other basic needs of the patients. I always tell people, “I’m a carer at heart.” Helping others be happy, safe and well makes me happy. Medicine is just that.
God calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Medicine calls its practitioners to do no harm. To me, these are one and the same. I can come into a room with a patient who I probably would never see eye to eye with and still use my hands and mind to do God’s work and help the patient as best as I can.
I want to end up working in some iteration of motorsports medicine, like helping drivers recover from traumatic injuries. But to get there, I’ll need to start in emergency medicine. I find that to be just as exciting because that’s where the real difference is made on a day-to-day basis.
I serve on the ELCA Church Council and the Virginia Synod Council. I am very thankful for that experience. I’ve learned so much about what goes on in the ELCA and parliamentary procedures by being there. My Virginia Synod experience has been a wonderful means of connection and giving back. I attended all the youth events we offer, from fifth grade to post-high-school graduation, and now attend adult faith-formation events. Being of service on the council lets me share my experiences, why they were so important to me and why they’re important to continue for future generations.
I am on the Faith, Society and Innovation Committee of the ELCA Church Council. We look for ways to make sure the church is connected to itself and the world, and for ways to make sure all people can experience God’s grace and love. I’m on a subcommittee working to ensure youth and young adults have more voice and vote in the ELCA. I get to share my Virginia Synod experiences with others who didn’t have anything similar when they were my age and hopefully help expand some perspectives.
I have a lot of volunteer work under my belt. I have served at Oasis Social Ministry soup kitchen in Portsmouth off and on since I was around 6 or 7. I’ve helped in the kitchen with preparing meals, and as I got older, with serving them. My experience at Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless was similar, ensuring everyone had enough to eat and had blankets and resources, as well as a safe space to share their stories.
I also served in a hypothermia shelter when I lived in northern Virginia, where churches would trade off each week hosting a large amount of our unhoused community and feed them, give them counseling, haircuts, interview practice, bus and grocery cards and more. I would help in the kitchen then and sit with people, swapping stories.
One of my favorite people to talk to every week at that shelter was a man named Robert, who was an electrician. He liked to play piano, so we would sit at the one in the fellowship hall and play together for everyone. Several volunteers asked about him, and when they found out he was an electrician, he was able to get work through our church for a while until he passed.
God calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Medicine calls its practitioners to do no harm. To me, these are one and the same.
I currently volunteer for a nonprofit organization called Autism Congo, which is working to build a school in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help the community better understand autism. The school will provide housing and safe facilities for women to learn trades and skills, and for the children to get an education and coping skills.
I was in marching bands from ninth grade until I left NSU, and I’ll still occasionally get called to fill spots for field shows. In high school, with the Nansemond River Magnificent Marching Warriors, I’d gone to the Macy’s holiday parade in Orlando and marched down Disney World’s Main Street, U.S.A. I’d done local parades and played in middle schools for recruitment. I’d done the Sugar Bowl and marched in front of a few hundred thousand people, and I remember thinking “I’ve peaked.” I was wrong.
The Norfolk State University Spartan Legion didn’t travel much my rookie year, but the impact we had through YouTube clips surpassed everything I thought it would. One video of the band marching into an event has 5.2 million views and comments from all over the world. Later we would get invited to march in the [Rose Parade]. That one week in California, I saw more impact than I’d seen in four years at Nansemond. Thinking back to how so many people from all over the country were adopting our HBCU (historically Black college and university) that they had never heard of before as a source of connection was so powerful and encouraging.
When I do have free time, I’ll spend it with my niece and nephew or cooking, making art out of Legos, or popping up at either band room, where I’ll always have a community. If I go to Nansemond, I work with the woodwinds on musicality and often end up answering questions about college.
I’ve seen a lot of beautiful things in my life, but Bishop [Yehiel] Curry’s installation takes the cake. I sat in the second row, and I cried almost the entire time. There were people of all ages and stages of life, of all nationalities and economic statuses, deaf, blind and differently abled. We were all just there for God and to welcome Bishop Curry.
I am biracial, so growing up in the Lutheran church meant that, yes, I went to church, but not the same kind of church my peers went to—or I’d have to be comfortable being the only person of African or Arab descent in the room. It led me to being more secure in my identity. But to witness so many people that aren’t of European descent gathered in one place at the installation service, in the traditional way I grew up with, sharing the peace and communing together, was very empowering. It felt like a literal embodiment of Pentecost and the tongues speaking in all languages, like the global church wasn’t just an idea but a reality.
I often find myself praying for peace and guidance. We live in really confusing times, and it’s hard to be in your 20s right now. It seems like everything changes for me weekly, whether it’s the way student loans will work, the job market and its demands, or the housing market. God always has a plan for me, and I will be where I need to be when I need to be. Knowing that and praying for help and guidance helps me stay calm and focused on the now rather than the turmoil in the “5 minutes from now” or the week ahead.
I’m a Lutheran because going out into the world to spread the good news through word and deed—and challenging my own beliefs so I can grow (and help others grow)—is my jam!
