With dreams to become a doctor, lawyer, teacher or maybe a counselor, you might wonder if a Christian college can prepare you for those fields or even give you a taste of what the "real world" will be like. You've heard so many good things about the Christian college experience, but will it simply isolate you from the outside world?

We took this question to three professors who teach at Christian schools, and asked them to offer answers based on their various areas of expertise.

Dr. George Stratis says that trust is very important in the working world. He tells his students he isn't simply preparing them for a career in business. He's preparing them to be "missionaries" to the corporate world. After spending 30 years in the business world, Stratis knows you reach business professionals for Christ by first demonstrating your abilities as a fellow professional. He says it's a matter of gaining trust.

As professor of business and finance at Nyack College (Nyack, New York), Stratis now takes his experiences into the classroom. He says his classes not only cover what's in the textbooks, but also apply those theories to real-life situations. Stratis has been through most of the situations they discuss—such as making a presentation, a practical skill every businessperson needs to know. When his students make presentations, he evaluates their weaknesses and they discuss them at the end of class. "I show them their weaknesses because I know that's exactly what happens in the corporate world," he says. "Your colleagues will continue to probe you until they get a sense you really know what you're talking about. Once you've proved yourself, then you get a free ride for the rest of the talk."

Stratis says part of his job is preparing his students to be qualified and prepared to survive the secular job market. The other part is giving them a foundation of integrity, honesty and balance in their life. "Just like Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, the business world has its own temptations. They'll dangle money and promotions in front of you. And it's extremely easy to get trapped into becoming a workaholic if you're going after a title."

Students occasionally ask if it's possible to be a Christian and become a CEO, to which Stratis responds, "Sure!" Stratis says that's when he reminds students that their faith should affect whatever position they find themselves in. He may tell them to imagine themselves in a business meeting where the discussion turns to a new advertising campaign. As the discussion develops, they discover the campaign is definitely stretching the truth. Stratis then asks his students, "So, are you going to sit there like a lump or now use the credibility you've built up, and the fact that you're an ambassador for Christ, to do something?"

Even though Stratis is only starting his fourth year with Nyack, he's seen students graduate and go on to work for some of the top business companies and accounting firms in the United States. One former student, now a broker for Morgan Stanley, has told Stratis and the rest of the business department that honesty works in the brokerage business—just like he had been taught.

Stratis says he wants his students to know their stuff, but also to develop strong Christian values that will prepare them for the difficult ethical and moral decisions they'll face in their jobs. "It's not always about what you learn in school because there are so many things you will learn on the job," he says. "But before you get into a job, you need to know who you are, how strong you are and what you believe. That's why a Christian education is so important."

Betty Wiseman not only pushes students to get out of their comfort zones, but also get out of the country. As the chair of the department of health and human performance at Belmont University (Nashville, Tennessee), Wiseman prepares students to become physical education teachers, physical therapists and employees of health and wellness organizations, like the Red Cross. Each year she takes groups of Belmont students, usually athletes, to places like Costa Rica, Brazil, Portugal or Poland, to share Christ through sports and service.

"I really have a passion to get students involved in these trips early on," she says. "When they graduate and get a job, they'll be able to take what they learned overseas and apply it wherever they end up. These trips are a springboard for students. It allows them to verbalize and live out their faith, using their passions of health, wellness and athletics. I want them to see that their life is a mission field."

She says it's great to know that students benefit from these trips even after they begin their careers—whether in health-related professions or not. She hopes these trips will help her students become more involved in their future communities and churches, making them more well-rounded Christians.

Wiseman has seen many of her students use the lessons they've learned on these trips to make a difference in their field of study. One young woman, who participated in trips to Brazil and Portugal, ended up doing a first-grade teaching internship in the inner city. The children in her class could barely do first-grade work, but she remained patient as she taught her prepared lesson. On a visit, Wiseman says she "saw how these first-graders just wanted to be near her. This young woman told me later that those were the type of kids she wanted to teach. Seeing her with those kids reminded me how she had learned the importance of reaching out to needy kids in Brazil." She says her students begin to see their lives as a ministry instead of a specific career or job.

Wiseman sees her life the same way. When she was a student at Belmont, her professors helped her develop foundational skills she still uses today. Now she finds herself passing on those skills to her students. She says she tries to create a "safe place" for students to come and be themselves. Preparing them for a career is only part of her job. She sees college as also a time to prepare them for life.

"I had a student athlete come to my office during his senior year and with tears in his eyes he said, 'Ms. Wiseman, I don't know who I am.' I asked him what he meant by that. He told me he had grown up with his whole identity tied to basketball. Now that he was graduating and ending his basketball career, he felt like he was losing his identity," she says. "So, I see that as part of my job—helping students discover who they are in Christ, beyond the college campus."

Dr. Steve Sniteman says the best way to prepare college students for a real world experience is to start with their future families. As professor of sociology at Erskine College (Due West, South Carolina), Sniteman sends students out to become psychologists, social workers, counselors and, most important, parents. "I want to start in the family," he says. "If we can prepare people to be good husbands or wives or to teach their children, then we will impact society in a way that all of the other professions could never do."

Sniteman says he rarely uses a textbook in his marriage-and-family classes. Instead he uses scenarios and exercises to get students thinking how to apply concepts in real-life situations. They talk about everything from human sexuality to raising kids. One class exercise deals with divorce. He splits the class by gender, and then tells gives them a scenario: A couple has been married three years. The wife has put the husband through medical school and he is about to finish his residency. The husband now says that he wants out of the marriage. The wife suspects an affair. "Then I tell them, 'You be the divorce court and figure out the settlement,'" Sniteman says. "They then start arguing about how much money the wife should get since she supported the husband through medical school. By the end of class the males and females aren't talking to each other. And I have to remind them that this was just an exercise!" He says exercises like these show students that culture is mistaken when they say divorce is easy and pain-free.

Sniteman says students could go anywhere to learn about psychological theories or statistics about family life. But in a Christian college environment, these facts and theories are balanced with what God has to say about marriage, sexuality and raising kids. "I believe a foundation is laid during the college years that affects the way these students live their lives," he says. "The way they are going to be prepared is to be taught truth in a caring environment."

But not all of this learning takes place on campus. Sniteman's students have opportunities to experience time in their field of interest starting their freshman year, during Erskine's January term. This way, students get a taste of what it would really be like to be a counselor, social worker or even someone who works with high-risk youth. They have to either keep a journal or write a paper about their experience. He says that some of his students come back excited and others realize that's not what they want to do with their lives.

Sniteman has seen his students go on to do so many different things—banking, business, military, graduate school. He tells his students that their college experience isn't just about getting a degree, but also what they can learn about life. "We are preparing you to walk out into the world to handle many different jobs, obstacles and tasks," he says. "But most important is to make a difference, one person at a time."

A Christian education does more than prepare you for the working world, it prepares you for life. Each of these professors showed how their Christian college or university is shaping students to impact lives wherever they end up. Want to find out more about the Christian school you're looking at? Then contact the admissions office, which can put you in touch with professors or alumni who specialize in your specific interest. Talking with them will give you a better idea of how their institution will prepare you for the future.

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Campus Life magazine.
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