Sara Dye, Malory Green and Jeremy Crews, all 2013 University of Mobile graduates, began an Honors class as freshmen in a small Bedsole Library classroom in August 2009. The three started a UMobile journey that taught them how to learn while caring for the welfare of others. It is a lesson each is pursuing with fully funded scholarships to graduate programs at Baylor University.
Sara, a doctoral student of English, Malory, a master’s student of journalism, and Jeremy, a seminary student, are dedicating their time to changing the lives of others.
In addition to studying and attending class, Sara helps undergraduate students face classroom challenges while tutoring in her program’s learning center. The experience she received at UMobile taught her to share others’ burdens while also balancing her own.
“The University of Mobile is the place where I met my dearest friends, discovered how to lead, learned to love learning, and encountered Jesus Christ in the classroom,” she said.
Sara added that she sees Jeremy and Malory frequently. They rely on one another for support.
“We see each other once a week — usually more,” she said. “We communicate much more than that.” Jeremy agreed, showing that UMobile students who grow alongside each other have unbreakable friendships despite any distance.
“UMobile prepared me for a professional life, helping me write resumes, conduct interviews, and work within a budget. More important than this, however, are the friendships I made with professors, students and staff members,” Jeremy said.
Fortunately for these students, their success at UMobile helped them travel together 650 miles away from everyone they knew. Jeremy entered his seminary studies with a fully paid University Ministerial Scholarship. Malory, too, received full funding via teaching assistantship. Sara entered directly into her doctoral program, exempting a master’s degree altogether, and receiving her education paid in full.
Sara attributes her success at UMobile to her professors. They enabled her and challenged her.
“I credit much of my acceptance (into the doctoral program) to the people who encouraged me to energetically pursue excellence in my four years of undergraduate study,” she said. “In my experience as an Honors student at UMobile, I was taught by incredibly intelligent and compassionate faculty. I was also a part of a community of students that became family.”
Malory added, “The University of Mobile influenced me by teaching how to truly love learning in a way that nothing else has. My English classes taught me to find Christ in everything that contains truth. My intercultural studies classes taught me to love people for who they are. They gave me the tools to embrace the beauty different cultures bring to life.”
Their professors set a pattern of influence that the UMobile graduates emulated by committing their own time to other students. They ensured their peers would learn alongside them.
During their undergraduate careers at the University of Mobile, Sara, Jeremy and Malory performed in full-length Shakespeare plays and participated in the Honors program to supplement their normal studies. They helped in campus operations, freshman seminar classes, and extracurricular projects through the Honors program. They helped form the community that thrives at UMobile today.
Additionally, they already have begun supporting peers in Waco, TX carrying with them the influence of UMobile.
Seminary student Jeremy said, “I’ve already been blessed to meet many people. I’m dedicated to being different — to show them the true love of Christ in everything that I do. I long to be someone they can trust, and an example of hard work and dedication.”
When Jeremy graduates, he desires to work in his local church while teaching at the university level.
Malory also wishes to aid others in need by sharing personal stories of struggling people through journalism, rather than allowing them to become mass statistics. After graduating, she plans to work with non-profit companies to utilize sustainable resources while amplifying their stories via journalism. In her first semester, she had already been published in Baylor’s Focus Magazine.
Sara continued, “Ultimately, I want to be able to do for university students what my professors at UMobile did for me: show that when you passionately seek the Truth, you will find Him. When you encounter Truth, it changes your life.”
The University of Mobile brought these students together and showed them how dedication and compassion for truth can combine to impact the hearts and minds of people. It can change a person. They want to continue that legacy.
“My life changed in my four years at UMobile, and I look forward to a lifetime of continual influence,” Sara said. “I pray that as UMobile continues to change my life, I will be able to help change lives to change the world.”
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