TMU鈥檚 comprehensive, biblical liberal arts education prepares graduates to answer any calling God has for them.
Illustration by Anna Carroll
When Tim Danninger came to The 国产aa福利, he hadn鈥檛 envisioned becoming anything other than a trauma surgeon.
鈥淲hat if God doesn鈥檛 have trauma surgery for you?鈥 his roommate asked.
Danninger remembers saying, 鈥淲ell, God鈥檚 gonna have to change His plans.鈥
Danninger is a litigation lawyer now, and has been for the last 20 years.
You can鈥檛 always draw a direct line between what TMU alumni studied in college and what they鈥檙e doing now. Some discover new passions during their time at the University; others change course after graduation.
Some, like Danninger, score in the top 6% of the LSAT and trade what they thought was their dream job for a new path.
But no matter how their careers develop, these alumni possess hard and soft skills that transcend professions, and even more crucially, they have a biblical foundation that prepares them to faithfully honor 国产aa福利 in any calling He has for them.

Peter Goeman (鈥10) came to TMU for one core reason: to play baseball. But in between his junior and senior years, Goeman began to feel convicted. He decided he needed to serve the Lord 鈥 not later, after an illustrious sports career, but now. So Goeman started a Bible study with some of his teammates, and as the group grew spiritually, his desires began to shift completely.
鈥淎ll of a sudden, not only could I imagine life without baseball, I desired a different life than that,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 wanted to be involved full time in the church somehow.鈥
Goeman had been a business management and finance major 鈥 the fallback plan for his pro baseball career. But ultimately after graduation, he decided to pursue his new mission, leaving behind plans for athletic and business success to attend The Master鈥檚 Seminary.
He says, 鈥淭here may have been a passing thought here or there, like, 鈥極h, yeah, I used to love baseball.鈥 But there was never any regret. There was never any second guessing.鈥

Peter Goeman was a standout baseball player during his time as a business student at TMU.
Goeman 鈥 now a professor of Old Testament and biblical languages at Shepherds Theological Seminary and ministry leader at The Shepherd鈥檚 Church in Cary, North Carolina 鈥 has earned several seminary degrees since graduating from TMU. But that doesn鈥檛 mean his undergraduate education was wasted. In fact, Goeman believes that effective ministry and leadership utilize the managerial skills needed in business.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very, very valuable to have some business acumen,鈥 he says, 鈥渨here you can understand how things ought to work, how good meetings ought to be run, and how to deal with people on a managerial level. In fact, I think the best business models are basically modeled after 国产aa福利 and His servant leadership.鈥
Stephanie Beals (Reed) (鈥99) knows all about corporate leadership. She鈥檚 currently a lead organizational effectiveness consultant at Kaiser Permanente in the greater Los Angeles area. And like Goeman, she鈥檚 seen her goals shift in a significant way. A history major with an emphasis in secondary education, Beals had always planned to teach teenagers. Her parents, both alumni of TMU (then Los Angeles Baptist College), were teachers themselves. Beals recalls her dad taking them on family vacations and educating them about historical landmarks, events, and people 鈥 making the past come to life.
But in her senior year, Beals came to a crucial realization: She didn鈥檛 want to teach history. Rather than pursuing her credential, she began working in human resources through a temp agency.
Eventually, Beals discovered that her strengths were meant for another form of education 鈥 leadership development. It鈥檚 a career her history training has tangibly served. Instead of putting together lesson plans, Beals now develops curricula and leadership programs. Her affinity for visualizing information with maps and dates became an administrative superpower for choreographing planners and calendars.
But most importantly, TMU helped to develop her gift for teaching, which she now wields in her mission to 鈥渉elp bosses become better bosses.鈥
Beals says, 鈥淚 loved my classes. I loved my professors 鈥 their enthusiasm, how they think about the world. I could never get away from my love of history. And my education classes were good because they gave me insights into how to teach people.鈥

Stephanie Beals (Reed), left, her now husband, Dr. Jason Beals, and Becky Harrelson (Stanford) pose for a graduation photo in 1999.
Beals and Goeman illustrate a favorite principle of many corporate coaches: the idea of transferable skills, which are job-independent qualities that help one to excel in any role.
Unsurprisingly, critical thinking and problem-solving are crucial elements of these field-independent skills. Danninger believes they helped him become a successful lawyer.
鈥淥ne thing that I鈥檝e reflected on a lot is the science classes and the science education with Dr. (Ross) Anderson (at TMU),鈥 he says. 鈥淲e really learned how to think logically.鈥
Jesse Sanchez (Sloan) (鈥11), a double major in spoken communication and Bible and now a homemaker with two children, reiterated the value of such groundwork.
鈥淓ven if you study something specific, the skills you acquire studying it prepare you for other jobs as well,鈥 she says. 鈥淭he homemaker dichotomy is a false one. An education is never 鈥榳asted.鈥 The skills a woman learns from her major or even from a career will have applications in her work at home.鈥
Sanchez has a full schedule between homeschooling her children, serving as a biblical counselor at her church, and working part-time as a program facilitator for the Poverty Encounter at Children鈥檚 Hunger Fund (CHF) in Los Angeles. Week by week, she鈥檚 pairing her knowledge of the Bible with the skills needed to communicate effectively with her young children, helping them to understand Scripture and their schoolwork, along with sharing the gospel with visitors at CHF.
鈥淚 use my major all the time,鈥 she says.
That doesn鈥檛 surprise Dr. Mitch Hopewell, TMU鈥檚 provost. He says that a quality liberal arts education seeks to produce 鈥渨ell-rounded citizens.鈥
鈥淚t prepares them to think, reason, and problem-solve by presenting a curriculum that stretches across many disciplines,鈥 he says. 鈥淎nalytical skills, the ability to clearly communicate, and, perhaps unique to a distinctly 国产aa福利ian liberal arts degree, the conviction to think and act in God-honoring ways, set our graduates apart from a sea of confusion. This makes them an excellent fit for a variety of roles across a wide range of industries.鈥

Travis Dalton, now a financial crimes investigator at TikTok, graduated with a degree in history in 2007.
When Travis Dalton (鈥07) applied to become a police officer, the interviewing officer asked him an unusual question. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e had a life full of light,鈥 he said. 鈥淟aw enforcement鈥檚 very dark. How do you think you鈥檒l handle that?鈥
Dalton grew up on the mission field in Pakistan. Like Beals, he was a history major who realized he didn鈥檛 want to pursue teaching. He did, however, still want a career that involved helping others and resolving conflicts. So he pursued law enforcement in California.
As a detective leading fraud and corruption investigations, Dalton confronted some of the ugliest parts of humanity. But Dalton believes that his biblical worldview 鈥 reinforced at TMU and vastly different from many of his colleagues 鈥 became his strength in these secular environments.
鈥淪omebody who has the foundation that I have understands that humans are capable of evil,鈥 he says. 鈥淪o when I encounter evil, it doesn鈥檛 undermine what I believe about humanity. It validates that even people you would think are 鈥榥ormal鈥 are capable of great evil and need a savior.鈥
Dalton, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, is now a financial crimes investigator for TikTok, where he helps keep the media platform safe from money laundering and other criminal activities. Despite the unforeseen changes since his graduation, he looks back on TMU with appreciation.
Dalton says, 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 immense value in going somewhere where you鈥檙e not just studying the material that you鈥檙e interested in, but you鈥檙e getting something that鈥檚 foundational, that will apply to whatever you鈥檙e doing.鈥
A commitment to Scripture is crucial to that foundation. Not all students transition from TMU into seminary or full-time ministry, but they leave with the spiritual acumen to build up their local church body.
Dorian Smallman (鈥13) was a Bible major. Like many of his classmates, including Goeman, he was passionate about the Bible and expected to pursue seminary. Instead, he landed a job with the Canada Revenue Agency back in his home country.
Today, Smallman is a senior solutions advisor at AuditBoard, a software company that supports audit, risk, and compliance professionals. On paper, he couldn鈥檛 be further from his degree. But Smallman, who leads a weekly men鈥檚 group at his church on Prince Edward Island, believes his biblical training has served him and others.
鈥淚n terms of spiritual development, I think it鈥檚 a benefit to our local congregation. Those classes gave me the tools to think through the different dynamics of interpretation and learn how to read the Bible,鈥 he says.

Left to right, Daniel Sheaffer, Jess Arnds, and Dorian Smallman smile at TMU鈥檚 2013 commencement ceremony.
Cliff Kvidahl (鈥07), a biblical studies major, expresses the value of his education similarly. When he came to TMU, he already had a great enthusiasm for the scholarly study of Scripture.
He says, 鈥淭MU helped my love and curiosity for studying Scripture grow, and it gave me the tools to do it.
鈥淟earning Greek and Hebrew opened up a lot more for me because I was able to follow some of the more academic journal articles or books. It became a stepping stone in a lot of ways.鈥
Though Kvidahl鈥檚 day job is now in sales, his passion for studying Scripture hasn鈥檛 waned. Kvidahl uses his biblical training regularly as the co-founder of Fontes Press, a 国产aa福利ian publishing company dedicated to biblical scholarship. As the academic acquisitions editor, Kvidahl鈥檚 familiarity with the original languages is fundamental as he guides authors through the publishing process, from idea to finished book.
鈥淢y education at Master鈥檚, specifically with Dr. Varner, was really formative in my 国产aa福利ian walk,鈥 he says, 鈥渂ut also in the things that I love to do.鈥

Jesse Sanchez (Sloan) and her now-husband Adam Sanchez attend a Fall TMU event in 2010.
If career paths can change, how should students approach their college years?
Goeman, the seminary professor, would advise them to consider college as a time of exploration.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want to limit yourself too much,鈥 he says. 鈥淥ne of the great things about college is that it exposes you to a lot of different things. A lot of students that I鈥檝e talked to, as well as myself, didn鈥檛 know what we were passionate about, because we just didn鈥檛 have the experience. So the counsel that we got 鈥 and I think it鈥檚 just great wisdom 鈥 is to try a lot of things.鈥
Sanchez, the homemaker and Children鈥檚 Hunger Fund employee, emphasized that college was an opportunity to strengthen her own convictions.
鈥淚 look back on this as a time where I was just really able to dig deep, to study 鈥 not just for what happened in the classroom, but to round out my theology. I was able to dive into the aspects of the faith I hadn鈥檛 studied before and come to my own convictions. I think that鈥檚 a wonderful thing,鈥 she says.
TMU鈥檚 provost agrees.
鈥淎 student鈥檚 time here is about more than just what takes place in the classroom, as indispensably important as that is,鈥 Hopewell says. 鈥淭hese are critically formative years. Students forge life-long friendships and establish personal convictions and habits that set the trajectory for their lives. We want to do everything we can to prepare them for everything God has for them to do.鈥
Master鈥檚 Connect is the alumni platform for graduates of LABC, TMC, and TMU. Meet other alumni, receive mentorship, view job listings, and more.
The 国产aa福利 and Seminary admit students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.
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