STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Education major to pay it forward with Adventist schools career

An English secondary education major at La Sierra University, Gram has her sights set on becoming a middle or high school teacher within the Adventist schools network to provide its students the same support, inspiration and friendship that was afforded her during her formative years.

“I’m locked into the Adventist system,” Gram said. “I grew up in the Adventist system and I truly believe that Adventist school changed my life and changed me and made me a better person. I can see the impact that it had on my life as a student and I want to be that impact for other students.”

She noted the close-knit community of which Adventist education and its smaller schools are a part, where opportunities for interaction abound, not only in the classroom but in church and during social occasions allowing teachers to have continued contact and influence including spiritual guidance.

“I think it’s such a wonderful dynamic to see your teachers more than just [at school],” Gram said.A resident of Ventura County, Gram graduated from Newbury Park Adventist Academy in 2019. She earned an associate’s degree in English at Ventura Community College before transferring to La Sierra for an additional two years toward completing a bachelor’s degree with a teaching credential.

“I grew up in the Adventist system and I truly believe that Adventist school changed my life." -- Molly Gram, senior English secondary education major

She spent her first two-and-a-half years of college studying entirely online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and enrolled at La Sierra in 2022. For a time she contemplated a teaching career in the public school system, but during the early part of 2022 she worked as a teacher’s aide at Conejo Adventist Elementary in Newbury Park and her career track came into focus.

“I love that school with all my heart,” Gram said. “That’s where my heart got 100% committed to Seventh-day Adventist education.”

She chose to enroll at La Sierra after consideration of other Adventist colleges showed it to be the best close-to-home option for finishing her degree at an SDA school. Gram lives in La Sierra’s Calkins Hall and goes home to Ventura County every other weekend to spend time with her mom, sisters, nieces and her boyfriend.

Meanwhile Gram hopes to engage in missions activities, another aspect of her Adventist education and faith culture which she values. At La Sierra she has participated in a homeless outreach ministry and in the past has joined mission trips to Canada to repair a damaged youth camp, to San Francisco to help with a homeless program, and to Peru to help finish construction of a school. “I love mission trips, I love mission work,” she said. “[It] builds so much spiritual confidence and confidence in yourself in general.”

Finances have proven to be her greatest challenge in tackling university life outside of keeping her busy course schedule in line. Gram had earned as much money as possible while attending community college, but was concerned about affording La Sierra’s tuition.

She decided to go forward and focus on covering one quarter at a time, trusting God to help her. “Every single time God’s provided,” she said. Gram noted a letter she received last year from the Pacific Union Conference informing her that a scholarship for teachers she was receiving would increase.

“If that hadn’t happened I don’t know how things would be going,” she said. “It was literally a God-send.”