Celebrate Our Creator

Just over a year ago, Northern California’s Camp Fire decimated 153,000 acres, killed 85 people, and destroyed 95% of the town of Paradise.

The tragedy hit close to home for many at La Sierra, but none more directly than recent graduate Jena Arnott. In fact, it took her home.

Imagine sitting in class and learning that you’ve lost your home - all its contents, all its memories - and your source of financial support. It was a crushing weight to bear. Tuition and housing costs were due. Other school costs were mounting. The holidays were approaching.

“It was hard,” Jena told me. “I still have not fully processed all that happened. My family had 10 minutes to get out. We lost our next-door neighbor to the fire. My dad lost his medical practice. He was out of work for six months. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to finish school due to the sudden financial hardship forced upon us by the fire.”

Jena has been an extraordinary student. She chose La Sierra because she sensed God calling her here. She started in pre-dentistry and served several years as the Spiritual Vice President for her major’s peers. She switched to pre-law and recently graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Her family is now serving as missionaries in Guam, where Jena is working for a judge while studying for her LSAT. The fire happened a couple of days before last year’s LSAT. Suffice it to say, it didn’t go well for her.

How was she able to recover . . . and to thrive?

“Thanks to the kind and generous people who fund and administer scholarships, my tuition was paid until my dad was back on his feet. I’ll never be able to repay that compassion and kindness. But today, my sights are set on law school. I want to advocate for people who have suffered losses like my family did.”

I’m so thankful La Sierra University has an Emergency Student Aid fund for financial crises like Jena’s, aren’t you?

Please support La Sierra’s Emergency Student Aid Fund with a generous gift today. You will enable students facing seemingly impossible circumstances to stay in school, find some peace, and focus on what they’re here for - and not the panic and fear that would otherwise consume them.

Today, more than a year later, the holidays are again upon us. Jena’s gratitude still runs deep, yet each year there are students who face unexpected crises. Please supply more financial miracles for students like Jena. Maybe you could make your gift in honor of someone else as a holiday gift to them.