NACCAP Board Spotlight: Meghan Taylor, Redeemer University
In this episode of the Higher Education, Higher Purpose podcast hosts Phil Cook and Heidi Sturm speak with Meghan Taylor, the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Redeemer University. Meghan shares her inspiring journey toward a career in Christian higher education and discusses her personal experience of making a significant college choice that shaped her professional path. Meghan highlights the unique challenges faced by Canadian universities, such as differences in financial aid processes compared to the U.S., and how Redeemer has thrived despite these obstacles. With a focus on building genuine relationships with prospective students, she underscores the joy and creativity inherent in the admissions process.
What You Will Learn:
- Meghan Taylor shares her journey of making the college decision and its impact on her life.
- The significance of unique experiences in Christian higher education is emphasized throughout the podcast.
- How small decisions can lead to life-changing opportunities and career paths.
- The importance of building relationships in the admissions process
- The distinct challenges faced by Canadian institutions compared to their U.S. counterparts.
Resources:
Visit our website: https://www.naccap.org
Email us: Office@naccap.org
Visit The NACCAP Annual Conference: https://naccapconference.org
Transcript
Welcome to the Higher Ed Higher Purpose Podcast.
Heidi Sturm:A podcast designed for NatCap members, prospective students and their families.
Phil Cook:Hello everyone.
Phil Cook:Welcome to another edition of the Higher Ed Higher Purpose Podcast.
Phil Cook:My name is Phil Cook and I'm pleased to serve as the president of NatCap.
Heidi Sturm:And I'm Heidi Sturm and I'm the director of Marketing and communications here at NatCap.
Phil Cook:If you've been listening to our podcast, and we hope you do, you know that we've started a series of interviews and meetings and discussions with NATCap All Stars, NATCap Superstars, and our board members in particular.
Phil Cook:So we're so glad that Megan Taylor is with us today.
Phil Cook:Megan, hello.
Phil Cook:How are you today?
Phil Cook:Welcome to the podcast.
Megan Taylor:Yeah, thanks so much for having me today.
Megan Taylor:I'm doing well.
Phil Cook:Well, we got to do the formal introduction.
Phil Cook:We always talk about that and I love how yours is written because it's a little narrative.
Phil Cook:But I would say throughout Megan's career she has been passionate about university access, efficiency in operations and leading others through change at Christian universities in North America.
Phil Cook:As both a graduate and a professional on Christian university campuses, she's experienced firsthand the life changing impact these institutions can have.
Phil Cook:Megan holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Process Management.
Phil Cook:We gotta talk about that.
Phil Cook:That's a good, that's a good title of a degree from Houghton University in New York.
Phil Cook:And she also completed NatCap's leadership development for Enrollment Professional Certification.
Phil Cook:Now she is the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada.
Phil Cook:Megan is married to A.C.
Phil Cook:and they have three young children.
Phil Cook:Once again, Megan, welcome.
Phil Cook:We're glad you're here.
Megan Taylor:Yeah, thanks so much guys.
Megan Taylor:It's great to be here.
Phil Cook:Megan, we were talking in the pregame, the pre meeting in the green room that you've already been on a radio interview thing today.
Phil Cook:You gotta tell our listeners what happened to you today that we think is kind of a big deal.
Megan Taylor:Yes.
Megan Taylor:So this is my second radio appearance appearance today.
Megan Taylor:This morning I got called and I won a Taylor Swift ticket giveaway.
Megan Taylor:So.
Megan Taylor:Yeah.
Phil Cook:How many tickets did you win?
Megan Taylor:I won two tickets to the Toronto show on the 23rd.
Megan Taylor:Oh man, it's.
Megan Taylor:I didn't, I did not anticipate the stress of, of having to make that decision.
Megan Taylor:I have a lot of friends who would love to go but and haven't been so trying to, trying to juggle that piece.
Phil Cook:Well, I don't, I don't have friends.
Phil Cook:I don't know what that's like and I don't know that I've ever Won anything.
Phil Cook:So it's kind of a big deal.
Phil Cook:So this is not, we're not talking just in Hamilton or by the way, did I say that right?
Phil Cook:Ancaster, how do you say the Tiger City there?
Megan Taylor:Ancaster?
Megan Taylor:Yep.
Megan Taylor:Just like Lancaster.
Phil Cook:This is for Toronto, so this is a big deal.
Phil Cook:What did you have to do to get these tickets?
Megan Taylor:Oh, so I've been listening to the radio for months.
Megan Taylor:You have to listen for back to back Taylor Swift songs and then you text in the keyword and you hope you get a call.
Megan Taylor:And you know, I've been doing this for months and months and months.
Megan Taylor:Never thought I'd get a call.
Megan Taylor:And yesterday, walking into my daughter's preschool, my phone starts ringing and I'm like, I think that's the radio.
Megan Taylor:So I pick up the phone and I listen to.
Megan Taylor:They put me on hold.
Megan Taylor:And you know, my daughter's ready to run off to school and I'm like, no, no, stay here, stay here.
Megan Taylor:And she goes to preschool in like a little church building.
Megan Taylor:And I didn't want to disturb the people that work at the church.
Megan Taylor:I didn't want to disturb the preschool.
Megan Taylor:So I hid under the coat rack with my phone, just crouched down with my daughter, try to talk quietly but loud enough to be coherent on a radio.
Megan Taylor:And she's just sitting there like, what are we doing, mom?
Megan Taylor:What's going on?
Megan Taylor:And so I qualified yesterday.
Megan Taylor:And then this morning they called the winner at 8am and it was me.
Heidi Sturm:So, wow, congratulations.
Phil Cook:Have you huddled in the room?
Phil Cook:If you had a video that would go viral, I mean, that would have been, that have been so great.
Phil Cook:Of all the podcasts we've been doing, we don't have a story like that at all.
Phil Cook:So this is worth the price of admission today alone.
Phil Cook:So thanks for sharing that story and we hope you have a great time at the concert.
Phil Cook:Thank you.
Phil Cook:You know, all of our, all of our members have a story about getting to a Christian college or university.
Phil Cook:So what's your story?
Phil Cook:Well, first, we all work in this space where we're telling students and we're encouraging students to make the decision.
Phil Cook:Tell us a little bit about your journey of making the college choice and the impact it had on your life as a student and now also as a professional.
Megan Taylor:Yeah.
Megan Taylor:Oh, man.
Megan Taylor:I think about, because of the nature of the work we're in, I think about that story all the time.
Megan Taylor:And I remember, I instantly remember the feeling of dread and overwhelmedness.
Megan Taylor:What do I want to do?
Megan Taylor:You know, I actually felt like my career, I had a pretty Good plan.
Megan Taylor:God had other plans.
Megan Taylor:I thought I was going to be a financial planner.
Megan Taylor:I had that piece of my life mapped out.
Megan Taylor:And I thought, okay, I've got the big public universities down the road from me.
Megan Taylor:I have Redeemer, great Christian school.
Megan Taylor:I had an amazing visit at Redeemer in the process.
Megan Taylor:And then this application popped up in my mailbox because a few years ago, before that, I had submitted a inquiry card at Kingdom Bound to get a free T shirt.
Megan Taylor:So Kingdom Bound is up in upstate New York and at the Six Flags Darien Lake.
Megan Taylor:And, you know, I just done it for the free T shirt, if I'm being honest.
Heidi Sturm:Sure.
Megan Taylor:But they sent me a free application.
Megan Taylor:And I'm Dutch.
Megan Taylor:I like free things.
Megan Taylor:And a friend of mine said, hey, if we both apply and we can go to Buffalo and go shopping at the mall, I'm like, genius, let's apply.
Megan Taylor:Get our moms to take us to the campus for a visit and then spend the day in Buffalo and shop.
Megan Taylor:So that was our plan.
Megan Taylor:And we plan this whole weekend.
Megan Taylor:We go, we do the whole Buffalo day of shopping.
Megan Taylor:We get to campus, stay overnight, and then do a visit the next day.
Megan Taylor:And we both walked away saying, something's different here.
Megan Taylor:As a Christian university, this was a different experience than I knew I would get at the big public universities that I had looked at and considered.
Megan Taylor:And over time, my mom and I, we had great conversations about, is this the right move for me to go across the border and be.
Megan Taylor:You know, I thought it was this bold move two and a half hours away.
Megan Taylor:But I grew up on the street with all my cousins, the family business.
Megan Taylor:I had never done anything that felt adventurous like this in my life.
Megan Taylor:And so we kind of called it our Gideon story.
Megan Taylor:We kept saying, okay, Lord, if this happens, we'll know that you want me to go to Houghton.
Megan Taylor:And then that would happen.
Megan Taylor:And then we'd say, okay, but, like, if this happens and we put that fleece out again, and then it would happen.
Megan Taylor:And the final straw was, okay, if I get this scholarship that would help me afford it.
Megan Taylor:And then I know for sure.
Megan Taylor:And that letter came and my mom and I just said, okay, Lord, okay, we're done.
Megan Taylor:We surrender.
Megan Taylor:We understand.
Megan Taylor:And that was it.
Megan Taylor:And that's how I ended up making my decision.
Megan Taylor:So there was a lot of worry and fear in that process, but also just a great testament to how the Lord, like, sees us in those moments.
Megan Taylor:And he cares about that.
Megan Taylor:He cares about these decisions that we make that have a life changing impact and truly I mean, I'm in this industry today because I ended up at a Christian university.
Megan Taylor:I emailed the only person I knew on campus to get a job, and that was my admissions counselor.
Megan Taylor:So I ended up being an intern for three years, and I've just never left.
Megan Taylor:I love Christian higher ed.
Megan Taylor:I love admissions, and this is where I feel called to be.
Phil Cook:Well, we're going to talk about a couple things.
Phil Cook:In my mind.
Phil Cook:My mind is racing.
Phil Cook:I love this and love that story.
Phil Cook:We're going to talk about Redeem.
Phil Cook:We're going to talk about what it is to be a Christian college university in Canada.
Phil Cook:But it's interesting because the frivolity and the silliness of a free T shirt and a weekend shopping trip, but God used that to change the trajectory of your life.
Phil Cook:And I was thinking, okay, how am I going to connect this to a spiritual truth?
Phil Cook:But it is the Gideon story.
Phil Cook:It is the God works in those kind of things.
Phil Cook:And I just want to acknowledge that and affirm that how it's impacted now your life.
Phil Cook:So there's still room for some silly in our work, right?
Phil Cook:Isn't there room for some superficial to students or to let them know that there's a future for them?
Phil Cook:Do you still see some of that in our work that we do to draw students into the world of what we're trying to.
Phil Cook:Trying to tell them about, right?
Megan Taylor:Oh, absolutely.
Megan Taylor:I think we can have fun.
Megan Taylor:This is, you know, education is.
Megan Taylor:There's a serious side to it, and it is academic and it is preparing you for your future.
Megan Taylor:But it's also fun, right?
Megan Taylor:God calls us to have joy in all things.
Megan Taylor:And I think God has a lot of fun in Scripture.
Megan Taylor:We see his sense of humor.
Megan Taylor:And so I love that part of this work.
Megan Taylor:I love that it's so creative.
Megan Taylor:And we get to think of these silly ideas.
Megan Taylor:And sometimes they work great and sometimes they don't.
Megan Taylor:But sometimes it's something as simple as a free T shirt or sending a box of confetti to an accepted student.
Megan Taylor:You know, that just really makes that impact and makes that difference for somebody.
Phil Cook:And then it's worth every bit of that work because we do believe we're impacting eternity.
Phil Cook:You know, we're unsure if some things work or not.
Phil Cook:But what we do know is in the past couple years, a lot of things are working at Redeemer.
Phil Cook:It's going well, and it's a difficult context.
Phil Cook:So we'll talk about that in a second.
Phil Cook:But talk about the success that.
Phil Cook:That you're having at Redeemer there's an energy, there's a momentum there that is palpable, having been on the campus twice in the past year.
Phil Cook:So talk about what's going on at Redeemer and the good things that you're doing and the blessings that the Lord's providing for your campus.
Megan Taylor:Yeah, we are just loving what God's doing here.
Megan Taylor:I mean, he has been so providential to Redeemer throughout our history.
Megan Taylor:Shortly after I started here at Redeemer, we celebrated our 40th anniversary and this video got put together to show the history, which was really cool, especially for someone who didn't know as much of the history.
Megan Taylor:I grew up near Redeemer, but sometimes the closer you grow up to a place, the less you know, you have more assumptions than reality.
Megan Taylor:And so it was so amazing to see just how God helped pave a way, even for a Christian university to exist in southern Ontario.
Megan Taylor:So just some of the political climate and pieces here, that has not always been something that was allowed a Christian university.
Megan Taylor: o be university in name until: Megan Taylor:And that.
Megan Taylor:That was just a huge blessing from the Lord.
Megan Taylor:You know, we were offering university degrees, bachelor's degrees, but our name didn't reflect that.
Megan Taylor:And in Canada, the word university and college are used so differently than in the US for our communities.
Megan Taylor:You know, having having the word university was really helpful to help them understand really what we were doing here.
Megan Taylor:And so that was a huge change.
Megan Taylor:At the same time, we've had these incredible donors come alongside Redeemer and say, we want to make Christian higher education affordable for students in southern Ontario.
Megan Taylor:We see the need and we want to see it be affordable so that any family can come.
Megan Taylor:And so we've had these donors come alongside us for the last five years to help reduce tuition by over 42%.
Megan Taylor:And that has continued.
Megan Taylor:We continue to see tuition stay low.
Megan Taylor:We've only raised it 1.9% in the last five years.
Megan Taylor:And that is thanks to generosity of donors and just the providence of the Lord, really.
Megan Taylor:And so that's just been huge.
Megan Taylor:That's helped us really be able to change the conversation with families, help re instill in people, you know, what we're doing here.
Megan Taylor:What are the programs that we have and the degrees that we.
Megan Taylor:We have.
Megan Taylor:We've got the name to match those things now.
Megan Taylor: students to almost: Megan Taylor:So.
Heidi Sturm:Wow.
Phil Cook:Well, that's remarkable.
Phil Cook:And many of our institutions in within NATCAP and even around North America are struggling.
Phil Cook:It's wonderful to hear the good news of the gospel as it relates to the kingdom of God, but also the gospel of NACAP and the gospel of Christian higher education.
Heidi Sturm:You're listening to the Higher Ed Higher Purpose podcast.
Phil Cook:You referenced this a couple ways.
Phil Cook:In my knowledge and my understanding of the unique challenges that our Canadian institutions face, I think I'm learning and you've been kind and gracious with, patient with me.
Phil Cook:But there is a Canadian context that is different than our friends and colleagues in the United States.
Phil Cook:What are those challenges, Megan?
Phil Cook:What comes to mind that that's different that a listener might be hearing for the first time and saying, you know, we don't have to think about that in the US but there are unique challenges.
Phil Cook:What are those and how?
Phil Cook:Also I'm thinking about the more the collegial way that all of the many of the colleges, universities work together to solve those.
Phil Cook:So what are the challenges and what are some of the ways that you're offsetting those and overcoming those obstacles?
Megan Taylor:Yeah, that's such a great question, Phil, because having worked at a US institution and lived there, you know, I attended, lived there, worked there, I see I saw a lot of those changes when I came back to Canada.
Megan Taylor:And one of the biggest things is in the US search is such an important part of the process.
Megan Taylor:And there's a lot of name buys and different lists that you can purchase and things.
Megan Taylor:And that's almost non existent in Canada.
Megan Taylor:It's very, very limited.
Megan Taylor:We have some laws around privacy and data sharing and what we have consent for someone's information and when we don't.
Megan Taylor:And that was a big change because that was, you know, that was a lever I used a lot, especially working on the operations side of admissions.
Megan Taylor:I was very heavily involved in search.
Megan Taylor:And so coming here, it's like how do I, how do I build this funnel?
Megan Taylor:So for us, you know, building our funnel and those inquiries really are true inquiries.
Megan Taylor:We're on the road, we're doing the grind and it is that face to face almost exclusively.
Megan Taylor:You know, we have a couple different things, platforms that you can be involved in to get leads through there, but all of those are hand raisers as well.
Megan Taylor:They have to opt in to our institution.
Megan Taylor:And so it's fun.
Megan Taylor:It's going back to the roots of what I felt like I was as my first year admissions counselor with my first territory, feels like I'm right back in that.
Megan Taylor:So that's one big change that I noticed as soon as I got back.
Megan Taylor:That was different.
Megan Taylor:And then the other piece is financial aid is so different.
Megan Taylor:Financial aid in the U.S.
Megan Taylor:in an ideal world, when the FAFSA is working, well, you know that that's a key part of decision making.
Megan Taylor:So it's, you know, we, we tried to get that financial aid package out to students within a week or less of them being admitted.
Megan Taylor:Right.
Megan Taylor:We wanted them to have that information because we felt like that was the piece of information they needed.
Megan Taylor:But in Canada, each province does it a little bit different.
Megan Taylor:And so our province does not even open the application until May at the earliest, sometimes June.
Megan Taylor:There's not even a set date.
Megan Taylor:It's sort of when it opens each year.
Megan Taylor:And they don't necessarily know their funding till June or July, and that's too late to make a decision.
Megan Taylor:So most students are making a decision without some of the publicly assisted financial aid available through the government, either federally or provincially.
Megan Taylor:And so really, the conversations that we're having is about full tuition pricing, you know, and it's saying, this is the cost.
Megan Taylor:And here's some, you know, we have scholarships on our end, academic scholarships.
Megan Taylor:We tell them that right away, and then we have some other generous awards from different donors that have contributed.
Megan Taylor:So we administer those, and they find out about that around April, but they really don't know what assistance they're getting until later in the year.
Megan Taylor:And that's very different.
Megan Taylor:Right, because financial aid isn't a leveraging tool that we use.
Megan Taylor:And I think I really love that.
Megan Taylor:You know, I.
Megan Taylor:Obviously, for families, we want them to have the information they need.
Megan Taylor:So we try to do our best to provide as much as we can and encourage them to use the resources that the different provinces have to give estimates.
Megan Taylor:But really it helps them see it holistically and make the decision for what school is the right fit for them.
Megan Taylor:And that's.
Megan Taylor:And that's not to say some families, you know, don't need to reconsider depending on finances and those kind of things.
Megan Taylor:That's a very real concern for families.
Megan Taylor:But, yeah, they're able to take that off the table and focus a little bit more on what's the right fit.
Megan Taylor:For me, where is God calling me?
Megan Taylor:What school is going to help me fulfill what he's calling me to do?
Megan Taylor:You know, that's.
Megan Taylor:That's our mission here at Redeemer.
Megan Taylor:We want to prepare students for every career and calling to reflect the love of Jesus Christ.
Megan Taylor:And so we want students to be able to focus on that.
Megan Taylor:And we understand that might not be here.
Megan Taylor:Right.
Megan Taylor:They might find a better fit somewhere else.
Megan Taylor:But I kind of love that the financial aid piece is off the table for them in that conversation.
Phil Cook:I don't know if I'm fully an old guy yet.
Phil Cook:I'm an older guy for sure.
Phil Cook:But it takes me back to my starting in this industry almost 30 years ago.
Phil Cook:There's a purity about the process when you're describing it.
Phil Cook:It's relationship building.
Phil Cook:It takes the commodity piece off of it.
Phil Cook:And I just.
Phil Cook:I have a little bit of envy, a little bit of jealousy of the purity and the way it's done there.
Phil Cook:While you're done in recruiting and thankful for the blessings that the Lord is giving to you and Redeemer, we are talking to Megan Taylor, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Redeemer University and a member of the NatCap board of directors.
Phil Cook:We're so glad that Megan is with us today.
Heidi Sturm:And Megan, I have some questions about NatCap for you, but question about us students.
Heidi Sturm:What advice would you give to us students who are considering attending an institution in Canada?
Megan Taylor:Oh, that is a great question.
Megan Taylor:I really love that.
Megan Taylor:I think sometimes when we first work with US Students, they're surprised that things feel so similar and yet so different.
Megan Taylor:And so just encouraging them to keep an open mind that, yes, we're very close to the US There's a lot of similarities, but there are some really unique differences that they'll get to experience at a Canadian school.
Megan Taylor:And for them, I think one of the things that catches students by surprise the most is that in the eyes of the Canadian government, they are considered an international student.
Megan Taylor:So there's some visa processes and study permit applications, and we try to resource our students as best as we're allowed to on our end.
Megan Taylor:And we work with a immigration consultant as well to help them through those pieces.
Megan Taylor:But that can be a little bit unnerving to go in without understanding that that's part of the process.
Megan Taylor:Right.
Megan Taylor:Because sometimes it's like, well, Canada's right there and the US Is right there.
Megan Taylor:It feels like we should just be able to go to each other's countries.
Megan Taylor:And.
Megan Taylor:Yeah, so those are.
Megan Taylor:Those are kind of two pieces.
Megan Taylor:It's just to go in with a full picture of what to expect, but also with an open mind for some of the ways that Canada might surprise them.
Heidi Sturm:Sure.
Heidi Sturm:And what a great opportunity Especially, I mean, you're not far away from the US border, so.
Megan Taylor:No, as I know, one of the.
Heidi Sturm:Best of both worlds.
Heidi Sturm:Give it a try.
Megan Taylor:Right.
Megan Taylor:You too could shop in Buffalo if you came.
Phil Cook:And we'll send you a free teacher.
Heidi Sturm:So in thinking of your involvement with NATCAP and the board, how did you first get connected with NatCap?
Heidi Sturm:How did you first find out who NATCAP even was?
Megan Taylor:That is such a great question.
Megan Taylor:So I've been thinking through it and I don't, I don't know that either of you would have, we've ever would have talked about this, but I think my first interaction with NATCAP was a NACAT fair at my high school.
Megan Taylor:Yeah, I, it, there was a Christian University fair and it was a NACA fair.
Megan Taylor:So that was actually my first interaction.
Megan Taylor:And it wasn't until, you know, thinking through that that I actually remembered that I would have said otherwise, you know, attending a NACAP school.
Megan Taylor:But yeah, I think that was my first one.
Megan Taylor:And as you'd expect from a 17 year old, I went to all of the schools that were different than where I lived.
Megan Taylor:So beaches, sun.
Megan Taylor:I wanted, I wanted all the nice weather was the books I came home with, none of which I ended up attending.
Megan Taylor:But it was nice to dream for a moment.
Heidi Sturm:Yeah.
Heidi Sturm:Probably picked up a pen from each of the tables too.
Heidi Sturm:Right.
Heidi Sturm:Because there were no T shirts, there.
Megan Taylor:Were no T shirts at the NATCAP fairs.
Megan Taylor:But I think that was actually my very first interaction with NatCap.
Megan Taylor:So it's, it's really cool to see that NatCap has, has touched my life now for, yeah, over over a decade and a half that it's been a part of there.
Megan Taylor:Even if I didn't know, even when I attended school at Houghton.
Megan Taylor:I didn't know what NATCAP was at that time.
Megan Taylor:Right.
Megan Taylor:It wasn't, it wasn't until I was an admissions counselor on my first NACAP tour swing as a counselor that I started to learn about this organization called NatCap.
Megan Taylor:So.
Heidi Sturm:Very good.
Heidi Sturm:So, so as a professional, would it have been college fairs again?
Heidi Sturm:That would have been like your first introduction in the quote, unquote, real world.
Megan Taylor:Yes.
Megan Taylor:My first NATCAP swing was the Canadian swing.
Megan Taylor:I was working for Geneva College, another amazing NATCAP school at the time.
Megan Taylor:And I convinced them to let me go on the NatCap Tour up in Canada because I was Canadian and I really wanted to recruit other Canadians to the US And I got to do that swing.
Megan Taylor:And I met so many amazing counselors that are still in this industry in Canada today.
Megan Taylor:So now I get to meet with them twice a year and I see them all the time.
Megan Taylor: oured with back in, you know,: Heidi Sturm:So great, great.
Heidi Sturm:And you've also been a part of LDEP NatCap's LDAP certification program.
Heidi Sturm:What was your experience like there?
Heidi Sturm:What would you tell people who may be considering being a part of ldap?
Megan Taylor:Yeah, so I like to say that my MBA prepared me for a lot of the nuts and bolts of the work, the grind of the spreadsheets and some of the data pieces.
Megan Taylor:And ldap for me, I did it about a year after I finished my mba.
Megan Taylor:And LDAP was how I was able to apply it back to my work directly.
Megan Taylor:So an MBA is amazing.
Megan Taylor:I felt very well prepared, but I didn't always know how to connect some of the things I've learned back to that Christian University admissions enrollment context.
Megan Taylor:And I feel like LDAP was kind of the icing on the cake for me in that, you know, so I had this, I had this MBA now.
Megan Taylor:I had these amazing people that would come and speak and had been doing this career for years.
Megan Taylor:And I think it just melded together really, really well for me in that program and just felt like this can be my career, this can be it.
Megan Taylor:And it was very shortly after that that I got the job I'm in now.
Megan Taylor:So I do credit LDAP for helping prepare me.
Heidi Sturm:Oh, that's fantastic.
Phil Cook:I love it.
Phil Cook:And what you're hearing is why we are so proud and grateful for Megan to be a part of our leadership team for our organization.
Phil Cook:The thread of tying things together and doing things so well, I did not know.
Phil Cook:And I'm going to tell this all over the, all over the world now because I'm a world traveler now these days, Megan, you know, the world.
Phil Cook:We have a board member whose first experience was attending as a student at Christian College Fair and then being history making for our first LDEP member to be on our board.
Phil Cook:And so we're so glad that you're a part of that.
Phil Cook:A couple quick questions in wrapping up.
Phil Cook:Were you reared in a Christian home?
Phil Cook:What's your faith journey?
Phil Cook:Really quickly, did you grow up in a church home?
Phil Cook:Did you come to know the Lord later?
Phil Cook:What's your faith story for our listeners today?
Phil Cook:Megan?
Megan Taylor:Yeah, I was very fortunate to grow up in a Christian home.
Megan Taylor:I don't take that for granted.
Megan Taylor:And, you know, learned I grew up in a denomination as well that cared a lot about understanding why we believed what we believed.
Megan Taylor:So I went to a Lot of catechism growing up and really dug into not just what Scripture was saying, but.
Megan Taylor:And why we believe it.
Megan Taylor:But what is this?
Megan Taylor:What is the meat behind what we believe?
Megan Taylor:And I felt like that foundation was actually what made me really want to pursue a Christian education once I.
Megan Taylor:Once I, you know, got past the shopping in Buffalo part of it.
Megan Taylor:But that, That's.
Megan Taylor:That's what made me want to.
Megan Taylor:Because that's also what Christian university is.
Megan Taylor:Right.
Megan Taylor:It's not just what.
Megan Taylor:What we want to do with our life, but why.
Megan Taylor:And it's connecting those two together.
Megan Taylor:And I felt like that's.
Megan Taylor:That was the upbringing I had.
Megan Taylor:And, you know, the Lord has just been so gracious to me in my life, and I've had these moments with Him.
Megan Taylor:Yeah.
Megan Taylor:Throughout my life where I can look back and say, I didn't always know what the ending of that story was going to be, but when I look back, I can see the Lord's hand throughout.
Megan Taylor:And, yeah, I've had.
Megan Taylor:I've had things in my life that have been really, really hard, but I've been able to go through them with an intense joy that can only be from the Lord.
Megan Taylor:And I'm just so grateful that he died for my sins and that he loves me.
Megan Taylor:And, you know, our chapel today that I just came from was talking about, it's not just that Christ died for us, but that we died with Christ and that he knows every nook and cranny of our heart and yet wants still loves us.
Megan Taylor:And I felt that, you know, that's.
Megan Taylor:That's.
Megan Taylor:That's been God in my life of just reminding me, I know exactly who you are, and yet I still love you and I still came to die for you.
Megan Taylor:So, yeah, that's.
Megan Taylor:That's it in a nutshell.
Phil Cook:Can't think of a better way to finish our conversation today.
Phil Cook:And I will say that you, with talking about catechism is making this recovering Pentecostal emotional.
Phil Cook:So you're pulling my emotions out as you're describing the importance of how the Lord knows us and loves us.
Phil Cook:Megan, thank you for taking time to visit with us today to tell a little bit of your story and for the work that you do at Redeemer and the work you do in Christian higher education and nacap.
Phil Cook:Thanks for being a part of this today.
Phil Cook:We're grateful.
Heidi Sturm:Yeah, thanks, Megan.
Megan Taylor:Yeah.
Megan Taylor:And thank you to nacap.
Megan Taylor:I wouldn't be where I am today without it, so thank you very much.
Heidi Sturm:Be sure to join us next time for the higher ed, higher purpose.
Heidi Sturm:Podcast.
