Every semester, before I publish my syllabus, upload the final lecture videos, or click “Publish” on my Canvas course, I pause.

Not because I’m wondering if I forgot an assignment. I usually am so shocked that I actually finished all of the prep work to mindfully journey through a topic I truly enjoy teaching. I am also so excited to share all of the updates and new research or case studies developed, I get a bit gity.

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The pause it also NOT because I’m worried about the technology working. I marvel at technology making knowledge creation accessible to so many of my students with a click of a button or links to learn more or discussions that can be done at midnight, yet the learnings continue.

I pause because I remind myself that long before I teach a course, I shepherd people.

That simple realization changes everything.

I believe every classroom can become a glimpse of the Kingdom of God.

This week, I begin teaching our online Adaptive MBA course, Social Entrepreneurship, to another cohort of graduate students with Kingdom plans and aspirations at the Crowell School of Business at Biola University. We have future founders, innovators, investors, nonprofit leaders, and intrapreneurs (entrepreneurially-minded people within larger corporate structures) who are learning how to build ventures that bless people while creating measurable impact through thoughtful metrics, enduring moats, sustainable business models, and redemptive entrepreneurship.

But before we ever talk about startup finance...

Before we discuss impact metrics...

Before we analyze business models…

I want my students to encounter something much deeper. The power of grace, growth and life-long learning through the knowledge that God created them to be uniquely gifted in their strengths for impact in the business world, since they are currently pursuing an MBA. Because I have come to believe that education, at its highest expression, is participating with God through prayer and supplication, in the formation of people.

That conviction has quietly become my teaching philosophy.

Most university courses begin the same way.

* “Here’s how you’ll be graded.”

* “These are the attendance policies.”

* “Late work loses ten percent.”

* “Don’t use ChatGPT.”

None of those things are wrong. They simply communicate what we value first and set up a posture of scarcity, rigidity, prevention and superiority. As I prepared my course this week, I found myself asking a different question:

If Jesus were introducing this course, where would He begin?

It is the academic equivalent of the familiar question, "What would Jesus do?" I do not pretend to know the full answer, nor do I pretend to be Jesus. But I know Him intimately through daily prayer, my walk with Him, and the journey of my life. I know that He rarely began with rules. He began with humility, invitation, and grace, like washing His disciples' feet (John 13, where Jesus, the Teacher and Lord, lowered Himself to serve those He was leading from humility rather than status and authority) and meeting the woman at the well with grace and genuine invitation (John 4, rather than beginning with condemnation over her past, Jesus began a conversation, asked her for water, revealed truth gradually, and invited her into new life). He met people where they were before leading them toward who they were created to become.

That is the classroom I pray to build.

From the very first day, there are five intentions that shape how I teach.

1. I begin with prayer before performance.

Long before I evaluate my students, I pray for them, collectively and individually. Every semester (and summer session) I invite them to share their prayer requests, fears, hopes, or challenges because I genuinely want to carry those requests before the Lord. I pray that the Holy Spirit bathes each and every one of them with:

* favor & faithfulness as they start the course

* resilience & grace as they continue through the middle of the session/semester

* perseverance & kindness as they finish the course with presentations

What I find is that I see them in their everyday and meet them there:

* Some are balancing careers while going to school.

* Others are raising children because being a parent is a life-long blessing, little kids have little challenges while big kids have big challenges.

* Some are caring for aging parents.

* Some are quietly wondering whether they belong in graduate school at all.

Every student carries something invisible. God only knows their deep needs through their prayers. If I believe God has called me to teach, then prayer isn’t separate from my teaching. It is one of my primary teaching practices. I pray that I would faithfully steward the gifts He has entrusted to me as their professor. My knowledge and journey as an academician, investor, entrepreneur, advocate, leader has always had God in the center, guiding every decision I made and every challenge encountered. Even though at times I felt like my path has been so erratic and unknown, He had a plan, a beautiful plan for me to use all of my strengths (some I didn’t even know I had at the time of executing them) to be teaching at a time such as this. My strengths are His, my prayers are to Him, and my calling is His orchestration. So, I continue to pray for my students that He goes before them.

2. Character comes before competency.

My life verse has been

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…” -Galatians 5:22–23

These are the guiding principles of my life, how I work, how I teach, how I move. I make every decision from this posture. I have always loved this verse. It’s simple, direct and good, but I didn’t know the reason for loving it so much and it sometimes made me doubt myself. I felt at times that is was too simple and I should change it, but it has evolved in my mind to become meaningful and grounding. My mind always feels at peace when I re-read it, my heart doesn’t race as fast as it usually does and when I focused on each word, my soul feels at home. The simplicity makes it so much greater and deeper.

Even though I am in the startup world, I refuse to anchor my beliefs in how this ecosystem celebrates valuation. Growth at all costs, launch with abandonment, scale fast and furious, fundraise, and influence others to join, invest, grow, and hustle.

The Kingdom celebrates something different first … Character.

Long before my students become founders, investors, executives, or nonprofit leaders, they are becoming a particular kind of person. That matters infinitely more. God has created them in perfect harmony with their earthly strengths. But the professional and entrepreneurial world sometimes are at odds with simply doing your strengths. The hustle becomes unbearable, the hamster wheel never stops turning and companies .. eventually .. end.

Character remains. Solid. Unwavering. Constant.

3. Steward every tool God has placed before you.

One of the biggest surprises for many students is that I do not prohibit AI. I encourage it. When curiosity is stifled by a "no AI" mandate, true exploration of the unfamiliar or emerging cannot occur. As a "color outside the box" innovation advocate for my students and the broader entrepreneurial community, I believe AI can deepen thinking and help create beauty and impact through a human-centered approach.

When stewarded well, Artificial Intelligence does not replace thinking.

Throughout the semester, I challenge students to experiment with platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, NotebookLM, Gemini, Gamma, Canva, Replit, Lovable, and many others. I expect them to report back on the 12 AI platforms or solutions they explored throughout the summer session. My expectation isn’t that AI does the work for them (which I know for some, it will and I have to steward their posture towards their own education well to break that cycle), my hope is that in their curiosity of learning more, revealing new ways to get to a desired outcome (albeit a homework assignment or presentation), they explore the wonders of AI tools to enhance their thinking (organize their thoughts, polish their discernment or research quickly to find deeper and wider knowledge), and then to ultimately, flourish in their humanity and curiosity.

My hope is that it removes unnecessary friction so students spend more time doing what only humans can do:

* Think critically.

* Create courageously.

* Discern wisely.

* Collaborate generously.

* Reflect deeply.

Technology should amplify human flourishing.

4. Design learning that creates, not just consumes.

One of the greatest joys of teaching entrepreneurship is watching ideas come alive while helping my students break through limiting beliefs so they can truly THRIVE in their uniqueness and beautiful God-given gifts. I don’t want my students to simply memorize concepts or complete assignments for a grade. I want them to wrestle with real-world challenges, think critically and discover the confidence that can come from solving meaningful problems.

I lecture intentionally, minimally, to establish foundational concepts, then quickly shift into application. I often smile when people say, "There's a method to your madness." They're right. What may look like a classroom filled with creativity, experimentation, lively discussions, and seemingly spontaneous activities is actually intentionally designed. Every case study, simulation, reflection, and conversation is thoughtfully crafted to help students move from simply learning concepts to confidently applying them in the real world.

My classroom is built around rich case studies drawn from real companies in my investment portfolio, allowing students to evaluate authentic milestones, investment strengths, risk mitigation strategies, founder decisions, and investor updates across a wide range of industries. Using AI tools like NotebookLM, I transform years of portfolio data into concise, cross-industry analyses that make complex investment decisions more accessible and engaging.

I also design interactive simulations that place students inside realistic entrepreneurial scenarios. Leveraging platforms like Lovable alongside published research and case studies, I create immersive experiences with relatable characters, current challenges, and authentic business environments so students can practice making difficult decisions before they encounter them in real life.

Most importantly, I work intentionally to create a classroom where students feel safe to learn, explore, ask questions, and even fail. Innovation requires safety and care long before it produces breakthrough ideas.

I want my students, then, to feel comfort, grace and purpose, to have the freedom to:

* Experiment.

* Prototype.

* Build.

* Reinvent.

* Innovate.

* Wrestle with ambiguity.

* Use design thinking, curiosity, and creativity to imagine solutions the world doesn’t yet have.

The classroom should feel less like a place of passive consumption and more like an innovation studio, a very special space where ideas are tested, refined, challenged, and ultimately brought to life. Learning becomes transformational when students move from simply acquiring knowledge to creating something meaningful with it.

5. Build adaptive learning environments where every student can flourish.

No two students learn the same way. Some process ideas visually. Others through discussion. Some need time for quiet reflection. Others discover their best thinking through collaboration, building on the strengths of an entire team-base approach to learning and conducting projects.

As a professor, one of my greatest responsibilities is creating an environment where students feel seen, challenged, and equipped to learn in ways that align with how God uniquely designed them.

Adaptive learning isn’t about lowering expectations. It’s about removing unnecessary barriers so every student has the opportunity to grow into the fullness of their God-given potential.

As a mother, daughter, and sister, some of my greatest lessons in unconditional love have come through my own family. My older son is neurodiverse, lives with severe ADHD, my younger son is autistic, another type of neurodiversity, and has cerebral palsy, my husband has ADHD and my sister, now 62, experiences the world with the joy and perspective of a 12-year-old. They have taught me empathy, patience, and the importance of meeting people where they are, teaching and loving one moment at a time, one conversation at a time, one brick... one LEGO® at a time.

To me, that is one of the most beautiful expressions of human flourishing.

One passage continues to shape everything I believe about teaching.

Paul writes in Ephesians 4:

“Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”

Notice that Paul, writing from prison with deep spiritual insight, begins with calling before gifting and character before competency.

He reminds us to be humble, gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love, and making every effort to preserve the unity the Holy Spirit has already created. Paul calls every believer to embrace humility before influence. That conviction translates directly into the classroom, where professors often hold significant influence through both knowledge and position. We, too, must take a posture of humility if we are to faithfully share wisdom.

What a remarkable blueprint for a classroom where students come together to learn around a common purpose. They bring different backgrounds, personalities, gifts, and stories, yet they are one community, the body of Christ. Unity has never meant uniformity. The Kingdom has always flourished through diversity, with every student reflecting a different facet of God’s creativity. Education should cultivate that diversity of thought and the creation of knowledge.

My deepest prayer each semester is beautifully simple: that my students become women and men who walk worthy of the calling God has placed on their lives, specifically through this MBA Social Entrepreneurship course, entrepreneurs whose innovation reflects redemption, investors whose capital reflects faithful stewardship, and leaders whose influence is marked by humility, courage, generosity, and service. Education is at the minimum, transfer of knowledge, yet can be glorified as we partner with God in forming people who will faithfully steward their gifts for the flourishing of His Kingdom.

If, years from now, they remember less about my lectures and more about becoming the kind of people Christ invites them to be, I will consider my calling as a professor well fulfilled.

Important note on the images in this Substack article: I have always been someone who thinks visually. Before I write, teach, or build something, I often see it in my mind first.

These images were imagined in my mind and brought to life through ChatGPT using an iterative creative process that combines intentional prompt engineering with carefully selected photographs of myself. Together, they create visual stories that blend reality with imagination, not to replace the real world, but to illuminate it.

From there, each image is thoughtfully refined in Canva, my design platform of choice, where I weave in my Substack’s typography, color palette, logos, and visual identity. Every element is intentionally curated so the images and written words work together as one cohesive visual story, creating an experience that reflects both my ideas and my voice. To me, AI is not a substitute for creativity; it is a creative partner that helps me flourish, explore possibilities, and give shape to ideas that might otherwise remain unseen.

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