Love Language: Education Student Immerses Herself In Classroom

When Yabing Chen came to America from her native China, she planned on earning a degree in petroleum engineering and heading back home to put her skills to work. She certainly wasn't planning on becoming a teacher, let alone teaching Chinese as part of a dual language immersion program.

But, as is often the case, God had other plans.

"I didn't feel like I was in that field, like engineering could be my career," Chen says. "It gave me pause for what I really want to do in the future."

Chen considered other career options before finally heeding the call to becoming an educator, a vocation that meshes well with her sunny, outgoing, empathetic personality.

"I visited ORU, and I thought, 'I want this atmosphere,'" she says. "So I applied and transferred a lot of courses, and now I'm amazed at how education can be so important to people's lives. Especially Christian education. It can change your mindset."

Through ORU, Chen found and accepted a student teaching position this semester at a Tulsa-area elementary school, teaching literacy, math, and science—all in Chinese—to American students learning in an immersion-style classroom.

"It was God!" she exclaims when talking about the position. It was a miraculous opening that turned into a perfect fit for her, and one she hopes she'll be able to continue in after she graduates in May.

But no matter where she lands, she feels fully prepared by what she's received from ORU.

"Here every professor cares about you and knows you," she says. "They give encouragement with biblical words, they tell us we're anointed by the glory of God to be a teacher. It's my calling and God will help me through it, and I hear that from my professors. They give not just academic support, but life support."