By Emma Stratton, Student Writer
Name: Anna Mayo
Year: Senior
Major: Applied Health Science with a concentration in physical therapy
Home State: Connecticut
What do you plan to do with your major?
I plan to go to grad school to get my doctorate. I am debating on doing a master’s in public health as well, but I am debating on doing a gap year.
What kind of gap year are you considering?
I would want to do some form of medical missions. I am starting to apply to different organizations that accept physical therapy students abroad. I am looking into Thailand and Zambia, but there are so many different organizations I could apply to. I might go back to Zambia again, I loved it.
You went to Zambia with Messiah, correct? What was that experience like?
It was a global health care class which is what I am passionate about. It was focused on a global perspective in health care. After being there for three weeks you kind of start to feel like you are a part of the community. Not living there as a Zambian, but enough that it is not a vacation. You feel like an integrated part of the community. You get to meet people and see them over and over again. Zambia is such a beautiful place with such beautiful people.
What brought you to Messiah?
I had a friend who graduated from here so I heard about it from him. I knew I wanted to go to a Christian college. I didn’t know any Christians in my high school except for my sister and there were 300 kids in my grade. I really wanted the fellowship here and I didn’t want to be too close or too far from home.
In what ways do you feel like you have experienced “fellowship” at Messiah?
The people that I have met have been so deeply pursuing the Lord that I can’t help but also want to pursue Him because of them. To be able to encourage each other and love one another well like Christ does… it does something to your heart that no other friendship could do because it is not a friendship anymore, it is a deep brotherhood and sisterhood kind of relationship that only the kingdom could have created.
Were these relationships easy for you to find at Messiah?
No (laughing), that was really a big struggle. I struggled with that for a long time because I felt like I wasn’t pouring into my friends enough and I wasn’t being poured into either. Galatians 6:2 says carry each other’s burdens and I was carrying everyone’s and not letting them carry mine. So it wasn’t until I had that heart change that I realized I have a role to play in these relationships as well. Getting involved in student ministry and meeting people that are on fire for the Lord has changed my view.
What is one interesting fact about yourself?
I had braces for 12 years, 4 months and 16 days which is the Guinness World Record I am pretty sure. I looked it up one time and it said this guy had it for 11 years. I had them from kindergarten until the summer before my senior year. I was scammed for money from a pediatric dentist and then had a dentist with dementia (laughing).