“Now what?” is a popular phrase uttered among the array of college seniors graduating this spring.

Even with the pressures of a tough job market, there is still hope for Biola’s graduating class as they dive into the real world of responsibility, living on their own and discerning where God is leading them.

Letting God direct

For Greg Sanders, a senior film major with a production emphasis, the choice to attend Biola was obvious. Like the majority of students at Biola, he went to Biola Bound, loved God and knew he was being called here. After wrestling with the decision of choosing a major, biblical studies seemed like the best fit for Sanders.

“People were telling me that I’d make a good pastor. It seemed like the good Christian thing to do,” Sanders said.

However, after finishing his freshman year, Sanders had friends affirming his desires to pursue film.

“I applied to the CMA school and got in, and I was super stoked about that. I decided to double major with biblical studies and film. My sophomore year then became the most difficult year at Biola for me,” Sanders said.

Sanders soon realized that film and biblical studies were very different fields of study.

“I found myself up until midnight every night in the library, working on papers and working really hard on Greek. Then, on the weekends I was working on film sets. I was just exhausted,” Sanders said.

By junior year, Sanders realized his limits, dropped his biblical studies major and decided to focus solely on film with a production emphasis in hopes of becoming a director.

After graduation, Sanders plans on moving to the Hollenbeck House in Boyle Heights, where Professor Larry Smith rents a house out to 10 students every year.

“Professor Larry Smith requires that in order for us to live in the house that we have to be engaged in the community. There are a lot of gangs over there, and it is a very rough neighborhood. But at the same time, it is safe because everyone is nice to the people in the ‘Big Blue House,’” said Sanders.

Sanders is excited to be a part of this intentional community outside of Biola and thinks that it will be a great way to transition into Hollywood in his search for a job.

“On top of that, I want to be developing my craft as a filmmaker, specifically as a director. [I am looking forward] to [working] with a team of people that can be writing, shooting, editing and doing this regularly so we can keep getting better and better,” Sanders said.

On a whim

Joanna Xu, a senior music major with a vocal performance emphasis, never thought that she would be attending Biola University.

“I had no idea what Biola even was. I had no plans of going to a Christian school at all. I was on my way to becoming a science major, marine biology in particular,” Xu said.

Xu stated that she was accepted into many brand name universities, but not for marine biology. Following her mother’s advice, she listed music on her applications as a backup having participated in choir in the past. Xu’s parents did not fully understand how the American college system worked but thought that Xu should go to a school that gave her at least $10,000 in scholarships.

“No other school gave me financial aid, grants or even loans. Biola gave me exactly $10,000 through the music scholarship, academic scholarship and multicultural scholarship. So my family and I flipped out,” Xu said.

Xu had no idea that students were required to have a biblical studies minor or go to chapel until before the first day of her freshmen year classes when girls in her dorm, Alpha, were talking about going to chapel the next morning.

“Coming to Biola was the hardest thing of my life … A few months before my audition at Biola I had a music teacher but I had never had any formal lessons [prior]… I never transferred out of music because it was a large portion of my scholarship. If I left music, I wouldn’t have been able to go to Biola,” Xu said.

Xu emphasized that there are amazing people with the Holy Spirit flowing through them on this campus, and that is what ultimately contributed to her success at Biola.

“Graduating is bittersweet. I am still scared out of my mind, and that is where the bitter part is. I do want to leave, but leaving people that I know and care for and to be leaving a safe place, that is what is makes it a little difficult,” Xu said.

Whether or not Xu is going to continue in a music career, she said that it was a very good challenge and that it taught her a lot about who she is, who God is and how she is going to continue to grow outside of Biola on the path that God is leading her.