Alumni Spotlight: Isaac Rivera Class of 2017

After I graduated high school in 2017, I went to Liberty University originally majoring in Biomedical Sciences. However, after 3 semesters at LU and becoming very involved in student leadership, I realized my passion for walking alongside people through their most painful experiences and being able to celebrate with them when they experience healing and freedom. I ended up switching my major to Psychology with a cognate in Counseling. In my junior year of college, I began serving as a resident assistant at LU which has been one of the most significant parts of my Liberty experience. It's given me a front row seat to what God is doing in the lives of so many young men's lives, and it's something I count as a huge privilege and honor. This fall, I’m entering my fourth year of RA (crazy) and my second year of pursuing my Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. I've also been working in our local hospital's child and adolescent psychiatric unit. This is a crisis stabilization unit, which means I get to work with kids who have just hit rock bottom in some way. This job is one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it's another place where I get to walk with people through the worst season of their lives, and I’m incredibly grateful for that. 

I hadn't really realized what Cornerstone had done for me until about two years ago. It was my senior year at Liberty, and I had been going through some mental health struggles, as well as going through somewhat of a faith deconstruction (to use a buzzword). As I spent time in scripture, I was realizing how much of what the Bible taught did not line up with the "gospel" I had heard growing up in my home church. In fact, I also learned how many of my personal beliefs didn't align with that same faith tradition I was raised in.  I became increasingly aware of the dichotomy of what that faith tradition taught me and what I now realized the bible taught and I believed.  I finally came to the faith understanding of the salvation that God provided through Jesus Christ, as taught in the Bible and taught to me at CCS.

The biggest blessing that CCS gave me was repeatedly exposing me to a biblical gospel that weaved its way into what I believed. I had encountered God in such unique ways during events like our high school retreat and through many of the people I met at Cornerstone. Although the countless biblical integrations in my classes at CCS seemed tedious or even annoying at times, those conversations were invaluable moments that planted seeds which produced their fruit several years later in my life. God's providence and faithfulness is so evident in how he used CCS in my life. I’m forever grateful.