Alumni Spotlight - Taylor Stribbling
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What is your favorite memory of High School here at Cornerstone?
One of my favorite memories from high school was my senior trip to Mexico. I had the opportunity to plan a seven day/six night cruise to Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta. Almost my entire class (13/17 students) was able to attend the trip, which made it more fun to take a trip with all of my closest friends. From the late night talks, to the unlimited pizza and ice cream, to swimming with dolphins, this trip was definitely a once and a lifetime experience. I’m grateful for the memories I was able to make with some of my best friends before we all graduated and parted our separate ways.
How did Cornerstone help prepare you for college/life in general?
Cornerstone helped prepare me for life after high school in many ways. As a new Christian I was eager to grow in my relationship with God, and Cornerstone helped me find a private Christian college to attend that would help me grow for the next four years. I had the privilege to attend Biola University in Southern California where I studied Criminal Justice and Theological Studies. Cornerstone helped foster a strong passion for Jesus in my heart that I didn’t have before. I wanted to be in an environment where students not only talked about God, but actually took the time to pursue Him and seek His will for their lives. God definitely exceeded my expectations and transformed my life in so many ways as a student at Biola. I am forever grateful that Cornerstone was a place that helped shape me and mold me into the woman God was desiring for me to become. I am grateful for the direction that the faculty and staff at Cornerstone pointed me in because if it were not for their constant support, I don’t think I would have ended up at Biola. Cornerstone gave me the tools and encouragement I needed to succeed after high school and I’m grateful to say that I am still thriving even as a college graduate.
How did the relationship you made here at Cornerstone with your friends impact your life?
The friendships I made at Cornerstone truly changed my life. At Cornerstone, you can feel free to be yourself because you are surrounded by other kids who are longing to find themselves as well. As a new seventh grade transfer, I was eager to jump in and make new friends, but it took two years for me to really fit in. As a freshman at Cornerstone, I was finally ready to change and to let this “God” that I had been hearing about for the past two years truly come into my heart. That’s when I started to open up to the other kids in my classes and I started to deepen my friendships with them. Over the next four years of high school, those friends became more like family. We did everything together both in and outside of school. We even become so close that we decided to have a boy/girl sleepover -don’t worry, it was chaperoned. Long story short, I still have the privilege to walk through life with some of the friends I made at Cornerstone and I’m grateful for the ways God has chosen to be faithful in those friendships. Despite the ups and downs, fights and makeups, God blessed us with four years of unforgettable memories that we get to hold onto for the rest of our lives.
How did the relationships you mad here at Cornerstone with your teachers/admin/office staff/ etc. impact your life?
The relationships I cultivated with the teachers, admin, and staff at Cornerstone have impacted and continue to impact my life tremendously. In fact, I owe much of my gratitude to these men and women even more so than the friends I made. One teacher in particular, Isaac Lewis, was and still is instrumental in the ways God chose to transform my life throughout high school and even now into my early adult years. As a troubled child who dealt with a lot of brokenness in my home, I would come to school and most days act out of what I was experiencing, lack of support and love in the way I thought I should receive it. Mr. Lewis would sit me down and listen to me vent about what was going on and instead of getting me in trouble right away, he would give me advice and encourage me. Now don’t get me wrong, Mr. Heyer saw me in his office almost every day during my first couple of years, but there was a point when I would say I took a turn for the better. I stopped talking out a lot in class, I started getting more involved in leadership, I started playing sports to stay busy, and I started sticking around more after school just to talk and hangout with my teachers. These men and women that I admired and looked up to so much are the very people that I still to this day hangout with simply because they have become my friends. God has been incredibly faithful in my life and I would not be who I am today without the faculty and staff at Cornerstone. I’m forever grateful for the ways they chose to love me and not give up on me. I may be a rare example, but I don’t doubt God’s divine sovereignty in how He chose to send me to Cornerstone at a time in my life when I was so lost and broken. As a twenty-two year old woman, I’m still seeking God’s will for my life daily, but I have never been stronger in my faith and am grateful for how He has chosen to write my story. Cornerstone will always hold a special place in my heart.
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