myCIU Portal Page

Joy Law came to CIU in 2014 from the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountain city of Roanoke, Virginia. As an Intercultural Studies and Teaching English as a Foreign Language Major, Joy loves to meet new students from around the world and encourage them to pursue excellence in education as well as other areas of life. Some highlights of Joy’s recent life have been two trips to Rwanda, Africa to encourage the church through English classes, children’s ministry, and catering weddings. In her free time, Joy enjoys hiking, spending time with friends, reading, blogging, and playing soccer.

Favorite Quote: “Wherever you are, be all there.” - Jim Elliott

Josh Hunter

Josh is a second year theological studies major in the Master of Arts program here at CIU. He is from Kershaw, SC and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina. Having tutored multiple subjects for more than five years, he is passionate about helping students succeed academically in areas which challenge them so that they can reach their full potential and achieve their own unique goals. Outside the classroom, he enjoys playing bass guitar, organizing worship music, jogging, and researching medieval theology and philosophy.

“I do not seek to understand that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand. For I believe this also, that unless I believe, I shall not understand.”

• Anselm of Canterbury

   Rachel Joung  

Having grown up in the CIU Village (may it live on forever in memory), Rachel returned to Columbia to attend CIU after spending several years in Johns Creek, GA. As an English major, Rachel loves literature and learning about the ideas that literature presents in a more concrete way, and she holds her CIU professors in highest regard. Rachel would like the LORD to use her love for English to further advance His kingdom. 

When she is not attending class, tutoring, or participating in meetings, you might find Rachel re-rearranging and decorating her room, eating dried mangoes and banana chips, playing out scenarios in which she saves Petty 1 from fire alarms, liking Instagram photos of tiny homes and flower bouquets, bombarding her family's group chat with day-to-day updates and hashtags, or running to her microwave to make sure she turns it off before it starts beeping so as not to disturb her sweet neighbors.

Her favorite quote comes from the last novel in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series The Last Battle: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now...Come further up, come further in!” 

Nate Montgomery (Graduate student)

Elizabeth Branch (Undergraduate English major)

Elizabeth is a senior in CIU’s English department (the best major at CIU) and calls Nashville, TN her home. Although being a student often deprives her of sufficient free time, she enjoys leisurely afternoons that accommodate her hobbies of reading, writing, playing piano, hiking, cooking, or sitting quietly with close friends. She acknowledges that every person is a work in progress, and consequently she loves to exchange developing ideas with others with the mutual intention of growing, seeking, and living well amidst persistent doubt.

One of many favorite quotes: 

"You must be content, I say, to be misunderstood for a while. We are all very anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there is one thing much more necessary...to understand other people." 

-George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin

Adam Fleming is a new graduate student and tutor at CIU. Adam received his bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies - Literature and Christian Studies from North Greenville University. Now he is pursuing the similarly long-winded master's degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language/Intercultural Studies. Some of his hobbies include reading in a wingback chair, jogging to upbeat jazz, and eating spaghetti. Recently married, Adam and his wife Camilla hope to one day serve as missionaries in China. For the moment, they are seeking to love, serve, and share Jesus with the community God has placed them in.

Favorite Quote: "Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind." - Don Quixote