Student Spotlight: Joya Sullivan

March 1, 2019


Joya Sullivan

Joya Sullivan was in her senior year of high school and taking Dual Credit classes at LSCO when Tropical Storm Harvey blew into town in 2018.

Seventeen months later, Joya and her mother are finally moving back into their home in Orange after being displaced in Vinton.

Among the boxes and traveling to and from school, Joya said she has been able to stay focused on her classes because she’s taking it one day at a time.
It also helps that her mother drilled into her the importance of making good grades.

“I haven’t been overly stressed about it because Mom tells me to focus,” she said. “I do care about my grades. Sometimes I care about my grades too much.”
She admits that in the first semester after the storm, she failed a class.

“It was the worst feeling I ever felt. I told myself I’ve got to study more to never do that again,” she said.

By the time she graduated from Community Christian High School, Joya’s GPA was 3.9. Now in her second full semester at LSCO, Joya is a straight A student and grateful for the literal calm after the storm.

She decided recently that she wants to be a nurse practitioner and is completing her Liberal Arts degree at LSCO before transferring to further her education.

“I have a lot of nurses in my life - my stepmom was a nurse for a long time and my grandmother was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s so I have been around nurses a lot lately,” Joya said. “Those nurses are beautiful and respectful and handle their patients gracefully – that’s one big reason I want to be a nurse. I love helping people and I want to have that joy to share with them and pray with them.”

While she’s here at LSCO, Joya is enjoying making new friends and her favorite class this semester is Dr. Sanford’s Anatomy lecture class because she said his stories are good.

“I like the small class sizes here because it’s a lot easier to ask questions,” she said. “I love talking to instructors and I know I could email or call any of them if I need to. I love that small environment. The president even popped his head into our class this morning!”

Joya said that Robyn Burdette in the Advising office has worked with her since she was a Dual Credit student and has helped her a lot.

“I just love this campus in general,” she said.

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