ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ College wasn’t the first choice for Elliot Rossomme ’17. Then Massachusetts Institute of Technology put him on the wait list. A teacher at his small Christian high school asked if he’d ever considered attending ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ. Rossomme regrouped and headed to Grantham.
“We learn to trust God a lot more when things don’t go the way we want them to,” said Rossomme. “God has changed my perspective on what it means to succeed and do well.”
At ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ, he learned to wrestle with the tension between ambition of self and following the humility of Christ.
“Where do these two things meet? ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ is a place where I’ve learned to ask questions like that,” he said, “providing you with a network of Christians who have striven to be of the world and not in it in broader society.”
ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ also provided him with opportunities to spread his wings academically, spiritually and geographically. He spent his junior year studying abroad at Oxford, which further shaped his faith.
“The Christians I met there were confident in their faith,” he said. “It defined them. It didn’t sidebar their lives.”
In the summers, he stayed busy as a researcher at Georgetown University and the University of Georgia. After graduation, he headed across the U.S. for another adventure: graduate school. He’s pursuing a doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley as a chancellor’s fellow.
“I’m going to Berkeley, because there’s a need for the Gospel there while pursing excellence,” he said. “It includes a humility and willingness to serve that’s not glamorous.”
--Anna Seip, editor