A leading Christian university in Nashville where anything is possible.

When Avery Kroll was a young girl she would sneak out of bed at night to listen to her dad play the piano and fall asleep on the stairs. Little did she know then that she would grow up to be an animator who would create an animated short inspired by those memories that would be recognized at one of the top film festivals in the country.

Kroll’s creation, The Piano, has been nominated for Best Animated Short at the prestigious Tribeca Festival in New York City. Having her short film recognized on this stage is a culmination of nearly four years of work and faith.

When Gabriel Martin sat in a French philosophy class during his freshman year at UCLA four years ago, everything on paper looked perfect. He was a student at a prestigious university, accepted into its Herb Alpert Music Program and competing on the Bruins’ track and field team.

But as he looked out a classroom window one day, he said he sensed something deeper tugging at his heart.

“I remember sitting there and just feeling it strongly, ‘This is not where I am meant to be,’” Martin said.

From The Chosen to the farm, Joellie Anderson (BFA ’24) is always in style.

The 2024 fashion design graduate not only helped make the hit show The Chosen come to life as part of the costume shop in 2023, but upon graduation she shifted gears to become a designer at Tractor Supply Co. (TSC), working on the company’s Blue Mountain, Field and Stream and Ridgecut clothing lines.

What if your whole job was just to have fun? That’s pretty much the way Jalen Anderson (BBA ’19), better known as DJ RIO, feels about his job.

“I gained traction early in my career and the most frequent sentiment from the people I worked with was always, ‘You really look like you want to be here,’” said Anderson, who cut his teeth in Nashville playing tunes at many Lipscomb events.

That passion has earned him jobs as the DJ for the Tennessee Titans and for the Mrs. Tennessee America/Miss Tennessee for America organization. He frequently performs for the Nashville Predators, and in The Nashville Scene’s annual Nashville’s Best competition, he has been voted in the top three of Nashville’s Best DJs between 2020 and 2025, reaching the No. 1 spot for three of those years.

Natalie Blickensderfer, a May graduate of Lipscomb University, has been named one of the nation’s Top 100 undergraduate business majors for 2025 by Poets&Quants for Undergrads, the leading online publication for undergraduate business education.

Blickensderfer, a Bachelor of Business Administration major in finance from Plano, Texas, is among a select group of students chosen for Poets&Quants’ annual “Best & Brightest Business Majors” list. Now in its tenth year, the list recognizes students who not only excel academically but who also make meaningful contributions to their institutions, distinguish themselves through leadership and service, and embody the qualities of initiative, integrity and innovation.

“The Poets & Quants honor is unbelievable to me,” said Blickensderfer. “I know the professors here have helped shape me into the person I am, and I hope they know how much this award is a direct reflection of their influence. I hope this distinction showcases the effect a Christian education can have on a broader scale.”

Completing her college degree was a dream that Pierson held tightly to and she pursued while working and rearing a young family. Now, she is celebrating the completion of her Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetic Internship (MSDI) from Lipscomb University.

Pierson’s journey to reaching this milestone has been one filled with determination and a willingness to take an unconventional pathway at times. The Nebraska native began building a career nearly 20 years ago serving in several marketing and administrative roles.

Whether it is working in the health care field, playing on the soccer field or supporting other young professionals in their chosen field, Bennie Harris II (BBA ’20, MBA ’21) gives his best and wants to get the best out of the people he works with.

For a young Sam Phalen (’22), there was one night a week that was sacred in the Phalen household.

Like clockwork, Phalen gathered with his parents and brother around the television to watch Survivor, the CBS reality competition show where contestants compete against each other in a battle of endurance, strategy and social maneuvering on an island with the prize of a million dollars if they're the last one standing.

Courtney Hale (MBA ’10) likes to tell people: “I’m the most accidental entrepreneur you’ll ever meet!” But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have skills. In fact, he’s passing on to today’s youngsters all over the nation the finance skills that carried him beyond his family’s humble roots in Nashville through his social enterprise: Super Money Kids Co.

Many students enroll at Lipscomb because of a desire to serve, and Reid Murdock (’24), a mechanical engineering major who will graduate this May, is no exception. On May 4, he will be the first Lipscomb graduate to complete the newly developed humanitarian engineering minor, a program focused on how to effectively carry out faith-based engineering projects in the missions field.

Kristen Jud (MPA ’23) hasn’t even held her Master of Public Administration for a year yet and she is already contributing to a major project that is destined to change the face of Nashville: the Imagine East Bank Vision Plan, adopted by the Metro Planning Commission in 2022 to steer development of 338 acres of underutilized land directly across the river from Downtown Nashville.

There are few people who could better represent the epitome of a Lipscomb research scientist than the Canada Research Chair for Theoretical Chemistry at McMaster University, Paul Ayers (BS ’96).

Ayers heard his calling at Lipscomb. He built his intellectual and professional skills and his research resume at Lipscomb. He discovered his way to make a difference in the world at Lipscomb.