Connection
Kae’s curiosity has always led her on fascinating side quests: fostering snakes, raising pet rats, and studying the strangest creatures she could find. When asked what brought her to UNCW, her answer was simple. Shark brains. The allure of a professor pulling 3D-printed shark brains out of her purse sealed it. Kae knew she was exactly where she was meant to be.
“I was skeptical of campus ministries in college,” Kae explained, “because church has always been like the air I breathe: it's been as much of a part of my life as going to school or eating breakfast.” Now that she was on her own, it was time to pursue her passions in marine biology and climate advocacy.
Her first semester of college hit harder than she ever imagined. Between trying to hold her friend group together and fighting an illness that left her missing weeks of class, the excitement of college life gave way to sheer exhaustion. The weight of the expectations, loneliness, and the pressure to keep it together became too much to carry.
By the time Wingspan’s Fall Retreat came around, Kae barely had anything left to give. She spent most of the weekend sleeping, her body trying to recover from more than just missed rest. Yet, in that space, surrounded by people who didn’t need her to perform or pretend, something shifted. “Wingspan saw me in a way I wasn’t expecting,” Kae recalled. “It was so powerful to be seen for who I was, not just what I was going through.”
Since that moment, Kae’s faith has grown and stretched her in ways she never expected. Wingspan became the community that reminded her faith wasn’t something she had to perform, but something she could live. She began to see that the same curiosity that drew her to shark brains could also draw her toward the deeper questions of what kind of world God longs for.
Traveling with Wingspan to El Salvador cracked her heart open even more. She met children and families who live each day with the effects of climate change that she had only studied in textbooks. Their resilience and hope changed her focus from research to relationship, to building a future where science listens to the stories of those most affected.
“I’ve seen so often that churches become inclusive to make the people in power more comfortable,” Kae reflected. “But in Wingspan, any change that we aim to create isn’t for comfort. It’s about uplifting and listening to the hurting and the marginalized.”
Where her idea of a relationship with God once centered on worship, it now includes the faces and voices of her community: a faith alive in compassion, curiosity, and courage.
Kae’s story is what happens when curiosity meets community, when faith becomes something lived rather than performed. She came to UNCW to study shark brains and found herself studying something deeper: what it means to be seen, to be known, and to belong.
Every student who walks through Wingspan’s doors carries a story like that. They bring questions that don’t fit in tidy boxes, weariness from holding too much alone, and a longing to find where faith and justice meet. And in every one of those stories, we see Jesus. The One who met people where they were, who brought healing to the exhausted, and who built communities that changed lives.
When you give to Wingspan, you help college students encounter that same Jesus in shared meals and quiet prayers, in retreats that become holy rest, and in service that reveals God’s heart for the world. You help create a ministry where young adults discover that the gospel still has something to say about belonging, courage, and love in action.
Your gift makes possible the retreats where exhausted students finally exhale. It helps fund the meals where new friendships are born and the conversations where faith starts to feel alive again. It supports mission trips like the one Kae took to El Salvador, where students encounter Christ in the faces of those the world overlooks. Your generosity ensures that this work continues, not just as a campus ministry, but as a movement of hope for the next generation.
We believe in a God whose love is big enough to hold every story, and we are building a community that lives like it. Will you join us?
Every gift, whether $25 or $2,500, helps keep Wingspan a place where students like Kae can bring their full selves, encounter the living Christ, and discover a faith that transforms the world.
To become part of Kae’s story, as well as other students, visit https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/eeb32444-596f-46e7-b16d-b6dc934f4f80
