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Ivy League schools will have to wait

Lynbrook graduate opts to spend a year doing service in Equadorian womens’ shelter

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For many local college students, attending graduate schools like Yale or Harvard would be a dream come true. One recent grad, however, is leaving her Ivy League dream behind to travel to Ecuador on a yearlong service mission.

Lynbrook resident Anie Jamgochian graduated magna cum laude from Cabrini College in Pennsylvania this spring, earning acceptance to both Harvard and Yale Divinity schools — but she chose instead to travel with Rostro de Cristo, a Catholic organization that, according to their website, “provides spiritual and educational opportunities for people of faith to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of Ecuador.”

Jamgochian had visited Ecuador and worked with Rostro de Cristo once earlier as a participant on a service trip through Cabrini, and began to feel a calling while there. “After being there for just nine days, I could really see myself doing the work of the volunteers I was getting to know.” She had already considered devoting a year to service and decided to apply to Rostro de Cristo when she returned to the United States.

Jamgochian applied for deferment to Harvard, but her request was denied, forcing her to make the decision between attending graduate school at one of the most prestigious universities in the country and serving in Ecuador.

“My deferment was not accepted, which left me with a very difficult decision,” she explained. “Do I follow my heart and go to Ecuador to volunteer for a year, a place I can really feel God calling me to? Or do I decide not to give up the great opportunity to study at Harvard and plan to do service another time?”

Ultimately, Jamgochian decided to travel to Ecuador for a simple reason. “In the end, I couldn’t deny where I knew God was calling me to … I could not ignore the stirring in my heart to do service.”

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