Hi, I'm Elora!
I'm from rural San Luis Valley, Colorado. Where I grew up in the warmths of a Christ-centered home with an ancestral history in Jewish culture, my full name is filled with prophetic Hebrew meaning, Elora in Hebrew means “God’s light”.
After high school, I transitioned from a rural upbringing, to the city life of a university student. I came to Shenandoah University in pursuit of one goal: to major in biology and go to medical school. However, it seemed that God had a different path in mind for me, as my straight path became a winding desire for discovery. We all know that the earth is large and are inspired by coffee cup phrases such as “adventure is out there” or “the world is your oyster,” but the moment I truly comprehend the whole world as one rather than separate pieces was when I walked out of my Honors Global citizenship class. I added Global Studies as a major the next day, and even class made the borders of the world disappear, I was limitless. I quickly realized that all of the world is worth paying attention to, every nation, tongue, culture, village, and people. The world and everything in it has become a huge part of my heart and I feel called to it. Somehow, someway, I am going to go places, see the world, and be a light.
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I refuse to do anything less, even if I am still learning and exploring who I am now.
I know how I got here, and I know where I want to be. I know that my academic achievements denied my learning disability any control over my future, and that my imperfect lower middle-class home only fed my maturity and my stubbornness to never give up.
But knowing who I was and who I am now means nothing if I have no vision of who I strive to become. I want to be a humanitarian scientist, who studies the complex systems of all of the wonders of living and connection. I want to be a hopeful realist, acknowledging the darker edges in today’s society, but refusing to give up on the light. I want to be an advocate for universal human rights; to speak and stand up even when no one else dares to. I want to passionately serve people. I want to be an encouraging mentor to the lost and scared.
I want to see every inch of the world, experience all of life, and to help us thrive as one united people. I want to be a missionary for the only Truth in this world. I want to show God’s light, just as my Hebrew name, so purposefully given to me, stands for. I strive to do and be all these things in all my studies as I seek to investigate different kinds of life through cultures. As I've journey to other parts of the world such as Oxford, England to study International politics. As I've founded and directed Shenandoah Delight ministries for the past two years of my college career. As I've had to honor to be a part of a missions trip to Belize where Delight leaders served in medical clinics, seeing over a thousand patients in less then a week. As I venture into graduating college soon and taking time to just be on God's world mission.
