Cedarville Stories

Bringing Light to Broadway When Dani Lee Hutch crossed the commencement stage at Cedarville University in 2016 with a degree in music, Broadway seemed a long way from southwest Ohio, but God had already begun writing a story that would carry her from classrooms and chapel services to some of the most celebrated productions in American musical theatre. Today, Dani serves as a musical director in th...

Beauty From Ashes Some stories begin with joy; others with sorrow. Yet the most remarkable stories reveal how God faithfully weaves both together, bringing beauty from ashes in ways no one could have imagined. Dean and Merav Maxwell know the deep ache of loss. On January 29, 2025, they lost their daughter, Grace, a beloved Cedarville University student, in the tragic plane crash over the Potomac R...

Bound Together by Grace No one chooses the road of suffering, but sometimes God allows fellow travelers to ease the way. That was true for the Maxwell and White families. When their stories were marked by separate tragedies in 2025, they found themselves walking similar paths of loss, recovery, faith, and hope. Along the way, they discovered the strength of Christian community and the comfort that...

Entrepreneurship With a Kingdom Purpose Josh Hochstedler has watched God use both hardship and opportunity to shape his definition of success. Along the way, his interest in entrepreneurship has become closely connected to a desire to impact lives, build Christian community, and help others pursue their God-given calling with confidence and purpose. A junior cyber operations major at Cedarville Un...

Designing Solutions That Serve People Gabriel Payne thought he knew what his future should look like. After an aptitude test in high school pointed him toward engineering, the path seemed straightforward: attend a large, nationally recognized university and earn the kind of degree serious engineers were expected to pursue. Schools like Purdue, Northwestern, Harvard, and MIT stood at the top of his...

A Win-Win Faith Carlos Hidalgo was alone in the fitness center at his church on December 1, 2025, working through his normal exercise routine, when pain hit with terrifying force. He would later describe it as feeling like a bomb had exploded inside his head. At first, the 1993 Cedarville University graduate tried to shake it off. He got in his car and started driving home. But then he saw somethi...

Finding Hope in Invisible Grief Drew Hensley has a way of stepping into people’s troubles with the steady kindness of a pastor who knows Jesus meets us there. A 2007 graduate of Cedarville University, he now serves as a pastor in Charleston, South Carolina, with a heart for local church ministry and a deep compassion for people in pain. His compassion is rooted in the heart of Jesus, who sees peop...

Sheep, Stage Lights, and Scripture Long before Abigail King set foot on the stage at Cedarville University, she was already dreaming of a life that would combine her greatest loves: animals and theatre. Even as a little girl growing up in sunny Florida, she imagined a future where the joy of performance could meet the companionship of creatures great and small. That dream stayed with her, and when...

A Calling Shaped by Providence Shannon Yarosz’s story bears the marks of God’s providence. Often, that providence feels ordinary in the moment and only later reveals how lovingly the story has been arranged. On the Cedarville Stories podcast, Shannon reflected on a journey shaped by science, compassion, and a deep desire to serve others well. That calling began to take shape during her years at Th...

A Steady Rhythm of Hope Dr. Lou Lilite learned hope in the hard soil of Haiti. He grew up in a ministry family surrounded by the daily realities of poverty, where need was easy to see and impossible to ignore. Yet even there, God planted gifts and purpose in his life. Through his parents’ example, Lou learned that faith looks beyond what is missing and trusts God’s provision even before it comes i...

Held by God Through Every Trial Brandon Stover’s story is marked by God’s faithful presence through both unexpected joy and deep hardship. As he prepares to graduate from Cedarville University with a degree in special education, he does so with a heart shaped by struggle, strengthened by grace, and anchored in the steady leadership of the Lord. When Brandon came to Cedarville, he found much more t...

A Song of Worship in the Midst of Motherhood   In the quiet, faithful work of motherhood, Renee (O’Neal) Sallee ’10 has learned a truth strong enough to carry both a family and a song: God is enough. That conviction now rests at the heart of her music, ministry, and home.  A 2010 graduate of Cedarville University with a degree in early childhood education, Renee records music as Renee Leanne, crea...

Behind the Music Behind the scenes at K-LOVE and Air1, ministry feels deeply personal. What listeners hear as a song, a familiar voice, or a timely word starts long before the microphone turns on. It begins with a team that believes what people listen to really matters because what fills the mind often shapes the heart. That belief fuels the work of Cedarville University graduates Jim Houser ’91,...

From Cedarville to K-LOVE Three Cedarville broadcasting alumni now serve in senior leadership at K-LOVE and Air1 Media Networks — and their shared story is as meaningful as it is remarkable. Jim Houser ’91, Chief Radio Officer; Mandy Young ’99, Vice President of Radio; and Steve Shore ’02, Music Platform Program Manager, are each helping lead the largest contemporary Christian music radio network...

Celebrating $205.8 Million and Future Cedarville Sphere The future of Cedarville University seems to rise right out of the waters of Cedar Lake on the latest Cedarville Stories podcast. The conversation opens with the kind of news that gives Cedarville plenty to celebrate. Dr. Will Smallwood, Cedarville’s Vice President for Advancement, reflects on the strong finish of the 1000 Days Transformed Ca...

Helping Foster Teens Find Their Place Fifteen years ago, Eric ’03 and Kara (Howe) ’04 Gilmore began noticing a pattern that would not let them rest. Teenagers in Arkansas entered foster care or aged out with little consistent support. In fact, many reached legal adulthood without housing, reliable work, or someone to call family. Their Cedarville University years had planted a conviction in them t...

Walking With Lyme, Walking With God Sam Sofio carried a simple dream of attending Christian university where faith wasn’t an accessory but the air everyone breathed. He pictured chapel worship and professors who prayed before class. He also sensed a calling to tell stories that point people to God. Then his health took a hard turn, and money worries crept in. He woke up bone-tired no matter how lo...

A Story Bigger Than Football Redemption opens like a familiar football story — with helmets, stadium lights, and the pressure to win — but quickly clarifies its real focus: Jesus changing lives inside The Ohio State Buckeyes’ program. Available through The Wonder Project on Amazon Prime, this docuseries follows an ongoing spiritual revival that can’t be measured on a scoreboard. Behind it are two...

Stocking Classrooms, Building Futures A first-year teacher stands in an empty classroom with a key in her hand and a knot in her stomach. Twenty-six desks. Bare walls. One loud thought: School starts soon, and the room has almost nothing. Dr. Megan Brown, an associate professor of education at Cedarville University, knows that moment well. Coursework can cover research and best practices. Training...

Secret Service and the Zero-Fail Mission The U.S. Secret Service lives by a simple standard: zero fail. Every route, every rooftop, and every split-second decision demands excellence because the mission leaves no room for mistakes. Jeff Rinehart has built his career around that expectation. The 1993 Cedarville University graduate has spent nearly three decades with the Secret Service, rising into...

Big League Hopes Payton Eeles and Tanner Gillis are living their baseball dreams. Both former Yellow Jacket baseball players are moving closer to the major leagues and learning that the climb is rarely clean and never entirely predictable. Baseball is a sport of failure that teaches a person to live between what’s hoped for and what’s in hand. There’s always another series, another chance, and ano...

Dr. Jared Pincin: Fantasy Sports and Real Convictions Some of the most lasting lessons in life don’t come from classrooms or textbooks but from watching the people closest to you do hard things without complaint. For Dr. Jared Pincin, those lessons were learned early by watching his college-educated father take whatever work was necessary to provide for his family, even when that meant working as...

From Czech Courts to a Global Calling Ondrej Plasil grew up in the Czech Republic with a basketball in his hands and a competitive spirit in his heart. The game gave him direction, discipline, and drive. But underneath it all, he was quietly searching for something more. In a country where faith is often absent or minimized, Ondrej didn’t grow up in a strong Christian environment. He knew about Go...

Desert Roots and Gospel Goals Matthew and Daniel Leo grew up in the Middle East, where sunbaked streets doubled as soccer fields and neighbors quickly became family. Their childhood was filled with the rhythms of daily life, including shared meals, local traditions, and long afternoons chasing a ball through the dust. With parents devoted to humanitarian work, the brothers were immersed in a life...

Aiming True, Living Fully Gracen Fletcher grew up under Indiana skies, where the wind danced across hayfields and horses ran free. A farm girl through and through, she learned to saddle up almost as early as she could walk. Her days were filled with muck boots, fiddle strings, and the steady hum of country life. Whether she was training one of her family’s Arabian horses, casting a fishing line at...