A Prompting to Apply
“Barlow didn’t know BYU-Idaho even existed until her junior year of high school, but she felt prompted to apply. “It’s such a special place. I’m really grateful for it.”
You Already Know the Answer
November 2020
Lindsay Cook started college on a basketball scholarship in Utah. But after earning an associate degree there and doing a semester at Brigham Young University in Provo, she felt prompted to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was called to Vancouver, Washington.
After her mission, Lindsay came home to Idaho Falls, Idaho, and, after weighing her options, decided to attend BYU-Idaho, just 30 minutes from where she’d grown up.
“I’d always said I’d never go to BYU-Idaho, and all my friends went there after high school,” she says. “But I prayed about it, and I felt like God said, ‘You already know the answer—you know where you’re sup-posed to be.’ And since going there, I’ve had so many opportunities being close to home.”
BYU-Idaho has meant more than just proximity to home, however. In Rexburg, Lindsay found a diverse community of fellow students, many of whom were converts to the Church who faced significant opposition in coming to BYU-Idaho. She also found an environment that was uniquely conducive to both spiritual and academic learning. And she met her husband.
After all of her schooling, her mission, and of course, her wedding, Lindsay was in a tight spot financially. And although she cleans doctors’ offices in the summer, she wouldn’t quite be able to make ends meet without the financial help she receives through donated funds.
“When finances come up, my husband and I look at each other and say, ‘People who don’t get scholarships or grants—I don’t know how they do it,’” she says. “When you’re going to school full time and paying for an apartment, expenses really add up.”
In the coming years, Lindsay is aiming to attend graduate school and become an occupational therapist, and her husband is poised to do his student teaching while she works on her next degree. Wherever life takes them, they will always look back with gratitude for the generosity that donors have shown to them.
“I know how much it has helped me,” Lindsay says. “Because of their donation, I’m able to complete my degree. I owe donors a huge thank you. They don’t know how much of a blessing they’ve been.”
