20 Alumni Stories - Aksel Yoder

Aksel Yoder graduated with the class of 2023 and spent eleven years at Cambridge. He is now in college, and on Saturday mornings he meets with a classmate to read through the Gospel of John. That Bible study is the heart of his episode. Aksel's reading partner is a committed Christian, but one whose biblical foundation runs narrower than his own. What Aksel discovered in their conversations was not just that he knew more than he realized, but that he knew how to think about what he knew. He could trace the theological argument, hold his ground in genuine disagreement, and do it without making the other person feel diminished. Cambridge, he says, taught him how to read well, argue well, and love rightly in the same breath. The thread running through his reflection is the difference between receiving information and learning how to think. It is the latter, he finds, that proves irreplaceable.