Alumni Spotlight: Rooted at TCS, Growing Around the World

A Foundation for Wherever God Leads

“I’ve never really been nervous to leap into the unknown, because I know that God’s walking with me and is walking beside me,” Pamela shared. “I think that He gave me the strength and the bravery to not be afraid of the unknown.”

Today, Pamela lives in London, where she works in AI business transformation for Informa Connect. But the foundation for the curiosity, confidence, and faith that have carried her around the world began years earlier at TCS.

A Place That Made Learning Personal

Pamela joined The Christ School midway through kindergarten and still remembers what it felt like to enter a new school where friendships had already begun forming. Yet from the beginning, she felt welcomed into the TCS community.

That sense of belonging continued throughout her years at TCS. Pamela remembers teachers who knew their students individually, challenged them academically and helped make learning something she genuinely enjoyed.

“I just feel like the teachers really cared about every individual student,” she said. “It makes learning feel personalized.”

One teacher in particular, Mrs. Crimmins, helped spark Pamela’s love for history, an interest that would remain with her long after leaving TCS. Pamela later minored in history at Duke University and credits those early classroom experiences with helping cultivate her curiosity about the world.

After graduating from TCS, Pamela attended Boone High School, where she took on a rigorous academic schedule before achieving a longtime dream: attending Duke University.

At Duke, she double majored in Chinese Politics and Psychology with a focus on neuroscience, minored in History, and joined the university’s varsity dance team, The Dancing Devils. But one experience in particular would change the direction of her life.

A Foundation That Traveled With Her

At Duke, Pamela’s curiosity about the world continued to grow. Through DukeEngage, she traveled to Zhuhai, China, where she taught English and dance as part of an arts education initiative. The experience had a profound impact on her, ultimately inspiring her to study Chinese politics and later return to China while pursuing a Master of Management Studies through Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.

Her plans changed unexpectedly when the COVID-19 outbreak forced her to return to the United States. What felt devastating at the time soon took on new meaning when, just weeks later, her mother was diagnosed with cancer.

“I remember when my mom told me her diagnosis literally two weeks after I came back from China, and I thought in that moment, ‘Thank you, Lord, so much,’” Pamela recalled. “He knew where I needed to be.”

After her mother recovered, another opportunity emerged. Encouraged by her family to take a leap of faith, Pamela moved to London to continue her studies at the London School of Economics. There, she earned Merit Honours for her dissertation examining the United States and China and eventually began building the life she has today.

Now living in London and working in AI business transformation for Informa Connect, Pamela can look back and see a common thread through each unexpected turn. The curiosity that was encouraged in her classrooms at TCS and the faith foundation established during those formative years have continued to shape how she approaches new opportunities, challenges, and even changes in plans.

And, in another remarkable connection back to TCS, Pamela reconnected with one of her closest childhood friends from The Christ School, who had also moved to London. That friendship eventually led Pamela to meet her fiancé.

“TCS’s butterfly effect is real,” she joked while reflecting on the unexpected chain of connections.

Friendships That Cross Decades and Continents

For all the places Pamela has lived and experiences she has collected, some of the relationships that mean the most to her began in elementary and middle school.

Two of her best friends today are friends she first met at TCS.

“I feel really lucky that I’ve kept two of my dearest friends from TCS to the age of 30,” she said.

It is something Pamela has come to appreciate even more while living abroad. When people from around the world hear that she is still close with friends from elementary and middle school, they are often surprised.

For Pamela, those lasting relationships are another reminder of what made TCS special.

“What a special place,” she said.

Prepared for the Ups and the Downs

Looking back, Pamela can see how the academic preparation she received at TCS helped equip her for Boone, Duke, graduate school and an international career. But the preparation she values extends far beyond academics.

Her years at TCS also helped establish a faith foundation that she has returned to during some of life's most uncertain moments.

From unexpectedly leaving China, to walking alongside her mother through cancer, to moving across the world and building a new life in London, Pamela has learned that a change in plans does not mean God is absent from them.

Reflecting on God’s plan throughout her journey, Pamela shared, “It really does unveil itself. It really prepares you for not just the ups but the downs.”

That perspective has allowed Pamela to approach the unknown with courage rather than fear.

Her journey since leaving TCS has crossed schools, careers, countries, and continents. Yet when Pamela looks at the person she has become and the life she has built, she can still trace pieces of it back to the classrooms, teachers, friendships and faith foundation of The Christ School.

“I really don’t think that I would be where I am today without TCS,” she said.

For Pamela, that foundation did not determine exactly where the road would lead. Instead, it prepared her to follow wherever God led next.