2008 Woodie Awards
Recruiting trip lands couple at NGU
Issue date: 11/30/05 Section: News
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Staff Writer
Married professors, Dr. Page and Ashley Brooks, joined the North Greenville University faculty this semester after first visiting the campus during a recruiting trip from New Orleans Baptist Seminary last November.
"We had actually been praying that God would open up something for us after we finished our degrees from seminary. I had always wanted to be able to teach and work in a church as well. The school told me I would be teaching and soon a position opened up at First Baptist Spartanburg. I now serve as the associate minister of adult ministries," said Page Brooks.
Page Brooks, an Alabama native, attended Auburn University, where he received his B.S. in Economics. He then went on to New Orleans Baptist Seminary where he completed his Masters of Divinity, Masters of Theology and Ph.D. in theology and philosophy.
"I started teaching a few years ago at New Orleans Baptist Seminary while in the Ph.D. program; I have now been teaching for almost four years. I started in ministry at churches when I was 15. I have served in several positions such as Minister of Music, Minister of Education, and Pastor," said Page Brooks.
Dr. Brooks teaches primarily Bible survey courses and Principles of Theological Research and Writing.
Ashley Brooks, originally from Georgia, is currently working on her PhD in Psychology and Counseling and hopes to graduate in 2007. She received her B.S. in Psychology from Shorter College in Rome, Ga. and continued her education by attending New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary for her Master of Science in Marriage and Counseling and her Master of Theology.
"After I completed my M.A. in Marriage and Family Counseling, I worked as a counselor for over a year," said Ashley Brooks. "During that year God began to deal with me about returning to school to complete my Ph.D. and I finally agreed to do what He was asking me to do. While working for my doctorate, my mentor suggested that I teach a course or two. After trying it out, I fell in love with teaching; I enjoy developing new ways to make information fun and exciting."
Ashley Brooks teaches General Psychology, Statistics for the Social Sciences, Premarital and Marital Counseling, Abnormal Psychology, Psychology of Learning, Human Growth and Development and Grief, Death, and Loss.
The couple met at a small church in east New Orleans in 2000, dated in 2001 and married in January of 2002. Ashley Brooks began to pray about marriage early on in life. "While I was in high school I had started to pray for the man that God would one day allow me to marry," she said. "One of the specific requests I had made was that God would grow in my heart a love for this man only."
"I had just gotten out of a relationship and told God that I did not want to date or see another girl for a while," said Page Brooks.< "Well, God has a sense of humor because the next month I was hired at a church as minister of music. Ashley was a member of the choir, and it was love at first sight."
The couple has thoroughly enjoyed their time spent at North Greenville University thus far. "My wife and I enjoy teaching at NGU because we are able to teach students who are going into many walks of life," said Page Brooks. "We have a passion to see students live out their Christian faith and witness boldly, wherever God may open the door for them."
"My philosophy of teaching is to not only encourage students to grow in their education," said Ashley Brooks, "but to also grow in their relationships with God. North Greenville has the same philosophy. The desire to teach here came when I realized that my philosophy of teaching and North Greenville's philosophy of education were aligned."