Like every other professor at Andrews University, Jane Sabes keeps a curriculum vitae on file. Hers, however, is 12 pages long. Since graduating from Columbia Union College in 1971, Sabes has been the chief medical technologist at Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, held a fellowship at Harvard University, and taught for one year at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. And for three years in the early 90s, she served as Secretary of Health for the State of Wyoming.

To Sabes, however, these accomplishments belong to a past chapter of her life. “I’ve lived the exciting years of my life, and now I want to live vicariously through the exciting years of my students’ lives,” she says. “I just want to stand on the sidelines and be the loudest cheerleader for the great things God has planned for them.”

How well Sabes has succeeded might depend on your definition of “standing on the sidelines,” but she hasn’t sat around much since coming to Andrews University in 1999. In addition to teaching political science, she has led annual summer study tours to countries including Cuba, China, and Greece. She had a hand in the development of a master's program in International Development. And in 2004–2005, she was voted “Teacher of the Year” by the Andrews University student body.

Looking at the curriculum vitae of Sabes, it is only natural to be impressed with her numerous professional and academic accomplishments. In person, however, it is Sabes' unshakable belief in the potential of her students that leaves the greatest impression. She says, “God can keep the covenant that He made in Jeremiah 29:11: ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ So when I look at each student I say, 'I wonder what God seeks for him,' and I see it developing while they’re here on the campus; I can see it so clearly. For me, life doesn’t get any better than that. It’s rich—it really is rich.”

Robert Moncrieff, student news writer, University Relations