To commemorate this anniversary milestone, we asked members of our extended community to reflect on the relationships, experiences, and enduring impact of FOCUS. As you enjoy these recorded conversations, please join us in giving thanks to God for His enduring faithfulness to this ministry we all share. We invite you to keep the conversation going at our FOCUS Alumni Group on Facebook.

With a degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and an array of youth ministry experience, Amy Moreau came to FOCUS in 2003 as FOCUS Raleigh’s first Area Director. She was on staff until 2018 and remains involved as a parent and volunteer. Emily Stocks Walker was one of Amy’s first students at St. Mary’s School. After graduation from Baylor and a few years in ministry in Raleigh, she returned to Texas where she continued in ministry (particularly with Mercy Street in Dallas) and family life.

Roland Young served for nearly forty years as math teacher at Deerfield Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts. Roland was instrumental in the Christian Fellowship, as well as the lives of the hundreds of students who were involved. During that time, Roland also served on the FOCUS Board of Trustees, and regularly participated in FOCUS regional events and retreats. As a student leader for the Deerfield fellowship, Drake Richey benefitted from Roland’s leadership and initiative. A 2000 graduate of Deerfield, Drake went on to Trinity College, and then served two years on FOCUS staff in the New England Boarding School ministry. He continues to be an active alumnus of FOCUS. 

While at Roxbury Latin School in Boston, Dave Coles was at the heart of the school fellowship that began during that time. Dave continued on to University of Virginia during which he was a volunteer with FOCUS, and has just returned to NYC after nearly fifteen years in San Francisco where he was a member of FOCUS’ Area Sponsoring Committee. He promises he will continue to volunteer with FOCUS!
When Dave Drake landed in Boston in 1997 to serve as Regional Director, he had already spent six years on the staff of FOCUS in Baltimore and Greater Washington. First involved with FOCUS as a middle school student, Dave was active throughout high school and was a volunteer while at Northwestern. He left the staff of FOCUS in 2002 to go to Trinity School for Ministry and has been in parish ministry in Raleigh and Baltimore after graduation and ordination. Dave continues to volunteer with FOCUS in various capacities, this summer returning again to lead the Island Cruise program.

After graduating from Roxbury Latin School and Bowdoin College, Fred Atwood began his teaching career at St. Stephen’s School in Alexandria, Virginia in 1977. A science teacher, field biologist, naturalist, birder, and photographer, Fred has now been teaching at Flint Hill School outside D.C. for 31 years. Throughout, he has been instrumental in his schools’ Christian fellowships as well as involved with FOCUS’ area ministry. Allison Moller Clausen graduated from St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School in 2001 where she was active in the fellowship on campus and FOCUS regional and national programs. She continued as a volunteer throughout her college years at William & Mary, and joined the staff of FOCUS in 2010, serving as the Area Director in Greater Washington until 2015, followed by five summers at the FOCUS Study Center.

Coming to FOCUS following campus ministry in Boston, Christina Vander Kolk served as FOCUS New York City’s Area Director from 1997 – 2001. Since then, she has served almost continually on the FOCUS Fairfield Area Sponsoring Committee and seen her two children, Lexi and Luke, become involved with our National and Area Ministry programs. The daughter of a FOCUS staff member, Hannah Walker Miracola graduated from Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich in 2006 and Amherst College in 2010 (active in FOCUS as a student and volunteer throughout), and she joined the staff of FOCUS in 2012. She has served in Fairfield, New York City, and now with FOCUS in New England.