Rebecca Sandberg: Stories Fueling Passion

Reported By: Kate Mack

Photographed By: Yolanda Diaz

Professor Rebecca Sandberg has been a pillar in the George Fox University (GFU) community since she began working at GFU in 2021. Sandberg has traveled the world, worked for multiple nonprofit organizations, and now works for GFU as the Assistant Director of the Cultural Enterprise and as a faculty fellow in the Honors Program. 

Sandberg grew up in Orlando, Florida. After finishing high school, she moved to Dublin, Ireland for a gap year to work as a nanny. Sandberg then attended Wheaton College where she received a bachelor's degree in English Literature. Sandberg explained that the world is transformed by the stories of people, not just in literature, but also in the stories people live out in their everyday lives. This was one of the main reasons she chose to study English Literature and then pursue an MFA in Writing.

After college, Sandberg got married and moved to Jerusalem, Israel to study church history. Sandberg then moved to Nairobi, Kenya, with her husband and their nine-month old son and worked for a micro-enterprise initiative for refugee women from 2002-2007. As a young mother in Kenya, Sandberg was greatly influenced by the incredible women she was surrounded by and felt that the culture was transformative for her and her children.  

In 2007, Sandberg returned to America and founded Re:new Project,  a nonprofit organization that employs refugee women in Wheaton, Illinois. When asked about her travels, Sandberg described the beauty and complexity of seeing new places, meeting new people and hearing new stories. 

Sandberg described the strength and courage of the women there and the power of human resilience in the face of adversity. Every day, eight billion people inhabit the world in courageous and resilient ways, and their stories unfold right before our eyes. “These stories illuminate the world and the people that experience them in ways that are unimaginable,” she says. “As people grow, their stories unfold layer by layer.” 

Sandberg finds inspiration in unfolding these layers that reveal how people have experienced growth and change. No matter the text she is reading or the topic she is teaching,  Sandberg keeps stories central to her life.