Called by God

A sophomore nursing major at Southwestern, Choque also considers much an important part of his life.

Peter Choque, sophomore nursing major, felt called from God to come to Southwestern and he’s glad he answered.

Growing up in Keene, Choque went to Keene Adventist Elementary School and Chisholm Trail Academy, making Southwestern a natural next step for him.

“When I came to Southwestern, I felt really welcomed,” says Choque. “I was determined to come here because I’d heard the nursing program was really great and I really want to be a nurse. So that was another motivation. I also really liked the music program here because they seemed to care about everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a music major.”

When Choque was a little kid, he went to a Jaime Jorge concert, which inspired him to play the violin. “That was the first time I had seen anybody play the violin live and I really enjoyed it,” says Choque. So in his fifth-grade music class, as everybody began to take violin lessons, Choque started playing the violin and has been playing ever since. In 2012, as a Chisholm Trail Academy senior, Choque was a Music Festival Scholarship Finalist on the violin for Southwestern’s Annual Music Festival. Today he plays the violin here at Southwestern, and is active with the Southwestern Symphony Orchestra as well as a string quartet.

“One of the advantages of going to a smaller Adventist university is that I can get one-on-one interaction with my teachers,” says Choque. Getting the individual attention has made him want to help others as well. That led Choque to become a lab instructor in the human biology lab.

“I want the students in my lab to understand and be excited about learning, because that’s what my teachers have done for me,” he says. “The teachers that actually care for me is what made me want to stay another semester, another year.”

Choque also works in student finance. “I actually didn’t know anything about finances until I started working there,” says Choque. “Everything was really hard for me at first, but now I think it’s easier and I can actually relate to it. From this job, I have learned useful things financially.”

When he thinks about his future, Choque has an outlook that is reflective of his Christian experience at Southwestern.

“Originally, I wanted to be a doctor but I think God is calling me to be a missionary. I still don’t know where but the plan is to go wherever God leads me. That’s my goal right now.” He envisions doing mission work where he assists in teaching music as well as English somewhere, whether it’s at the high school level, elementary school or even with toddlers.

“Southwestern has opened more doors for me than I could have imagined possible,” says Choque. “The experience has made me grow into a better person. It’s made me want to help other people.”

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