Chrischona (Gibson) Sodji graduated from Cairn University in 2020 with an MS in Educational Leadership and Administration. Her research investigated the nature of international best practice for schools which seek to provide national students with a transformational Christian education experience. It was an action research project which foreshadowed a commitment her husband and she would make to establish a school modeled on the findings of her research.
Her interest in the subject began as a child of missionaries serving in Europe. She first attended a local Austrian school and then later the Vienna Christian School, which a team of educators from Black Forest Academy, led by Mr. Dick Derksen (also a CATE member) had established to serve the global mission community.
Following completion of an undergraduate Bachelor of Education program at Taylor University (Upland, Indiana), Mrs. Sodji served for 8 years in a public school, first as a classroom teacher and then as a team leader, before she undertook an unofficial sabbatical year in Benin, West Africa. While there she fell in love with Koudjo Sodji, as well as with his country. Marriage followed a couple of years later, and together they dreamed of developing a school that would leverage their diverse networks and experiences to create an optimal learning environment for emergent leaders.
Upon returning to the United States where Koudjo was able to complete a ministry degree at Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, Mrs. Sodji joined the staff of TeachBeyond (2010). She continues to serve with Teach Beyond in the role of Associate Director of Strategic and Organizational Services. She worked closely George Durance (2010-19) to develop the structures, policies, and concepts which emerged during the period of TeachBeyond’s development into a multifaceted, multinational educational organization.
Her husband and she, together with their four young children, are preparing to return to Togo in 2022 to start a school informed by her research. She writes of her goal: “Because of what God has done and continues to do in my life, I desire to be used as an agent of transformation in the lives of others. In my years of teaching as a public-school teacher, I celebrated the little transformative moments in my students’ lives and could only pray and hope that they would at some point also experience God’s holistic transformation more fully in their lives. At the school I hope to establish in Togo, I desire to be used as part of God’s work transforming the whole person into all He wants the person to be.”