Neither a two year, a four year, a private, public, nor an online university makes the cut. “American Idol” or “The Voice” will never do. Senior Cassie Wilson dreams of writing, producing, and performing her own music. Her way of doing that means taking an alternative route to her future. But instead of doing it for popularity and recognition, Wilson just wants to sing for God.

“I just wanted to sing for Jesus, for lack of a better word. I love Jesus and that’s just a desire in my heart that he planted in me; to serve him that way and use my giftings for his glory,” Wilson said.

Wilson attends Lifegate Church, a non-denominational Christian worship. She was raised in a Christian household, and her father works for the church. Wilson leads her youth worship band, leads Saturday night teams for church services, and sometimes leads on Sunday mornings if her help is required. She hopes to be a worship leader in her future, but does not want to limit herself to just that. Ideally she would like to write and produce music with a band of people.

“There is such a gift in the atmosphere when Cassie sings, she has the gift of faith and when she pours out her heart to God it stirs up the people around her to go with her into the Throne Room and just be in His presence,” Lily Martin said.

Martin is a long term friend of Wilson’s. She’s also a senior and the two grew up in the church together.

“She has helped me see that God has so many plans for us and we don’t need to strive to have it all together or be okay all the time, but instead all we need to do is just let go of our own plans, surrender to His will for our lives,” Martin said.

Looking forward, Wilson chose not to attend a college or university. Instead, she waits to hear back from Radiance School of Worship, which is an eight month program focusing on religious studies. Their classes include songwriting, music technology and recording, worship leadership, worship music theory, and more.

“I’m sold. I just felt like it had everything that I want, and I didn’t want to go for four years anywhere, so it seemed like the perfect time frame too,” Wilson said.

Until she hears back about her acceptance, Wilson is focusing on her next trip to Serbia. She’s traveled there for an English based camp the last three summers. The camp is like any other summer camp, but with an English learning goal.

“It’s not like a Jesus camp or a religious camp or anything where we bring Jesus into it. It’s just a normal summer camp,” Wilson said. “The goal is to bridge that gap.”

This coming summer she will partake in the “Rock and Roll” camp that teaches music instead of English. While in Serbia, Wilson and other church members stay on Lifegate’s Serbian campus. The bottom tier is the church, and the upper levels house volunteers.

“I think it’s so cool; the fact that there’s people everywhere and being able to meet them and realize they’re just normal people. There’s nothing crazy about them either. It’s really rewarding to get to know different cultures,” Wilson said.

For now, Cassie will continue to volunteer with her church and be a part of worship. Her work teaches her how to have humility, how to be kind to people, and how to love them despite any of their bad decisions.

“I love it because I know it’s what I was created to do. It’s just so obvious to me; it’s something I’ve never doubted,” Wilson said. “It’s just this natural thing with me to want to worship Him.”