Alumna Alana Mortimer found an unexpected path to serving others through coaching, mentorship and leading with love.
Not every calling looks the way you expect it to. Alana Mortimer (’25), who studied business and management at Concordia University Ann Arbor, originally planned to pursue nursing. With guidance from Concordia’s Career Center, she discovered another way to fulfill her lifelong desire to serve others.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Mortimer said. “Once I opened my mind to the idea, I realized I can still live out my calling of helping and connecting with people—just in a different way.”
She now mentors young women ages 18 to 25, offering support, leadership and encouragement during one of life’s pivotal seasons.
Mortimer is entering her second year as assistant coach for the women’s lacrosse team at Adrian College, working alongside the coach who recruited her to Concordia. She’s also finishing a master’s degree in sports management at Adrian, with plans to graduate in May.
Her coaching philosophy centers on confidence-building and compassionate discipline. “As a coach, you can help someone not just become an amazing player, but also an amazing person,” she said. “It’s easy to be hard on people. It’s harder to empower. It’s harder to lead with love.”
For now, Mortimer plans to continue coaching. Down the road, she can see herself working in student-success roles at a college, doing for other students what Concordia did for her.
Concordia gave her a foundation—a community where her faith deepened and she formed relationships that have lasted beyond graduation, she said. She and her friends who live across the Midwest still get together when they can. She met the man she expects to marry, Sam Bowling (’24), on her very first day on campus.
“It was like God saying, ‘here’s your future husband,’” she said. “You cannot put a value on the connections and people and relationships that have come from that community.”
Her message to fellow alumni is both a challenge and an invitation: “Continue to be the special person that Concordia saw in you. Let’s leave our Concordia mark everywhere that we go.”
Written by Rosland Briggs-Gammon, communications specialist in Advancement
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