Calvin News

Since grade school, Golden Tilley ’28 knew what she was supposed to do.

“I always describe it as ‘it’s just the family business,’ said Tilley. “Growing up, I just always assumed I would go into the military.”

Taking a familiar path

Tilley’s mom served in the U.S. Army and then retired out of the U.S. Air Force. “We grew up all over. I’m a military brat,” said Tilley.

In high school, she was in the junior ROTC program. From there, she headed to college, graduating from the ROTC program with a bachelor’s degree from Tarleton State University in Texas.

Over the next two decades, she’d serve in the U.S. Army, first in military intelligence and then in civil affairs. She served in various roles from platoon leader to chief intelligence officer, civil affairs team leader to aide de camp, civil military operations chief for the US Army Reserve to deputy defense coordination officer for FEMA. Tilley bounced around from California to North Carolina, from Texas to Illinois and was deployed multiple times to Afghanistan and Honduras.

During her military career, she “knocked out” a master’s degree in international relations from Troy State and an associate’s degree in Spanish from the Defense Language Institute.

In 2023, after a bit of an unexpected medical retirement from her military career, Tilley, who had been moving around her whole life because of the military, wondered what was next?

Stopping, noticing, dreaming

It started with her slowing down and paying deeper attention to things she often overlooked.

“Since I retired, the environment has become more precious to me, and I can’t really explain that, but I notice the colors more, I notice the sunset more. I notice how the breeze sounds in the trees,” said Tilley. 

Tilley started to dream about the possibility of starting a nonprofit that helps with land conservation and land management for small to medium tracts of land.

Now living in west Michigan with her husband, Benjamin Fradette, whose still in the U.S. Army Reserve and a graduate of Calvin, Tilley knew she had time and the VA benefits to pursue further education that would help her achieve this dream. So, she enrolled at Calvin University.

Stepping into unknown territory

And she soon realized the environment she was entering wasn’t like any other she had experienced before.

“Compared to the other institutions I’ve gone to, they don’t hold a candle to the inclusivity at Calvin and the level of support here,” said Tilley. “At every turn, the Calvin community is like, ‘how can we help you?’ ‘We’re excited you’re here.’ That was another thing that kind of set me back. It’s like, ‘why are you being so nice? I’m just here for a degree. I don’t have anything special, right?’ But it’s taken a little while just to realize that’s how it is here. They’re happy you are here. They want you to be here.”

Tilley said it started with a concept introduced in her biology class by Professor Dave Warners.

Expanding and broadening perspectives

“I normally think of things in a military type, tactical way,” said Tilley. “What Calvin was showing me is that it all starts with God and nothing happens without him. So, I look back on my life and my career, and I see how I was very well taken care of and protected and I had all these blessings, things that I wasn’t quite connecting to God yet.”

Tilley’s world also expanded when her viewpoint was broadened.

“In every class, professors kept mentioning ‘shalom,’ this big concept talking about everybody flourishing together,” said Tilley. “I’m used to looking at it like myself, or this small group of people needs to flourish. We need to solve their problem and get everybody on the same track, right? At Calvin, you learn it’s more like ‘for me to flourish, my neighbor needs to flourish, the environment needs to flourish, the community around me needs to flourish.’ So, they want to tell you about shalom and help you see what that looks like in the business that you want to do or in the life that you have.”

Guided by passionate experts

She’s also deeply appreciated the passion the professors have brought to all of her classes.

“The instructors here are really excited about what they’re doing. They want you to understand the concepts and know them well, and they’re very flexible and helpful,” said Tilley. “They seem to be experts in what they’re doing, kind of nerdy about it, because they love what they do, and that makes it exciting for us as students.”

Now Tilley, who has taken classes in environmental science, but is working toward an MBA to help support her dreams of starting a nonprofit, is confident she’s on the right path.

“After retirement, it took me a while to find out what I wanted to do next,” said Tilley. “Just being at Calvin, I actually commented to my husband, ‘this is the right place and the right path for me to take. As I’ve taken more classes, it’s just confirming to me that ‘yes, this is where God wants me to be right now, and I’m learning from a different perspective than I’ve ever learned before."