West Sussex is quite different from Austin. Although British tea isn’t exactly the same as Texas tea, Jared Neusch ’04 and his family have embraced change and now call England home.

After graduating from Hill Country in 2004, Jared enrolled at Texas A&M, majoring in speech communications and minoring in anthropology. Having received his undergraduate degree from A&M, Jared went on to work for a ministry school in California, where he oversaw a department and taught Bible classes. He later received his Master’s of Divinity from A.W. Tozer Theological Seminary in 2017 – all while working full-time and chasing a toddler around the house. Jared and his wife, Kezia, were married in July of 2012 and are raising their two children as Jared completes his Ph.D. in New Testament Biblical Studies, specializing on the third and fourth chapters of Paul’s letters to the Galatians.

He may be a few years and a few thousand miles removed from his life at Hill Country, but Jared says the memories are still vivid. “I’ll never forget mounting an incredible comeback to beat Waldorf in basketball that earned [our] team a spot in a playoff tiebreaker,” says Jared. “I [also] remember my senior year, being a part of the cross-country team, and winning the state championship.”

Jared is close to achieving one of the highest accolades in higher education and is familiar with the skills and hard work it takes to pursue such a degree. He credits his time at Hill Country for laying the groundwork for his post-graduate pursuits. “Having logged at least a few hours of public speaking time during junior high and high school, I was really well prepared for public speaking classes at college,” says Jared. “I have also benefited from the classical education we received (Latin, logic, rhetoric, etc.), and I can see this playing into my current Ph.D. work. It really is a quality institution. Being in a relatively smaller environment with such high-quality academics and great sports programs has definitely been a benefit for me in the years during and following [my time at] Hill Country.”

Jared and his family love their new life “across the pond” and enjoy everything from new foods to the changes of scenery—particularly the picturesque rolling green hills, sheep, and country cottages.