It all started with a simple Google search.

It was late on a Saturday night when I had typed “master’s degrees in theology” in the search bar, pressed enter, and watched the results appear. I recognized several schools—Yale Divinity School, Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Fuller Seminary—among other lesser known institutions, but there was one name that stood out: Wheaton College Graduate School. One click led to another, and before I could stop myself, I was reading the admission requirements and requesting a campus visit. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In the first two chapters of Half the Sky, Kristof and Wudunn introduced a world that is vastly different than the one I inhabit: I have a college degree and am studying for a master’s degree, while the women I met in these pages, are fortunate if they have a few years of education. I worry about finding a job after graduation and repaying my student loans, but I never worry that I will be trafficked to a foreign city under the guise of getting work, as they do.