DMU 2026 Testimonial: Virginia Bissonnette

0:08My name is Virginia Bissonnette, and I am from Southern California. I am a single Catholic mother of two, and, my background is I was raised in an at risk community environment. And I would say, from an early age, I was drawn to this field. I did my undergrad in psychology, and I think I remember as soon as I took my first psychology class, I was definitely drawn to this field. And God planted that seed in my heart, and he never left it. So I actually say I'm in my third act. I did not get to pursue, this program, this master's program, because I was out of the house working full time and on my own. And so there was no way for me to actually enter this program and quit my job and do the things that needed to be done back then.

1:09So I ended up working, in the corporate world for several years and got married, had children, became a stay at home mom for several years, until my, youngest was in high school. And that is when I started this, program. And the way I was introduced to this program was a friend from church. I was actually on the footsteps of my church having a conversation with a friend saying, when our kids get out of school, that's when I will go back to school. And I feel like at that moment, god just heard that little desire and everything happened. One person mentioned Divine Mercy University. I read the mission statement on the web page. I looked no further. This was the only school I looked at and pursued and entered, and it has been an amazing journey for me.

2:03I have found that each and every course is is rich in its content with the teachings of the Catholic Christian faith in tandem with the curriculum, gives you this beautiful lens in how you will look at the whole person, through this through our faith and how to meet people who are not faith filled, but to meet them where they are at. And so having been given the teachings on how to view the individual in through the Catholic Christian lens, and viewing them as a whole person instead of through their fallenness has been wonderful. And that we are not treating the disorder. We are treating the whole person, helping them to get back on their journey of flourishing. And that has just been a beautiful, vision for me as I feel that I am completely called to this vocation in my in my stage of life right now, and it feels very organic and natural to be working with somebody who needs my aid to help them get back on track with their life so that they can get back on, flourishing and responding to their vocational call.

3:20So I just feel like it's we're all integrated and working together for the greater glory of God and also in just helping with the the greater mission of the salvation of souls, and this helps me be a part of that process. So for anybody who is looking for a faith filled program, I feel like Divine Mercy University is going to be able to provide you with that very rich, information, integrating the faith into the program, with the curriculum so that when you're working on, any any particular topic, you will get this lens of the faith in how we are to manage what we see with our clients and to actually be able to see them, see where they're coming from. Especially, I would say, like, in one of the one of my favorite classes, that I just took, which was the marriage and family, The focus of love, being able to see your client through the lens of love and to see where they need to be and where we want them to be, and where their brokenness is, is just is just amazing to have that faith lens with those teachings.

4:29And lastly, I'd like to to thank the benefactors for enabling me to to receive the scholarships that I had for this program. This, that that definitely helped me, especially in the stage of life that I was in with everything I had going on. The scholarship, it was nothing short of a miracle the way that the financial support helped me through this program, and I cannot believe that I got in and out of this and with the support that I received. So I encourage anybody to who is looking for a faith filled program to pursue divine receiving mercy.