Every year at homecoming, Geneva College recognizes a number of alumni who have shown exceptional service to the College, community, and God. There are three specific types of awards that can be awarded: Young Alumni Award, Alumni Award, and Distinguished Service Award.

Young Alumni Award Recipients

The Young Alumni Award recognizes alumni who have graduated from Geneva within the past 10 years and demonstrate outstanding service and leadership in the church, career, community, and/or Geneva College.

This year, the following alumni are awarded this honor: Nathan Moelker ‘19, Esq. And Sara (Hagen) Sullivan ‘22.

Nathan Moelker earned his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with minors in humanities and philosophy from Geneva College in 2019, graduating summa cum laude. While at Geneva, he participated in the theatre program and was president of the English Club. Most importantly, he met and married Hayley (Gunter) Moelker in May 2019.

Well prepared by Geneva, he went on to Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, VA, where he graduated summa cum laude and valedictorian in 2022. During law school, he won Best Oralist at the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Moot Court Competition, served as managing editor of the Journal for Global Justice & Public Policy, and was selected for a Jurisprudence Seminar with Justice Samuel Alito. During law school, Nathan held several internships: Regent Law's Constitutional Center, former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, and Associate Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court, Stephen McCullough.

After law school, Nathan clerked for Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker, where he helped work on a number of important cases, including freedom of speech and the sanctity of life.

Nathan joined the American Center for Law and Justice in Washington, D.C., in 2023, and is now senior associate counsel. There, he has served as litigation counsel in cases at every stage, from client intake through appellate briefing at courts up to the U.S. Supreme Court, including as counsel representing the Colorado Republican Party in Trump v. Anderson, 601 U.S. 100 (2024), in which the Supreme Court unanimously held that states cannot unilaterally enforce Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment against federal candidates. Some litigation wins include Barber v. Rounds, 169 F.4th 577 (2026), in which he presented oral argument before the Fifth Circuit in a unanimous ruling protecting a Texas teacher's right to pray on school grounds, and Alan L. v. Lexington Pub. Sch., 814 F. Supp. 3d 61 (2025), which he argued to a win in federal district court upholding a Massachusetts father's right to opt his kindergartner out of curricular materials conflicting with his faith. Many victories have occurred prior to litigation, such as an elderly woman who was defended from eviction for distributing Christian tracts in her apartment complex. He recently argued Hamman v. Carbondale before the Seventh Circuit, on behalf of a pro-life advocate silenced by city officials.

He is the author of six law review articles on First Amendment, free exercise, and legal ethics topics — including Most Biting Laws: Shakespeare’s Analysis of the Legal Profession as a Tool for Redressing the Crisis in Attorney Advertising, 15 Faulkner L. Rev. 13 (2023), an article applying Shakespeare to the First Amendment and dedicated to Geneva’s English faculty. He has spoken at national symposia and Federalist Society chapters, and in 2026 received the Significant Service Award from the Virginia Young Lawyers Section Board of Governors. Beyond the courtroom, Nathan is a frequent voice in the media on First Amendment and religious liberty issues, including appearances on Newsmax, as well as regular appearances on local television and national radio.

Nathan lives in Burke, VA, with his wife Hayley and their children Micah, Elanor, and Isabelle. He enjoys poetry and literature, medieval and colonial history, and philosophical and theological discussion, and recently taught an adult Sunday School series titled "Praying with the Poets," covering devotional poets including Herbert, Taylor, Bradstreet, Watts, Wheatley, Cowper, and Newton.

Sara (Hagen) Sullivan earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Geneva in 2022 with a minor in psychology. Sara was one of six graduates in the first cohort of Geneva’s BSN program. Throughout her time on campus, she was a mentor to the freshmen nursing students and served as the Class of 2022 vice president. She became a registered nurse in June 2021 and began working in health services on campus in August. During her senior year, she co-chaired the Senior Class Gifts committee.

Following graduation, she started working in the Emergency Department at Passavant McCandless. In less than 9 months, she was asked to precept new graduate nurses to the department. While precepting one of the new nurses, Sara realized her love for educating and began her master’s in nursing education with Capella University (which she is still actively pursuing). She, along with two other nurses, created a unit-based Preceptor Committee to help support both preceptors and orientees in an ever-changing department. Sara quickly became the primary preceptor with new, experienced, and difficult new hires, and worked closely with the unit educator. Within a year and a half, she began training to be a charge nurse. In April 2025, she was recognized by a patient’s family with a Daisy Nomination for her exemplary care as their loved one was battling her last days with cancer. After three years, Sara made the difficult decision of leaving the ER and beginning a new role as a clinician (nurse leader) of the only medical-surgical unit at Passavant Cranberry. While her new role has many administrative duties, Sara continues to find ways to care for patients on the unit.

Sara often finds ways to serve her church community. She serves in her church’s junior and senior high youth group and occasionally serves in their nursery ministry. After she became a nurse, she served as her denomination’s camp nurse for their junior and senior high summer camp, which she did for three years until she took the opportunity to counsel. She has co-directed the junior/senior high snow camp and two winter young adult retreats, with a third year in the works.

In the four years since graduating, Sara has never forgotten her roots at Geneva College. Every fall, she has returned to encourage the current freshmen nursing students and offer mentorship as they start through the program. For a school year, she volunteered with Portage Community as a mentor to a CCBC nursing student. Last year, she mentored a senior in Geneva’s nursing program. This past spring semester, Sara taught the nursing program’s pilot “Sim lab,” a virtual reality simulation lab for sophomore nursing students in their first clinical year at CCBC. Sara enjoys mentoring and teaching the students and watching their assessment skills and critical thinking skills grow throughout the course of the semester.

Sara now resides in New Brighton with her husband Joshua Sullivan. Sara has known Josh since approximately 2019 through their denomination’s young adult retreats. They began a relationship during her first year of counseling at their denomination’s summer camp, and were married on August 29, 2026. They are members of Chapel Presbyterian Church in Beaver.