Annie Foster ’17

Like many Catholics, Anne Foster ’17 found that using the Hallow prayer app helped her to sit in silence and listen for God’s voice.

One day as she was doing that, she thought, “A dream job would be if Hallow ever needed somebody like me.”

Within days, she saw a Hallow job posting for a sales lead who could assess and develop the market for a new product. At the time, she was thriving in a position she loved as a senior recruiter connecting accounting and finance professionals with leading employers in the Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., area.

But she decided to apply for the opening, and since September 2021, she has been a partnership executive at Hallow, using her background in business development to build and maintain relationships within Catholic higher education institutions, dioceses, schools, and parishes.

As a student at Franciscan University focused on philosophy studies, working as a student fellow for the Hildebrand Project, and playing women’s lacrosse, Anne had a somewhat different career path in mind than the one she is currently on. Through courses that introduced her to American political philosopher Russell Kirk, she had become interested in bringing philosophy and Christian personalism into the pro-life cause. After graduation, that led her to a position as a government relations fellow with the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, a nondenominational evangelical nonprofit representing 20,000 Christian physicians and medical professionals.

Although that job helped her use and develop her interpersonal skills, Anne missed the “charism of encounter” she had experienced at Franciscan. She sought advice from a mentor about her quandary, which included concern about repaying $100,000 in college debt. The mentor suggested she consider going into sales. She told Anne she still could support the pro-life movement, adding that its mission relies on those who have made their careers in the secular world.

The conversation gave her permission to seek a sales position, and, through a Franciscan connection, she learned of an opening at Spectrum Careers, a boutique search firm focused on finance and accounting, where she remained until moving to Hallow. Anne says her true dream job is to be a wife and mother, but until she has that opportunity, she knows all that has happened has been God’s plan for her.

“The past couple years have been the best years of my life because of how God has been using my single years to draw me into a more intimate friendship with him.”