Kéyah hasn’t stopped being a planner, but her plans have gotten bigger as her trust in God has grown. Dennis says the combination of preparation and faith is a defining characteristic of his daughter.
“When you pray for something, you can’t just pray for a new job and never iron your work shirts, never have your hair cut. You have to get your stuff in order. Kéyah has always prayed for things with the expectation that they’re happening,” he says. “Kéyah and Geoffrey are the best evidence of saying that God has a plan. Through all the uncertainty, God was the lamp at their feet.”
St. Pancras railway station in London
That fall was Kéyah’s last semester at King’s. She sent out hundreds of job applications, focusing less on the kind of position she’d hold and more on the organizations (zoos, museums, anything with an arts or curatorial aspect). She completed her B.A. in Media, Culture, and the Arts that December, and by January had landed a job at the New-York Historical Society in the fundraising department.
Kéyah was hired as an assistant to the vice president of development, but gradually began assuming more responsibility such as writing appeal letters and grant applications. Writing about the museum’s programming only further stoked the flames of Kéyah’s interest in classics, as she became aware of just how few American students understand the principles of American democracy and its roots in Athenian government. She started to imagine herself working in the museum world, educating students through objects and bringing knowledge of the ancient world to bear on American social studies.
Kéyah and Geoffrey married in October 2018, and Kéyah went back to her King’s professors to explore the idea of graduate school, despite her hesitancy. Kinlaw encouraged her that a graduate school acceptance would hinge on more than just her GPA. Graduate programs in classics would, however, be looking for competency in Latin or Greek, which Kéyah didn’t have. In spring 2019, she began taking a Cambridge distance learning course in Latin. Remembering how she had appreciated the tutorial style of teaching during her summer in Oxford, she started looking into master’s programs in Europe.
Initially, the Doerings thought that Geoffrey would be the first to pursue graduate studies, as he was thinking of going to law school. But as they created a plan for the next five years, they considered that it might be harder for Kéyah to complete coursework once they began having children and decided to put Kéyah’s degree first. Kéyah submitted her applications in fall 2019. By early 2020 she had been accepted at King’s College London for a master’s degree in classics; she would give notice to her job in June and then join the fall 2020 cohort.
She started to imagine herself working in the museum world, educating students through objects and bringing knowledge of the ancient world to bear on American social studies.
Visiting Edinburgh in December 2020
But then the pandemic hit, and Kéyah’s doubts multiplied. “Should I be leaving my job right now? I’m quitting my job during a pandemic when the arts market is suffering more than ever.” The weight of the decision she was about to make pressed in on her. Starting her degree in London would mean leaving behind a great apartment in Manhattan, close friendships through church, and a job where she was valued.
For Kéyah, a key part of making this decision was weighing the effects that it could have on other people. To make the move, Geoffrey would have to re-apply to transfer from the New York office of his company, Aon, to the London office; the transfer wasn’t guaranteed. But Geoffrey was enthusiastic and supportive. They also felt that they wouldn’t be a burden on their family members, because they had built some savings of their own.
The biggest deterrent was Kéyah’s own resistance to change. “I had to give up my personal sense of security that if I have this job and this apartment, I’m ‘okay.’” She describes her choice to leave her job as “accepting God’s call.” She says, “It’s not random that I happened to keep up with Dr. Kinlaw. It’s not a mistake that our lease was coming to an end.” God provided this opportunity, and she could joyfully accept it if she relied on Him for her sense of security.
Carol Radel, a coworker at the New-York Historical Society, reflects on the factors that influenced Kéyah’s decision: “As much as the pandemic would seem like a deterrent, it probably helped a little bit too. You’re all working from home anyway. Why not go to London?” Carol observed that Kéyah now had some solid work experience behind her and had seen she could be successful through her different roles at the Historical Society. “It all gave her the push and confidence to grow and make a change.”
Kéyah was conscientious of the museum’s schedule, so she gave over a month’s notice before her desired end date so that she could stay on to support their major June fundraising appeal. Kéyah and Geoffrey flew to London in September 2020, and quarantined for two weeks in a hotel. They began searching for a flat right after quarantine and landed one within five days, faster than any of their previous apartment searches in New York City. Soon, Geoffrey was hired at Aon’s UK office after a three-month application process. They were even able to attend in-person services at the UK branch of Liberty Church, their home church in NYC, before services were forced to go online. “It was really a gift,” Kéyah says. “All the dominoes have fallen perfectly in place.”
Kéyah has adapted well to the rigors of graduate school and says her time at King’s was instrumental in preparing her, since King’s doesn’t have any “throwaway classes.” Amid days full of studying such subjects as Virgil, Introduction to Latin Epigraphy, and Digital Approaches to Cultural Heritage, she works to keep a consistent sleep schedule and spend regular time in prayer. When the rain isn’t too heavy, she walks down to the canal and through Regent’s Park, dropping by the Institute for Classical Studies to catch sight of scholars like Dr. Mary Beard who frequent it. In early 2021, the museum asked her to work with them again since she is experienced in their systems, and she started working with them in a part-time remote capacity.
Coffee Shop in Bermondsey
On the way to midnight mass on Christmas Eve (a legal COVID activity!)
Looking down at New York City from the Empire State Building Observation Deck
During Kéyah’s childhood, both parents talked openly about decisions and their outcomes. Her mom, Monique Harvey, cared deeply about her daughter’s education and wanted her to have the chance she never got to finish college. Her dad, Dennis Boyles, urged Kéyah to learn from his choices and missteps. He showed Kéyah a tattoo he got when he was young which read, “Bak 2 Frunt,” a reference to a dance group he was part of at the time. “Look at this and tell me you still want a tattoo,” Dennis teased.
Her dad’s message was, in so many words, “You have a choice to do the same thing I did, but here are the repercussions.” Even within the warnings, there was a sense of freedom. The choices were hers to make.
Kéyah made her choices deliberately, from where she went to college to how she spent her time once she was there. A habitual planner, Kéyah has recently been learning to trust God in new ways as she moved abroad and started graduate school during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dissatisfied with Kéyah's local elementary and middle schools, Monique paid for Kéyah to attend a high-performing public high school in a neighboring district. There Kéyah thrived, taking AP courses with passionate teachers in Literature and English and reading the Aeneid, Odyssey, and Iliad for the first time. As a young child, Kéyah had dreamed of becoming an archaeologist and was drawn to stories of Greek and Roman mythology. Her interest in the ancient world continued during her high school years, but her ambition focused onto one goal: being the first in her family to graduate college.
“You can make this choice, but I want you to make better choices than I did.”
Kéyah first heard of King’s through a cold call in her senior year, and the Inviso visit helped win her over. The small-school vibe at The King’s College was a dramatic contrast to the impersonal nature of a state school she’d toured just weeks before.
When Kéyah arrived in New York City, it became all the more evident to her that she had freedom to make her own decisions—responsibly or irresponsibly. Having not yet developed a community at King’s, she thought to herself, “everything I do is only affecting me.” But she knew that young people sometimes make it all the way through college without maturing into adults, and she didn’t want that to be her story.
It also helped that she was surrounded by fellow students with similar priorities. One afternoon Kéyah was taking a break to watch a television episode, and asked her roommate Gabrielle Vickers to join her. Gabrielle had to turn down Kéyah’s invitation because this was her window of time to shop for groceries. Kéyah reflects: “There are things I have to do that aren’t even related to school, but are adult responsibilities. Having that high expectation of taking care of yourself inadvertently helps you to be a better community member. If you have your stuff in order, when your brother or sister needs help, you can help them.”
Kéyah found the courses at King’s to be challenging and invigorating. “It was my first time really zooming in on the texts,” she says. Her first close reading was in Dr. Joshua Kinlaw’s Classical Literature class, examining Homer’s use of the lion simile. She delved into Aristophanes and Euripedes with Dr. Henry Bleattler, and learned about the Roman republic with Dr. Steele Brand. She started to consider applying to graduate programs in classics, but felt hesitant about her chances, since her GPA wasn’t outstanding.
Outside of class, she began to develop a relationship with fellow King’s student Geoffrey Doering. She was in the House of Margaret Thatcher and Geoffrey was in the House of C.S. Lewis, and as “brother and sister” Houses the two groups frequently held events together. Kéyah knew her classmate Helen Healey was friends with Geoffrey, so she approached Helen with some questions about him. “I did recon,” Kéyah says with a grin. On the basis of Helen’s answers she asked Geoffrey to go with her to a school Sadie Hawkins dance.
It turned out that the attraction was mutual. They began dating shortly thereafter and continued their relationship through college. Along with a few other King’s students, Kéyah and Geoffrey spent the summer of 2016 taking tutorial classes at Oxford University through a program with Summit Ministries.
Geoffrey at Oxford University during the study abroad program he and Kéyah took in 2016.
Keyah and Geoffrey with Keyah’s family. Clockwise from top left, Dennis (dad); Geoffrey; Ciena (sister); Keyah; August (brother); Monique (mom); Jonah (brother); Shirley (stepmom).
Praying with Expectation
By Rebecca Au-Mullaney