05 Tuesday Feb 2019
Posted in What's It Like at HDS?
Post by: Tessa Steinert Evoy, MTS 2020, Office of Admissions Graduate Assistant
HDS students have the opportunity to enroll in winter term courses throughout Harvard, often referred to as J-Term. While HDS offers its own J-Term courses like Kerry Maloney’s “Comparative Monasticisms,” Tessa sought a course in the Harvard Graduate School of Education to supplement her studies at HDS and reinvigorate her passion for activist work.
A snowy Andover Hall. Photo taken by HDS Office of Communications.
25 Friday Jan 2019
Posted in Waiting to Hear
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Post by: Mikaela Allen, MTS 2019, HDS Office of Admissions Graduate Assistant
Photo by Kristie Welsh, HDS Office of Communications.
07 Monday Jan 2019
Posted in Applying
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Post by: Tessa Steinert Evoy, MTS 2020, HDS Office of Admissions Graduate Assistant
This time last year, I was right where you are, making that difficult decision to finally press the submit button. Were there things I was forgetting, last edits I should have made, did I upload the wrong version of my statement of purpose? These were all questions that I asked myself before submitting. Looking back a year later, I wanted to share some last tips with you before you press that button. Continue reading
18 Tuesday Dec 2018
Posted in Applying
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Post by: Mikaela Allen, MTS 2019, HDS Office of Admissions Graduate Assistant
For the final addition in our “How to Apply” series, we decided to cover the reapplication process. Read on if you are interested in reapplying either now or in the future. Please also take a look at our previous three posts in this series, “How to Apply: Letters of Recommendation,” “How to Apply: Test Scores,” and “How to Apply: Statement of Purpose.” This information can also be located on our website and found within the application instructions in the application for admission. Continue reading
10 Monday Dec 2018
Posted in Applying
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Post by: Natalie Solis, MTS 2020, HDS Office of Admissions Graduate Assistant
As part of our “How to Apply” series, I will be going over best practices for the statement of purpose. I do hope that you find this advice helpful during your writing process. Please check back soon for the next and final post in this series featuring common questions about the reapplication process. Don’t forget to take a look at the first two parts in this series, “How to Apply: Letters of Recommendation,” and “How to Apply: Test Scores.” Continue reading
01 Saturday Dec 2018
Posted in Applying
Post by: Mikaela Allen, MTS 2019, HDS Office of Admissions Graduate Assistant
Every year, we receive a large quantity of questions about various aspects of the application. This year, we thought it would be helpful to publish a series of posts to preemptively answer some of the more popular questions we receive. Please check back soon to see the next post in our series, “How to Apply: Test Scores.” Continue reading
16 Friday Nov 2018
Posted in Applying
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Post by: Mikaela Allen, MTS Candidate 19′, HDS Admissions Graduate Assistant
Divinity Chapel
Hi blog readers! Good news, the HDS Office of Admissions is hosting a raffle to give away five Princeton Review GRE prep books for current and future HDS applicants. As a current student, I remember how stressful preparing for the GRE was for me, but I also know that a good prep book goes a long way. A free GRE book is even better! If you are interested in participating in this raffle, all you have to do is fill out this form by 12:00 PM EST on November 26th when we will pull 5 winners and send them each a copy of The Princeton Review’s “Cracking the GRE: 2018 Edition.”
Good luck and happy Thanksgiving!
31 Wednesday Oct 2018
Posted in Considering HDS
Post by: Natalie Solis, MTS 2021
Read on to learn about HDS’ Diversity and Explorations Program as well as Theological Education Day from DivEx alum and current student, Natalie Solis. Please see the bottom of this post for more information about DivEx and TED.
Natalie Solis, author, in front of Andover Hall, DivEx 2017
Whether you have dreamt about going to HDS for years or are still discerning whether Divinity School is the right path for you, the Diversity and Explorations program is an extremely helpful introduction to HDS. Just one year ago, I was getting ready for DivEx. Now, I am pursuing my MTS with a concentration in Religions of the Americas and working as a Graduate Assistant at the HDS Office of Admissions. DivEx was a crucial part of my journey to HDS. As a first-generation college student and religion major at the University of Southern California, I learned about HDS early in my undergraduate career from professors who attended HDS. Since I am planning to pursue a career in academia, I sought out faculty advice when I was applying to graduate school last year. In speaking with HDS alum and USC Dean of Religious Life, Varun Soni, he encouraged me to apply to DivEx. Continue reading
22 Monday Oct 2018
Posted in What's It Like at HDS?
Post by: Ben Freeman, MDiv 2020
Read on to learn about the intersection of play, experimentation, and the practical applications of an MDiv degree.
Mary Robinson, former Director of Chaplaincy at Boston Children’s Hospital, has said that “play is the spiritual work of childhood.” This thought, though sometimes missing the qualifier “spiritual,” runs through the work of many luminaries of child development and education, among them Jean Piaget, Maria Montessori, and (Mr.) Fred Rogers. This summer, while completing my first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Hebrew SeniorLife, concentrating on the spiritual care of LGBT elders, Robinson was a guest facilitator, presenting on developmentally appropriate spiritual care of children. Though I loved working with elders, my professional identity had always been based around children, and I found the guest session profoundly invigorating. The idea that among a chaplain’s many roles in a children’s hospital, one is to be the friend that temporarily allows kids to just be kids particularly resonated with me. In that moment several things clicked simultaneously: pediatric chaplaincy might be a powerful crucible in which to integrate my training as an educator and artist with my burgeoning identity as a spiritual care provider, pediatric chaplaincy a generative evolution of my long-standing love of kids. Continue reading
01 Monday Oct 2018
Posted in Summers
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Post by: Ismail Buffins, Master of Divinity (MDiv) ‘20; Social Justice Chair, HDS Student Association (HDSSA)
Read on to learn about an MDiv student’s explorations of family, race, and Buddhist ministry this past summer.
Ismail and his uncle, Luqman
This summer, I went to Morocco to familiarize and develop a relationship with disparate elements of my family, all while studying the relationship between Buddhist soteriology, racial justice, and political praxis via interviews and reading. My interviews took place with my uncle, Luqman. He is a child of the Great Migration and a devout Muslim. I spent lots of time gleaning stories from him. These stories came together to form a cloth, one in which I could explore the living quality of an individual’s search for spiritual fulfillment and racial justice. Racial violence was no stranger to my family. My grandfather fled white terror twice. Initially, he left Memphis as a teen on warning from a family associate that violence was coming his way for not staying in his place. The second time, he left Cleveland for New York because of a violent loan shark. My father and my uncle both served in the Marines in the early 1950’s and afterwards converted to Islam at the Nation of Islam’s Temple No. 7, the masjid where Malcolm X was minister. They were not raised religiously; their conversion to the Nation was motivated by a sense of empowerment and belonging. My uncle served as driver for Malcolm for some time and my father as a captain in the Nation. After the deaths of Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, my uncle moved away from the Nation. In the 1980’s he decided to leave the United States to live in Morocco. Much like his father, he was leaving a region that he felt was unsafe for a Black man. Morocco was also place he found he could practice his religion more easily. Continue reading
