Tag Archives: HDS People

Advice from Current Students as You Finish Up Your Application

21 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by in Applying

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Editor’s Note: For this blog post, we asked current students to share some words of wisdom to help students as they finish up their HDS application. We know this can be a stressful time, but we hope this insight from current students makes the process a little easier. If you have any specific questions about the application, please reach out to the admissions team. 

Kenashia Thompson MDiv ’23 She/Her/Hers 

When you finish your application, celebrate! Relax! Kick your feet up! Treat yourself fam! Don’t stress! The decision will come soon enough. You’ve done your part in applying to HDS and this community would be blessed to have you and everything that you offer. Even if you don’t get accepted, realize that you are still ENOUGH and your talents and scholarship in this season are needed elsewhere. This is not the end. I’m rooting for you one trillion percent. 

Lóre Stevens MDiv ’22 She/Her/Hers 

As someone with a previous master’s degree: Know your deep, clear reason for coming to grad school. That reason will be what gets you through, so if it’s fuzzy or absent, this whole experience will be more difficult and less fulfilling. 

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Interview with HDS Admissions Assistant Director, Sarah Guzy

02 Friday Oct 2020

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Post by Sarah Guzy, Assistant Director 

Editor’s Note: Meet Sarah, the Assistant Director of HDS Admissions! Sarah supports prospective students and applicants in their divinity school search. Check out our upcoming webinars during which you can meet Sarah and other HDS folks virtually!

Photo Courtesy of Sarah Guzy

Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you want the HDS community & prospective students to know about you?  

I’m originally from Evanston, just north of Chicago, and attended Kalamazoo College in Michigan for undergrad where I studied art history and religious studies. At Kzoo, my mentor was an HDS alum, and she encouraged me to consider applying to HDS for grad school in the future. I worked in international education for a few years, including a year spent in Costa Rica working at a study abroad program, and then came to HDS to do the MTS program in with an area of focus in Women, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion. I’ve been working in the Office of Admissions since graduating in 2015. I love puns, coffee, dogs, concerts, and reading. 

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Interview with HDS Admissions Staff Assistant, John Rzasa

21 Monday Sep 2020

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Post by John Rzasa, Admissions Staff Assistant 

Editor’s Note: Meet John, the HDS Admissions Staff Assistant! When prospective students email admissions@hds.harvard.edu, John is the staff member who responds to your questions. In this article, we asked him a few questions so that you all could get to know him! 

Photo Courtesy of John Rzasa

Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you want the HDS community & prospective students to know about you? 

My name is John Rzasa, and I am the Staff Assistant for the HDS Admissions Office.  I have been in the role for a year and a half at this point, and previously worked at the Harvard Law School (HLS) for just over four years.  Outside of work, I enjoy writing, watching ‘B’ movies (or lower, all the way down to ‘Z’), and cats. 

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Welcoming our New Director of Admissions, Odeviz Soto

24 Monday Aug 2020

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Post by Odeviz Soto, Director of Admissions 

Editor’s Note: This summer, we’re welcoming a new member to the Admissions team: Odeviz Soto, our new Director of Admissions. In this article, we asked him a few questions so that you all could get to know him! 

Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you want the HDS community & prospective students to know about you?  

Thank you for starting with this question. Here is a little bit of my background. I was born in Cuba and immigrated to Hialeah, Florida at the age of ten. As a first-generation student and member of a family with low socioeconomic status, I was in for a shock when I enrolled at Harvard College, but I absolutely loved my time there. I studied colonial and postcolonial history and was drawn to see how religion was used either as a tool of oppression or liberation in different contexts. After teaching for one year at a boarding school in Salzburg, Austria, I returned to Cambridge for my Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School. It was at HDS that I learned that anything can be done in a ministerial manner and that I wanted higher education administration to be my ministry. Therefore, I am thrilled to return and once again be a member of such a wonderful community. 

A picture of Odeviz taken via Zoom 
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Interview with Kerry Maloney, HDS Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life

04 Tuesday Aug 2020

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Post by: Kerry Maloney, HDS Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL) 

Kerry Maloney has served the HDS community since 2004 as HDS Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life and, prior to this role, as the Associate Director of Ministry Studies. In this particular moment, we thought it would be helpful to hear from the HDS Chaplain about the different ways the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life has responded to the challenges present in the work of our community today. If you are in need of some spiritual resources, we encourage you to explore the “Spiritual Resources During the COVID-19 Pandemic” created by RSL. 

Kerry Maloney, HDS Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL) 
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Reflections on Activism, Organizing, and Angela Davis

13 Monday Jul 2020

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Post by Eboni Nash, MTS ‘21  

Eboni Nash is a second year MTS student, who recently interviewed professor and activist Angela Davis. In addition to her academic pursuits at HDS, she serves as Social Justice Chair for the HDS Student Association (HDSSA), the Office of Student Life Ambassador for Diversity & Inclusion, an Organizer for the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign, and Vice President of Events/Organizing for Harambee, the HDS student organization for students of African descent. 

Where were you when it happened? I imagine this question, much like 9/11, will be asked of us by the younger generation. Where were you when the COVID-19 pandemic struck? For me, I was on a plane heading back to my mother’s house for spring break. I decided to go early to be able to celebrate my niece’s birthday, when I received the email notifying me not to come back to campus.  

Just like that, 2020 took another unexpected turn that forced us to adjust quickly. During our stay-at-home orders, I found myself wondering what I could do and how I could still be useful so far from my networks. After weeks of contemplating and eating entirely too much, I realized that organizing was still very possible.  

For the past three years, I have considered myself an organizer and activist. Starting with food justice, I directed a local nonprofit in Nebraska that helped feed low income families of elementary school students over the weekend. This exposure to food-insecurity, education surrounding the poverty-line, as well as hot zones for food deserts, really took hold of my heart. I eased deeper into social justice soon after when I spent a summer interning at Sunshine Enterprises in Chicago. 

Eboni Nash (MTS ‘21) // 
photo courtesy of Eboni Nash 
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Suggested Application Timeline

07 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by in Applying

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Editor’s Note: Kate Hoeting recently finished her first year as a student in the MTS program and as a Graduate Assistant in the HDS Office of Admissions. After a year of guiding prospective students through the application, Kate is sharing her wisdom about how applicants might approach the process.

Post by Kate Hoeting, MTS ‘21 and Admissions Graduate Assistant

Kate Hoeting (MTS ‘21) at work in the HDS Admissions Office // 
photo courtesy of Kate Hoeting 

I love a good plan, and if you clicked on this article, it seems likely that you love a good plan too. When you’re facing something that seems as daunting as applying to graduate school, it can be helpful to break the process down into manageable steps. But first, a word of warning: everyone’s journey to divinity school is different, and this timeline shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. Do not panic if you’re reading this post in October and thinking, “I’m already too late!” Conversely, if you are already working on your Statement of Purpose, that is fantastic! Please customize the timeline to your particular situation. I personally did not follow this timeline when I applied to HDS—it’s just a set of guidelines for those of you who love a good plan.  

July: Decide if you want to apply to graduate school 

Going to graduate school is a serious commitment of time and resources, so it will be helpful to take some time to sort out if and why you want to apply. This process of discernment can also be helpful in writing a strong Statement of Purpose later down the line. This is a good time to do some journaling, reflecting, and ritualizing. Be in your communities—even if it’s on Zoom—and connect with mentors who can help you decide whether to apply. It can also be helpful to check out our website and sign up for one of our HDS information session webinars. 

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HDS People Feature: Zachary Davis and Ministry of Ideas

15 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by in Experiential Learning

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MinistryofIdeasLogoMikaela* here! If you have been perusing our blog at all, you should all know that HDS is full of amazing people doing wonderful things. I was fortunate enough to interview one of these people for you, dear readership. What follows is an interview with HDS student Zachary Davis, whose podcast, Ministry of Ideas, was featured in a BuzzFeed article titled “27 Podcasts You Need To Start Listening to in 2018.” Read on to discover the web connecting Zach, HDS, the Religious Literacy Project (RLP), and his podcast, Ministry of Ideas. Continue reading →