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HDS Admissions: Student Blog

HDS Admissions: Student Blog

Tag Archives: Orientation

Meet Our Incoming Students, Part 2

01 Tuesday Sep 2020

Posted by HDS Admissions Blog in Why I Chose HDS

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Academics, Current students, Disability, Hinduism, MDiv, MTS, Orientation, queer, Student Life, Transitioning

Editor’s Note: This post is part two of our three-part series that showcases incoming students. As we’re posting this article, these incoming students are beginning shopping week, during which students are welcome to drop in to as many classes as they want before they finalize their schedules for the semester. This is part two of a three-part series—you can also check out part one and part three.

Urmila Kutikkad, MTS ‘22 studying grief, body, and trauma within South Asian religious traditions 

At HDS, I am hoping to focus on themes of grief, body, & ritual as they play out in the spheres of gender/sexuality and South Asian studies. Much of this draws on work that I have been doing in the past year for progressive Hindu organizations (Sadhana and Hindus for Human Rights), as well as a prison abolition/restorative justice NGO in Bangalore. Although my relationship with faith growing up was fraught, I’ve gotten space to breathe and explore faith on my own terms in the past few years. Through this process, I have seen some of the most radical and beautiful social justice work being done on the grounds of faith, and my hopes of deepening this sort of work within Hinduism caused me to apply to HDS. 

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Meet Our Incoming Students, Part 1

27 Thursday Aug 2020

Posted by HDS Admissions Blog in Why I Chose HDS

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Academics, chaplaincy, Current students, MDiv, MTS, Orientation, Student Life, Summer Language Program, Transitioning

Editor’s Note: We had such an impressive collection of applicants this year, so we’re launching a three-part series to introduce you to some members of our incoming class! We’re publishing this post to celebrate student orientation, which is happening online this week. During student orientation—online or in person—students have the opportunity to get to know their fellow classmates, explore student organizations, and meet their faculty advisors. This is part one of a three-part series—you can also check out part two and part three.

Annie Hanock, MDiv ‘23, studying spiritual caregiving and multifaith chaplaincy 

As a nonreligious person, I was originally really drawn to HDS as a nonsectarian divinity school where I would be able to take part in theological study without committing to a specific religion or practice myself. Although I’m not entirely certain what path my studies as a Master of Divinity student will follow, I do hope to become a multifaith chaplain, and I look forward to learning more about spiritual guidance and counseling, liberation theologies, and religious spaces/communities in general as conduits for revolutionary change. Although COVID has made it pretty much impossible to prepare for my first year at HDS as I had originally imagined I would, I have been really lucky to be able to dedicate a lot of time throughout these past couple of months to some hardcore personal/spiritual reflection (usually while sewing potholders or knitting dishtowels in preparation for my move to Cambridge), which I hope will help guide me as I begin my studies. 

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Settling in at HDS

08 Tuesday Oct 2019

Posted by HDS Admissions Blog in Transitioning to HDS

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Adjusting, Orientation

Post by: Julia Reimann, MDiv ‘22, HDS Office of Admissions Graduate Assistant

Editor’s Note: No matter where you might be in the admissions process, a glimpse into a new student’s experience at Orientation can help give you a sense of the kinds of programs and facilities that are available at HDS. 

Hi everyone! My name is Julia Reimann and I am one of the new Graduate Assistants in the Office of Admissions here at Harvard Divinity School. As a first-year Master of Divinity student, the last few weeks have been filled with orientation activities, campus renovation, and checking out classes for shopping week. During shopping week, students can visit any classes they might be interested in taking. The course registration deadline happens after we’ve all had a chance to explore. 

For those of you who don’t know, HDS’ Andover Hall (soon to be Swartz Hall) is under renovation, which has slightly altered the campus map. Jumping into school after a few years away sometimes feels overwhelming, but it has been comforting to realize that our entire campus and community is in a similar time of transition and new beginnings.  

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Reflecting on Relocating: Adjusting to a New Life in a New Place

02 Friday May 2014

Posted by Tamira Stephens in Transitioning to HDS

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Adjusting, Christmas, Family, Moving, Orientation, Spiritual Practices

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There’s a story that my mom often likes to tell about me about being homesick. I was eight years old, and we were taking our very first family vacation out of state, to Walt Disney World. Being from Ohio, it ended up being much cheaper to drive the two of us to Florida and back, even with an overnight stay in North Carolina. I should say that prior to this vacation, I had been away from home for many extended periods of time, attending weeklong summer camps and spending weeks at a time with my grandparents. Being away from home was not new to me, but being this far from home became a problem. At eight years old, with my mom by my side, on my way to Walt Disney World, in a strange hotel room in North Carolina, I became massively homesick. There is no other way to describe it besides to say that I had a complete meltdown. I cried the entire night, begging my mom to take us back home and scrap the entire trip. It was a mess.

It’s hard to think about being homesick, especially as an adult. For a child, it makes sense. New surroundings, being away from people you know, etc., etc…But as an adult—at Harvard, no less—this is something we should be over. Right? Continue reading →

You are Welcome Here

26 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by Kateleigh Hewins in Student Life

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Academics, Community, Harvard Time, MDiv, Orientation

You Are Welcome Here

45 Francis Ave. Photo by Chris Alburger

Walking to the first day of Orientation at HDS last year, it was raining and I had missed the turn I was supposed to take to get to campus. On top of being mildly lost, I was mentally preparing myself for the possibility of awkward ice breakers (which are the worst) and a week of feeling overwhelmed by too many extroverts trying to make conversation at new student mixers when all I would want to do is hang out near a wall—preferably by the food. My rain boots padded along the sidewalk as I looked around the unfamiliar streets hoping to successfully retrace my steps back to where I was supposed to be. Fortunately, this isn’t a metaphor for life at HDS: I haven’t spent the last year lost and confused as I tried to navigate my way through academia and discerning my future vocation. Continue reading →

Saying What You Mean

31 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by Pete Williamson in Student Life

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Clubs, Conservative Theology, Diversity, Evangelical, Humanist, Orientation, Religious Pluralism, Theology

I sat across from him in the pub during orientation week. It was one of the pub-nights organized for us to make friends or something. Of the infinite threads of social conversation, of course I, being an overzealous new Divinity School student, wanted to talk about religion. “I think,” I explained, “that I see the Bible like a series of expanding concentric circles centered on Jesus.” He didn’t know what I meant. I didn’t know what I meant. What I was trying to say was that I seek to believe the Bible with the most ‘plain sense’ reading I could and follow it accordingly. I just wanted to say it in a way that didn’t make me sound stupid.

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Friends at HDS

29 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by Vanessa Zoltan in Student Life

≈ 1 Comment

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Classmates, Community, Faculty, Friends, Orientation

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Flowers blooming in front of the library. Photo by Katelynn Carver

When you arrive at HDS there is a thoughtful, intentional orientation. It’s a nice mix of large group and small group activities. A nice mix of optional and highly recommended activities. Perfect for an introvert like me and I’m sure it’s great for extroverts too. And you meet people, over lunch, in those groups; you chat. And you realize that you have kindred spirits.

Then, in class—in your seminars and your sections from your lectures—you start to say, ‘hi’. Continue reading →

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