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HDS Admissions: Student Blog

HDS Admissions: Student Blog

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Why was HDS the right fit for you?

16 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by HDS Admissions Blog in Why I Chose HDS

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Advice, Atheist, Community Tea, J-Term, journalism, Latinx, Noon Service, Opportunities, queer, Student Life, UU

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Editor’s Note: Here in the Office of Admissions, one of the most common questions we hear is, “How can I write a strong statement of purpose?” One thing strong statements of purpose tend to do is show how HDS is the right place for them to do the work they hope to pursue. Strong statements of purpose also tend to tell us about the applicant’s general background information, how this background has prepared them for graduate study at HDS, and their vocational or career objectives. We also want to emphasize that because our applicants have such diverse goals and interests, and because our programs are so flexible, there is no singular type of applicant who would be the “right fit” for HDS. Rather, we’re looking for applicants to show us how HDS is the right fit for you! 

You can learn more about the details of the statement of purpose here. To help you brainstorm for your statment of purpose, we’ve gathered a collection of current HDS students who’ve told us about why they chose HDS.  

Mary Perez (MDiv ‘22): I’ve found a space that honors and supports the integration of my intellectual and spiritual life. In the HDS community, I am free to be myself⁠—in the complexity of my identity, in my questions about my faith tradition, and in my wonderings about how to live my vocation.

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Where the Classroom Meets the World: Discovering Vocation in Field Education

21 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by smejiahds in Experiential Learning

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Academics, Classes, Field Ed, MDiv, Social Justice, UU

As I prepare to begin my last semester of the Master of Divinity Program at HDS I can’t help but think back to what has made the last two and a half years so significant. My time at HDS has been truly transformative. Although it has been special because of professors, courses, and other students, the part that has been most important for my vocation have been my field education experiences. A major component of the MDiv program is completing at least two field education placements in non-profits, hospitals, churches, community organizations, government agencies—or anywhere where ministry happens. Through field education placements and other volunteer experiences I have been able to discover my passion for prison ministry and particularly for teaching in prisons. I first began to think seriously about prison ministry through a course called “Ethics, Punishment and Race,” taught by Professor Kaia Stern. This course allowed to me discover the ways society has deemed a caste of people guilty and punishable and that justice in this country does not look the same for everyone. As Lawyer Bryan Stevenson says, “in too many places, the opposite of poverty is justice.” After that course, I realized that incarcerated people had been invisible to me—not only because prisons and people who are incarcerated are made invisible, but also because I had not considered their suffering and experiences worthy of empathy.

Through field education placements and other volunteer experiences I have been able to discover my passion for prison ministry and particularly for teaching in prisons.

After that semester, I decided to work with people who had been incarcerated and were transitioning out of incarceration. My first field education experience was during the summer of 2014 at Span, Inc., a Boston-based non-profit organization founded in 1976. Span works with returning citizens to provide them with assistance finding housing, employment and provides them with counseling and support. I collaborated with the Director of Operations in projects of data and planning in preparation for grants.  I also worked with their Training to Work program where I taught two cycles of an intensive computer skills class. My experiences at Span, envision myself working in the non-profit sector in the future. I gained skills in both direct-service work and the management side of non-profit work.

The following academic year I decided to work with Renewal House, a shelter for survivors of domestic violence. As part of the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry this shelter engages residents in restorative justice circles, art therapy groups and other innovative work, which was incredibly formative for my work. During my time at Renewal House I worked teaching an English as a Learning Language class and collaborated with the leadership of Renewal House to design and facilitate domestic violence training for clergy and faith leaders. We facilitated one of these trainings at HDS in March 2015 and received positive feedback from students. The connection between domestic violence and the American punishment system motivated me to do this placement. Nearly all women who end up incarcerated have been survivors of domestic violence. Interrupting this cycle of abuse in shelters may keep many people from incarceration and further traumatization.

Divinity Hall Sign

Photo by Caroline Matas

During the Fall of 2014, I had the opportunity to co-teach an English course in a Massachusetts prison through the Boston University Prison Education Program. It was a rewarding experience and taught me about the challenges of teaching in a carceral environment and whether my ministry should be more focused on people currently incarcerated or returning citizens as they resettle back into their lives.

I am grateful for the opportunities I have had during my time at HDS. My vocation as I see it now will be to continue this work.  How can those outside of prison work for people to recognize the dignity and humanity of those in prison?  I hope to work in collaboration with community organizations, especially those that are faith-based, in order to change perspectives and advocate for prison reform, to make liberation a reality.

Diving Into the Wreck: How an HDS Course Inspired My Tattoo

14 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by Sarah Guzy in Experiential Learning

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Adrienne Rich, Braude, Gender, UU

Diving Into the Wreck (Photo by Caroline Matas)

Diving Into the Wreck (Photo by Caroline Matas)

This semester I began working as a Graduate Assistant in the HDS Office of Admissions. Since I’ve started working here, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and articulating why I love HDS, and how I’ve changed since coming here. This blog post arose from a discussion I had with my fellow Graduate Assistant here, Carly, about how my academic explorations have influenced my personal life.

Last year, during my first semester at Harvard Divinity School, I took a class called Piety and Protest: Women and Religion in Contemporary America with Ann Braude. In this class, we examined case studies of women’s protests within, and against, their religious faiths. Through the various books we read, I became very interested in the ways that women used their bodies to register and enact protest. I was intrigued by the ways that women’s clothing and bodies have been re-signified and re-marked to critique and fight back against various forms of gender discrimination. This interest led to my final paper, which was about the potentiality of tattoos to interrupt patriarchal body projects. This line of inquiry has informed much of the work I’ve done since, which has focused on what bodies mean, how bodies move through space, and how bodies and subjects are discursively produced in different contexts.

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Putting Down Roots

20 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by Chris Alburger in Student Life

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Cambridge, Church, Community, Faith, Friends, LGBT, UU

Photo by Katelynn Carver

Photo by Katelynn Carver

When I started at HDS, some of my fellow incoming classmates wondered aloud if there was any point in trying to make friends if we were only go to be here for 2 or 3 years, before moving on to something somewhere else. I’d say: make friends. You’re going to need friends in grad school, and you might even get to keep some of these friends for life. Like most prospective and admitted students, I didn’t know where I would end up after HDS (and I still don’t) but I’ve found it enormously beneficial to put down some roots—and like a plant that naturally puts down roots as it’s growing taller and fuller, you just can’t help it. So if you’re coming here this fall or thinking about coming here in the future, it might help to start thinking about what’s important to you in settling in. Continue reading →

HUUMS

14 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by Sarah Guzy in Student Life

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Community, Community Tea, Ministry, Service, Student Life, UU, Worship

Some HUUMSers join in a group hug

Some HUUMS-ers join in a group hug

When I applied to Harvard Divinity School, I didn’t know anything about the strong Unitarian Universalist history woven into the foundation of the school. I was raised UU, and considered that to be one of many descriptors I used to identify myself, but finding a place with an active UU community was not on my list when looking at graduate programs. When I attended the HDS admitted students day, the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Students (HUUMS) hosted a get-together after Community Tea. I joined them, figuring that it was a good way to meet people and because I wanted to be involved in student organizations, more than out of a need for a religious community. It was a beautiful spring day and we sat outside on the grass and talked about nothing in particular. I didn’t know it at the time but I was meeting many of the people who would become my closest friends at HDS. Continue reading →

The HDS Religious NONEs

12 Monday May 2014

Posted by Aisha Ansano in Student Life

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Agnostic, Atheist, Clubs, Community, Humanist, Student Life, UU

 

An atheist in Divinity School. A Urantia Book reader who wants to create community for the unaffiliated. Someone who loves attending high church services who identifies one day as spiritual but not religious and the next as agnostic and the next as questioning and the next as a potential Unitarian Universalist and the next as confused. A humanist who is in the process of fellowship for ordination as a Unitarian Universalist minister. What do we all have in common? On the face of it, nothing. And we call ourselves the Nones. Continue reading →

Stellar & Down to Earth Faculty

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Chris Alburger in What's It Like at HDS?

≈ 1 Comment

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Christianity, Classes, CSWR, Faculty, Religion & Politics, Religious Pluralism, Theology, UU

The Harvard Divinity School shield. Photo by Chris Alburger

The Harvard Divinity School shield at Harvard COOP. Photo by Chris Alburger

When I visited HDS as a prospective student, I was surprised by what Dr. Emily Click said from the podium. I’d brought some assumptions with me, across the country to Cambridge. I mean, it was Harvard. I figured they’d be snobby. Especially the faculty, with all their accomplishments and accolades. But Emily Click emanated warmth, her words were heartfelt, and she was so down to earth, I thought, wow, this is like my small liberal arts college, but even more so: nurturing, holistic, inspiring. Continue reading →

Start Visioning

19 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by Chris Alburger in Waiting to Hear

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Academics, Admissions, Alumni, BTI, Classes, Clubs, CSWR, Field Ed, HBS, HGSE, HKS, Housing, MDiv, MIT, Noon Service, Ph.D., Pluralism Project, Prospective Students, Research, Student Life, Thoreau, UU, Work-Study

Looking at Andover hall from the library. Photo by Chris Alburger

Looking at Andover hall from the library. Photo by Chris Alburger

As I was learning about HDS through the website and preparing my application, I started imagining what it would be like to actually be there. If you’ve applied for the Fall, I bet you’ve wondered that, too. And, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably anxious to hear back from Admissions in mid-March and wondering what to do with yourself until then. The anxiety was nightmarish for me, but that didn’t stop me from dreaming. I mean, if you’re gonna worry about the worst possible outcome, you may as well imagine the best, too, right? So stay positive and start visioning.

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Spiritual Community at HDS

25 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by Chris Alburger in Student Life

≈ 1 Comment

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Buddhism, Catholic, Clubs, Community, Community Tea, Evangelical, Faculty, Friends, Hear & Now, Humanist, HUUMS, Interfaith, Jewish, Ministry, Muslim, Noon Service, Retreats, RSL, Spirituality, Staff, UU, WomenCircle

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Walking the Labyrinth during the HDS Fall Retreat. Photo by Chris Alburger

I see Harvard Divinity School as a spiritual community, within which there are many distinct spiritual communities. HDS is full of kind, caring, altruistic people, because that’s who the school attracts. Classmates, faculty, and staff have all ministered to me and supported me through difficult times. I often have conversations with people that inspire or challenge me to be my best self (like a good sermon). The Divinity School, like we say at my church, is “a place where we practice being human.”

Community Tea on Tuesday afternoons is like “Coffee Hour” at church to me. It’s when Continue reading →

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