Master of Divinity (M.Div.)

Hometown
Stamford, CT

Undergraduate Institute and Major
University of Notre Dame, Theology and Spanish

Most Meaningful Experience
The most meaningful experience I've had in my time at the CSTM (so far!) was accompanying a group of BC undergraduates on an immersion trip to El Salvador in April of my first year. As a graduate assistant with the Arrupe International Immersion Program, I had spent countless hours making spreadsheets, sending emails, and getting to know the students I would travel with. It was incredible to see all this hard work come together on the immersion. Seeing hints of the Holy Spirit at work in an experience that I had helped to create for students still leaves me without words - but with the conviction that I'm on the right path.

My Experience
Besides the top-notch people, what I like most about the CSTM is that my academic coursework is paired with hands-on experience. For me, that experience comes through my graduate assistantship, teaching confirmation class, and practical components of some of my classes (such as giving homilies in Preaching and acting out conversations in Pastoral Care and Counseling).

Community
I love the community at the CSTM! Even after a year and a half, I am still astounded by how good the people are here. I appreciate that community time is blocked out in the CSTM schedule on Thursdays so I always have a chance to spend time with people. Mass, lunch, Student Forum, spikeball...the perfect Thursday routine with the best people.

Hometown
Scranton, Pennsylvania

Undergraduate Institution
University of Scranton

Current Position
Religion Teacher, Boston College High School

Meaningful Course
Ecclesial Ministry has been one of the most formative courses during my time at CSTM. Sr. Meg Guider facilitated the classroom in a way that welcomed and embraced the diverse perspectives and experiences from classmates. This made what we were learning each week practical and grounded in the reality of the Church in the 21st century. I found myself reconsidering what my role within the Church would be and how I might serve others in a sustainable way that genuinely takes my experience and identities as a 1st generation college student and second-generation Salvadoran-American into consideration. Ecclesial Ministry left me believing that my compass for ministry is better oriented towards where I will best serve others and God.

Why CSTM?
Learning goes well beyond the classroom at CSTM. I am grateful to be able to work in ministerial settings as a full-time student. While not every course I have taken has had a direct impact within a particular ministry setting, I have been surprised by which courses and topics have come up in day-to-day work. For example, I did not consider how Christological controversies in history and contemporary views about who Jesus, God and the Spirit are would present themselves in retreat settings, 1-1 student check-ins, and at mass. The impact of what is learned within the classroom dialogues with the world and, in return, this informs how I read articles, write papers and pray and worship. My time at CSTM has helped me learn to remain attentive and sensitive to the movements of the Spirit beyond my study sessions in the library, in the classroom or within my own head.

Hometown
Cleveland, OH

Undergraduate Institute and Major
Saint Louis University; majors in English and Spanish; minors in Urban Poverty Studies and Latin American Studies

Most Meaningful Experience
My MDiv cohort retreat this year was incredibly meaningful and formative. In graduate studies, I am so often stuck in my head, and so taking an afternoon to be with God in my heart and in community. One of the gifts of the CSTM is the opportunity to study and be in community with Jesuit, religious, and lay students. This cohort retreat, in which my Jesuit and lay classmates and I had the opportunity to pray and faith-share together, was an invaluable break from the busyness of everyday life. I'm grateful that my spirituality is constantly being enriched by the diverse members of this cohort and the life experience they bring to the table.

My Experience
The CSTM works for me because our professors not only allow, but actively encourage my classmates and me to bring our previous experiences into dialogue with our theological and ministerial studies. I have been able to try to make some sense of the experiences of suffering, poverty, community, and hospitality I experienced during my year of service in Ecuador in my studies of scripture, Christology, pastoral care, and ecclesiology, to name a few. Theological studies at the CSTM are grounded and enfleshed in lived human reality.

Community
I have been so blessed by the community of wonderful people that beholds me here at the CSTM. Countless classmates have become close friends throughout my time here, as we've bonded over shared experiences of faith-based service, international encounters, and genuine passion for ministry in the Ignatian tradition. Students, faculty, and administrators at the CSTM really want to get to know you and hear your story, which is reflective of the caring and close-knit nature of this environment.

Hometown
Atlantic City, NJ

Undergraduate Institute and Major
Georgetown University, Economics

Most Meaningful Experience
One of my most meaningful experiences was taking a preaching class with fellow Jesuits and lay classmates. Focusing so immediately on preaching the Gospel and having the opportunity to pray together through the readings made that class such a powerful experience. It provided the space for glimpsing what the Church can be like when we work together as the People of God.

Hometown
Rice Lake, Wisconsin

Undergraduate Institute and Major
Gonzaga University, English and Secondary Education

Most Meaningful Experience
As a lay woman in the MDiv program, half my cohort is made up of Jesuits. It can often be difficult navigating authority as a young Catholic woman, but the friendships I've built with the Jesuits in my cohort have been very healing and life-giving. It's like I've adopted ten new brothers! The pickup soccer, meals shared, cups of tea poured...I love them, and I know they love me. It's incredible sustenance for the journey.

My Experience
In my first semester at the CSTM, I was blown away by the support I received from my professors. Every class, I would think to myself: "Wow, these folks are at the top of their field(s), and they really care about who I am and what I have to say." The CSTM works for me because Christian love is intentionally incorporated into the classroom experience. I couldn't be more grateful for my wonderful professors.

Community
Our MDiv cohort is very close. We have a group chat that is used regularly to connect, plan get-togethers, and encourage each other throughout midterms and finals. It's so special to have a little family within the greater CSTM family!

Hometown
Issaquah, Washington

Undergraduate Institution and Major
Gonzaga University, English Writing and Religious Studies

Current Position
Staff Chaplain, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford

Most Meaningful Event at CSTM
Meeting my spouse!

Community at CSTM
My community at CSTM primarily had three different lenses: through the wonderful community I experienced with the other lay students in my M.Div. cohort, through singing in the CSTM Schola Cantorum, and as an active member of Gaudete, our LGBTQ+ affinity group. Each gave me a different taste of life at CSTM and each was invaluable for my own sense of growth and community.

Hometown
Gaithersburg, MD

Undergraduate Institution and Major
Loyola University Maryland, English

Current Position
Associate Director of Campus Ministry for Liturgy and Music at Loyola University Maryland

Why CSTM?
Attending CSTM was a transformative experience for me; I now recommend it enthusiastically to any of my students who are considering pursuing a life of ministry. At CSTM, I benefitted from robust academic preparation, deep spiritual formation, compassionate professors and staff, and a vibrant community of students from around the world.

My Experience
When I first came Accepted Students' Day at the CSTM, I knew within a few hours that I was going to attend this school. Why? The word that I kept hearing over and over again in my info sessions was: community. And my experience lived up to this promise: the community of students, staff, and faculty at the CSTM are unmatched. From lively discussions in the classroom, to making friends with students from all around the world, to vibrant formation and recreational activities, the community at the CSTM made me feel at home right away. I graduated from the CSTM with lifelong friendships and colleagues in ministry, connections that will benefit me personally and professionally for many years to come. 

Home City and Country
St. Charles, MO

Undergraduate Institute and Major
Saint Louis University, Theological Studies & Philosophy

Current Position
Theology Teacher, Loyola Academy & Instructor, Loyola University Chicago

My Experience
As someone moving across the country to attend the CSTM, the Community was absolutely central to my experience. I made lifelong friends and connections that continue to support me in both personally and professionally.

Hometown
Ringoes, NJ

Undergraduate Institution and Major
Georgetown University, Justice and Peace Studies

Current Position
Staff chaplain at Brigham & Women's Faulkner Hospital and St. Elizabeth's Medical Center

CSTM Community

One of the most important sources of community I found was my M.Div. cohort, specifically the lay students. For the first one or two semesters, we had almost identical schedules so we could really rely on each other for academic support.  I also became very close with my coworkers in Campus Ministry. 

Even now, much of my community continues to stem from my experiences at the CSTM. I regularly spend time with a few friends I made at CSTM and half my bridal party is comprised of classmates. One of Jesuits in my cohort is even celebrating my wedding mass. At work, I continue to find CSTM alumni everywhere, which makes me feel all the more at home. I'm so grateful for the many communities I was and still am a part of thanks to the CSTM.

My Experience
One overarching theme that stands out to me still are the experiences I had with women at the CSTM. Professors like M. Shawn Copeland (now Professor Emerita), Melissa Kelley, Sister Meg Guider, and Colleen Griffith were all individuals that made me feel seen and empowered both in and outside the classroom. Hearing Sr. Guider tell me at the end of my synthesis exam that I had learned to “think theologically” was simultaneously one of the proudest and most humbling moments of my degree. The relationships I built with women classmates were, in large part, what sustained me during times where self-doubt threatened to get in my way (and God’s way).

Why CSTM?
Generous financial aid and access to on-campus jobs reserved for CSTM students made it possible for me to even consider moving to Boston and pursuing the M.Div. 

The most impactful way in which the CSTM worked and still works for me was helping me find my way into a career in healthcare chaplaincy.  The connections I made at CSTM were such a huge part of what helped me get into a CPE residency after graduation and even the jobs I hold now. The CSTM played a huge role in helping me discern and pursue what I now consider my vocation.

Home City and Country
Newtown Square, PA

Undergraduate Institute and Major
University of Notre Dame, English

Current Position
Campus Minister for Liturgy, St. Louis University

My Experience
I had the company of wonderful peers, lay and Jesuit, in the classroom, in special projects like clericalism discussion groups and planning creative liturgical experiences, and in Gaudete, our LGBTQ+ student group. I also made dear friends, who picked me up from the airport after job interviews, prayed for me on retreats and pilgrimages, and goofed off with me for non-theological movie nights. These moments of joy sustained me through the piles of books and papers to write. To this day, my former classmates will pick up the phone to talk through a tough pastoral conversation, fact check an obscure liturgical question, or just catch up and laugh with each other.

Most Meaningful Course
Sr. Meg’s Ecclesial Ministry course served as a wonderful capstone for my MDiv. With a class of almost entirely lay students, we grappled with what it means to be lay people going forth to work in the church plagued by clericalism. I was asked to write an integrative theology of ministry paper, and found that when asked to write it down, my theology of ministry was really about how I spend my days, and with whom I spend them, about being proximate to those on the margins.