Interview Story - Mentor / Leadership

When I was Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at the General Theological Seminary in New York City—and a member of the Academic Affairs committee working on curricular revision—we noticed a recurring and typical set of challenges among our incoming students.

Many of them struggled with what it meant to engage in theological and critical reflection; others struggled with the kind and level of writing expected in graduate-level seminary education; most were still adjusting to life in community (living together, worshiping together, and studying/working together).

I saw an opportunity to exercise leadership, suggest new possibilities for our curriculum, and improvise solutions. Specifically, I recognized that an introductory course focused on these topics could help smooth the transition. So I offered to design, coordinate, and help teach a new junior seminar (“Introduction to Theological Education.”). The seminar was approved in May for the next semester’s new students.

I had to work quickly over the summer. I researched courses/archived syllabi of junior tutorials taught in previous years at General. I also researched what other seminaries/schools of theology offered that might be similar. Finally, I spoke with my fellow faculty members.

In coordination and collaboration with the academic dean, we offered returning advanced degree students fellowships to be “T.A.’s” for the course. They would work with students in smaller cohort groups on theological reflection, on discussing their assigned readings, on “workshopping” their initial writing assignments, etc. The students were assigned various essays on theological education, theological reflection, as well as books such as Bonhoeffer’s Life in Community and Jacobi’s Becoming a Pastor. I also recruited several of my faculty colleagues to teach on various sessions, including those on prayer and spiritual disciplines.

As a result, our new students were more successful overall in their transition to seminary life and work. We saw fewer problems involving emotional health crises and plagiarism. And we witnessed a stronger and more cohesive sense of community. We watched as students began to pursue their own bonds—to pray together, to study together, to support one another as seminary life challenged them beyond measure. The seminar is now an integral part of General’s first semester.