2008 Woodie Awards
Fiser Wins Theology Fellowship to Study in Boston
Katie Rice
Issue date: 9/15/06 Section: News
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Thanks to the Hendrix-Lilly Vocations Initiative, junior Andrew Fiser is getting a taste of life as a seminary student two years early. The Vocations Initiative sponsors the Seminary Semester program in partnership with three Methodist seminaries. Fiser is spending his semester at the Boston University School of Theology.
To get an understanding of "what going to seminary is all about," Fiser is taking graduate-level classes with seminary students. With help from staff at Hendrix and BU, Fiser picked classes that would give him an understanding of work as a faux first-year seminarian, yet still transfer to fulfill the requirements of his American Studies major and Religion minor.
But Fiser's seminary experience extends far beyond the classroom. Throughout the semester, Fiser is living in BU's Theology House, a co-ed, university-owned apartment house for 20 young, single seminarians. His housemates and classmates are a diverse group: they come from many different faith traditions, and even no faith tradition.
"Living with other young people who have experienced a call to explore their faith more deeply is an amazing experience," Fiser said. "One thing I learned almost immediately upon arrival is that seminarians are people, too.
"I was worried that the students here would be, to put it plainly, stiff. Instead I found that most of the people here are wonderfully diverse and make for a very warm and enriching environment."
In that community, Fiser is trying to discern how his passion for social justice, human rights, and the transforming power of God's grace can meet in his life's work.
"I have been immersed in classes, relationships and experiences that stretch my faith and knead my understanding of my vocation," Fiser said. "Here on a seminary semester, I can explore what Frederick Buechner really meant when he wrote, 'The place to which God calls you is where your heart's deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.'"
To get an understanding of "what going to seminary is all about," Fiser is taking graduate-level classes with seminary students. With help from staff at Hendrix and BU, Fiser picked classes that would give him an understanding of work as a faux first-year seminarian, yet still transfer to fulfill the requirements of his American Studies major and Religion minor.
But Fiser's seminary experience extends far beyond the classroom. Throughout the semester, Fiser is living in BU's Theology House, a co-ed, university-owned apartment house for 20 young, single seminarians. His housemates and classmates are a diverse group: they come from many different faith traditions, and even no faith tradition.
"Living with other young people who have experienced a call to explore their faith more deeply is an amazing experience," Fiser said. "One thing I learned almost immediately upon arrival is that seminarians are people, too.
"I was worried that the students here would be, to put it plainly, stiff. Instead I found that most of the people here are wonderfully diverse and make for a very warm and enriching environment."
In that community, Fiser is trying to discern how his passion for social justice, human rights, and the transforming power of God's grace can meet in his life's work.
"I have been immersed in classes, relationships and experiences that stretch my faith and knead my understanding of my vocation," Fiser said. "Here on a seminary semester, I can explore what Frederick Buechner really meant when he wrote, 'The place to which God calls you is where your heart's deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.'"
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