I greatly appreciate the ASA’s ongoing partnership with InterVarsity, particularly when it comes to engaging with college and graduate students at our Annual Meeting. Hannah Eagleson and Tom Grosh have done a wonderful job of creating opportunities for students to interact with their peers as well as professionals within their disciplines. These networking connections are a win for everyone involved, and we look forward to continuing this partnership at next year’s ASA meeting. — Leslie Wickman, Ph.D., Executive Director, American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) [Read more…] about Next Steps for ESN — Part 2: Vision, Partnership
Emerging Scholars Network
Next Steps for the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN) — Part 1
Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service. — Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 4, 29.
As some of you know (may even remember), 5 years ago I became the Associate Director of the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN). What a privilege it has been to be part of connecting, encouraging, equipping and mentoring a growing network (4,200+) of those on the academic pathway (undergrads, grad students, postdocs and early career faculty) via blogging, facebook, ministry/conference partnerships, paper.li, and twitter. Note: If you have not already joined ESN’s dynamic network, please do such 🙂
When launched on March 1, 2004, ESN offered to help every member, at whatever career stage, to ask — and formulate answers to “The Four Questions”:
- Why should I consider pursuing an academic vocation, for my entire career or a significant amount of time?
- What do I need to learn about Christian thought and practice to be faithful within my academic calling?
- How do I navigate the various stages and transitions of an academic vocation?
- Who can help me at each stage of my professional development, and whom can I help?
Exploring “The Four Questions” led members of the ESN staff team and partners in ministry (including a strong contingent of faculty) to
- Dig deep in mentoring conversation via a number of platforms, with blogging becoming the most prominent starter for a season of ministry (August 21, 2008 – )
- Connect with peers and mentor figures online and at conferences
- Partner with InterVarsity campus fellowships (e.g., STEAM Project Grant Series) and conferencing (e.g., Urbana)
- Partner with other likeminded organizations such as the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA)
- Engage with a growing number of PhDs, who due to a variety of factors, find their journey through “liminal space” leading to uncertainty about next steps as the academy has limited space for the volume of graduates. Many have shared with me their appreciation of ESN’s exploration of Writing Christian Personal Statements and offering of Scholar’s Compass: a devotional written for and by scholars.
When asked what ESN does, I typically turn to stories and illustrations drawn from a list such as the above, but when engaged in planning next steps I have found the below list of benefit.
- Building/encouraging/publicizing networks of Christians within academic fields
- Connecting students in transition to InterVarsity events/campus groups and resources beyond the academy
- Producing material to support groups and individuals exploring their academic vocation and sharing it on our blog
- Providing emerging scholars opportunities to connect with peers and mentor figures online and at conferences
- Providing emerging scholars training and opportunities to grow as public intellectuals and bless the church and the world through blogging and speaking opportunities
- Engaging InterVarsity alumni with a desire to serve emerging scholars
Stay tuned, much more to share in future posts about ESN’s history, next steps, and very specific stories as to how we have served students, recent graduates, and faculty at important times in their academic journey. Your prayers, partnership (as the Lord enables), and encouragement in this Kingdom work is much appreciated. To God be the glory!
Connecting with ESN has really enriched my experience at Urbana because it expanded my mind to see that God called me into the engineering field for a reason. Missions and academic/vocational pursuit are not two separate ideas, but rather beautifully intertwined to fulfill a piece of God’s bigger story for my generation. — Galina, ESN Urbana 15 participant, currently a grad student
ESN: “An essential & growing movement”
In follow-up to The Unlikely Conversion of a Radical Scholar, below is a word from Mary Poplin, Professor of Education, Claremont Graduate University, regarding the value of the Emerging Scholars Network:
The Emerging Scholars Network is an essential and growing movement to help support Christian academicians in articulating their field as it is informed by the Christian worldview and to help encourage promising Christian graduate students to become professors. Unless we can increase the boldness of current faculty and new faculty, the hope of even being a part of the scholarly conversations at most universities is greatly diminished. Right now Christian academicians, thus the Christian worldview, does not have a visible presence in most universities.
That’s “why I do what I do” as an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship staff connected with the Emerging Scholars Network. Time to hit the road so I can swing by Hearts & Minds Bookstore to pick-up materials for
- Radical Marxist, Radical Womanist, Radical Love: What Mother Teresa Taught Me about Social Justice — 2/25, 7 pm, Carnegie Mellon University, Gregg Hall/Porter 100, Pittsburgh, PA
- “What I’ve Learned About being a Christian Professor at a Secular University” — 2/26, Church of the Ascension, Pittsburgh, PA
- Christian Scholar Series in partnership with Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ, Elizabethtown, PA — 2/27
Continue to pray for safe travel, good health, and clear articulation of the call of God. If you’re local to one of these gatherings, please join us. I’ll provide links to audio/video of various presentations when they are available 🙂
Do You Have a Mission Statement?
Several weeks ago a physician encouraged members of the Christian Medical Society (CMS)/CMDA at Penn State Hershey College of Medicine to develop personal mission statements. Yesterday morning I engaged in an on-line discussion regarding ministry mission/vision statements. In the afternoon, I came across an “amusing” but “hard” video regarding the realities/challenges an Emerging Scholar in the Humanities faces (and/or perceives), So you Want to Get a PhD in the Humanities (see below)?*
All this leads me to ask, “Do you have a personal mission statement? If so, how did you come about one? Was this a part of (or separate from) your undergraduate/graduate academic community, adviser’s mentoring, campus ministry, “journey,” training? How do (or would) personal mission/vision statements help address the concerns such as those raised in So you Want to Get a PhD in the Humanities?”
PS. Some notes from the physician who spoke at the Christian Medical Society Lunch Lecture. More coming, but I would first like to hear from you 😉
- Success defined as “‘Be smart + work hard + be nice’ plus some God” is incomplete. We must be open and available to God integrating into all aspects of our life, even the good ones. Imagine a Calculus integration problem 😉 [Read more…] about Do You Have a Mission Statement?