Emerging Scholars Blog

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graduate school

Event Announcement: Cultivating Mental Health in Grad School

Registration link for this free webinar: https://gfm.events.intervarsity.org/cultivatingmentalhealth

Graduate school in normal times is a stressful experience for many. A study in 2018 found 39 percent of the respondents experiencing moderate to severe symptoms of depression. This compared to 6 percent of the general population.

These are not normal times–a two-year long pandemic with lockdowns, isolation, changing protocols on campuses and personal losses. Add divisive politics, racism, climate concerns, and war, and even the most optimistic among us have days we struggle. Another research study in mid-2020 at nine research universities found that the number with anxiety had risen by 50 percent.

If you think that is you, you are far from alone. In response, the Emerging Scholars Network and InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministry in the South Central Region have joined efforts. We are hosting a national interactive webinar that will focus on cultivating good mental health in the graduate school setting. We will learn about:

  • good practices of self-care
  • the current state of mental health concerns on campus
  • how to identify signs that either we or a friend are experiencing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression
  • how to be a helpful friend and where and when to help someone find good professional care

We wanted a presenter who knows the campus and graduate students well. Broderick Leaks, PhD is director of counseling and mental health at USC Student Health and clinical associate professor of psychiatry and the behavioral sciences at Keck School of Medicine. In this video, he introduces himself and describes what he will be presenting at the webinar:

Please join us, invite your friends, or even host a watch party on April 25 at 8pm EDT. The webinar is free and you may register to obtain a weblink at: https://gfm.events.intervarsity.org/cultivatingmentalhealth

Making God a Priority In Grad School: How to Avoid the Spiritual Comb Over

calendar photoAs we enter the truly frenetic part of the semester, ESN writer Scott Santibanez shares a humorous and wise reflection on making time for God in grad school. Browse Scott’s other work for ESN here.

Biographical Note: Tito Scott Santibañez is a slightly balding adjunct professor at Emory University. As a volunteer physician, he has provided medical care for underserved populations for nearly 25 years. He also has a doctorate from seminary. [Read more…] about Making God a Priority In Grad School: How to Avoid the Spiritual Comb Over

How Did You Do It? Faith and My Dissertation

virginia tech library photo
Photo by NHN_2009

Last fall, I defended my Ph.D. dissertation, and in May I attended my graduation at Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus. My studies were challenging, especially since I was changing my discipline, from engineering to Science and Technology Studies (STS), which is built around a core of history, sociology, and philosophy. Fortunately, I had some advantages as a “non-traditional” student. First, I was accustomed to research and writing after a long, successful career as an engineer. Second, my STS interests ran deep. And finally, I had strong support from my wife and family. With God’s grace, I did not find the work to be impossible. The greatest stress resulted from my own decision—against the advice of my adviser—to take a job in 2014 teaching and helping to start a new engineering program (whew!) before I finished my dissertation. I am glad that my Ph.D. quest is over, and I look to God for how to best use my expanded education for His glory.

Friends have noted that Christian theology is at the heart of my dissertation, and they wonder how my work was received at a secular university. They seem interested in how I “got away” with proclaiming the Christian gospel in the course of my studies. How can I explain my success in what is assumed to be a hostile environment?

With few exceptions, my engineering experiences were free of conflicts of faith. Still, I grew interested in the place of technology in God’s plan. I remain concerned that endless debates over human origins distract us from considering what Christ would have us do in the present as we help shape the future. With this interest, I began taking STS classes part time during my last two years of engineering work.

Early on in my studies, I was surprised and pleased to learn that Christianity is broadly recognized as an important factor in the scientific revolution. This begged the question of why some segments of the Church are so distrustful of science, while accepting its fruits in medicine and technology without question. I looked for a dissertation topic that would highlight such concerns, and my adviser suggested I study transhumanism. Its focus on technological enhancements to human beings is essentially religious, with its goal of immortality and the creation of a godlike artificial superintelligence.

So here lies the answer to my friends’ questions: my desire was to study relationships between Christianity and technology, and God brought me to a subject I had never heard of, yet one that cried out for a theological examination. Yes, I ran into some opposition, but 1 John 3:13 says we should not be surprised “that the world hates you.” I was not surprised by skeptics, but I did not assume that I would be hated. My interest in STS scholarship was genuine, and with few exceptions, the Virginia Tech faculty, fellow students, and my advisory committee supported me in pursuing my interests.

No doubt, Christian students in secular universities experience a wide variety of responses. My success may not be typical. Still, I find in it confirmation of Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” May God lift you up in your studies!

Encountering God in the Liminality of Graduate School, Part 2

In the first part of a two-part reflection, Scott Santibanez shared some theological reflections on the liminal space of graduate school. In Part 2, he shares some of his own story. 

It was 1991, during the summer between my first and second years of medical school. I was in the basement of a Christian clinic in Times Square. The clinic provided free medical care for homeless people in New York City. I was filling up a tub with warm soapy water so one of our homeless clients could soak his feet. And I loved doing it.

In those days, we had very little clinical exposure prior to our third year. Consequently, when I began volunteering at the clinic, there was scant medical expertise that I could offer. I knew a few basic things like how to check blood pressures, and some first aid. But a lot of what I did involved doing the laundry, making copies, and sitting and listening to people. Several of our clients were HIV positive. It was early in the AIDS epidemic, before we had effective treatments. At the time, being HIV positive was seen as a death sentence that often caused people to become stigmatized and estranged from their families, friends and society. Coming to know and care about these individuals had a profound effect on my faith, my life and my career. Here are a few spiritual lessons that I learned:

1. Pray.

Have honest conversations with God. I prayed frequently before I began and while I worked at the clinic. If you are struggling through your own period of training and preparation, ask God for direction about what you should do with your life. You may be someone to whom prayer comes easily, or you could find it a challenge. You might even be uncertain if God really exists. Pray anyway. Your prayers do not have to be eloquent or theologically sophisticated. They do need to be honest, heartfelt, and open.

2. Take risks.

Find something that God has given you a passion for and do it. Get involved. You won’t necessarily get paid or receive class credit. Ask yourself whether you are there because you want to be there. For me, this meant a homeless clinic providing care for homeless people with AIDS. For you it could be something else entirely.

There are times when God calls us to go out of our way to choose unexpected paths. He sometimes challenges us to do uncomfortable things or to care for people whom others want to avoid. We must be willing to be disturbed by situations that may at first seem alien and even threatening.

Your choices will not always make sense to others. It could mean turning down a high-profile internship or an opportunity to work in a prestigious lab to volunteer at a place that no one has ever heard of.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes along the way. You may decide to volunteer somewhere, only to discover that it is not a good fit for you. This is okay. Don’t lose hope. Carrying anger over something you tried which did not work out only hurts you. Forgiveness allows you to move on and take that life experience with you where it can inform, but not control your future.

3. Listen to People.

Get as close to the ground level as possible. Get to know the people who are affected by your field. If you are studying neuroscience, this might mean volunteering to help out seniors who suffer from dementia. If your field is nutrition, you could try delivering meals to shut ins. For those studying music, art or literature, it could involve helping everyday people to visit concerts, museums or libraries. You don’t need to be an expert to serve others. Some days, the most I could do was to fill up a tub with warm soapy water so people could soak their feet. It can be a powerful expression of faith and a catalyst for growth when a person does not have much of something but is willing to trust God with what little he or she has.

While I did not yet have much to offer in terms of professional expertise, one thing I did have was the opportunity to listen. In addition to just getting to know people as human beings, listening can give you fresh insights into your field, an appreciation of how your long-term efforts will benefit others, and motivation to keep studying. Having now been a physician for over two decades, I sometimes feel pressure to move patients in and out quickly to keep my clinic on schedule. I find myself wishing I could just sit and talk with people like I did in those early days.

God will sometimes give us teachers in unexpected places–people who don’t meet our idea of a mentor, who are not experts by academic standards, but who can still teach us. In 1991, I met a friend who challenged me to expand my thinking about many things. Raised in the streets of New York, exposed to drug use, crime, prison, homelessness, and finally HIV infection, he had come to know the life-changing nature of God and was working as an AIDS counselor in our clinic. He taught me a lot about treating people with dignity, and a lot about life.

Conclusion

Liminal space can be a sacred, powerful place, where God transforms us. However, following Christ will not always be safe. We may approach God with practical questions about our majors, our careers, and how we’re going to get through the next 5 years. God may respond with deeper questions–ones that challenge not only our careers, but our very core, the essence of who we are, and who we will be for eternity. It is like what the dean of my seminary once said: “Follow Christ . . . if you dare.”

For me, liminality meant God leading me to a lifelong interest in the AIDS epidemic that eventually took the lives of friends I met in the summer of 1991. I discovered that for me, persevering through the many years of education and training was worth it. Graduate school can be a time when you reflect upon and begin to answer your own unique questions. Your parents, professors, pastors, and friends cannot answer these questions for you. With God’s help, each person must find the answers to these questions for him or herself. The choices may not come easily. God may lead you to select a different life path than you had originally planned, or bring you full circle so that you decide to continue with your chosen field, but with a renewed perspective. There is a risk that others may not understand your motives and your decisions. In the end, however, the struggle will be worth it. God is faithful to help you find your way and make it through.

Encountering God in the Liminality of Graduate School, Part 1

open door photo
Photo by boskizzi

I once had a seminary professor who liked to talk about something he called liminality. The term comes from the Latin word limens, which means “threshold.” Liminal space is a place of transition, of waiting and not knowing. People who are in liminal space exist in the threshold between their previous life and a new one. “It is the doorway or portal between statuses,” anthropologist Jack David Eller writes, “the road that links the origin and destination.”[1]

With its years of training and preparation, graduate school can be a kind of extended, self-imposed liminality. One is no longer an undergraduate, but not yet a professional. Liminal existence can be discouraging. Waking up each day without an end in sight can lead to frustration and even shame. You see friends moving on– you feel that your gifts could be put to use in the real world, but you feel trapped in academia. Perhaps you overanalyze whether the many years of education and training are worth it. Would you be better off choosing another career and life path? And if you do continue on your present course, how do you find the strength to persevere? If you struggle with this process, trust God to help you find your way and make it through.

Liminality, while difficult, is not necessarily a bad thing. It can also be a place of transformation. “In a way, the liminal condition is a lowly one,” Eller continues. “In another way, though, it is a sacred condition—special, powerful, and perhaps dangerous.”[2] “This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, Theologian Richard Rohr says, “and a bigger world is revealed.”[3]

Many people in the Bible encountered God when they had left behind one life but not yet moved on to the next. Here are a few examples:

  • Jacob was no longer part of his childhood family, but he did not yet have a family of his own. While fleeing from his brother Esau, he dreamt of a stairway reaching to heaven and cried out “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” (Genesis 28:16b NRSV).
  • When Hagar had been cast out of Abraham’s household, she too encountered God and exclaimed, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?” (Genesis 16:13b)
  • David struggled when he was no longer Israel’s military leader but not yet its king. When King Saul became jealous and wanted to kill him, David wrote: “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.” (Psalm 18:6)

In each of these biblical accounts, an outsider encountered God in a liminal place of waiting and seeming abandonment. Perhaps the liminality of graduate school leaves you feeling similarly lost at times. How does one find God in the liminality? One way to start is just being open to God’s wisdom to guide your steps. Along the way, you may discover that God has greater plans for you than you could have imagined—beyond just finishing your dissertation or getting your degree. One of my seminary professors put it this way:

It is more than what you know, what and where you have studied, and what skills you’ve developed. Ministry (doing) flows out of being. Deeper humility also results from finding one’s identity in Christ. Crosscultural servanthood arises out of your very identity in Christ, not your academic training or professional skills.[4]

As an infectious disease physician who completed many years of education and training, I have found myself in that liminal place more than once. My own life choices were influenced by my interactions with God and my life experiences as a medical student in the early 1990s, when I was no longer an undergraduate but not yet a physician. In the next post, I will share some of these experiences.

In Part 2, Scott Santibanez shares some of his own story.

Notes

[1] Eller, Jack David. Introducing Anthropology of Religion: Culture to the Ultimate. New York ; London: Routledge, 2007. Accessed 28 April 2017 at: http://www.antropologias.org/files/downloads/2010/08/ELLERJ.D._Introducing-Anthropology-of-religion.pdf

[2] Eller, Introducing Anthropology of Religion, 127.

[3] Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation. “Transformation: Week 2 Liminal Space,” Thursday, July 7, 2016. Accessed 28 April 2017 at: http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Richard-Rohr-s-Meditation–Liminal-Space.html?soid=1103098668616&aid=jd48qU30R0U

[4] Stephen Hoke and William David Taylor, eds., Global Mission Handbook: A Guide for Crosscultural Service (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2009), 40.