PhD Student Helen Chukka on the Path from India to LSTC and Beyond For PhD student and Pastor Helen Chukka, a life in pastoral work was never in question. Before her birth, her parents in Guntur, India, dedicated her to ministry. “It was like Jeremiah’s call,” she explains, “And this is normal in an Indian […]
Diversity, Accessibility, and Possibilities Confirmed LSTC as the Right Choice Jackie Miller For MDiv student Jackie Miller, the journey to LSTC began as an undergraduate at Carthage College. “I was taking a J-term class on Christian spirituality, and on the second day of class we went to a little meditation chapel they had on campus […]
Pastor Llewellyn Dixon on TEEM Scholarship, Bi-vocational Practice, and the Path Ahead For Pastor Llewellyn Dixon, the call to ministry was, initially, slightly inconvenient. “I was just graduating college, and I believe I had my call in the ministry then, but I was like, ‘Lord, are you really sure?’” The call, he felt, might be […]
PhD Student Smitha Gunthoti on How Scholarships Made Answering the Call to Ministry Possible For LSTC PhD student Smitha Gunthoti, the call to ministry has long been in her family. Her grandfather was a pastor in an Indian Evangelical Lutheran Church and was a teacher in India, her husband, also a PhD student, is studying […]
PhD student dax sunny mathew on research, persistence, and making a difference PhD student Dax Mathew recalls in vivid detail the moment that changed his perspective on learning. He was in an Adivasi community in Palghar, a town in the Konkan division of India’s Maharashtra state, home to Indigenous peoples often overlooked and neglected by […]
How Scholarships and a Leap of Faith Created New Opportunities for International Student Char Laywa When Char Laywa thinks about God’s role in her life she thinks immediately about the ways that faith has motivated her. “I can learn in the midst of good and bad times where God is and how God can help […]
MDiv Student Sharei Green on Scholarships and the Promise of the Future “If it weren’t for scholarships,” MDiv student Sharei Green says, “I wouldn’t be here.” Green recalls the tens of thousands of dollars of private debt that she accrued as an undergraduate, her hard-working family background, and her need to be self-sufficient into adulthood […]
From an Impossibility to Reality: Distance Learning and Scholarship Support Transforms Trenton Ormsbee-Hale’s Future MDiv student Trenton Ormsbee-Hale remembers clearly when he got into seminary the first time around, before he joined the Lutheran church and before he knew anything about LSTC. He had applied widely, with much success. “I remember just getting the first […]
The Art of Transformation: A Reflection From Liz Kuster, Horizon Intern in Bratislava, Slovakia Emma stood at the front of the room and invited the class to come collect a sheet of the colorful paper I had brought at her request. Students, bantering in Slovak, debated over colors, and finally returned to their seats so […]
How LSTC’s public church curriculum contributes to Annelisa Burns’s prison ministry Annelisa Burns, a first-year MA student, has known for a while that she wanted to get a graduate degree in religious studies. With the eventual goal of being a professor, the Naperville native looked at a few seminaries and divinity schools to further her […]
