Five reasons to choose McCormick

11-01-2023

After earning a Master of Arts in Ministry in 2019, Stefi Baiju returned to McCormick last year, and is currently in her final year as a M.Div. student. Why McCormick again? Baiju, doesn’t have a reason for choosing McCormick the second time around; she has five and shared them with Leading Change.

 5.      McCormick had proven to be an inspiring, challenging, and nurturing haven for me. The radical hospitality practiced by the faculty and staff at McCormick was unique. The Language Resource and Writing Center (LRWC) was a place of openness, conversation, research, innovation, and togetherness for international students like me. The seminary provided me with the opportunity to explore and embrace my Christian vocational dreams that were deeply buried within.

 4.      The student-centered pedagogy practiced in the McCormick classrooms helped me to discover my authentic self. The global nature of the pedagogy and inclusive learning practices gave me tremendous confidence to critically reflect on my own contexts and lived experiences as a woman from South Asia. At McCormick, my identity, voice, and bodily experiences matter.

 3.      McCormick helped me to harness my gifts of deep listening, leadership qualities, and pastoral care sensibilities. I use them in both the classroom and my field education site. At St. James Episcopal Cathedral, I offer leadership in worship and facilitate faith formation classes for the children and the congregation. Theological training at McCormick shaped my worldview and my call to social justice.

 2.      McCormick opened my eyes to see the world from the perspective of justice, equity, and inclusion. Practical Theology courses on culturally specific pastoral needs, sessions of the Trauma and Healing Initiative and the course, Isaiah, tremendously helped me to connect the biblical texts with the contexts of today.           

1.      I am being transformed and equipped for my ministry at every level of my life. Because of my theological education at McCormick, I have come to realize that I am continuously becoming and unfolding, just like any other human being in this world. McCormick enabled me to rediscover my ministerial gifts. 

Stefi Baiju
M.Div Student