It
is still a long drive from Forrest City, MS to Dallas, TX, so we didn’t get to
big D until late Thurs. afternoon. We soon were in the throes of preparing for
20 Graduate students to arrive from: Penn State, U of Washington, U of MI, U of
FL, Rice U, U of NC, and more. Our goal was to make these students feel honored
and loved, and to encourage them to participate in the Summer Graduate Mission
at PSU. At that meeting they would be equipped and encouraged to return to
their campi and begin Christian Graduate Student Fellowships.
Graduate school is often an “odd”
era of life. Mostly Grad students are paying their OWN tuition. Some are
married, and a few have kids. Sometime their spouses are working to support
them and the family. They have been out of their birth home a while now and are
finding their own way in life. They have picked a specialty and are serious
about school. They are learning and doing research which results in them
discovering NEW knowledge, known only, initially, to their research group. Often,
they are learning to teach, but they should also be learning to publish
academic papers and write grant funding proposals to potential research
sponsors. Some of these folks have worked after their undergraduate studies,
but some have only known life as students. Many of them, and this is the
foundation for most of our interest, will become the next generation of Professor.
In my view, this makes these folks super valuable to the Kingdom. IF, and
that’s a big IF, we can build into them a heart for ministry as a Prof. If we
can inspire and equip them, each one can impact thousands of their own students
for the Christ. Wow!
As you might expect, this is a
lovely group of young scholars. Many are engineers, and all but about 3 are
from STEM- Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. All but 2 or 3
are in Ph.D. programs. There are about 8 of us Faculty Commons Staff who are
meeting them, trying to get to know them and encourage them. As I said earlier,
this can be a stressful time of life, and there is seldom an abundance of
ENCOURAGEME
We try to quickly learn everyone’s
name. There is something special about your name, and we want to be able to
call it often. Ritz stands out for his name, his energy, and his excellent
sense of humor. Liz stands out for her sincerity and passion. We only have a
few hours together, and we want to make the most of this opportunity. The
schedule is packed, but wisely there is some time set aside for socialization.
I give one forma talk on getting the MOST out of your graduate experience. This
is a particularly poignant topic to me, for I see many grad students who do NOT
have an optimal experience in school. I spent the majority of my life working
with grad students, so I have some notion of what they need.
At the conclusion of out time, one
of the students comes up and thanks me, catching me a bit off guard. She
explains that the message she has gotten from the church is< “Get married,
have children raise your kids, stay at home- chiefly.” She got the message from
me that she could be a Professor and impact her colleagues and student for the
Christ. I am thrilled at her gratitude and hadn’t even realized at the time
that the off-the-cuff comment would impact her so deeply.
Our prayer is that the L^rd would
impact these students and call them to His work for them. Only G^d knows the
path for each of us. Only He has bought us with a price (I Corinth 6:20; 7:23).
My heart is that many of them will be committed to using their education, their
opportunity, to touch the students spiritually.
L^rd make it so!
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