Back-to-school Q&A with the Rev. Hannah Scanlon, chaplain of the Menaul School

First in a series celebrates the joy that’s derived working with a wide mix of students

by Emily Enders Odom | Presbyterian News Service

The Rev. Hannah Scanlon is Chaplain at the Menaul School. (Contributed photo)

LOUISVILLE — Because “back-to-school” is a familiar rite of passage for students, families, faculty and staff at college, university and school campuses the world over, the Presbyterian News Service conducted email interviews with the chaplains at the PC(USA)’s Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color to ask them some key questions as the new academic year gets into full swing.

The responses from the Rev. Hannah Scanlon, who was ordained and installed in the fall of 2022 as chaplain of the Menaul School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are found below. Menaul is a PC(USA)-related college preparatory day and boarding school for students in grades 6–12, located within the bounds of the Presbytery of Santa Fe and the Synod of the Southwest.

Scanlon, who holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Calvin College, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and is now a Ph.D. candidate in Theology at the University of Toronto, sees chaplaincy at Menaul School as the perfect synthesis of her gifts for ministry and education. She delights in preaching in chapel, teaching religion classes and coaching the cross-country team. When she isn’t working, Scanlon enjoys running, cooking delicious vegan food, and gardening.

Some answers have been lightly edited.

Q: What are the biggest issues and greatest challenges — social, academic, financial, spiritual, etc. — facing your students today?

A: One great challenge facing our students today is the challenge faced by young people from time immemorial. This is the collective growing pain of learning how to be a human being. During this stage of development, they are asking questions such as “Who am I?” “What do I want to do with my life?” and “What are my beliefs and values?” At this critical juncture, they are trying to develop a personal identity and a sense of self, exploring and “trying on” different beliefs, ideas and theories to help them determine who they are, how they fit who they are into the various relationships and communities in which they find themselves.

Spiritually, students grapple with how their inherited family beliefs are challenged and confronted by a diverse and pluralistic world filled with a wide variety of beliefs. Academically, students are confronted with the pressures of balancing academics with numerous other responsibilities and pressures, including part-time work, extra-curricular activities and athletics. Financially, some of my students show self-consciousness around their ability to pay for some perceived “luxuries” such as running shoes.

Q: How does your role/religious life on campus help them to maintain a healthy personal life and a commitment to self-care and care for others?

A: Our hope is that Menaul’s mission that “In mind, body and spirit, our mission is to prepare students to succeed” be true not only in writing but in reality. It is for this reason that an invaluable part of a Menaul School education is Mission Week. For years, Menaul School students in grades 9-12 relocate their learning from inside the classroom into the world. High school students participate in a week of service projects in different communities, according to their grade level.

Ninth-grade students remain in Albuquerque, donating their time and energy to a different church or non-profit organization each day. The 10^th grade class serves Presbyterian churches over the entire state of New Mexico. Menaul students’ service to local PC(USA) churches helps to preserve and strengthen Menaul’s strong Presbyterian tradition and historic ties to the denomination. High school students serve the older generation by partaking in work projects that are physically strenuous, and the older generation serves the younger generation by providing opportunities to show that their service is needed and valued. Eleventh-grade students’ Mission Week takes place out of the state. As such, students spend a week lodging at a church or organization outside the state while also partaking in service projects at churches and organizations. The senior Mission Week trip is typically with the organization Frontera de Cristo, one of the four ministry sites of Presbyterian Borderlands Ministries. Frontera de Cristo is an organization that does ministry in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, across from the U.S. town of Douglas, Arizona. During their time with Frontera de Cristo, students partake in learning and service experiences that help them give a human face to the experience of migrants.

In addition to Mission Week, a significant part of the religious life of Menaul School is the requirement that all high school students participate in community service hours throughout the year. These service hours can be spent at an organization of their choosing. Alternatively, students have the option to accompany the Chaplain (myself) to service opportunities that I facilitate throughout the year with our local PC(USA) churches. Opportunities have involved helping congregations with their Trunk or Treat outreach during Halloween; helping a church’s “Laundry Love” ministry that hands out quarters to people using our local laundromat; and helping to fold and organize clothing at a clothing drive for unhoused people, operated by a church.

Q: What does your school’s historical — and present — relationship with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mean to your students?

A: Because the majority of Menaul’s students are not affiliated with a PC(USA) congregation, their relationship with the PC(USA) mostly happens through weekly chapel services, their religious classes and through community service opportunities. In my chapel sermons, I endeavor to remain faithful to the Word in my exegesis of Scripture, and to communicate to them the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They also benefit from the liturgy, music, and Scripture reading common in the PC(USA) Order of Worship.

In every grade — 6-12 — Menaul students are required to take a religion class. At Menaul School, we take seriously the Reformed tradition’s focus on scholarship and academics. We are unapologetically rooted in the Presbyterian faith, believing that God revealed God’s self through the person and work of Jesus Christ, and that God’s Word continues to speak to us today through the Holy Spirit. Because the Word is alive and active, we also believe it essential to educate our students in all world religions. Our hope is to show students the incredible width and depth of God’s diverse Creation. We aim to give students the eyes to see and the ears to hear God in the beauty of Creation’s variety and multiplicity.

Lastly, our students’ relationship with the PC(USA) is palpable through community service hours. Presbyterians have long understood that God’s work of salvation includes the restoration of our fractured world — mending broken relationships and transforming human institutions. Following this legacy, many of our students’ community service hours are spent helping the poor, hungry, and disadvantaged in our city in partnership with local PC(USA) congregations.

Q: Because on your campuses many faith traditions are represented, why is religious pluralism an important topic for your students to understand and appreciate? What are some of the ways that you’re helping them to do so?

A: It is vital that our students recognize religious pluralism because of the international student demographic at our school, which represents 40% of our high school students who hail from more than 20 countries. Students from Vietnam, Germany, Ethiopia, and Brazil are all living in our dorms with one another, eating with one another and attending school with one another. The other 60% of the student body in our high school is from New Mexico. It is important that our students learn religious pluralism because we want our students to foster attitudes of tolerance, respect and grace towards one another.

The Rev. Hannah Scanlon speaks at Menaul School. (Contributed photo)

During the time I’ve served as Menaul’s Chaplain, I’ve found weekly Chapel time a fruitful platform to celebrate our school’s religious diversity. During our Christmas service, a Muslim student has read the Surah Maryam, a chapter in the Qur’an that recounts the story of Mary’s life and the miraculous birth of Jesus. Another example is our weekly “Prayers of Many Nations” that serves as Menaul’s equivalent to the “Prayers of the People” in the Presbyterian Order of Worship. During this time, we pray for specific celebrations and concerns relating to our students’ home countries.

Q: What excites you most as the new academic year gets underway?

A: It is my hope that this will be the year that students take ownership of leadership opportunities during our worship time in Chapel and begin to see Chapel time as their time to worship God, feeling empowered to lead their classmates in worship with the diverse ways they love and understand God.

I love to see them serve others while also learning the valuable lesson of how serving others blesses the one serving.

Q: What feeds and sustains you in your call to care for your respective communities?

A: The first thing that sustains me in my call is the conviction that the task of raising young human beings with morals and values is vitally important. God’s parental love for us is perfect, unconditional, and unbound. To instill morals in young people during their formative years is to provide a foundation for their futures — helping them learn to make ethical decisions, preparing them to become responsible and engaged citizens, and fostering traits that create good human beings.

The second thing that sustains and feeds me is my spiritual/physical/mental discipline and practice of running. Engaging my body in the movement of running reminds me that my whole being is lived in grateful response to the Creator who lovingly gifted it to me.

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