Rola Al Ashkar is a Presbyterian Christian from Lebanon. She grew up in a non-religious family, in a culture drenched in religion. Her parents took her and her brothers to church and Sunday school on occasions. When she had her confirmation class, she received her first Bible, and even as a teenager, she read the Bible with critical eyes, questioning parts of it and searching for answers. Her curiosity led her to regularly attend Sunday services, youth meetings and church summer camps, and through those experiences her faith grew and she found a community in the Presbyterian Synod of Syria and Lebanon.
When Thomas Hampton came to Columbia Theological Seminary in the fall of 2016, it might have seemed like a huge departure from his previous experience as an engineering student at Case Western Reserve University. He is, after all, among a select group of neural electrical engineers who can build what is commonly known as cochlear implants.
Growing up in Rwanda, Joshua Karangwa often saw rural women and children carrying heavy cans of water on their heads for miles, just so their families could survive.
KINGSVILLE, Texas. As a young teenager, Monika Ruiz made a life-altering decision.
The village she’d grown up in—San Fernando, in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico—was being destroyed by the elements of drug wars— killings, violence, and corruption.
“I couldn’t even go into my backyard,” says Ruiz, who is a sophomore at Presbyterian-affiliated Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. “I came home from school every day wondering if I’d make it, or get kidnapped.”
Alex Pappas, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ministerial inquirer under the care of Grace Presbytery, has received the Grace Presbytery Fellowship to fund her full seminary costs as she pursues a Master of Divinity degree at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
As a new class of PC(USA) seminary students matriculates this fall, many find themselves entering graduate school not only with great anticipation and an unwavering commitment to serve Christ’s church, but also with unprecedented student loan debt.
