Teddy Hickman-Maynard: It's not hyperbole to say that this is a program for people who want to change the world. The Master of Divinity degree is a professional degree intended for those going into ministry. Historically, in the United States, that's been for Protestant and Catholic Christian ministers. However, for many years now, Harvard Divinity School has interpreted ministry very widely, and we have welcomed people who want to serve in leadership capacities for communities and organizations and religious institutions offering ethical and moral leadership from a wide range of religious traditions and through a wide range of vocations.

Rachel Mallett: The nature of the Master of Divinity program is that we're able to follow these multiple strands of curiosities and interests. Also, there really seems to be this element of personal formation and this element of pluralism I just kept coming back to. Because of the diverse nature of the community that we're in here at HDS, it's hard to capture in a few words what exactly it is or what that community looks like. I've never been in a space this diverse. We have intergenerational differences, differences in traditions. When all of those things come together, that's going to look different, and it's going to challenge us in really interesting ways.

Burns Stanfield: One encounters a wide array of perspectives at Harvard, but one encounters a wide array of perspectives in the world, so it is a great training ground for ministry. The community is full of curiosity, a variety of viewpoints, strong commitments, and a passion for service. I see it most strongly with the interns and the folks who come to work here at Fourth Church.

Rachel Mallett: Working as a Field Ed student at Fourth Presbyterian Church has absolutely made me more interested in working in the church as an ordained minister and thinking more about what church ministry can look like.

Burns Stanfield: The commitment to service and ministry is steadfast. I hope the students that I get to work with take that same commitment to service, to justice, and that same ability to work across difference with others into a world that very much needs that.

Teddy Hickman-Maynard: So about 40 percent of our MDiv graduates go into fields that would be considered traditional ministry leadership roles. A large percentage also will go into chaplaincy, formal chaplaincy roles, whether that's health chaplaincy, higher ed chaplaincy, military chaplaincy, and so on. Another 20 percent will go into higher ed, whether that be going into teaching right away or going on to PhD work. And then we have a group of about 20 percent that go into fields of public policy or community activism, non-profit management. And then there's our special group of creatives, people who are using the gifts of the arts in order to tell stories that help for the cultivation of communities and cultures.

Burns Stanfield: The MDiv program at HDS has an incredible array of resources, probably more resources than you can get in any one place in the rest of the world. That's true academically, and it's true in terms of life experience and Field Education.

Teddy Hickman-Maynard: Overall, what you're really cultivating as an MDiv student isn't a set of competencies. I think that's what really distinguishes our MDiv program from other professional degrees like a law degree or a business school degree. In the MDiv curriculum, you're primarily focused on cultivating your own soul. Your body, your mind, your heart, your spirit is the instrument by which transformation and change is going to come.

There is a sense of calling, a sense of mission and purpose that drives them to use what they have to do all that they can in order to leave the world more beautiful, more loving, more just, more kind than they found it. I would say that that's the principal thing that unites our students.