HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed

To attend a divinity school like HDS is a very unique and fortunate experience. Putting together a cohort of individuals from all walks of life, as well as many diverse religious and non-religious traditions, giving them a space to be in communion – interacting with each other, speaking...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed 

Coming into HDS at the beginning, I think that I was overly ardent to “prove my worth.” The loneliness of the pandemic and the isolation of screens made it difficult...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed

HDS made me a more capacious thinker, a more effective communicator, and a more compassionate presence to those I serve.

Memorable Moment 

My...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

Favorite Class or Professor 

One of my favorite classes at HDS was “Women and Gender in U.S. Catholicism” with Professor Monica Mercado, a visiting WSRP professor. I took this class my very first...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed 

I'd probably say ontology, praxis, and difficult conversations more than any other person I know.
Jokes aside, I have come to appreciate the nuances of worldviews that create our...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed

2020 was the start of so much chaos in conjunction with immense self-reflection and discovery. During my time at HDS, I have learned more about myself, my identity, history, and...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed

After I graduated from Harvard Business School, I spent about 20 years working directly with philanthropists to help them identify and donate money to promising equity and justice causes....

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

Memorable Moment

I will always remember helping to build and decorate the HDS sukkah this year, a worthwhile comedy of errors that led to beautiful evenings shared with friends under a crisp September sky.

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed 

I know how to survive a plague.

Memorable Moment 

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed

I've gotten to know a lot of really incredible people and learned a lot about my own perspective and methodologies of religious studies scholarship.

Memorable Moment...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

Memorable Moment 

I have many precious memories of playing and singing with my friends in our band, Divine Intervention. It has been a gift to make music together and offer our music to the HDS...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed 

The changes that have happened for me over these last three years (through the program and the pandemic) feel like those that happen to a riverbank during a big flood. It recreates...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed

My time at HDS has seen my development as a scholar, minister, and person of faith. I am particularly grateful for those I have met here at HDS, friends and mentors, that I trust will be...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed

I think after having met so many interesting people at HDS coming from diverse backgrounds, I have become more empathetic.

Memorable Moment

...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

Message of Thanks 

Thank you to Professor Charlie Hallisey for teaching me how to read and for letting me play.

Thank you to Professor Saul Zaritt (FAS) for teaching me a way to be...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed 

One thing that hasn’t changed since my undergrad days is taking more classes than I can handle every semester. But since starting at HDS, I’ve gained a better understanding of myself...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed

HDS expanded my ability to contend with the world as a deeply connected, cosmopolitan place. My studies and relationships helped me augment my worldview and my conception of self.

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

Memorable Moment 

The simple, shared moments of rest on campus stand out most. I cherish afternoons in the garden, talking with classmates as we harvested hops or kale under the sun. I cherish...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

Memorable Moment

Starting this program in fall 2020 during Zoom school was so incredibly challenging. But even still, during the past two years, both remotely and then eventually in person,...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed

I have learned so much at HDS, both from my professors and from my classmates. I feel blessed to have been a student here. I am better able to be a caring presence for those I serve in...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed

As a painter, I have a clearer sense of what kind of work I want to make that is meaningful to me and timely to the current situation.

Memorable Moment

...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed 

I have learned that in most scenarios, rigor and tenderness work better hand-in-hand. Tenderness at the cost of rigor can make a person into a jello with no principles, and...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

Message of Thanks

Boundless gratitude to everyone who helped me get here, who believed in me, who pushed me beyond anything I thought possible. And to all the precious beings I met at HDS, thank you! This is for all of my safe havens and secure bases.

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.... Read more about Graduate Profile: ZeSean Ali, MTS '22

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

Favorite Class or Professor

I am grateful for the chance to have researched with Professor Mark Jordan, who has been my favorite religious scholar even before coming to HDS. Professor Mark Jordan has taught me to think critically about the world, urged me to pursue my academic and non-academic interests, and...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

Memorable Moment 

I worked at Harvard Divinity School Library my first year before the pandemic. Having late night conversations with other student workers, attempting to explain our denominations or...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.
 

Message of Thanks 

The list of people who have inspired and carried me through these three years is too long to reproduce here. I can just say I have the deepest gratitude to Dr. Janet...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future. 

Memorable Moment

There are so many memorable moments I'll cherish, but one that gave me so much joy was the weekly Tuesday Morning Eucharist gatherings in the brand new...

HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.

How I've Changed

I have become accustomed to listening and assessing my assumptions. Lately, I am appreciating the desire to improve myself with every passing day.

Memorable Moment...