2015 Entering Scholars announced

September 23, 2015 -  

We welcome five entering Disciples Divinity House Scholars for the 2015-16 academic year. Four will begin ministry studies and the MDiv degree program at the Divinity School and another will begin the PhD program in Theology.

Jonathan Cahill (MDiv) was a resident in the National Benevolent Association’s inaugural Xplor Program last year. During the year, he lived in community with three other young adults in Hiram, Ohio, served with Mantua Center Christian Church, and volunteered with the InterReligious Task Force on Central America in Cleveland. He is a 2014 cum laude graduate of Washington and Lee University, where he majored in History, minored in French, and received the Elizabeth B. Garrett prize in History. He has studied in France and Vietnam and volunteered in India. He has been a Disciples Peace Fellowship Intern and, at Union Avenue Christian Church in St. Louis, a Disciples Home Mission intern. He is from Pekin, Illinois.

Devon Crawford (MDiv) is a 2015 graduate of Morehouse College, where he majored in Philosophy, received the 2015 Martin Luther King Scholarship, and was president of the Martin Luther King Jr Chapel internship program. After graduation, he traveled to Turkey to learn about Islam and the Hizmet Movement, led by Fethullah Gülen. In July he was a John Lewis Fellow at the Center for Human and Civil Rights in Atlanta. He has held an Oprah Winfrey International fellowship and served as an intern of the Congressional Black Caucus. In 2013 and 2014, he was an intern at Trinity UCC in Chicago and lived at DDH. Experiences at DDH led him to join Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Georgia. He plans to pursue dual UCC-Disciples ordination.

Hannah Fitch (MDiv) recently concluded her service as Youth and Young Adult Associate at Central Christian Church in Decatur, Illinois (where Michael Karunas is the Senior Minister). The innovative young adult program that she created, Stained Glass, was recently featured in a publication of Hope Partnerships/Church Extension of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). A talented musician, she is a 2012 Vocal performance graduate of Millikin University. She has been very active in the Christian Church in Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), and currently serves on the regional assembly planning team.

Colton Lott (MDiv) is a 2015 summa cum laude graduate of Eureka College, where he majored in Religion and Philosophy. His thesis developed a theological analysis of the emergent church movement. He gave notable leadership on campus, including as student body president, chapel intern, and president of Disciples on Campus. He was a Higher Education and Leadership Ministries (HELM) Undergraduate Leadership Fellow. He has been a student intern at First Christian Church in Creve Coeur, Illinois, and a summer intern and Youth Enrichment Summer Program (YESP) Coordinator for Christian Community Action, Inc., in New Haven, CT. His home church is First Christian Church, Ada, Oklahoma.

Hye In Park (PhD, Theology) returns after having received her MDiv degree from the Divinity School as a Disciples Divinity House Scholar in August. She is a BA graduate of Yonsei University in South Korea. She is a member of First Christian Church of Downers Grove, Illinois, where she completed field education. She has been involved in service to the CCIW and with NAPAD (North American Pacific Asian Disciples). She is interested in constructing a theological anthropology that is responsive to psychological suffering and addresses how such suffering affects contemporary Christian subjectivity and identity formation. She brings a background in liberation theology to this project, and she hopes to include the voices of marginalized cultures, races, and genders in her studies.