2024 Entering Scholars announced
This year, DDH welcomes five entering MDiv and MA students as Disciples Scholars. Clockwise starting at the bottom left of the picture, they are:
Grace Dearhamer (MDiv) grew up in many places, including four years in London, England, before her family moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Her home church is Forest Park Christian Church in Tulsa. She is a 2024 BA graduate from Eureka College, with a double major in Religion/Philosophy and Psychology/Sociology, and served as senior class president. She was a Disciples Peace Fellowship Intern, a Phillips University Leadership Fellow, and a Youth Ministry Intern at Eureka Christian Church. She plans to pursue the dual MDiv/MSW degree program.
MariaIsabelle Garcia (MDiv) is a 2022 BA graduate (Psychology, Latinx Studies, LBGTQIA+ Studies) of Chapman University. At Chapman, Isabelle was part of Disciples on Campus, the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and became the Children and Youth Coordinator at Community Congregations UCC. During her advocacy work, she was encouraged to apply for an MDiv and pursue ordination. She was also encouraged by her grandfather, a Disciples minister. This past year, collaborating with six high schools in the Orange County area, she taught and supported students to advocate for positive change on their campuses. Her passions are interfaith work, faith-rooted justice, and Queer theology.
Hart Lang (MDiv) is originally from South Carolina, and graduated magna cum laude from Wake Forest University in 2012. He spent his twenties in Chicago facilitating writing workshops, experimenting with performance art, engaging in storytelling, and serving coffee from various counters on the North Side. He went back to school to earn a MFA in creative writing at Rutgers University-Camden in 2021. He has been involved at Gilead Chicago. He enters the MDiv program to study Christian spirituality and ministry and as his vocation shifts from that of artist to new possibilities.
Kathleen Varon (MDiv) majored in Politics and earned a BA from Vassar College in 2024. Katie's studies included a semester at the University of Edinburgh. Interested in global politics and religion, she plans to pursue the dual degree with the Master of Public Policy. She was raised in Jacksonville, Florida, and in the Riverside Avenue Christian Church there. She was a HELM Scholar during college and did short term mission work with Be the Neighbor this summer. She feels called to combat stereotypes about the South, particularly Florida, and to defend the people there who are fighting dangerous rhetoric and harmful policies.
Emma Yeager (MA) grew up in West Virginia and completed her BA at Moody Bible Institute this spring. An aspiring medievalist, she has compared the piety of medieval and Appalachian women. She is drawn to the flexibility and interdisciplinary nature of the MA program. She attends a church in the Anglican tradition, but became acquainted with DDH while she was an undergraduate Chicago, and felt drawn to the conversations about Disciples history, and an atmosphere of belonging. She is a partial scholarship recipient. She moved in earlier this summer and has been working at DDH part-time to update and re-organize its library.