This is my fourth post for this summer, where I will provide an update on the exciting things happening on my end here in Cambridge!

Last week, I had the opportunity to travel with some of the undergraduate summer interns here at Harvard to Yale for a conference. This conference, sponsored by the Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative (LAMI), was a conference aimed at undergraduates in the humanities and social sciences to increase diversity in academia within these broad disciplines. I had the immense privilege of meeting incredible undergraduate students from across the nation and, in some cases, other parts of the world. Surprisingly, I found I wasn’t the only student interested in studying theology and divinity at the graduate level. A small contingent of students––three other students!––and I headed to check out the divinity school at Yale, which happened to be quite the walk away from where we were on campus. There was also great fear over it raining while we had set out, which kept us wondering if we could make it back (after not having brought any rain gear) without being rained on; we did, which we partly speculate was due to some earnest prayers said in the divinity chapel… 😉

 

 

Along with this incredible conference, I also have been hard at work scheduling and holding interviews with a number of military chaplains in the Unitarian Universalist tradition. It has been really impactful and humbling for me to speak with people who are some of the most selfless and caring out there. I have been met with immense support and kindness, with chaplains readily making themselves available to participate in my project. I am excited to finish up some of my final interviews next week (my final week at Harvard Divinity School for the summer!) and organize a set of qualitative data showing some common themes and threads across the interviews.

 

 

I am partly embarrassed to mention that, while I have been in the Boston area for about two months or so, I had only made it to Boston this last weekend, where I went with one of my friends who is starting her program at Harvard Divinity School this coming fall. Yes, it took me a long time to get out of the library and visit some of the incredible historic sites! It was really wonderful to get to go to Boston and do neat things, like walk the Freedom Trail or sit in a pew of the Old North Church, where you find yourself literally in the midst of history. It is an amazing feeling to be in an area where so much has happened in the fairly short history of the United States. It was really restorative for me to also bring my camera along and take some neat photos. I thoroughly enjoyed traveling across Boston, walking somewhere in the range of eleven miles in the process!

 

 

Right now, I am gearing up for my final week in Cambridge. I find myself growing sad to think about leaving because I have really grown to love living here. I do, however, miss aspects of California. I miss Californian Mexican food, weather ranges, and wilderness! I am eager to be back in the Monterey area to start my final year at CSUMB this fall. I have a long week ahead of me, with my final paper due this coming Tuesday in a semi-final draft format, a couple of my mentor’s projects for me also due Tuesday, Summer Seminary programming that I am assisting with this coming Friday, my flight back to California this coming Saturday, and my move back to CSUMB this Sunday (which also cues the commencement of RA training for the fall!). I know I will finish strongly and that I will get through all of this work. In the end, this has been a very transformational experience for me and has really shaped my own personal confidence in research and scholarship. I am sad to leave but, at the same time, so excited for things to come!

Stay tuned for my fifth and final post for this summer in the coming weeks. Take care and may you enjoy a wonderful weekend :).