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Program in Religious Studies and Education |
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PRSE Alumna ProfileStina KaverudStina Kaverud's interest in the PRSE crystallized during the fieldwork component of the MDiv program—in Stina's case, a month-long trip to India the summer after her first year at HDS. Stina was chaperoning a small group of American high school students staying in the city of Bapatla. She recalls one of her group observing a 14-year-old Hindu boy praying. The American student made the comment, "That's weird." "I said to myself, 'Why is he saying that? Why does another tradition make him so uncomfortable? Why does he see Christianity as the only possibility? What kind of background would give him that understanding of the world?'" Stina, 26, came to HDS with an undergraduate degree in literature with religion and philosophy, a master's degree in editorial studies, and experience with teens and teaching. (She had been a counselor/tour director of seven summer bike trips for high school students, and was a teaching assistant at Boston University as well as at Harvard College while she attended HDS.) Her PRSE placement was at Lexington High School, where she student-taught two classes—"Theology in Literature" and "British Literature"—to students more likely to be feeling the pressure of getting into the right colleges than of the MCAS exams. Highlights of her teaching included introducing students to the four-source theory of Genesis and teaching Dante's Inferno. In fact, she wrote her MDiv thesis on teaching Dante in a public high school. "The experience was fabulous. I dedicated the thesis to the class," she says. "Students found the poetry beautiful and the richness of the symbolism even more interesting than in other works…. Furthermore, for a 700-year-old text, it's quite a page-turner." Stina is committed to teaching. "Students need a thorough understanding of religion to understand and engage those around them, both in terms of their own community and for the rest of their lives. Posted July 2005
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