Emily Ostler, MTS ’22

See the full HDS Community Impact Fund Report.

When Emily Ostler was growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, religion was a constant in her life. “I think it made me really perceptive to religious influences in the world,” she says. “And it made me more service oriented.” Now, as a master of theological studies (MTS) candidate, Ostler studies the way religion affects the aims and means of development, particularly in terms of environmental sustainability. Ostler was drawn to Harvard Divinity School after studying and working abroad in China and Myanmar as an undergraduate and witnessing how religious values can impact reverence for the environment. “HDS was the only program I wanted to do, because of its opportunities for interreligious and interdisciplinary engagement,” she remembers.  

For Ostler, HDS has been a time of immense growth and learning. “The courses, the networks, and the mentorship are all helping to prepare me professionally,” she says, “And on top of that, I feel more empowered to bring a spiritual focus into places where that might be unconventional, which is equally important to the work I want to do.” Ostler has found her courses edifying, from “East Asian Religions” and “Women, Gender, and Social Justice in Buddhism” to “Eco-theology.” Her thesis, which centers around tracking the sacred geography of a river that flows from Tibet through China and Myanmar, draws on her learnings at HDS and abroad. Cultivating greater religious literacy has been one of Ostler’s biggest takeaways—“almost like learning a new language,” she observes—which helps her engage more deeply with people from a variety of religious traditions. Overall, Ostler says, being at HDS has helped her develop a myriad of skills that will benefit her professionally and personally. 

In the future, Ostler plans to pursue work related to sustainable food systems, environmental conservation, and environmental justice, either in the United States or China. Regardless of the location, Ostler says that because of her time at HDS, she will be able to work in development spaces with a richer understanding of people’s value systems. “Thanks to HDS, and the financial aid I received, I was able to study something that I felt was understudied in this field. And now I can bring conversations that are hard to have about diverse values more bravely to the table. That is invaluable.”

—by Sarah Rubin