Graduate Profile: Patrick Griffin Downes, MDiv '23

How I've Changed  

I came, in part, to make peace with myself and to learn how to surrender, and I have gone a long way toward both. 

Memorable Moment 

I spent two of three years remote, so my first in-person meeting with my thesis group last August, introducing myself to other third-year MDiv students I had only encountered online through Zoom, impacted on me. "Oh, so good to meet you in person," I heard myself saying again and again. 

Favorite Class or Professor 

A superlative distilled from a handful of superlatives? 

Message of Thanks  

I would like to thank my fellow students, and, to be honest, the entire Divinity School. I found it humane and compassionate.  

What I Hope to Be Remembered By 

I hope to be remembered for my effort to bring not only a Quaker witness to the Divinity School but a personal presence of clarity, stillness, and attention. 

Future Plans 

To write. And I'll chaplain through writing. There will be other creative endeavors, too. And there's something else, something else...