HDS Student Noelle Buice Finds Meaning Making in Unexpected Places

For Noelle Buice, meaning making is not confined to traditional religious spaces. It emerges in song, in everyday moments, and even in the carefully crafted worlds of Disney’s Magic Kingdom. 

As a master of divinity degree candidate at Harvard Divinity School (HDS), Buice is exploring the intersections of chaplaincy, storytelling, and the ways people create significance in their lives. 

Raised in a Presbyterian Church after being baptized Episcopalian, Buice grew up in faith communities that emphasized inclusion. 

“There was a schism in our church over the ordination of gay leaders, and my family decided that being on the side of inclusion was most important,” she explains. 

That commitment to openness and belonging continues to shape her academic and spiritual journey.

Later in her life, at the University of Virginia (UVA), Buice pursued a double major in religion and music with a minor in psychology. She was drawn to the ways faith communities express belief through sound. Her thesis explored Protestant religious vocal music at UVA over its 204-year history.

“I was interested in how people in religious music spaces would say: ‘We’re able to transcend the bonds that divide us,’ but also the ways that sometimes fell short.”

Hidden Presence of Chaplaincy

After graduation, Buice spent a year in the Disney College Program, working at attractions in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom. What seemed like a lighthearted job soon revealed a deeper significance. 

“I remember a woman during one of the fireworks shows. I complimented her personalized shirt, and she just started to cry,” Buice recalls. “She told me it would have been her 20th wedding anniversary, but this was her first time coming without her late partner. Disney was their place, and she was using it to remember him.”

That moment clarified something for Buice and made her keenly aware of people’s “underlying request for things like marking milestone moments” and having someone standing next to them as they go through deeply personal experiences.

“I realized that people were meaning making in these spaces. I wanted to be able to support them, but I needed chaplaincy training.” 

She began thinking about how large-scale institutions like Disney function as sacred spaces, offering visitors comfort, nostalgia, and ritual experiences. She notes how theme parks and religious traditions share elements of storytelling, moral lessons, and communal engagement.

“There’s something powerful about shared narratives and the way they guide us,” she explains.

Cancer Kickin’ Critters: Ministry Through Craft

Noelle’s commitment to care extends beyond academic study. In response to her best friend’s battle with cancer, she founded Cancer Kickin’ Critters, a nonprofit that delivers handmade stuffed animals to pediatric cancer patients. 

“On my commute to the hospital, I would knit or crochet in the car while my mom drove,” she explains. “I made my friend so many stuffed animals that her bed ran out of space, so I started giving them to other kids in the hospital.”

What began as a personal project grew into an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit that’s nearly a decade old and connects hundreds of knitters to hospitals across the U.S., Canada, Azerbaijan, and the U.K. 

“The knitter feels like they're plugged into something bigger,” Buice says, “and the kid receives either a physical toy or a critter creation kit.” 

This offers a hospitalized child a source of agency in making a craft—as well as a new stuffed friend. 

Looking Ahead: Scholarship, Chaplaincy, and the Magic of Storytelling

At Harvard Divinity School, Buice is discerning multiple paths: hospital chaplaincy, academic research, and possibly ministry. She has already drafted over 153 pages of a rough draft on religious meaning making at Disney and is considering its potential as a thesis or even a PhD project. 

“There are so many ways religious texts, experiential stories, and beautiful literature all around us are making meaning and teaching us to be good and to be better,” she says.

She is also exploring a future in hospital chaplaincy, particularly with children’s hospitals. 

“Cancer Kickin’ Critters gave me experience working with children and families at events like CureFest, but I want to interact more with the families themselves in that face-to-face capacity,” she says.

Beyond the hospital, Buice’s love of music and song is amplified through the HDS Noon Service Choir. 

“Getting to be a part of that every week and to sing songs that are meaningful to different faith traditions is so powerful to me. It just lights me up inside.” 

Buice’s passion for storytelling, ritual, and presence continues to shape her journey. From the Williams Chapel to chaplaincy courses to Disney’s imagined worlds, she is exploring faith in all its unexpected forms—with an affinity for community and relationality. 

“It takes all kinds to make a world, and there's different chaplaincy needed for everyone,” she says. “But it takes everybody. We need chaplains who are angry. We need chaplains who are sad, but I think we still do need that pixie dust, even if it's in flawed places.” 

For Buice, it goes beyond an “escapism of imagining a better world.” It is about facing one another to celebrate and to grieve together. 

—Rachel Mallet, HDS student news correspondent