{"id":1997,"date":"2015-11-25T07:00:45","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/?p=1997"},"modified":"2015-12-08T10:27:58","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T15:27:58","slug":"my-first-year-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/2015\/11\/my-first-year-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"My First Year Experience – Kimberly A. Goins"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Kimberly A. Goins, MTS1<\/span><\/p>\n

As I reflect upon my first year experience at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, I cannot help but think what I wrote in my personal statement:<\/p>\n

I want to pursue the master of theological studies degree because I have a myriad of ideas about the connections among politics, racism, social justice, the law, feminism, spirituality and Christianity. I want to learn more from an academic standpoint about Christianity. I would like to attend Vanderbilt Divinity School so that my beliefs can be challenged and refined so that I will grow spiritually. Scripture states, \u201cMy people are destroyed from lack of knowledge\u201d (Hosea 4:6). I want to gain more knowledge so that I can eagerly engage in theological inquiry.<\/em><\/p>\n

After having experienced almost a semester at VDS, I can honestly say that I have met many of the objectives of which I wrote. For instance, I have learned more about Christianity from an academic standpoint, and I have grown spiritually while also finding outlets for my ideas about social justice. I find myself gaining new perspectives on Christianity as I take my elementary Hebrew class and the Hebrew Bible course, and I examine verses in the original Hebrew. I have been inspired in my formation of Christian traditions course as I read and write about desert fathers and mothers who practiced asceticism in order to grow closer to God. I have found myself discussing and writing about social justice in my religions and cultures of the Ancient Near East course when I wrote a paper about laws and ethics for Ancient Near East cultures.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Although I have only begun my journey at VDS, it has already surpassed everything I was hoping it would be, and I know that much more is in store for me and my family (my spouse and daughter), as I continue to experience Divinity School.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Kimberly A. Goins, MTS1 As I reflect upon my first year experience at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, I cannot help but think what I wrote in my personal statement: I want to pursue the master of theological studies degree because I have a myriad of ideas about the connections among politics, racism, social justice, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1576,"featured_media":1998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[376,790,987,789,659,205,210,121,31],"class_list":["post-1997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-year-experience","tag-christianity","tag-feminism","tag-first-year-experience","tag-politics","tag-racism","tag-social-justice","tag-spirituality","tag-theology","tag-vanderbilt-divinity-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1576"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1997"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2016,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions\/2016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}