Sarah (Andrews) Schlieckert was a Religion major in the Class of 2002 who went on to study in the Divinity School at Duke University. After graduation from Duke Divinity School in 2005, she was ordained in the United Methodist Church and currently serves as the Associate Pastor at Calvary United Methodist Church in Frederick, MD.
Immediately after graduating with a major in Religion from Gettysburg College in May of 2008, Axel Kaegler entered the Master of Divinity (M.Div.) program at Princeton Theological Seminary in preparation to enter into ordained ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In his two years at Princeton Seminary he has studied and gained proficiency in Koine Greek and Biblical Hebrew, and he has taken a number courses that have been of value academically, vocationally, and spiritually in the path towards ordained ministry. How has Axel's major in Religion prepared him for his ministerial studies? He explains:
The Religion Department at Gettysburg College provided me with countless benefits, and did a great job in preparing me for my graduate work. The Religion Department provided me with a wonderful staff of professors who challenged me academically, but in a thoughtful, present and encouraging way. Members of the department took time out of their schedules to take me aside, get to know me, and speak with me. They were real guiding lights in helping me sort out not only my immediate academic work, but also what possibilities would open for me after graduation. Course-wise, the Religion Department provided me with classes that allowed me to examine religion and faith as both as a spiritual activity, and as a social phenomenon. The courses were designed to teach me both how to analyze faiths, and how people live and understand faith in practice. We studied scriptures from many diverse traditions, sought to understand what they mean to people today, what they meant when they were written, and how it all has and continues to affect our world. This background that the Religion Department provided has been a tremendous boon to my seminary career and undoubtedly will be a help to my ministry because it has provided me with the tools I need to talk seriously, and knowingly about religion among not only those of the same tradition as my own, but among people of many religious backgrounds.”