Following Christ after college

“I often have to explain exactly what it means to be a mainline Protestant, Lutheran, woman minister,” she said in an e-mail. “I’m not going to be a nun. I can date and get married and have a family just like those entering other careers.” For Pocalyko, matriculating at Princeton was a purposeful step in a plan for a lifetime of Christian ministry.

Justin Woyak ’09, however, said he initially planned to study engineering or physics at Princeton. Yet within a few weeks of his involvement with Princeton Faith and Action (PFA), an on-campus Christian fellowship, he began thinking more seriously about turning to a religious vocation, he explained. Since graduating, Woyak has been interning with PFA at the University, and he plans to start seminary next year.

Woyak and Pocalyko, who are among a small number of University students and alumni who plan to enter Christian ministry after graduation, said the University supports those who decide to pursue a life of religious service, no matter how late they discover this calling.

After graduating magna cum laude with a degree in politics from Princeton, Lorri Bentch ’91 initially intended to go to law school. But she took a break before applying.

“I realized my whole life I was just concerned about myself,” Bentch explained. “I wanted to help others too.” She moved with her husband to Mexico, where she began teaching and counseling. She loved the work so much that she spent her next 14 years serving in various Christian missions organizations in Mexico, Russia and Hungary, where she helped set up a church.

When she came back to the United States in 2006, Bentch was hired as a ministry fellow with Christian Union, the parent organization of PFA. Back at her alma mater, she teaches Bible courses, counsels undergraduate women and organizes events for PFA, which involves more than 200 students on campus.

But even though she didn’t decide to delve into Christian ministry until after Princeton, Bentch credited her undergraduate years with helping prepare her for her current vocation. Other students and alumni also said that Princeton’s resources — both academic and extracurricular — have supported them immensely in their career pursuits.

For Pocalyko, joining the Religious Life Council (RLC) her freshman year was the best step she took to prepare for her vocation, she said. “Through the RLC, I’ve traveled to Jordan to participate in international, interfaith dialogue with Middle Eastern college students,” she explained. “My experience there solidified my commitment to religious dialogue as a way to mediate cultural understanding and promote social progress.”

Spiritually centered extracurricular activities at Princeton — which was originally founded as a Presbyterian seminary — have a long history of supporting students. During her time at Princeton in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bentch was involved in Campus Crusade for Christ, a national Christian organization for college students similar to PFA.

Reverend William Brown III ’59, a religion major who retired eight years ago after serving as an Episcopal priest at Grace and Holy Trinity Church in Richmond, Va., cited his experience as chapel deacon of the University Chapel and his involvement with the Crusaders and the Episcopal Canterbury Club as major highlights of his Princeton years.

Princeton’s academic program has also been conducive to “prepar[ing] intellectually inclined ministers,” Pocalyko said, adding that her professors have “truly been wonderful and supportive” when she told them about her career aspirations.

Brown recalled his awe of the “wonderful scholars” in the “very strong religion department,” which prepared him to go to Oxford to earn a master’s degree in theology.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Woyak switched his focus during freshman year from engineering to the classics department so he could study the ancient world as a historical context for understanding the Bible. By junior year, Woyak said, he was working with some of the best professors in the department to decipher ancient texts written in ancient Greek, the language of much of the New Testament.

Pocalyko noted the indispensability of academic skills like critical thinking, close reading and conscientious writing fostered in Princeton’s undergraduate programs to Christian ministry. Bentch also said that, as a politics major, she learned to think critically, even writing her thesis on the relationship between church and state.

With decades of ecclesiastical experience behind him, Brown compared his experience at Princeton to a “good nourishing stew” in which all the academic ingredients contribute to the quality of the experience.

Brown explained, “My experience at Princeton and later Oxford nourished me in body, mind and spirit. It was not just the religion courses, but the art, history [and] English courses — everything came together wonderfully and helped me in my vocation.”