Diverse Paths, Shared Purpose

by Kristen Aasmundstad Walsh

The faces of the 2002-2003 first-year class are marked with various individual stories, each student having followed a different path to seminary. The numbers tell part of the tale:

Of the 63 students, 46 are in the master of divinity program and 14 are in the master of arts program. There are 7 African-American students, 1 Asian student and 4 international students. The average age is 34. There is a 41-year gap between the oldest student (born in 1939) and youngest student (born in 1980). The students received undergraduate degrees from 43 different colleges, with Luther College being the most represented with 4 alumni. Amongst them, the students of this class hold 14 previous master’s degrees and 1 doctorate. They hail from 29 of the ELCA’s 65 synods, with 11 from the Metro Chicago Synod.

As for the stories behind those numbers…here are four.

Lyn Ahearn
Lyn Ahearn has traded in the role of teacher for that of student. The mother of three children, ages 13, 15 and 18, Ahearn recently retired from years as a music teacher and has returned to the seminary to pursue a calling she has sensed growing for a long time. Ahearn received a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Northern Iowa and became a music teacher, holding various positions teaching general music, band, choir, and private piano lessons over the years. She first sensed a call to the ministry when her husband, now a pastor in Normal, Ill., attended Wartburg Theological Seminary. She began studies at Luther Seminary in St. Paul in 1992, but with small children, it was too financially and emotionally difficult. Now that her children are older, she decided, “I better take care of that part of my life.”

Ahearn makes the 2 1/2-hour trek from Normal up to Chicago every Monday morning, attending class Monday and Tuesday and returning to Normal Wednesday morning. While in Chicago, she shares an apartment with two young women, and says it has been neat to develop friendships with them but challenging not to slip into mom mode. Her greatest challenge, however, is being away from her family. “It’s a lot more stressful than I anticipated,” she says. But she also feels that following her spiritual calling is a good example to set for her children. “This has allowed my children to experience my faithfulness to God,” she says. “I have a real awareness of obeying God’s will for me. In my heart, I know this is what I am supposed to do.”

Anthony Bateza
A former Baptist and Muslim, Bateza found his way to the Lutheran Church when he was a freshman at Iowa State University. Having gone to a Baptist church most of his growing up years in Des Moines, Iowa, Bateza rejected Christianity when he was in high school and became a Muslim. After exploring issues he had with both Christianity and Islam, Anthony embraced Christianity as a college student and became Lutheran while worshipping at University Lutheran Church.

But this was only the beginning of his path to entering the master of divinity program at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC). A zoology major with a minor in Spanish, Bateza dreamed of becoming a doctor. But during his junior year he began to question that career choice. At the same time, he became involved with the Lutheran Student Movement and became an officer with the national organization. Through this role, he was exposed to a variety of people serving in various capacities of ministry. He decided to visit the campus of LSTC and that’s when it all started to click: he discovered a calling to pursue the ministry.

Bateza was attracted to the Seminary’s metropolitan setting and also the option for students to take courses at the many seminaries in Chicago as part of their education. As for how he will serve, he is open to various opportunities. But he is grounded in one purpose. “I want to explain to others what the Christian message means, beyond the pomp and circumstance,” he says.

Aaron Suomala Folkerds
Folkerds took what some consider the more traditional route to the seminary, though these days that is harder to define. Graduating from the University of Minnesota, Morris in 2000 with a degree in psychology and human services, Folkerds knew he wanted to go to seminary. But first he felt it important to gain what he terms “real world experience,” working a nine-to-five office job more closely related to the working world many of his future parishioners might experience. “I talked to about 60 to 70 people a day on the phone answering their questions, and became very adept at responding to various personalities and relating to different people,” says Folkerds.

As the son of a pastor, the possibility of becoming one himself was always brewing under the surface. But it wasn’t until he was 17 that he felt the call. He had considered becoming a pilot but decided he wouldn’t be fulfilled in this line of work. Folkerds chose LSTC because he wanted to experience a different area of the country. He married in April 2002, and his wife, Mary, is also a new master of divinity student at the Seminary. While this presents its challenges, Folkerds says he looks forward to discovering opportunities for the couple to serve together. He is also interested in potentially combining his passion for aviation with ministry, working with an organization such as LAMP (Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots).

Linda Norman
Linda Norman was four years into her accounting career when a very public event coaxed her into rethinking her vocation and taking a step down a completely different path. A senior auditor for the energy division of Arthur Andersen, Norman had considered the ministry as a career during her sophomore year at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, but ended up getting a degree in business administration in 1997. She went on to receive a master’s degree in accounting in 1998, and was hired by Andersen. After the accounting firm shut its doors following the Enron scandal, Norman’s position was sold to KPMG, where she could have continued with her career. But she chose a different path. “I realized it wasn’t where my heart is and where my gifts are,” says Norman. “I went into accounting because it was a stable path, but it turned out not to be as stable as I thought. I felt I might as well follow my heart.”

Norman appreciated the Seminary’s emphasis on urban ministry, and was anxious to study with Dr. Linda Thomas, the only African American female professor at a Lutheran seminary. “I am really desiring to be a part of people’s faith and life journeys,” says Norman. She says she was able to use this gift somewhat at Andersen in her relationships with colleagues, but she yearned for it to become the central focus of her life’s work. Norman witnessed many people struggling with what’s important in their lives, rethinking what they would do if they lost their jobs… and she includes herself in that group. “If Andersen hadn’t gone under, I probably wouldn’t be here now,” she says.