This semester we will be spotlighting students from different programs! NPTS is a vibrant community of scholars who are studying through a variety of modes. If you would like to be included, feel free to contact Seminary Services. These week, we meet some students from our School of Restorative Arts …
Louie Adamo
Where are you from?
I’m from Norridge, Illinois. That’s a small town just on the north west border of Chicago, near O’hare Airport.
Why have you chosen to go to Seminary?
I felt that I had a real calling to go into ministry. When I enrolled, there was nothing more I’d rather do, and nowhere else I’d rather be.
If you could narrow it down to one thing that everyone needs to know that you have learned from NPTS, what would it be?
No matter what bad thing happens to a person of color, by whomever, and for whatever stated reason, it’s always racism perpetuated by the global system that sustains white supremacy.
Jamal Jalal Bakr
Where are you from?
From the south side of Chicago, via the Back of the Yards community.
Why have you chosen to go to Seminary?
I want to give oxygen to the love of Jesus within the communities, that because of violence and poverty, have felt choked out from that love. Seminary has been the place that has brought together my social awareness and my spirit, and equipped me for advocacy.
If you could narrow it down to one thing that everyone needs to know that you have learned form NPTS, what would it be?
If Jesus was only meant to suffer for our sins, that he would have lived and died in one day. Jesus walked and responded to the social realities around him and disrupted the currents of oppression. If we turn Jesus into this abstraction of Divinity, then we are failing to walk in his steps. Don’t ask “what would Jesus do?” Ask instead, “what did Jesus actually do!?”
David Denson
Where are you from?
I know that I’ve written this many times before, but I was born in New Jersey but three years later we moved to Waukegan, IL where I grew up.
Why have you chosen to go to Seminary?
Chaplain Adamson thought I would fit in this class well. Seeing that I was already apart of his praise and worship team here at Stateville.
If you could narrow it down to one thing that everyone needs to know that you have learned form NPTS, what would it be?
My spiritual growth has been enlightened by the classes I have taken in these two years at NPTS. I have grown in knowledge and ways to express myself and belief. In my past I was a believer who stood on “because the Bible says so.” It is so important to show where the Bible history comes from, to support my belief and show others that it is not a white man story or something fictional.