This year, Vassar welcomed Reverend Callista Isabelle as the new Associate Dean of the College for Religious and Spiritual Life and Contemplative Practices (RSLCP). Reverend Isabelle is stepping into a role that Reverend Sam Speers held for 26 years prior to his retirement. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Rev. Isabelle about her path to becoming the leader of the RSLCP office, how she views her role on campus and her hopes for the future of RSLCP.
Rev. Isabelle comes to Vassar with a long history of university ministry work. After graduating from Yale Divinity School, she worked as an Associate Chaplain at Yale University, then moved on to be Chaplain at Muhlenberg College in 2011. Most recently, she served as the Director for Religious, Spiritual and Ethical Life at Washington University in St. Louis. As we sat together in Pratt House, she explained to me how she ended up deciding to move to New York and start this new stage of her career. “I have long admired Vassar and Reverend Speers’ leadership—I’ve known him for years—and these positions don’t open up very often. And so, when I learned of his retirement, I wanted to explore this a little bit. I was really excited about what I was learning about Vassar in the process. Students really get to shape the life of the campus; it seems like a really vibrant place and RSLCP has a great long foundation here, so I’m really excited for the next chapter of my leadership to be here.”
When we spoke, Rev. Isabelle was only starting her fourth week on campus, but she is ready to dive into celebrating RSLCP’s past and shaping its future. “I really want to appreciate and honor the traditions that have sustained RSLCP: lessons and carols and the new tradition of coffee houses here at Pratt that students really love (the first of which is coming up on Thursday, Sept. 25 from 9 to 10 a.m.). I’m also really curious to be listening over the course of this year and beyond what students are really eager to talk about and how they want to dig into interfaith learning and dialogue, which is an area I’m really passionate about.” Much of our conversation was devoted to exploring the idea of interfaith dialogue. She expanded on her definition of the term: “When I say interfaith I really always think about as big of a tent as we could possibly create, whether students are religious or not or somewhere in between, everyone is invited into those spaces.”
Pratt House is not the only place that Rev. Isabelle hopes to extend her reach. She told me her hopes for reaching students all across campus, from academic departments to student organizations to off‐campus communities and beyond: “I’m really eager to think about building collaborations across campus, what are different departments we can partner with, academic or not, what student orgs could religious and spiritual life be connecting with, also our affiliate advisors serving our off campus communities as well as on campus in different religious communities and how we can collaborate more closely, I’m just eager to build as many bridges as we can because I think that’s in the best interest of students.”
As our conversation continued, we spoke more about interfaith dialogue and how it can be achieved when political environments can make any dialogue feel impossible to navigate. For Rev. Isabelle, interfaith dialogue is more about listening than speaking. She appreciates how this practice can allow us to understand ourselves better by choosing to truly listen to what someone else believes. She provided many pieces of advice that students could take to enter into effective interfaith dialogue, but one stuck out to me in particular: “What can make something truly interfaith is the intentional coming together with a spirit of curiosity and learning, recognizing that we’re going to come from different perspectives and have different beliefs and values, but coming to a space that we’re labeling interfaith or interreligious, I would hope that we can come with an understanding that we’re here to understand each other a little bit better.”
How does Reverend Isabelle see her role on campus? “I really see myself as here for all students of any or no religious background, as well as for any community member here at Vassar. I would like to be a resource if people have questions, if they’re looking to connect with the community, if they need help with religious accommodations. I also want to be a bridge builder, and to help students figure out how they can be bridge builders across religious and spiritual difference.”
Rev. Isabelle is also available to any students looking for a listening ear, whether they may be grappling with spiritual questions or just want to chat about a recent exam. Beyond helping individual students, Rev. Isabelle also characterized her position on campus as paying attention to the spiritual health and needs of our community more broadly. “For me this role is about keeping my finger on the pulse of the community and seeing, are there ways that on the spiritual support side we can better support students, are there things going on in the world or going on on campus that we can attend to.”
Reverend Isabelle comes to us with nearly two decades of experience as an on-campus spiritual leader. She is combining this experience with the delicate task of stepping in for Reverend Speers—someone who had long been a pillar of the Vassar community. Rev. Isabelle has had a relationship with Rev. Speers for many years, and she had only good things to say about stepping in to continue his legacy and forge one of her own. She described an admiration for the humbleness that Rev. Speers approached his work with, as well as an appreciation for his role in establishing Pratt House as a hub for RSLCP. Additionally, she told me that, while this shift in leadership is a moment of excitement for the community, it is also a moment of loss. “I recognize that, for Vassar, it’s a huge shift to not have him here. Anytime somebody leaves who’s beloved it’s a loss, but also we’re excited for him because he’s in retirement and it’s an exciting new chapter for him.” Rev. Isabelle is interested both in continuing Speers’ legacy and building upon it.
Continuing this legacy allows her an opportunity to reflect on what the role of RSLCP is on a secular campus. For her, RSLCP is not a place to focus on any one religion, or on being religious at all, but a place that can be home to dialogue that allows students to reflect on their purpose as well as our collective purpose as a community. “Even in the mission statement of Vassar is the phrase ‘purposeful life’ and I think that is kind of at the heart of what RSLCP is on our campus.” Reverend Isabelle continued, describing how religious dialogue can truly represent the goal of liberal arts education, “I think it’s both the particulars around religious and spiritual life but also the broad kind of search for meaning and purpose, which is at the core of liberal arts education.” She believes it is about asking brave questions and encouragement to ask even more.
Rev. Isabelle is a Lutheran pastor, but has made a conscious choice to serve on religiously diverse campus communities for her entire career rather than seeking out a Lutheran congregation of her own. She described advising students of all or no faith as a way that she has grown in her own faith. For Rev. Isabelle, working in a multifaith environment has allowed her to be inspired by students from any or no religious background and has offered a lifelong opportunity to reflect on her own beliefs and what she appreciates about her faith. We could have spoken for our entire time together about different moments that she has found joy in during her time working on college campuses, but she was able to boil down what she loves about working with us: “I love the questions and the energy that students bring to a campus community, no two days are the same, I’m never bored, and I’m deeply honored and humbled when students invite me into their life story, whether it’s a quick hello or one of those deep soul searching conversations, it’s such a privilege.”
College can feel overwhelming sometimes. It can seem like between classes, work, organizations and everything else, there is barely time to explore your beliefs, values and how you can serve the people around you. Rev. Isabelle has hit the ground running to create a space that allows everyone at Vassar to stop and consider their inner world. Not every student will interact with RSLCP during their time at Vassar, but all of us will be lucky to have Reverend Isabelle in our corner.