Integration of faith and learning in my courses is one of the areas in which I struggle the most.  I struggle with both how much and how to best incorporate faith into my subject matter.  I see evidence of God permeating all of my subject matter and try to share this with my students.

There are ways I integrate faith and learning.  When I talk to my students about how and why I chose biochemistry as my field, one of the things I share with them is how I can see evidence of God when studying the subject.  Another example of the way I incorporate faith and learning is when we talk about proteins.  Proteins are incredibly complex molecules.  I cannot imagine looking at these very delicate complex molecules and not believing in God.

I also share my faith with my students when it seems appropriate.  One of the first things I tell the students they can expect from me is prayer.  I tell them that I’ll be praying for them during the week and especially during exams.  I do not generally have prayers or devotionals during class, however when students bring prayer requests, we pray about them in class.  I also try to share with my students my involvement with church and encourage them to come with me if they are still looking for a church home.

When my students are in my home, I feel this is much easier to do. It is much more natural to lead the students in prayer before a dinner. It also allows us time to talk about our churches and faith.

There are two main reasons I struggle with this area.  The first is time.  While I do not believe time spent in prayer is ever a waste, I feel that the semester is very short as it is and I have been given the task of covering a lot of material.  I feel that it is a stewardship issue and that if I do not cover the material that these students are paying to learn that I would be a bad steward.  Fall 2009, I taught a U100 course, it was much easier and more natural to talk about faith and the issues surrounding  faith in that class when there was less pressure on content.

The other reason I struggle is because I am a woman.  I know that there is a wide variety of beliefs about women’s role in worship in churches and on this campus and this wide variety of beliefs extends to my classroom.  I feel to have a safe learning environment for my students, that it would be inappropriate to stretch the beliefs of the students in the chemistry classroom, especially when they are already struggling with the subject matter.  I know I could call on male students to lead prayer, and when it is needed I do, but it is difficult for me to identify the students who would be comfortable with a request to lead prayer.

This area has and will probably always be a struggle for me because I feel competing needs. I pray that I can influence my students and reach them when they need someone of faith to walk along side them.