Living on campus gives McDivitt time with students outside the classroom

Sam Schipman

Staff Writer

It is registration day for seniors. Four hours after it starts, Religion 390, the Special Topics/Human Sexuality class, taught by Assistant Professor of Religion Dr. Heather McDivitt, is full. 30 plus spots have been filled by those who created their schedules as soon as registration opened. Just before registration began, students started discussing McDivitt’s classes. Some were required to take her Religion 481 Medical Ethics class to graduate. Others simply had heard that McDivitt’s classes were fun and interesting. The popular professor said that she doesn’t chose classes that she thinks will be “fun,” but that are related to her background. She also teaches an elective or two. “I ask students about topics and their interests,” she said.

This semester, McDivitt taught Human Sexuality on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. Tuesdays and Thursdays she taught Medical Ethics. This class was offered in the afternoon and evening. She also taught a service learning class on Monday nights. She purposefully chose this schedule. Tuesdays and Thursdays usually lasted from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for her. Meetings, appointments and catching up took place on Fridays.

Classes aren’t the only things that keep McDivitt busy. She fills her schedule with various committees and task forces along with the Don’t Dump! Donate! service project and the Learning, Living, Serving community that resides in Jefferson building six. She is also the faculty advisor for the Delta Sigma Phi men’s fraternity, as well as the chapter leader for Theta Alpha Kappa, the religious studies honor fraternity.

To prepare for so many classes, McDivitt “reads, reads and reads!” First, she picks topics after reading the course objectives. Next, she finds case studies, video clips, newspaper articles or a political cartoon. Occasionally, McDivitt plans small group discussions or a debate. Lastly, she tries to, “think of a way to get students involved in reading, talking, explaining and arguing about the material.” In order to balance her schedule, she relies heavily on her planner. On the weekends, McDivitt tries to read homework assignments. “I learned the benefits of working hard and planning ahead in graduate school,” she said.

To reduce the stress of balancing classes, meetings and appointments, McDivitt has her “me” day every Sunday. “I go to church to refresh my mind and spirit,” she said. Sunday nights are reserved for pampering herself. This usually includes reading a favorite magazine or painting her nails. She tries to have a calm, quiet evening.

McDivitt does not teach over the summer. Instead, she goes home to New York. In her hometown, she can do the things she loves. That consists of spending time with family, which includes nine nieces and nephews, gardening, pruning blueberry bushes, taking walks in the woods and even taking care of the chickens. She also reads a lot. “I average about 50 to 60 books every summer!” she said.

Her mother was an elementary education major and she wanted to follow in her footsteps. After graduating from Grove City College with a B.A. in Elementary Education and from State University of New York at Buffalo with a Minister of Education degree, McDivitt went on to teach. She taught kindergarten, first and second grades and loved the four years she spent in the classroom. Then she went back to school to learn more about religion and earned a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. Her PhD was completed at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. To expand her horizons even more, she studied abroad for two semesters in Germany and one in London. While finishing her studies in Scotland, she applied for a teaching position at several universities. She said that Wingate was a perfect fit, because she was looking for a small private, liberal arts school like the one she attended.

She believes that being a professor who lives on campus gives her a different perspective of college life. McDivitt gets to spend more time outside the classroom with students. She eats in the cafeteria, attends Lyceums, performances, and sporting events and participates in other activities with students. Since she lives on campus, McDivitt is able to teach a class at 8:30 p.m. She said that students are more awake and engaged then than during the day. As far as she knows, none of the students have issues with her living on campus. At the beginning of the semester, she likes to bake students treats. She tries to be respectful of their space. “I’ve been so fortunate to have had absolutely awesome students living on my hall and above me,” she said.