REBECCA KEATING ’19 walked out of her first official Interdisciplinary Studies (IDS) meeting with Dr. Jeffry C. Davis ’83, director of interdisciplinary studies, knowing that a traditional major would not be for her. However, Dr. Davis made it clear that much for Rebecca would have to change for her to be admitted to the IDS program.

In the last months of her sophomore year, Rebecca needed to become more intrinsically motivated by the passions that would fuel her IDS program. “I would not have been allowed into the program if I continued to allow other people’s expectations to be the motivation for my studies,” she reflects.

After many long months, essays and interviews, and “a lot of soul transformation,” Rebecca was admitted into the IDS program. She is using Bible/Theology, Anthropology, and English Writing to take a deep look at the expression of lament in worship services in North American evangelical churches compared to evangelical churches of her family’s Hmar tribe in Northeast India.

Rebecca has learned to cry out to God for endurance and joy, and she now hopes to teach others how to more fruitfully cry out to God.