DANIEL POLK
Staff Writer
While in the heart of Kenya, between putting up walls of a church, and talking with pastors, Professor Kindalee De Long found her vocation as a religion professor. Being a professor of religion was not always what De Long thought she would be, and she never thought that she would call Pepperdine “home”…again.
This is the first year for Kindalee De Long to walk the halls of Pepperdine as newly appointed assistant professor of religion. However, it is not the first time she has walked these halls. No, this campus is actually very familiar. Undergraduate, visiting professor, now assistant professor of religion, are all titles De Long has held here at Pepperdine. That’s right, undergrad.
De Long’s journey as a “Wave” began here at Seaver College as an undergraduate student, but she had a very different idea of what she would be teaching when she left.
“I thought I wanted to teach English,” remarked De Long. In fact, she thought that for a long time— at least a long enough time to graduate from Pepperdine with a bachelor’s degree in English. However, something in her changed.
While on an internship in Kenya, De Long found her calling.
“We were helping a church there, and after talking to the Kenyans and others, I heard so many new ways to look at the Bible.” The two-month stay was long enough to convince De Long that in-depth study of religion was now a major priority in her life.
Those two months lead to two years of coursework in religion at the University of Notre Dame. It was here that she spent five years, eventually leaving with her Ph.D.
When asked to compare those five years at Notre Dame with her four years here at Pepperdine, De long responded: “The learning process is a little bit different,” “Each step, as you increase in the program gets that much harder.”
Students who think that Pepperdine’s general education requirements are too rigorous should take a look at the requirements for Theology at Notre Dame. De Long was required to know at least three other foreign languages (so that she might decipher a wide variety of texts). The requirements were German, French and an option of the three ancient languages (Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic).
Fortunately for De Long, she had been to Heidelberg, while studying abroad here at Pepperdine, and found the placement test easy enough to move onto French. De Long decided she was going to independently learn French herself and not take any classes. Again, she found that her motivation and efforts rewarded her on her placement test.
This motivation finally lead De Long to standing before a committee arguing her dissertation based on praise responses in the narrative of Luke-Acts. On July 20, her resilience shone again, as she received her Ph. D. Two days later she was packing her bags for Malibu.
Pepperdine wasn’t where she had always pictured herself.
“You don’t know if you will still feel that way, by the time you are done with everything. Fortunately, I still felt that way, as did they.”
Being back on campus, De Long has noticed what has changed since her undergrad years. “We didn’t have the fountain in the middle, and all the nice little things.”
One change De Long has noticed is the quality in the students.
“The students were very good then,” said De Long. “But the quality of students I have now, is even stronger.” She reiterated how good the students were in the past, concluding that the preparation and study skills of her current students are better.
One student having to prepare and study for De Long’s Religion 102 class is sophomore Demi Jones. “First of all she is very sweet,” Jones said. “What I really like, is that we have so much in-depth discussion in that class.”
This teaching style also suited the likes of student services advisor, Doug Free.
“Several times we have broken up into groups, to work through the passage and discuss a concept,” said Free, a student in De Long’s class focusing on Acts. “Afterwards, each group shares the conclusions we’ve come to.”
Free added, “I feel for me, that is a valuable exercise.”
One “valuable” trait for any teacher is empathy. This is something De Long understands, because she has been in the Pepperdine student shoes before. “I have a lot of empathy for the students, because I know how hard they have to work.”
“But that doesn’t mean I let them get by easy,” said De Long, chuckling.
It is clear that De Long believes religion is one of the most important things to study in our world.
“I think the study of religion is an important and exciting field. If you look at politics, it is very important,” De Long continued. “Throughout history, it is has been a huge factor in how people behave and believe. Yet we still don’t study it in our public schools.”
De Long speaks with passion. She speaks as someone who has found her calling – a calling discovered while working through the trenches of service in Kenya.
12-06-2007