Message from the Incoming Student Council


Congratulations to us for finishing another year in our academic careers! The end of a semester can bring many emotions as some of us are saying goodbye to this community for a while, some of us are starting internships, some of us are taking a long-awaited rest, and some of us are continuing life as usual through the summer. As we continue through this season of new beginnings, may we all be reminded of how lucky we are to be on this journey together at Wesley.
In preparing for next year, the 2019-20 Student Council Executive Board has done some dreaming about our plans for next year. First we want to express our gratitude for this year’s student council for all of their hard work. By revising our constitution, they helped current and future Wesley students. We appreciate you! Next year, we want to continue this legacy of leadership by finding ways to better the Wesley community for us as current students and for the future students of Wesley Theological Seminary.

As the Student Council, it is our job to represent the wants and needs of the student body to the institution. We talk a lot about diversity here at Wesley and when we look at our student body, it's true. Demographically speaking, we are a diverse group of people. As the Executive Board, we recognize the limits of our perspective and truly need voices other than our own at this table. How can we as a community move from people being different from one another to being a community that celebrates our differences together? The reality is, we, the larger Wesley community, are the only people who can make that happen, and it has to be together.

We have been equipped with excellent tools through implicit bias workshops and conversations about navigating conflict. Now we have to do the work to make it happen. We have to do it in a way that upholds the sacred worth of all persons so that all the “work” does not fall on one person or one group of people. We look forward to exploring this with you!

We have heard from Wesley students that sometimes the way we communicate falls short of the mark. There is a breakdown in communication happening somewhere. We hope to begin learning more about our communication at Wesley so that we can find ways to be more efficient. Time is an incredibly precious and valuable thing, and we only have a limited amount, so the more we can communicate effectively, the more we can accomplish.

We look forward to working with you during our time as your Executive Board of Student Council.

Ellie Crain is a seminarian at Wesley and the 2019-2020 Student Council President. 
To read other articles in this issue, click here.
To read the full Journal, click here. 

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