For Enlightened Care of God's Creation

As our faculty prepare students for their vocations, they foster growth in understanding the fullness of caring for God’s creation.

Professors such as Drs. Deressa, Rundquist, and Luker represent the distinctive educational experience created at Concordia University, St. Paul. These exceptional faculty members cultivate inspirational classrooms, instruct students in their vocations, and continually work to instill the significance of enlightened care of God’s creation.

Dr. Samuel Deressa, Assistant Professor of Theology & the Global South, encourages and teaches his students to invest in their own understanding of God throughout their studies. He shares that his courses prepare students to “serve others based on the biblical principles of what it means to serve [your neighbors] and love not only your country, but the community as a whole.”

Deressa says that while CSP students prepare for different vocations, a theological base provides a unique perspective on who they are and how they might care for all of God’s creation.

Stressing the impact of CSP’s theology courses, Dr. Deressa concludes that every vocation, from nursing to business, must answer questions of honesty, integrity, and care. He notes: “Our students are being trained for different vocations. Theology...provides them with an interesting perspective to what they are normally thinking about in their normal vocation in life.”

Indeed, no matter the vocation, the theology courses presented by faculty such as Dr. Deressa both challenge and equip students to consider what it means to care for God’s creation.

Dr. Peter Rundquist, Professor of Physical Therapy, sees the power of his own vocation as an educator and Doctor of Physical Therapy on display in key learning moments with students: “When the students who are struggling with a concept eventually get it and have that ‘ah that really does make sense!’ [moment], that keeps us going, to see that knowledge base build.”

Essentially, he feels most successful when his work as a professor helps students triumph in their own vocations as physical therapists who care for the bodily needs of their patients. This success shines most when students express to him how their education at

Concordia helped them assimilate seamlessly during clinicals and their eventual transition into the workforce.

Additionally, the DPT program empowers students to forge ahead in their own vocations through a theological lens. Rundquist shares that students can take an elective theology seminar that helps students explore “how physical therapy can be a vocation, even though it’s not strictly the religious vocation that people originally think of.” Rundquist adds: “Our motto in the DPT program is ‘follow in the footsteps of the greatest Healer the world has ever known.’”

Dr. Julie Luker, Assistant Professor of Psychology, touches on the ways in which her courses instill God’s care for others in students, especially through the lens of social psychology. Luker challenges her students to look beyond their own experiences and consider whether those experiences limit the ways they address the struggles and lives of others.

She illustrates the application of her courses, sharing that “as students go through the program, [they’re] growing

in their faith, growing in their worldly experiences and meeting the people outside of school where they are at [in life].”

Dr. Luker remarks that working to teach students enlightened care of God’s creation comes down to a simple yet transcendent concept: “Knowing that we are all God’s creation, no matter what. No matter what sins and mistakes and anything that we do we are still made by him. And that is so beautiful.”

Story: Katrina Wiering, ‘22 | Photos: Concordia University Marketing