ALMEDA WRIGHT
YOUTH MINISTRY
You started out as an electrical engineer. How did you discover youth ministry? I thought I would work in engineering for the rest of my life – it’s where I learned analysis, critical thinking, and research skills. But I really felt a disconnect among those theories and technology and the community from which I came. So I started teaching math and science in middle school classrooms and volunteering in the church. I realized the typical pre-packaged Sunday school curriculum involves no critical thinking or questioning whatsoever. What questions brought you to youth ministry? How is it that in the classroom we expect young people to ask tough questions and in the church setting they should just accept facts without question? I teach kids to not dumb down anything, including faith. Young people should be at the center of conversations about faith. They should be encouraged to explore their questions and come up with ways to connect their faith and questions to their lives. What do you like about teaching at Pfeiffer? Well, it’s one of the few places that has a dedicated faculty position for youth ministry. But it’s also the community life here – I have preached in the Village Church, worked with the Sunday Night Alive program, gotten involved with rural youth ministers. I had no idea how connected I’d be here. What’s your classroom experience like? Like my students, I am still learning in the classroom and getting excited about the material. My classes are centered around really rich and involved conversations about what’s happening in the world. We start with real experiences and then ask what the experts have to say. What do your students have in common? Pfeiffer has a lot of students who are interested in service and giving back. And they want to explore that through mission trips and internships and experiential learning – to get their feet wet and their hands dirty. That’s the student who’s really attracted to Pfeiffer.
ALMEDA WRIGHT Assistant Professor of Youth Ministry B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology M.A., Simmons College M.Div., Harvard University Ph.D., Emory University
I teach kids to not dumb down anything, including faith. Young people should be at the center of conversations about faith.
— Almeda