Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Meet Annie Lockhart

Hometown
St. Croix, U.S. Virgin IslandsAge  34

Home Church & Denomination
Non-denominational

Degrees 
M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary
B.A. from Dickinson College

Garrett-Evangelical Degree Program/Year
Ph.D. in Christian Education/2^nd year

Career Plans 
I plan to be a professor of Christian Education and Youth Ministry at a seminary or Christian college and, at the same time, find ways to be active in local youth ministry.  I also hope to add to the scholarly work being done on the Christian education of youth, specifically girls, in the margins.

Personal Information
I was born and raised in St. Croix and moved to the continental United States for college. Being raised on an island gave me a love for water.  I am most at home when I am near water and I walk along the lake shore on a regular basis.  I also have a love of travel.  I have been able to travel to many places and hope to travel to many more.  I enjoy learning how people of different cultures do things and I think that humans have a lot to learn from each other.

Attraction to Garrett-Evangelical:  I really like the flexibility of the Ph.D. program. Garrett-Evangelical is very intentional about focusing on one’s specific calling within academia and preparing a person for that.  In other programs, there tends to be more of a cookie-cutter approach to Ph.D. studies.  Garrett-Evangelical encourages creativity and seeing your field in new and different ways.

Calling
Being raised as the only girl in a traditional West Indian family may have been the catalyst for my work with girls and my belief in the need for feminist education.  My first post-college job was residential supervisor at an all-girls high school.  Working in a place founded on the notion of empowering girls was empowering for me.  I got a chance to mentor girls who were already doing amazing things.  Later, I became an English teacher at an independent high school in New Jersey.  On the weekends I worked with youth from a lower socio-economic class.  Seeing the stark contrast of the narratives being told to these groups gave me a passion for changing the narrative given to youth from poor and working-class neighborhoods.  I thought that my call to seminary (the first time) was about becoming better equipped to be a local youth pastor. While there, I learned that my call was broader than that.  I am called to the church and the academy.  I am called to local youth ministry, training youth ministers, and providing written texts that help others change the negative narratives that exist for girls.