The Pulteney St. Survey

A Call to Ministry

CHRISTA LEVESQUE ’11, MAT ’12

Hometown: Framingham, Massachusetts

Major: French and Francophone Studies

Minor: Religious Studies

Beyond HWS: Levesque will attend Duke University Divinity School

Graduated summa cum laude

Member of Hai Timiai

Admissions Senior Intern

Studied abroad in Senegal

“I realized during my senior year that I was being called to the ministry thanks to the mentorship of Chaplain Lesley Adams and my connection with St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Geneva,” says Christa Levesque ’11, MAT ’12, who is being sponsored in her ordination process by St. Peter’s and the Diocese of Rochester. “The Geneva community helped me mature. It helped that I grew up in Massachusetts where I was constantly surrounded by female priests who served as great examples of female leadership.”

At William Smith, Levesque distinguished herself as a leader on campus, joining the Campus Peer Ministry, Close Knit and Women’s Collective. It was also during her first year that she met Adams, who quickly became an important mentor, encouraging her to consider a leadership role in religion without, Levesque says, being pushy.

“Lesley provided me with the support and encouragement I needed to realize that I was being called to the ministry,” says Levesque, who recently completed her MAT degree at HWS.

Levesque plans to use the skills she has learned as a teacher to help engage youth in religion, including using a curriculum she created as part of her MAT thesis that combines media and religious literacy in relation to Judaism, Islam and Christianity. This fall, she will enter the Duke University Divinity School.

“Hobart and William Smith was where I needed to be,” says Levesque. “My time at William Smith really opened my eyes to things going on in the world and helped steer me toward my future path.”