Hispanic Scholars Program expands educational opportunities for divinity students

For over 35 years, the Hispanic Scholars Program has provided curricular opportunities at the intersection of religious studies and Latine culture to more than 2,000 students at divinity schools and theological programs across the country. 

Vanderbilt Divinity School is one of 38 schools who make of the consortium of divinity and theological programs supporting HSP. Yara González-Justiniano, assistant professor of religion, psychology, and culture with an emphasis on Latine studies, currently serves as an HSP board member.

But before she was a board member, González-Justiniano was an HSP student herself.

“My first time, I went as a student to the Hispanic Scholars Program in 2013. And I met there one of my closest friends who happens to be a Vanderbilt alum. I would have never gotten to connect with her if not through HSP,” she says.

The immersion program — which began as a summer experience and has since expanded — develops the educational and leadership opportunities to those committed to Hispanic community, culture, history and religiosity through educational programming, mentorship, professional development and public scholarship.

The program is open to all, and includes opportunities for students, clergy and educational administrators and staff.

“It gives students the opportunity to engage in a very specific social and cultural dynamic to learn more deeply about Latine culture in the United States and abroad,” says González-Justiniano.

“The core component of our time together as an immersion program is that students get to really know each other and engage with each other. They get to know people from other seminaries. They get to learn with people that have very different theological, social, historical, racial and ethnic backgrounds. And I think that is very rich.”

Three Vanderbilt Divinity students participated in the program over the summer. In this series, you will hear about how the program helped them better understand the cultural and faith traditions that inform Hispanic religious scholarship and helped them form bonds with students from across the world.