Dr. Chung Receives Grant from the Wabash Center for New Pedagogical Project Focused on Pastoral Care and Counseling

September 23, 2021

Dr. Jaeyeon Lucy Chung, assistant professor of pastoral theology and director of the Styberg Library at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, has received a grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion to fund her pedagogical project titled, “Spiritual Care Lab as an Experiential and Engaged Learning Model.” After completing the 2020-2021 Wabash Teaching and Learning Workshop for Early Career Theological School Faculty in July, Chung was one of 14 faculty invited to submit a proposal. The grant will support Chung’s project from September 2021 through May 2022.

Chung’s teaching project will explore how specific experiential and engaged learning experiences help students become more critically reflective pastoral care providers. Particularly, the project will seek to answer such questions as, how do students learn well in experiential learning environments; what is required to help students become effective pastoral care providers; and what aspects of experiential learning might help students better integrate their learning?

Chung will implement the Spiritual Care Lab model, an experiential and engaged learning method, into the curriculum of her “Introduction to Pastoral Care and Counseling” course. The goal of the Spiritual Care Lab is to create an experimental space where students are to be exposed to a variety of real-life human situations and practice active listening and compassionate response skills. Weekly self-evaluations, referred in the project as a Spiritual Care Journal, will allow students to intentionally reflect on their experience within their Care Lab group to both capture the newly gained knowledge (either about self, others, or relationship), and to set weekly goals for learning.

“I am deeply grateful for the Wabash Center to support my professional development as a teacher,” said Chung. “In particular, their generous support for my pedagogy project will offer me an exceptional opportunity to design, experiment, evaluate, and reformulate an experiential and engaged learning lab model in the introductory pastoral care and counseling course this academic year.”

Chung was named assistant professor of pastoral theology and director of the Styberg Library in 2013. She earned her doctor of philosophy in religion degree, with a focus in person, community, and religious practices, from Emory University in 2008. In addition, she holds a master of library and information science degree from Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, a master of sacred theology degree from Boston University, and a master of arts in religion from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea.

Wabash Center’s Early Career Teaching and Learning Workshops are designed to engage the participants in developing the craft of teaching, understanding one’s own teaching vocation, and analyzing how one’s institutional context shapes the work of the classroom. The Workshop Fellowship Program extends this work by awarding a fellowship to workshop participants for a teaching project that takes place in the academic year following the workshop.

The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology supports theology and religion faculty and doctoral students reflecting on their teaching practice — in both theological education and undergraduate education, in the United States and Canada. The Center facilitates faculty conversations about the goals and processes of teaching and student learning, and their programming develops faculty skills for critical reflection on teaching practice.

Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.