Emerging Scholars Network

What a joy to be part of . From the retreat for young scientists to an ice cream reception, ESN is thankful for the long partnership between ASA and InterVarsity.

ESN Summer Cohort for New Grad Students

Spiritual Formation and Integration of Faith and Scholarship
Thursday, July 30, 4:30 pm ET (3:30CT, 2:30MT, 1:30PT)

Explore in community what integration of faith and scholarship looks like.

Interested in joining the conversation? Contact [email protected].

Friendship is an obstetric art: it draws out our richest and deepest resources; it unfolds the wings of our dreams and hidden indeterminate thoughts; it serves as a check on our judgments, tries out our new ideas, keeps up our ardor, and inflames our enthusiasm.
- The Intellectual Life (1921) A. G. Sertillanges, O.P.

Will you be at the 2026 ASA Meeting in Boston that begins on Friday? If so, come find ESN in the exhibit hall or around campus.

ASA 2026 - American Scientific Affiliation The theme of the 2026 Annual Meeting, "Science Faith Synergy: Glorifying God and Serving the World," is inspired by 1 Peter 4:10 (ESV):

O Lord, you who make a home for the homeless, grant us the gift of good community, we pray, so that we might find our place there, secure in the knowledge that we are deeply loved and in turn generously welcome others to share in that same love for the sake of the One who calls us brothers and sisters We pray this in the name of the Holy Trinity. Amen.

Prayers for the Pilgrimage, W. David O. Taylor

A Liturgy for Seeking to Find Your Place in Community
by Douglas McKelvey (Every Momen Holy: Rites of Passage)

Good Father Who Gives Good Gifts
to His Children,

Like Abraham, in a step of faith
I have journeyed from the comforting
sameness of all I once knew—my family
and home, my friends, my neighborhood,
my church, my old school, my settled
rhythms and routines.

I have moved far from all
that was familiar, foundational,
and steadying. The distance is
disorienting in ways I did not foresee.

For now I have little to anchor my life.
That organic and interconnected web of
community was so deep a part of my identity.

In this new place
I do not know
where I fit.

I feel myself adrift.
So let my life here take root,
O Christ, and flourish again,
nurtured by your Spirit
and your people, and
bearing good fruit in time.
I do not yet have here the same
resources of vital relationship
to sustain me.

I feel like a weary pioneer recently arrived
with one meager pack of supplies,
who must now find a good place
to begin to carve out a homestead,
a place to sink new roots in hopes
of finding good soil for flourishing.
A meaningful life must somehow be
constructed in this open prairie
of undefined possibilities.

O God, I am lonely here.
But you are present with me.
I am unmoored,
but you are my anchor.
I am unsteady.
But you are my rock.

Now lead me into good community.
Let me forge new friendships.
Give me a place in this place.
Graft me in to your Body, and into
this community, in ways that I might be
blessed, and also be a blessing. Plant me
in places where I might find delight—in
serving and in receiving, in fellowship
and celebration, in sharing the many joys
and griefs and labors, and small and
meaningful moments of which friendships
and fellowships and the community
of saints are finally built.
So let my life here take root,
O Christ, and flourish again,
nurtured by your Spirit
and your people, and
bearing good fruit in time.

Use now even this time of disorientation
to draw my heart closer to yours; to teach
me how better to trust and hope
in your promises, how better
to rest in your love.

Let whatever hardships I endure
for a time be turned—under the sway
of your Spirit—into a more mindful
and active compassion extended toward
others who might suffer similar dismay.

Give me grace enough that I might,
even in my own season of discomfort,
still offer friendship and fellowship to
others who also struggle to find their place.
Let us build good community
and strong friendship
by serving one another.
So let my life here take root,
O Christ, and flourish again,
nurtured by your Spirit
and your people, and
bearing good fruit in time.
Amen.

The ESN Summer Cohort for new graduate students continues tomorrow, Thursday, July 16 at 4:30pm ET. During our time, we will consider what community can look like in graduate school. Academic work does not have to be solitary, and community can enrich the work that we do on our own.

Interested? Contact [email protected].

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. - Hebrews: 10:24-25

When we keep the sabbath holy, we are practicing, for a day, the freedom that God intends for all people.
- Dorothy Bass, Receive the Day

Check out the latest Science Corner post: Scrutiny of the Bounty.

Science Corner: Scrutiny of the Bounty - Emerging Scholars Blog Public science funding is inherently political, and as such is already subject to political input in several ways. Do we need even more oversight?

The ESN Summer Cohort for new graduate students begins tomorrow, Thursday, July 9 at 4:30pm ET. We'll be exploring and engaging with spiritual practices you can carry with you into grad school. Interested? Contact [email protected].