Coming Home to Chaminade and Paying it Forward

Coming Home to Chaminade and Paying it Forward AS PART OF AN EFFORT TO OPEN THEOLOGICAL STUDIES TO MORE LAYPEOPLE, CHAMINADE HAS SIGNIFICANTLY BROADENED ITS MASTER OF PASTORAL THEOLOGY (MPT) PROGRAM TO INCLUDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN EDUCATION, ETHICS, CAMPUS MINISTRY, PASTORAL COUNSELING AND OTHER DIRECT SERVICE POSITIONS.

The MPT master’s degree at Chaminade has traditionally been geared toward a diaconate track.

But the program now welcomes those outside of that cohort—and is already seeing more students.

Dr. Dustyn Ragasa, director of the Pastoral Theology master’s degree program, said difficult philosophical and ethical questions facing our communities have driven up interest in theological studies programs nationally. He added that the MPT program at Chaminade is individualized to each student, offering a diversity of pathways and a curriculum designed to promote personal growth. "Someone once told me that Hawai'i is not a melting pot, but a mixed plate,” Ragasa said.

“Each culture’s specific contribution is not homogenized or boiled down to a set of common denominators, but preserved in their integrity so as to enrich through diversity. The MPT recognizes the specific gifts of culture that our students make to the learning experience. This kind of ‘mixed plate theology’ draws upon our heritages (and place-based theologies) so as to share them.”

FINDING HIS WAY

Ragasa ‘07, who is also an assistant professor of Religious Studies at Chaminade, followed his own unique pathway to leadership at the University. He said he came to Chaminade a bit lost after dropping out of Waimea High School on Kaua'i and then completing his GED. On his first day on campus—as the first student in his family to ever attend college—he wasn’t sure if he would be able to “hack it.”

“I thought, ‘I’m going to fail my first week.’ But the professors I had were so supportive from the beginning. When I was struggling, I knew they would be there,” he said, adding he was determined to succeed. And that’s exactly what he did—so much so that his professors encouraged him to pursue graduate studies and then helped him plot a course to a theology program on the mainland.

“They identified strengths in me that I couldn’t see in myself,” Ragasa said.

After graduating from Chaminade, Ragasa went on to earn a master’s degree from The Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology and a doctoral degree from the Graduate Theological Union. He said while earning his graduate degrees, he pledged to himself to use