4 minute read
THIS IS THE WAY, WALK IN IT
BY CYNDI LAMB '74
IN THE SUMMER OF 2019, Madison Palmer '20 arrived in Costa Rica with a contingent of SNU students and their professor Dr. Anna Harper. Unlike most students who visit SNU’s Quetzal Research Center, they were not there to study ecology or sustainability, rather, they were there to study love. Their mission was to add a cross-cultural component to the research they had been conducting in the US on what compassionate love looks like.
As the students met with the volunteers to start interviews and hand out surveys, Madison found herself captivated as she watched Dr. Harper engaging with total strangers in a new country. Even though they had come to study the views of this culture, she found herself studying her professor.
Madison Palmer and fellow presenter after poster session at the 2022 annual meeting of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies held at Wheaton College
Palmer had already learned so much from Dr. Harper while taking her classes and while volunteering in the Love Lab - an extracurricular research group. In the Lab, Harper supervised students who were conducting research on how our view of God correlates with how we love and who we choose to love.
In her classroom, Madison realized her professor had a true mastery of her subject and felt grateful to be on the receiving end of so much knowledge. She had also been amazed as she observed time and again the grace and love Dr. Harper extended to her students. But watching her in action in this new environment was even more eye-opening.
“We all knew Prof. Harper was an expert on love,” said Palmer. “But in Costa Rica I saw her embody love. She didn’t come in as a distinguished professor with her doctorate degree; she came in with a desire to create space for people to speak into. She listened and engaged with humility. The teacher came to learn.”
Madison says the trip to Costa Rica confirmed her own calling. As a missionary kid who grew up in Belize, a small country in Central America, she had been exposed to a broader world than many. Yet, until Costa Rica she felt her relationship with God was mostly internal.
Thanks to SNU and the Psychology Department, that all changed. “I began to expand my understanding of the Christian life. It wasn’t just about me and God; it included the people God had created and brought across my path. Love meant action.”
Palmer’s desire to be a psychologist and interact with others was formed and solidified in her undergrad days. The trip to Costa Rica clarified for her that she wanted to work in a multicultural setting. And Dr. Harper demonstrated exactly how to do that.
Madison Palmer and Dr. Anna Harper (center) after presenting a paper at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion held in St. Louis, MO
Palmer is still impacted by her days at SNU. She and Dr. Harper have continued to stay in touch with Dr. Harper becoming a friend and a mentor. Much about her former professor inspires Madison but none more than how she genuinely relates to people. “She doesn't treat people as just students or just subjects in a study, but enters into authentic, intentional relationship with those she comes in contact with - even those that cross her path for just a short time.”
Madison is now working towards her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Wheaton College. Her dissertation will be on cultural humility and how understanding the need for it affects the treatment and diagnosis of clients. Once again she’s part of a research group called the Multicultural Peace & Justice Collaborative. She sees it as a further way to lean into her calling. The Good Neighbor Project - one part of the research training - seeks to understand how to promote Christians’ prosocial beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that are consistent with Biblical callings for multiculturalism, social justice, and peace.
When finished with her education, Palmer plans to work as a clinician among those who have been underserved in the mental health profession - persons from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and from diverse racial and ethnic communities. This is what compassionate love looks like for her.
For Madison this is the way of love. The way of compassion. The way of Jesus. And it’s the way she hopes to follow.
