New Students, Fall 2004

Embracing Ministry :
Nicole Diroff

Nicole Diroff's journey to seminary began "with loving Christian parents who raised me in the church," she says. She graduated from college in 2002 with degrees in mathematics and environmental studies, doing contract work for a time with the Environmental Protection Agency. She moved to New Jersey recently with husband Jeremy, who took a position with an animal hospital in Paramus. She was then engaged to develop a youth program for middle and high school youth at Packanack Community Church in Wayne, PA. It was the congregational home for her grandparents, the church where her parents were married and where she was baptized. "I began to feel God was calling me to embrace ministry as a life-long endeavor," she says. She decided to pursue ordination as a member of the United Church of Christ, thinking she would be most comfortable at a UCC seminary. But she decided to spend a day at LTSP. "I immediately connected with everyone that I met on campus. The worship service I attended was beautiful. The class I visited was thought-provoking, and I felt really at home during lunch, where the community gathered together. To top it off, she attended an ordination event for someone entering the ministry who said to her, "Go young. Don't wait. Go now!" Nicole says she is thrilled to be at a seminary where the faculty is "so open to sharing their faith journeys and which has such a diversity of race, gender, life experience and religious convictions." She is discerning whether to pursue a professional path in youth ministry, service as a pastoral counselor or college chaplain.