Living, Learning, and Praying in the “Auld, grey, toon”: Alumna Abigail Anderson Pursues Graduate Studies in Scotland | Thomas More College

Living, Learning, and Praying in the “Auld, grey, toon”: Alumna Abigail Anderson Pursues Graduate Studies
in Scotland

An Interview by Bridget Ruffing, ’22

Miss Anderson, you are currently attending the University of St. Andrews in Scotland as a graduate student in Intellectual History. How did you come to this decision? What are your ultimate educational and career plans? 

I had not considered St. Andrews until speaking to some of my professors at Thomas More—Dr. Denis Kitzinger and Dr. Sara Kitzinger, and Dr. William Fahey and Dr. Amy Fahey—about their own experiences as graduate students here. They all spoke highly of the education. Coming from professors at Thomas More College, where every step of my education was stellar, the praise carried a lot of weight.

During my junior and senior years at TMC, I spoke several times with Dean Walter J. Thompson about graduate school and the reasons for pursuing postgraduate education. He advised me to consider my ultimate goals, and not to seek a doctorate unless I felt a vocation to teach at the college level. The first time we spoke, I had no interest in teaching college and had my sights set on a nursing career, so graduate school was not seriously in my mind. However, by the end of my second semester junior year, my plans changed completely. While taking the Humanities VI course with Dr. Sara Kitzinger, I realized two things: first, I had never been so completely absorbed in any subject as I was in the Enlightenment, and second, I felt strongly called to give to other students the education my professors at TMC had given to me—in other words, I wanted to teach at the college level. 

After this, I spoke to professors from TMC and other institutions about which degree would be a good fit. At an Intercollegiate Studies Institute program in Colorado, I described to Villanova’s Dr. Mark Shiffman what my ideal degree course was, and he said I had just reinvented Intellectual History! From there, I looked into the best Intellectual History programs around the world, and ended up at St Andrews. The Institute of Intellectual History here has a very high concentration of serious intellectual historians, and is one of the most respected in the world. 

While I worked as a Marguerite Eyer Wilbur Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, I reached out to Dr. Richard Whatmore, the Institute’s director, and decided to apply shortly thereafter.

I chose to make the program I am currently in a time of discernment—do I really feel called to scholarship and teaching for the rest of my life? Since studying here in St. Andrews, the answer to that question has become extremely clear. After this program ends next September, I intend to continue on with doctoral work, either at St Andrews or another institution, and then teach at the college level. I truly feel called to give other college students the human formation that my professors at Thomas More gave to me, and to spend the rest of my life sharing that incredible good.

One of the integral aspects of a TMC education is the sophomore spring semester, spent abroad exploring the rich culture and history of Rome. Did the Rome semester prepare you in any way for living and studying in Scotland? Do you have a favorite memory from this semester? 

Rome certainly taught me how to pack light! It also gave me the confidence to live abroad on my own, and a taste for living in Europe. Since Dr. Paul Connell’s Art & Architecture class in Rome, I have been in love with beautiful architecture, and the old buildings in and around St. Andrews were definitely a selling point for me when deciding on a graduate school. I currently live in Canmore Catholic Chaplaincy on The Scores, a street which has some of the most beautiful homes in St Andrews.

Rome also taught me to seek out my own spiritual enrichment within a community. Rome can be more difficult than other semesters because your class is almost an island without the College’s other classes and faculty. Being in Rome, you learn to lean on the people you have around you, and seek out whatever opportunities for spiritual growth you have, even if those are by yourself or with people you wouldn’t have expected to seek them alongside. This helped me grow much more profoundly than I would if it had been easier.

Choosing a favorite memory from Rome is completely impossible, as any post-Rome TMC student is keenly aware, so I can’t give you a direct answer to that! So instead of picking a favorite, I’ll just tell you the first memory that comes to mind: early morning Mass at St. Peter’s, almost before dawn, nobody around except us and the others attending Mass. At the time of the Consecration, all over the Basilica, little bells start ringing, first at one altar, then at another and another. Each little pinpoint of sound is heaven coming down to earth, an indoor meteor shower, and we’re right in the middle of it. To me, it’s an image of the Rome semester as a whole: God’s perfect intentionality in placing us where we are, and our undeserved grace in being there at all.

Another important piece of the education of a TMC student is the Junior Project and Senior Thesis Defenses. Did either help you to discover the direction you wanted to take after graduation?

My Junior Project and Senior Thesis were both on Scripture, so even though they did not directly influence my graduate plans in terms of subject matter—I’m currently focusing on the Enlightenment—they absolutely gave me confidence in independent research, directed reading, and the verbal defense of my research. Without the JP and thesis defenses, I would be walking into unknown territory, less prepared for the academic world, an arena which expects scholars to be able to articulate and defend their own ideas. I would also be much more terrified of my viva (live questioning) at the end of the year, which will be exactly the same type of defense as those I undertook at TMC, except this time for a Master’s degree! I am extremely grateful for the intensity of my undergraduate defenses, as I know other students who have never had to go through a similar process and are understandably unnerved at the idea.

You spent the past year between graduating from TMC and attending graduate school as a Wilbur Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center. Can you briefly comment on that experience? In what way did it build upon what you had begun at Thomas More College, and prepare you for this next step?

The Wilbur Fellowship allowed me the freedom to continue my independent research, apply for graduate school, and be part of an academic community outside of Thomas More. The conversations I had at the Kirk Center were quite formative—my TMC classmate Evangeline Soutsos was at the Kirk Center with me as a Wilbur Fellow, and we were able to take our education into a broader intellectual world through our discussions with each other and the people we met at the Kirk Center.

How did your experience of the social and spiritual life at Thomas More College help prepare you for the life of a graduate student in a medieval Scottish town?

The social and spiritual life at TMC set a very high standard for any community I will ever be a part of afterward. If you immerse yourself in the whole course of formation at Thomas More, you are prepared to leave the most excellent of communities, cast out into the deep, and seek out the new places that God has in mind for you. TMC gave me the resources to pursue spiritual growth, recognize a good community and become an active part of it, see my vocation in the present moment, and seek God before all other things. Shortly after arriving in St Andrews, I joined the Catholic Society here, and have been so grateful to find a community with a lot of the same attributes. Graduate life can be quite isolating, but Catholic graduate life at St Andrews is a different story, and I’m loving every minute of it.

Do you have a favorite memory or two from your time at Thomas More College?

As with Rome, it’s impossible to answer this question. My favorite memory is just the whole four years, because I loved every day I had at Thomas More. I owe to each of my professors more than I could express, and I carry with me the memory of each class and conversation with them. These teachers changed my life completely by giving theirs in service to students like me. However, generally speaking, I treasure most the memories I have with my classmates of 2019. They are some of the smartest, most hilarious, most absurd, sweetest, and best friends anyone could ask for. Many of them are my friends for life. The best friendships are formed by mutual love of a good, and my friendships at TMC came from our mutual love of truth, goodness, and beauty. These people made each class many times more enriching with their insights and dedication, were the most fun group to be with outside of class, formed me as a person, and helped me seek sainthood and love God better. What more could one ask for?

 

For further reading:

“An Apprenticeship in the Art of Being Human:” Interviews with Teaching Alumni

Thomas More Alumna Professes First Vows

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