Chemistry Grad Finds True Calling to Become a Teacher and Religious Sister

[jojoju1998]

https://news.fullerton.edu/2023/05/chemistry-grad-finds-true-calling-to-become-a-teacher-and-religious-sister/

" For Class of 2023 graduate Kim Nguyễn, it was divine intervention to pursue becoming a chemistry teacher and a Catholic sister.

After graduating from high school, Nguyễn entered the religious order of the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Los Angeles in August 2019. She began to live a life of prayer, service and commitment to God. A few weeks later, she started her journey at Cal State Fullerton to study chemistry.

“Many young people would give a lot of their time and dedication to education, career and success. I felt these worldly pursuits are not the attractions of my heart,” Nguyễn said. “I wrestled with a deeper question: How could my life be a gift to others? My studies, especially chemistry, are a means for me to glorify God and to serve others.”


Science and Faith together. Hmm.... interesting.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     A large chunk of the people in my parish have STEM education, if not work outright in STEM fields. It has gotten to the point where it is an in-joke for us that studying math or physics is a prerequisite to becoming Orthodox. Ultimately, the idea that having faith and doing science are incompatible is more fiction than reality. A study from the University of Michigan found that biological and physical science students tend to do better at maintaining personal faith than humanities/social sciences students do.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

     A large chunk of the people in my parish have STEM education, if not work outright in STEM fields. It has gotten to the point where it is an in-joke for us that studying math or physics is a prerequisite to becoming Orthodox. Ultimately, the idea that having faith and doing science are incompatible is more fiction than reality. A study from the University of Michigan found that biological and physical science students tend to do better at maintaining personal faith than humanities/social sciences students do.

This article seems to cut off randomly, but how are education majors separate from humanities majors?

Whenever I hear anyone, be it Neil deGrasse Tyson or otherwise, cite figures about how religious or irreligious people in certain fields are, I tend to take it with a grain of salt because 1. I've never seen any hard studies showing that 99% of "non-religion philosophers" are irreligious and 2. the obvious caveat that lying with (or even accidentally misinterpreting) statistics is extremely easy and common.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     A large chunk of the people in my parish have STEM education, if not work outright in STEM fields. It has gotten to the point where it is an in-joke for us that studying math or physics is a prerequisite to becoming Orthodox. Ultimately, the idea that having faith and doing science are incompatible is more fiction than reality. A study from the University of Michigan found that biological and physical science students tend to do better at maintaining personal faith than humanities/social sciences students do.

This article seems to cut off randomly, but how are education majors separate from humanities majors?

Whenever I hear anyone, be it Neil deGrasse Tyson or otherwise, cite figures about how religious or irreligious people in certain fields are, I tend to take it with a grain of salt because 1. I've never seen any hard studies showing that 99% of "non-religion philosophers" are irreligious and 2. the obvious caveat that lying with (or even accidentally misinterpreting) statistics is extremely easy and common.

     I tend to assign higher reliability to this than a lot of commentary from the topic since it comes from a source with relatively little stake in a particular outcome (NBER and the University of Michigan). There definitely are reasons to take it with a grain of salt though, not least being the general issues with replication that social science studies face. You make a good point also that it is odd to separate education from humanities writ large.

     With all that said, my overall point though is that I have seen a lot of reason in my life to suspect that science as a field is not actively hostile to religion or, at the least, less hostile than the humanities are. A lot of that is anecdotal, but it is interesting to note that there are also studies that seem to see the same conclusion.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

     A large chunk of the people in my parish have STEM education, if not work outright in STEM fields. It has gotten to the point where it is an in-joke for us that studying math or physics is a prerequisite to becoming Orthodox. Ultimately, the idea that having faith and doing science are incompatible is more fiction than reality. A study from the University of Michigan found that biological and physical science students tend to do better at maintaining personal faith than humanities/social sciences students do.

This article seems to cut off randomly, but how are education majors separate from humanities majors?

Whenever I hear anyone, be it Neil deGrasse Tyson or otherwise, cite figures about how religious or irreligious people in certain fields are, I tend to take it with a grain of salt because 1. I've never seen any hard studies showing that 99% of "non-religion philosophers" are irreligious and 2. the obvious caveat that lying with (or even accidentally misinterpreting) statistics is extremely easy and common.

     I tend to assign higher reliability to this than a lot of commentary from the topic since it comes from a source with relatively little stake in a particular outcome (NBER and the University of Michigan). There definitely are reasons to take it with a grain of salt though, not least being the general issues with replication that social science studies face. You make a good point also that it is odd to separate education from humanities writ large.

     With all that said, my overall point though is that I have seen a lot of reason in my life to suspect that science as a field is not actively hostile to religion or, at the least, less hostile than the humanities are. A lot of that is anecdotal, but it is interesting to note that there are also studies that seem to see the same conclusion.

The humanities are (anecdotally) more favorable to certain types of religion but very much not to others. A Western Buddhist or someone committed to a traditionally left-leaning neopagan current would do a lot better socially in most humanities fields than someone vocally Orthodox Christian or, God forbid, Orthodox Jewish.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

    A large chunk of the people in my parish have STEM education, if not work outright in STEM fields. It has gotten to the point where it is an in-joke for us that studying math or physics is a prerequisite to becoming Orthodox. Ultimately, the idea that having faith and doing science are incompatible is more fiction than reality. A study from the University of Michigan found that biological and physical science students tend to do better at maintaining personal faith than humanities/social sciences students do.

I've heard that the Orthodox in general (or maybe the Russian Orthodox in particular) are one of America's wealthiest relogious groups.

(Coincidentally I happen to be in SF atm and hung out w/ an Orthodox friend getting a biochem PhD)

[Associate Justice PiT]

     A large chunk of the people in my parish have STEM education, if not work outright in STEM fields. It has gotten to the point where it is an in-joke for us that studying math or physics is a prerequisite to becoming Orthodox. Ultimately, the idea that having faith and doing science are incompatible is more fiction than reality. A study from the University of Michigan found that biological and physical science students tend to do better at maintaining personal faith than humanities/social sciences students do.

This article seems to cut off randomly, but how are education majors separate from humanities majors?

Whenever I hear anyone, be it Neil deGrasse Tyson or otherwise, cite figures about how religious or irreligious people in certain fields are, I tend to take it with a grain of salt because 1. I've never seen any hard studies showing that 99% of "non-religion philosophers" are irreligious and 2. the obvious caveat that lying with (or even accidentally misinterpreting) statistics is extremely easy and common.

     I tend to assign higher reliability to this than a lot of commentary from the topic since it comes from a source with relatively little stake in a particular outcome (NBER and the University of Michigan). There definitely are reasons to take it with a grain of salt though, not least being the general issues with replication that social science studies face. You make a good point also that it is odd to separate education from humanities writ large.

     With all that said, my overall point though is that I have seen a lot of reason in my life to suspect that science as a field is not actively hostile to religion or, at the least, less hostile than the humanities are. A lot of that is anecdotal, but it is interesting to note that there are also studies that seem to see the same conclusion.

The humanities are (anecdotally) more favorable to certain types of religion but very much not to others. A Western Buddhist or someone committed to a traditionally left-leaning neopagan current would do a lot better socially in most humanities fields than someone vocally Orthodox Christian or, God forbid, Orthodox Jewish.

     Out of curiosity, are you aware of specific incidents concerning Orthodox Jews in academia? I don't doubt what you are saying, but it intrigues me that you called that out specifically.

     A large chunk of the people in my parish have STEM education, if not work outright in STEM fields. It has gotten to the point where it is an in-joke for us that studying math or physics is a prerequisite to becoming Orthodox. Ultimately, the idea that having faith and doing science are incompatible is more fiction than reality. A study from the University of Michigan found that biological and physical science students tend to do better at maintaining personal faith than humanities/social sciences students do.

I've heard that the Orthodox in general (or maybe the Russian Orthodox in particular) are one of America's wealthiest relogious groups.

(Coincidentally I happen to be in SF atm and hung out w/ an Orthodox friend getting a biochem PhD)

     I think the Greeks tend to be wealthier than the Russians, but in terms of wealth it is relevant that the Bay Area (which it goes without saying is very expensive) is a historical nexus of Russian Orthodox presence, with six churches being located in San Francisco alone. There's also a huge number of churches in the Northeast. Orthodoxy is just starting to branch out into rural America and find converts among segments of the population that are less well-to-do.

     Incidentally, if you haven't done so yet I strongly recommend you visit Holy Virgin Cathedral.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

     A large chunk of the people in my parish have STEM education, if not work outright in STEM fields. It has gotten to the point where it is an in-joke for us that studying math or physics is a prerequisite to becoming Orthodox. Ultimately, the idea that having faith and doing science are incompatible is more fiction than reality. A study from the University of Michigan found that biological and physical science students tend to do better at maintaining personal faith than humanities/social sciences students do.

I've heard that the Orthodox in general (or maybe the Russian Orthodox in particular) are one of America's wealthiest relogious groups.

(Coincidentally I happen to be in SF atm and hung out w/ an Orthodox friend getting a biochem PhD)

     I think the Greeks tend to be wealthier than the Russians, but in terms of wealth it is relevant that the Bay Area (which it goes without saying is very expensive) is a historical nexus of Russian Orthodox presence, with six churches being located in San Francisco alone. There's also a huge number of churches in the Northeast. Orthodoxy is just starting to branch out into rural America and find converts among segments of the population that are less well-to-do.

     Incidentally, if you haven't done so yet I strongly recommend you visit Holy Virgin Cathedral.

I know a minimal bit about Russian migration to the West Coast--St John of Shang-Hai and San Francisco and such--and I've visited Brighton Beach (which looked substantially more working-class than the Russian/post-Russian areas of SF I've seen), though didn't look at any (non-Catholic) churches in NYC.

As for Holy Virgin, I might go to church with said Orthodox friend next Sunday in SF, though we had discussed the aforementioned St John instead. Checking the map this morning though, I didn't realize how far away it is... so Holy Virgin might be on the list! I'm actually about an hour's walk from it right now.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     A large chunk of the people in my parish have STEM education, if not work outright in STEM fields. It has gotten to the point where it is an in-joke for us that studying math or physics is a prerequisite to becoming Orthodox. Ultimately, the idea that having faith and doing science are incompatible is more fiction than reality. A study from the University of Michigan found that biological and physical science students tend to do better at maintaining personal faith than humanities/social sciences students do.

I've heard that the Orthodox in general (or maybe the Russian Orthodox in particular) are one of America's wealthiest relogious groups.

(Coincidentally I happen to be in SF atm and hung out w/ an Orthodox friend getting a biochem PhD)

     I think the Greeks tend to be wealthier than the Russians, but in terms of wealth it is relevant that the Bay Area (which it goes without saying is very expensive) is a historical nexus of Russian Orthodox presence, with six churches being located in San Francisco alone. There's also a huge number of churches in the Northeast. Orthodoxy is just starting to branch out into rural America and find converts among segments of the population that are less well-to-do.

     Incidentally, if you haven't done so yet I strongly recommend you visit Holy Virgin Cathedral.

I know a minimal bit about Russian migration to the West Coast--St John of Shang-Hai and San Francisco and such--and I've visited Brighton Beach (which looked substantially more working-class than the Russian/post-Russian areas of SF I've seen), though didn't look at any (non-Catholic) churches in NYC.

As for Holy Virgin, I might go to church with said Orthodox friend next Sunday in SF, though we had discussed the aforementioned St John instead. Checking the map this morning though, I didn't realize how far away it is... so Holy Virgin might be on the list! I'm actually about an hour's walk from it right now.

     I'm not sure what St. John Church you are referring to as Holy Virgin is where St. John's relics are located. I've visited it a couple of times myself, but I have not had the chance to go there for a liturgy yet.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

     A large chunk of the people in my parish have STEM education, if not work outright in STEM fields. It has gotten to the point where it is an in-joke for us that studying math or physics is a prerequisite to becoming Orthodox. Ultimately, the idea that having faith and doing science are incompatible is more fiction than reality. A study from the University of Michigan found that biological and physical science students tend to do better at maintaining personal faith than humanities/social sciences students do.

I've heard that the Orthodox in general (or maybe the Russian Orthodox in particular) are one of America's wealthiest relogious groups.

(Coincidentally I happen to be in SF atm and hung out w/ an Orthodox friend getting a biochem PhD)

     I think the Greeks tend to be wealthier than the Russians, but in terms of wealth it is relevant that the Bay Area (which it goes without saying is very expensive) is a historical nexus of Russian Orthodox presence, with six churches being located in San Francisco alone. There's also a huge number of churches in the Northeast. Orthodoxy is just starting to branch out into rural America and find converts among segments of the population that are less well-to-do.

     Incidentally, if you haven't done so yet I strongly recommend you visit Holy Virgin Cathedral.

I know a minimal bit about Russian migration to the West Coast--St John of Shang-Hai and San Francisco and such--and I've visited Brighton Beach (which looked substantially more working-class than the Russian/post-Russian areas of SF I've seen), though didn't look at any (non-Catholic) churches in NYC.

As for Holy Virgin, I might go to church with said Orthodox friend next Sunday in SF, though we had discussed the aforementioned St John instead. Checking the map this morning though, I didn't realize how far away it is... so Holy Virgin might be on the list! I'm actually about an hour's walk from it right now.

     I'm not sure what St. John Church you are referring to as Holy Virgin is where St. John's relics are located. I've visited it a couple of times myself, but I have not had the chance to go there for a liturgy yet.

There should be a cathedral or church of St John of Shang-Hai and San Francisco ("the aforementioned"), although the one Google shows me is suspiciously far from the city, so maybe I'm misremembering my 2018 visit, but I did have a prayer card of his from whatever church I did visit.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     A large chunk of the people in my parish have STEM education, if not work outright in STEM fields. It has gotten to the point where it is an in-joke for us that studying math or physics is a prerequisite to becoming Orthodox. Ultimately, the idea that having faith and doing science are incompatible is more fiction than reality. A study from the University of Michigan found that biological and physical science students tend to do better at maintaining personal faith than humanities/social sciences students do.

I've heard that the Orthodox in general (or maybe the Russian Orthodox in particular) are one of America's wealthiest relogious groups.

(Coincidentally I happen to be in SF atm and hung out w/ an Orthodox friend getting a biochem PhD)

     I think the Greeks tend to be wealthier than the Russians, but in terms of wealth it is relevant that the Bay Area (which it goes without saying is very expensive) is a historical nexus of Russian Orthodox presence, with six churches being located in San Francisco alone. There's also a huge number of churches in the Northeast. Orthodoxy is just starting to branch out into rural America and find converts among segments of the population that are less well-to-do.

     Incidentally, if you haven't done so yet I strongly recommend you visit Holy Virgin Cathedral.

I know a minimal bit about Russian migration to the West Coast--St John of Shang-Hai and San Francisco and such--and I've visited Brighton Beach (which looked substantially more working-class than the Russian/post-Russian areas of SF I've seen), though didn't look at any (non-Catholic) churches in NYC.

As for Holy Virgin, I might go to church with said Orthodox friend next Sunday in SF, though we had discussed the aforementioned St John instead. Checking the map this morning though, I didn't realize how far away it is... so Holy Virgin might be on the list! I'm actually about an hour's walk from it right now.

     I'm not sure what St. John Church you are referring to as Holy Virgin is where St. John's relics are located. I've visited it a couple of times myself, but I have not had the chance to go there for a liturgy yet.

There should be a cathedral or church of St John of Shang-Hai and San Francisco ("the aforementioned"), although the one Google shows me is suspiciously far from the city, so maybe I'm misremembering my 2018 visit, but I did have a prayer card of his from whatever church I did visit.

     The church you found is schismatic. (Not that that is necessarily an impediment for you since you wouldn't take communion anyway.) I am guessing Holy Virgin probably is the one you are thinking of. I have met people who mistakenly believed it was dedicated to St. John, and the school that the cathedral operates is in fact under his patronage.