Wade Meyer
Wade Meyer was born in a small town in Kansas and grew up in an Anabaptist church. At Bradley University, in Illinois, he majored in international studies with a minor in women’s studies. While in college, he came out as gay. After graduation, he joined AmeriCorps for a year and then did sexual violence prevention at the women’s center at Minnesota State University in Mankato, and then for two years at Dartmouth College.
Meyer came to PSR because he liked what he knew of its emphasis on social justice, including the Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies. “CLGS was important because they’re not just saying ‘Gay people are okay.’ They’re talking about pastoral care and about celebration rather than just tolerance. That was a big draw for me.”
After his second year here, Meyer is impressed by the new MDiv curriculum. “What PSR wants us to do as we go out into the world to be religious leaders is to really think about frameworks and context — we talk about context all of the time! One of the biggest things PSR has done for me is to let the world be complex — not try to simplify it or divide it up into little categories or components. Another thing I really value here are the students. A lot of the students have a real drive to do justice work, and they have the ability to articulate it as well as to do it. People here have been really incredible and inspiring.”
photography by Hilary Marckx
