Hello to all! This is Nicholas Senz, the new Director of Religious Education at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I'm very pleased to be joining the staff and eager to get to know you all. Toward that end, I thought I'd post a short bio here for those who are interested.
First thing, my name: on official documents and such I write "Nicholas," but you are more than welcome to call me Nick. I'll answer to either, as well as "Big Guy" and "Hey, you"--as my grandfather says, you can call me anything, just don't call me late to supper!
Now, on to the basics.... I was born and raised in a small farming community called Verboort, about 25 miles west of Portland, Oregon. I'm the third of four children (1 girl, then 3 boys), but the tallest of the bunch. (I'm 6'4" with my shoes on.) Grains and cattle surrounded me, and my church and my elementary school were just a half mile down the road. That little church and little parish school were where my faith was first formed, as well as in my home.
My public high school was the first time I stepped out of my little Catholic sphere and started to encounter more non-Catholics: Evangelicals, Baptists, Mormons, Jews, and non-religious kids. I started to ask, "Why do they believe differently from me? Why do I believe what I believe?" And I began to read and learn more about my faith, and found it enriching and enlivening, and I grew in my knowledge of the faith and in my relationship with God. No doubt, too, the grace of the sacrament of Confirmation, which I received in my freshman year of high school, played a role in that.
To fast forward a little: I attended the University of Portland, a Holy Cross school, where I studied Communication Studies (with an emphasis in journalism), thinking I would be a sportswriter, but quickly departing from that vision. After graduation, I worked for Wells Fargo Bank for two years, then decided to enter the seminary and discern a possible vocation to the priesthood with the Holy Cross Fathers. After two and a half years of spiritual formation and theological education for which I am very grateful, I determined that God was not calling me to the priesthood. I also determined that I wanted to continue to study theology. I wanted to learn more about my faith so that I could help others to do the same, since as St. Anselm of Canterbury said, ours is always a fides quaerens intellectum, "a faith seeking understanding." So, I went back to Oregon for a year, and spent that time applying to graduate programs.
In the end, I chose to attend the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, which brought me here to California. I spent three years earning master's degrees in both theology and philosophy. During that time, I met my wonderful wife, and together we have a son, and a little girl on the way in July! Last fall I defended my thesis, which you are welcome to see if you're either very interested in abstruse philosophical and theological points, or if you suffer from insomnia, and after spending a year and a half working in the debt collection industry (have to pay the bills somehow!), I am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to work in the field of my interests and passion.
My prior experiences have prepared me well for this position. I've previously taught religious education to both children and adults; I've tutored high school students preparing for college entrance exams and homeless adults doing remedial work in math and reading; and I've previously served part-time as Faith Formation Coordinator for another parish. I'm excited to be joining the staff of this community to help form the faith of this parish. Please, come say hi after Mass, call my office, drop me an email! I'm here at your disposal.
No comments:
Post a Comment