How do we find hope?

My core milestone experience draws on the lived experiences of peers to see what sustains us

By Kelsey Fahy

My majors: Sociology, Religious Studies, and Psychology

In Tijuana, Mexico on a Nazareth alternative break experience

How do people find hope amid suffering? This question is one that both my coursework and experiential learning opportunities have inspired me to explore. Throughout my time at Naz, I’ve had the privilege of bearing witness to people’s stories: grassroots activists of the civil rights movement; genocide victims in Cambodia, Germany, and Poland; and migrants in San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico. These experiences have led me to reflect on my own life and engage questions with my peers. What sustains people through suffering? How can people find meaning, community, and hope?

As a project for my Core Milestone Experience course, I chose the question about hope amid suffering as my enduring question and explored it by interviewing eight students, identifying themes, and reflecting on their responses. My CME project is built on three "integrative studies" courses of my choosing: Racism, Intersectionality & Social Justice; Eyewitness to Genocide; and Abnormal Psychology. 

With friends from Nazareth (I’m third from left) in Warsaw, Poland on The March: Bearing Witness to Hope Holocaust education trip

The Core Milestone Experience helped me to see the value in an interdisciplinary approach, and to connect my experiential learning to the classroom. This was an opportunity to hone in on a question that I was passionate about and be creative throughout the process. I realized how much I enjoyed interviewing students and synthesizing the information in a way that was meaningful to me.

Crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the Civil Rights Journey

My main takeaway from this project is that joy, hope, and love are a choice. How and why do we continue to choose hope and make meaning out of our lives? Well, perhaps in many ways, this is the only way to live to the fullest extent. Our ability to persist in the face of struggle is largely reliant on community. By building deep relationships, we can engage in shared experiences that shape us and the meaning in our lives.

Even during tumultuous times, we must not forget that many people have overcome adversity. And, we must not forget that joy, while transient, is a choice. When we do experience moments of awe, joy, and happiness even in the mundane aspects of life, we should embrace them as best we can.

Study abroad experience in Cambodia: Theam’s Gallery in Siem Reap

Kelsey Fahy ’27, who is from Victor, New York, started as a sociology major and says, “I am grateful to have found my love for religious studies and psychology at Naz.” Completing college credits in high school enables her time to pursue all three majors in college.