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by Brach Jennings ’11

Sometimes the most important chapters of our lives begin with plans that never happen. I was certain I would attend Western Illinois University, where I had earned a music scholarship and secured a place in the choir. �鶹��Ƶ���� wasn’t even on my radar. However, my plans changed after I met �鶹��Ƶ���� Music Professor, Dr. John Jost at the Illinois All-State Choir Festival in January 2006. Dr. Jost’s dedication, precision, intellect, and humor as a choral director were inspiring. I gave up my plans to attend WIU and began my studies at �鶹��Ƶ���� in August 2006.

�鶹��Ƶ���� offered me challenging classes that led me out of my comfort zone, exposed me to the diversity of the human family, and sparked my interest in becoming a scholar. My professors invested in my success, and I went on to become long-term friends with several of them as I journeyed onward in academia. When I graduated from �鶹��Ƶ���� in 2011 with two BA degrees in music and history, I knew the 190 total credit hours I earned had given me an insatiable appetite for lifelong learning.

What made �鶹��Ƶ���� such an academically rich environment for me were the small class sizes coupled with the opportunity to dive deep into my interests in classical music, history, and general education such as astronomy and African American literature. I became an academic nerd who would willingly wake up at 5:30 a.m. to study a choral music piece by J.S. Bach or read about 16th-century British history. And because �鶹��Ƶ����’s academic tracks gave considerable latitude in course selections, I could follow my intellectual passions while challenging myself to always read as widely as possible.

In the 15 years since I graduated from �鶹��Ƶ����, I have realized that my time on the Hilltop planted the seeds that make me the scholar I am today. �鶹��Ƶ���� taught me how to write clearly, think deeply, read widely, argue persuasively, and communicate compassionately. My educational journey since college has taken me across the United States for three master’s degrees in theology from Lutheran seminaries, to the University of Tübingen in Germany for a doctorate in theology, and now to Austria for a Postdoc at the University of Vienna, where I am part of a team for a digital humanities project and writing my second book. I am also hard at work writing my 10th journal article.

I give �鶹��Ƶ���� the foundational credit for all these things. I didn’t just learn content on the Hilltop; I learned how to learn, including how to “begin anew at the beginning,” as my favorite theologian, Karl Barth, would say. �鶹��Ƶ���� was a safe place for me to try on new perspectives, even if an argument I thought would work fell short in the eyes of my astute professors, which happened more than once!

�鶹��Ƶ���� allowed me to discover who I am and to fully be myself. Part of that discovery involved coming to terms with being both gay and Christian. I’m also what you would call an autistic scholar, something that wasn’t officially recognized until October 2025. Far from shaming me for what are now called “autistic special interests,” my professors embraced me for the huge academic nerd I was and proudly continue to be all these years later!

My time at �鶹��Ƶ���� fundamentally shaped who I am as a scholar, a teacher, a preacher, an American citizen committed to public discourse and reasoned debate, and a human being concerned with doing his part for the future of humanity and our planet. I will be forever grateful for my time at �鶹��Ƶ���� and look forward to engaging the next generation of �鶹��Ƶ���� students any way I can.

Brach S. Jennings ’11 (Dr. theol., University of Tübingen) is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Systematic Theology at the University of Vienna. He is the author of Transfiguring a Theologia Crucis through James Cone (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023) and is currently working on a monograph about Communicative Pneumatology in Karl Barth and Paul Tillich. Jennings teaches and preaches regularly in churches and is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.