Careers and Outcomes

A degree in religion studies from Elmhurst leads to a cornucopia of opportunities.

Graduates who have chosen a life of ministry have thrived as pastors, professors, counselors, youth ministers, chaplains and ministers of music. Other religion studies majors have succeeded in:

  • Law
  • Teaching
  • Nursing
  • Medicine
  • Social work
  • Clinical psychology
  • Human resource management

Our alumni include:

  • Reinhold Niebuhr, 1910, one of the 20th century’s foremost theologians
  • H. Richard Niebuhr, 1912, president of Elmhurst University from 1924 to 1927 and a prominent theological ethicist
  • Walter Brueggemann ’55, Old Testament scholar and professor
  • Susan Schreiner ’74, professor at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School
  • LaShawn Jakes ’97, Elmhurst University Trustee and Baptist pastor in Chicago
  • Marsha Sumner ’05, Manager, Spiritual Care at University of Chicago Hospitals
  • Emily Odean ’09, minister
  • Kyle Tade ’10, minister
  • Sarah Frische-Mouri ’10, minister
  • Arik Borstad ’11, minister
  • Emily Labrecque ’11, pastor
  • Maureen Elliot ’12, pastor
  • Brian Kendrik ’14, graduate student at North Park Seminary
  • Ryan Walsh ’14, graduate student at Fuller Theological Seminary
  • Benjamin Williams ’16, graduate student at Luther Seminary

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