A Chat with Breanne MacFarland (MDiv/MSW ’22)
Breanne MacFarland, a third-year student in the Social Work & Theology Dual Degree Program, explains why she chose BU and what it means to her to serve as the graduate student representative on the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing with BU’s Board of Trustees.
Q. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you’re studying at Boston University.
I am an MDiv/MSW student in my third of four years. I moved here to Boston from Vermont, specifically for school.
I am not 100% sure where I’m from – I never really love that question – but I lived in Alaska, rural Alaska, for six years and still feel a strong connection to the land and the community and the people in Alaska. I am part of a socially responsible investing committee that spoke to me as a way of helping the types of communities in Alaska that also exist in Boston.
Q. Why did you choose this program – why BU?
I initially applied to BU’s School of Theology and I was considering that program along with the Candler School of Theology at Emory in Atlanta. Ultimately I just love how creative BU’s School of Theology is. Their admissions application essays were about your favorite movie or your favorite book and how you connect that to the world around you, and their requests for scholarships were to create a videotape. I thought, if admissions is this creative I wonder what it’d be like to go to school there.
Q. What attracted you to the prospect of earning a master’s in social work in addition to divinity studies?
I feel like I’m always the person who just loves a little bit of everything. I have a hard time making up my mind 100% about what exactly it is I want to do. I felt like being able to study two different things might help me narrow down what I wanted. That may sound counterintuitive, but I just really didn’t know if I wanted to go to school to be a nurse or to be in business or finance. So, when I finally decided to go to BU for theology, I thought, ‘How can I use this to also help people in a really practical way?’ The theology degree is amazing and very connected to my spiritual side, but the School of Social Work really brings things into a tangible light where I feel like I can actually put my boots on the ground.
Q. In addition to your studies, you are a student representative with Boston University’s Board of Trustees. What exactly does the Board do?
The Trustees for Boston University oversee the entire university. They make sure that things are running well financially, and they also make sure that President Brown is doing his job.
Q. Tell us a little about your job on the subcommittee of the Board.
As a smaller working group on socially responsible investment policy issues, my subcommittee advises the Board and writes up proposed issues for the Board’s consideration. The trustees want to have an answer about divestment by fall of 2021, and they’re looking at the committee to get this done in about a year’s time so that they can move forward on certain financial decisions.
Q. What is your role as a student representative?
In our subcommittee, there are three trustees, three faculty members and three students. The student group is two undergrad students and myself, a graduate student. It’s been really fascinating because a lot of time when I go to committee meetings, people want to talk and work for extended periods of time on projects, but this committee is highly motivated to get work done to produce a presentation for the Trustees. I thought it was great, because we’re gonna get some stuff done.
My role is to represent the voice of the graduate student body. Starting in January [2021], we’re going to start having speakers and events that students can attend. I’ll be reaching out to each of the graduate schools to invite people to the events, and then I’ll stay after the events to debrief or talk about what had been discussed. The talks will be focused on finances, divestment – just responsible investing. The idea is that I can hear from a variety of students, and then report back on the graduate students’ feedback on if they want the proposed idea to happen or not.
Q. What do you want to get out of your time on the subcommittee?
I really hope to connect with a lot of different students from many different schools. I feel like I’m pretty involved with the School of Social Work and the School of Theology, but I want to make sure that those aren’t the only two schools being represented. And I am really excited to just be in a greater part of Boston University.
Interview by Anuj Sawhney (CAS, Kilachand ’24)