Anelynda Mielke
MTSD, 2012
I came to Wycliffe College with an undergraduate degree in Political Science. I wanted to gain a better more systematic understanding of theology and to work out my own system for thinking of and relating to the Divine. I also wanted a program that had a fieldwork component and allowed me to explore some community development principles.
While completing my Master of Theological Studies in Development, I spent four months in The Gambia studying human trafficking, which formed the topic of my thesis in my second year. The classes I took on community development in a theological context helped me build personal philosophies and systems of thought on issues of social injustice, which informed my internship as well as my subsequent academic and practical work in anti-human trafficking and grassroots activism. My Systematic Theology class remains a highlight because it expanded my understanding of the Divine from an intellectual standpoint, which impacted me experientially.
After graduating from Wycliffe, I spent a year working for International Justice Mission (IJM) in Mumbai, India. My role was in communications for the field office in Mumbai which focused on anti-human trafficking, a role that built on my master’s thesis fieldwork. After my year at IJM, I started a PhD in Sociology, where my focus became grassroots slum activism in Mumbai. I am currently in the final stage of my PhD and am also on maternity leave from my job at RBC Ventures, where I co-founded a Venture named Boomerang that aims to help Canadian retirees battle loneliness and social isolation.
My time at Wycliffe was a life-changing experience. The rigorous academic study at Wycliffe helped me find comfort among my many spiritual questions. I developed a better understanding of how to seek and how to ask helpful questions of spiritual texts.
