An Educational and Ministerial Profile of Latino/a Seminarians

This is the second of a series of Latino Research@ND reports focusing on Latinos/as and theological education. It analyzes what a quantitative survey of Latino/a theological students reveals about the educational and ministerial backgrounds of Latino/a seminarians. We find that Latinos/as arrive at seminary with considerable community and religious leadership experience. They also come from comparatively less formally educated families than their white non-Hispanic peers?a reality that might complicate their social and academic acclimation to graduate school. We conclude that seminaries need both to recognize the challenges that their Latino/a students face and to welcome the experiences and perspectives that they bring to the seminary community.