EU’s New Chaplain, Amanda Gott, Set to Start on Campus This Summer
Elmhurst University announced the hiring of its new chaplain, the Rev. Amanda Gott, in an email on Friday, March 6. She will begin work this summer and live in a residence on campus.
Gott is originally from Atlanta and currently lives in Sewanee, Tenn., where she serves as interfaith chaplain at the University of the South. Prior to being a campus chaplain, Gott worked in parish ministry as a priest for 17 years.
Gott also became friends with the director of religious and spiritual life at Doane University in Nebraska, where she had the opportunity to have spiritual conversations with faculty and staff.
“I loved it. And was like, ‘Wow, I could really see myself doing this,’” Gott said.
Gott said that as a chaplain, a lot of her work involves listening to students and learning what is important to them. She also talks to children in the community as well as faculty and staff. She said some conversations are about spirituality and God, while others are not.
Gott said what initially drew her to EU was in part because it has a larger student body than the University of the South, allowing her to serve more students.
“I’m excited about serving students with a more diverse student body and students with a lot of different stories,” Gott said.
She also liked EU because of the sense of community that she felt when visiting, as well as the access the campus provides to resources.
Gott said that her first step in serving the students will be hearing from them and what they want to see happen on campus. She is particularly interested in what will bring students together into community.
Gott wants to give students the opportunity to talk about what religious and spiritual identity means to them.
“Anything that brings students together in community and gets folks talking about things that are important and real,” Gott said.
Gott also talked about helping students find their own personal community on campus, whether that be a religious organization or something else.
Gott said students from minority religions often arrive on campus believing they are the only ones of that group, but usually they are not. She said she wants to be able to get these groups connected to resources on campus, such as meeting spaces or funding opportunities.
“I want to help students learn how to do that so that they can be equipped to know how to organize these activities that bring people together for conversation,” Gott said.
She said it is very important to her that she is available not only to students who identify as religious or spiritual, but to all students on campus.
“What is going on in the heart in the hearts and minds of a student who does not identify as religious or spiritual is just as important to me as a student identifying with a religious community,” Gott said.
