The first time Kayla Smith ’18 heard about BSC, she was a 10th-grader in Memphis looking at “Colleges that Change Lives,” a guidebook and website featuring 40 liberal arts colleges that author Loren Pope says offer as much, if not more, than Ivy League schools. BSC has been listed as a “CTCL” institution since the first edition in 1996.

A campus visit sealed the decision. “I remember seeing signs around the campus that said things like ‘You belong here,’” she says. “I was just so excited about the opportunities to do a lot of independent work, service learning, and travel—all that stuff was very much calling me. I knew that liberal arts was the way to go.”

The “way to go” led her to where she is now: In May, Smith will graduate from Harvard Divinity School with a Master of Divinity focusing on Womanism and African American Religious and Cultural Studies.

Although she started college in pre-med, Smith realized that that while she felt a calling to take care of people, her interests and skills better aligned with emotional and spiritual needs than physical health. Inspired by a religion course taught by Dr. Amy Cottrill, she contracted an individualized major concentrating on Human Rights and Justice. Coursework tracked with a religion major, but also included classes in social justice, political science, and sociology.

“I knew I wanted to learn about how people take care of each other,” she explains. “BSC is its own small community, and as I took my classes and got involved on campus, I got to see how people of all different backgrounds interact.”

Smith remembers service learning trips to San Francisco, Ireland, and Ghana opened her eyes to how people around the world experience life. She also says living in the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement expanded her love for the history of her people in a way that she never thought possible. “Just being here in Birmingham, serving in the community and studying the history and culture of black people in Alabama as well as in my hometown of Memphis was such a fun, transformative journey for me,” she says.

Smith’s involvement in campus organizations solidified her passion for education and creative ministry. As an involved member of the Black Student Union and African-American Chair of the Cross Cultural Committee, Smith was one of the founders of BSC’s annual Black History Month Gala, which she describes as “one of the biggest prides and joys of my life.”

Her time as hospitality coordinator of Religious Life also prepared her to serve as president of Harvard Divinity School’s Harambee: Students of African Descent group. She secured a four-year, $20,000 commitment from the dean of Harvard Divinity for the group’s annual Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference. This year’s virtual conference, entitled “B.L.A.C.K. – Black Liberation, Activism, Community, and Kinship,” focused on facilitating conversations about facing police brutality and working as change agents to improve society.

Although she isn’t sure where life will take her next, she knows that her service learning experiences at BSC will stay with her forever. “No matter where life takes me, I’m committed to doing the head and the heart work of making sure that folks are intentionally being in community with each other,” she says.

This story was included in a special religious studies and ministry edition of From the Hilltop, Birmingham-Southern’s alumni email newsletter.

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