{"id":224,"date":"2025-04-10T15:58:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T15:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/?p=224"},"modified":"2025-04-10T16:00:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T16:00:41","slug":"student-spotlight-christa-garcia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/2025\/04\/10\/student-spotlight-christa-garcia\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Spotlight: Christa Garcia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Where did you grow up, and what first got you interested in studying theology?<\/strong><br>I grew up in Fresno, California, attending Hope Lutheran Church. Church has always been an important part of my life as my grandfather was a Lutheran pastor. I became interested in studying theology during confirmation camp at Mount Cross Ministries, the same Lutheran camp I work and live at today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"986\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/Christa-Garcia_May-2025-986x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"Luther Seminary student Christa Garcia stands in front of Bockman Hall and directly in front of the Celtic cross on the seminary front lawn\" class=\"wp-image-225\" style=\"width:300px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/Christa-Garcia_May-2025-986x1024.jpeg 986w, https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/Christa-Garcia_May-2025-289x300.jpeg 289w, https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/Christa-Garcia_May-2025-768x797.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/Christa-Garcia_May-2025.jpeg 1224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 986px) 100vw, 986px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What did you study as an undergraduate?<\/strong><br>I graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. At PLU, I majored in Religion and minored in Hispanic Studies and Nonprofit Leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What led you to pursuing theological education here at Luther Seminary?<\/strong><br>While many inspiring people and amazing experiences have gotten me to where I am today, including my husband, uncle, and many friends, including Sara Gorman &#8217;20 M.Div. I study at Luther Seminary because I believe it has the best distributed learning program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What degree program are you in at Luther Seminary, and what are you hoping to do with your seminary education?<\/strong><br>I am a first-year M.Div. student. I am interested in parish ministry and particularly interested in children and family ministry, as well as hospice and hospital chaplaincy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What is the best part of studying as a distributed learner, and what do you do when you&#8217;re not studying?<\/strong><br>I enjoy my synchronous Zoom classes the most, and I love getting to know other student&#8217;s call stories as it gives me inspiration and hope. When I am not studying, I work in the office at Mount Cross Ministries and pet sit using the Rover app in my neighborhood. In my free time, I love to hike, do yoga, play with my cats, and try new recipes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s your favorite book or movie?<\/strong><br>I recently got into audiobooks and my favorite genre is historical fiction. My favorite recent book is &#8216;The Women&#8217; by Kristin Hannah. My favorite book of all time is &#8216;Have a Little Faith,&#8217; and I enjoy all of Mitch Albom&#8217;s work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christa Garcia is an M.Div. student at Luther Seminary who lives in California and loves being a distributed-learning student. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}