Current Cohort
Welcome to the fourth cohort of Grace Year Fellows (GY4), arriving in August 2021! They will be in residence at the vicarage until June, 2022.
Adelle Dennis
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Adelle Dennis is from Aiken, South Carolina. She graduated from Sewanee: the University of the South with a major in history and a minor in dance. Adelle is a lifelong Episcopalian and served as a sacristan in All Saints’ Chapel during her time at Sewanee. Adelle is driven by her faith to pursue justice and equity. She is particularly interested in working to reinvent policies and practices that disempower and cause harm to people due to systemic racism, sexism, gender bias, and discrimination based on sexual orientation. Adelle hopes that her time at Grace Year will help her discern how she can best use her abilities to assist and lead in creating change in oppressive systems. She hopes to deepen her faith as well as her understanding of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices she is less familiar with. Adelle is excited to become an active part of the Grace Church community and is thankful for this opportunity to work, study, and reflect. She loves books, dogs, hiking, cats, swimming, and coffee.
Adelle’s service work is with Grace Immigrant Outreach |
John Gehman
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Born in San Luis Potosí, México, John Gehman (he/they) was adopted, and raised in Lancaster County, PA, until the age of 11, when he moved to Royersford, PA, to complete his secondary education. He later attended Boston College, recently earning an A.B. in Philosophy and double minors in Theology and International Studies. There, he conducted, contributed to, and published research with Dr. Peter Krause of Political Science, Dr. Charles Derber of Sociology, and the Department of Government at Harvard University. His co-curricular engagement spread wide and far on campus, serving in prominent roles within the Undergraduate Government of Boston College, Student Admissions Program, and Residence Hall Council. Through the unwavering support of Learning to Learn (LTL), John received various grants, honors, and awards for his original research as a McNair Scholar and his campus involvements. At the same time, he mentored primarily first-generation and low-income students in their academic and intellectual transition to university as a teaching assistant to the LTL course “Applications of Learning Theory.” Outside of academia, he is a semi-professional barista, amateur photographer, self-trained kombucha and candle-maker, and active runner, spin-cyclist, and student of yogasana. And, as a GY fellow, John is further exploring his own religious and spiritual being through pluralistic, hands-on engagement.
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Thomas Gould
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Thomas Gould is a Hudson Valley native, the second eldest of five children from a Catholic household. He finished his Bachelors of Arts in Humanities from Yale, graduating into the pandemic. Some of his interests include architecture, the arts, mathematics, philosophy, and politics. He is grateful for the chance to search for spiritual clarity and mindfulness at Grace Year.
Thomas' service work is with Hudson River Housing. |
Christina Houde
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Christina Houde, known by friends as Ris, grew up in Wayland, Massachusetts. She recently graduated from Vassar College with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a correlate in Women, Gender, and Feminist Studies. While at Vassar, she had the opportunity to spend a transformative semester in Samoa studying social and environmental change with the School for International Training (SIT). Christina is passionate about climate justice, abolition, and queer liberation. She is incredibly grateful to take this year for reflection, growth in her spiritual practices, and building community in Millbrook. Christina loves journaling, cooking delicious vegan food, and cuddling with her cat, Bisou.
Christina’s service work is with Cardinal Hayes Home |
Kristin Perkins
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Kristin Perkins grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and is an advocate for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people into Mormon religious life, even as she is personally exploring other faith practices. She has a BA degree in Theatre Arts Studies with a minor in Women’s Studies from Brigham Young University and an MA degree in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin where she wrote her thesis on representations of LGTBQ+ Mormons in theatre. Her scholarship has been published in SFRA Review, Ecumenica, Theatre Topics, Borrowers and Lenders, and AWE. She’s also written for Howlround Theatre Commons and American Theatre Magazine as an Oscar Brockett Fellow. She is a grant writer for The Out Foundation and an occasional contributor over at the Young Mormon Feminist blog.
After graduating with her MA, Kristin lived and worked on a small monastic farm off the coast of Washington and then traveled to Malaysia on a Fulbright grant. She was evacuated from Malaysia when COVID hit and has been sorting out what she wants out of life since. Joining Grace Year, she is looking forward to slowing down, calming her anxiety-prone brain, and discerning a vocation centered on community and not achievement. She wants to do less with more care. Kristin will be working with Curry & Miller and continuing her work at the Millbrook Library. |
