A New Series Kicks Off: Grad Tales Extra

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Zac Parker graduated with a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Alabama in 2011. Here he helps us kick off our new, ongoing series, Grad Tales Extra, in which grads not able to join us on campus, to discuss the relevance of their degree, can drop us a line instead, to update us on what they’ve done since leaving Manly Hall.

During the year following graduation, I spent many months traveling, camping, and backpacking around the country, taking time to explore and reflect on what I wanted to do in my life and figuring out what priorities were most important to me. In the Fall of 2012 I entered the East Carolina University Master’s program for Anthropology, eventually graduating with a concentration in Cultural Anthropology in the Spring of 2014. Upon receiving my M.A., I entered a month-long residential yoga teacher training program at Swami Satchidananda‘s Integral Yoga ashram at Yogaville, VA. Currently, I am living in beautiful Colorado Springs, CO, working as a Life Coach at a blended online\in-person high school for “at-risk” students and teaching yoga on the weekend. I continue to enjoy expanding my understanding of religion in its many forms, with its many aspects.

I cannot fully express the deep and sincere gratitude I have for the Religious Studies department, for what it has given me. I have been shocked when talking to a number of fellow UA alumni since graduation how little others seem to have gotten out of or enjoyed their undergraduate careers. Nothing could be further from the truth for me. Every single Religious Studies class, in addition to the amazingly supportive faculty and fellow majors, was incredibly eye-opening, thought provoking, and (sorry to sound like a Hallmark card) even life changing. It truly, truly was, and I cannot thank the department enough for helping guide me along my own path of inquiry and understanding. I certainly do not mean to take away anything from any of the faculty, but I’d specifically like to thank Dr. Trost, Dr. Jacobs, Dr. Ramey, and the late Dr. Murphy (may he forever rest in peace) for helping instill in me an everlasting thirst for greater understanding and the ability to critically question things in ways I had previously unimagined.