Seminary Alumna Awarded Prestigious Fellowship to Study Professional Ethics

CHICAGO, June 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- North Park Theological Seminary's (NPTS) Lauren Thurston MDiv '23 has been awarded a clergy-related Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE).

"As a seminary student, Lauren's attentiveness to the dignity and flourishing of all people was woven throughout all her work," said NPTS Theology Teaching Fellow Armida Belmonte Stephens, who taught Thurston. "As a pastor and leader, she is critically engaging important ethical questions, and her commitment to seeking God's glory and neighbors' good is clear. This fellowship is so very well deserved."

As part of the program, participants spend two weeks in Germany and Poland exploring the constructs, current issues, and other factors that raise ethical concerns in contemporary professional work settings. In addition to discussions, students spend time touring sites of historic importance as they relate to the Holocaust.

Specifically, FASPE investigates the ethical societal breakdowns that allowed Naziism to flourish in 1930s and 1940s Germany and the implications for today's workplace.

"FASPE's distinctive approach is to examine the roles and behavior of individual professionals in Germany and elsewhere between 1933 and 1945 as an initial framework for approaching ethical responsibility in the professions today," according to FASPE's mission statement.

The highly competitive fellowships are awarded to those in the fields of law, medicine, journalism, design and technology, and clergy and religious leaders.

To qualify, clergy applicants must be enrolled in graduate school or preparing to work as a religious leader. FASPE welcomes applicants from all faith backgrounds.

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SOURCE North Park University