by Catherine Arjet
arts & life assistant editor

  Kelsey Stone, a freshman from Grand Bay, Ala.—a town of 3,000 people outside of Mobile—admits “Millsaps wasn’t really on my radar.”  When one of Stone’s friends started considering Millsaps, Stone thought of coming here, but it wasn’t until a brochure came in the mail that she decided to seriously look into the school.

     The emphasis Millsaps places on change and social justice drew Stone to the college. Social change is somewhat of a passion of Stone’s who, as a “Wellspringer,” volunteers at a local elementary school, in hopes of “meeting the needs of the community.” Stone’s love of progress also shows in her feelings toward Jackson. She loves the variety and says, “There’s something always going on in terms of social and political justice.”

But out of the many new and interesting things she’s finding in Jackson, Stone says she’s most excited to attend St. Alexis Episcopal Church, where she’s about to make her conversion to the Episcopal Church official. Raised a Southern Baptist, Stone became fascinated with Catholic doctrine at her Catholic-affiliated middle school. However, she eventually settled on the Episcopal Church as her religious home. “It’s like Catholicism but with more breathing room,” she says.

     Stone’s interest in religion doesn’t just extend to her spiritual practices; she recently declared herself a religious studies major. “I’ve always been drawn to theology,” Stone says. “I like seeing things from different viewpoints.” Stone is hitting the ground running with a course on Christian Liberation Theology, which she explains as a class exploring how Christian doctrine and racial, gender, and class equality intersect.

     “What’s more Christian than equality?” she asks.