After seven years of teaching English and French to high school students, Melissa Kelley decided it was time for a career change.

“I loved teaching those subjects,” she says. “But it wasn’t speaking to my soul. I was often engaged in one-on-one conversations with students about issues and struggles, and I realized that was where I wanted to connect with people, not teaching Great Expectations or Romeo and Juliet.”

That realization led Kelley to explore pastoral care and ministry. She enrolled in graduate studies at Boston College’s Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry, even though at that time, the field didn’t seem to her to offer many obvious career options for lay women. “I began the degree with no idea what it might lead to,” she says. “It was a leap of faith.”

The degree led to 14 years as a campus minister at Emmanuel College and Boston College, and a doctoral degree in pastoral psychology from Boston University. Today, Kelley is on the faculty at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry, teaching in the areas of pastoral care and counseling and working with students doing internships in ministry. “The work I do and the setting in which I do it are important and meaningful to me,” she says. “It’s been a real gift to share what I have learned and what I believe with other people in the field.”

At Boston College, Kelley says she’s found an institution that both values her work and provides a wealth of opportunities. “The School of Theology and Ministry offers the best of many worlds,” she remarks. “We’re part of a major university with great resources and a tremendous faculty, and we’re also part of the Boston Theological Institute, a rich consortium that offers a variety of perspectives and traditions. At the same time, the School feels very personal—we have small classes and a real sense of community.”