MASC Spotlight: Vanessa Fox

Vanessa Fox is a 2025 graduate of our Master of Arts in Social Change program. Upon moving to Prescott, Arizona, Vanessa found spiritual community whose values reflected her own at Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation. She discovered Starr King after learning that the minister – whose progressive, meaningful, and timely sermons she dearly loved and looked forward to each Sunday – received her M.Div. at the school. While perusing our website with the intention of pursuing an M.Div., Vanessa stumbled upon the MASC program. As a seasoned activist, it was exactly the program that she had been looking for: one that combines spirituality and practical leadership skills with a progressive education that counters oppressions. She crossed the threshold into seminary in January 2020.

In her work, Vanessa hopes to become a community organizer for a non-profit organization or NGO whose mission it is to abolish war, war preparations, and/or genocide. She is also deeply committed to animal justice, specifically ending needless euthanasias at animal shelters and the military-industrial complex’s abuse of dogs.

What impact has attending Starr King had on your life?

My Starr King education has dramatically transformed the way that I view, understand, and approach life, power, people, nature, and the world.

Committed to educating the next generation of thoughtful and counter-oppressive religious leaders and social change agents, Starr King blessed me with the knowledge that I need to change the world for the better. I see myself, my human family, and life through new eyes. I am inspired to live my best life, no longer unaware of the injustice around me, that is very often ignored, downplayed, and even invisible to others. I have become an out-of-the-box thinker. I have discovered my own unique voice among millions of other equally important voices. I am no longer held back by the constraints of ignorance, dominance, prejudice, and closed-mindedness that I have noticed in society. I have adopted daily spiritual practices to renew and refresh my spirit in the struggles I will face as an activist.

Thank you, Starr King, for opening my eyes and helping me blossom into the compassion, authentic, loving, inclusive, counter-oppressive, regenerative leader that I have always dreamed of becoming. I am more ready than ever to, in collaboration with others, help create just, sustainable, caring, equitable communities.

Transformative Experience

There are so many wonderful experiences that I had while attending Starr King that it is difficult to choose just one. I think my most memorable and meaningful experience at Starr King was crossing the Threshold my first year at the beautiful Le Conte location in Berkeley, California.

I met the incredibly warm and welcoming staff, faculty, and students while attending my first Symposium, led by Rev. Dr. Chris Schelin, and my first class, “Educating to Counter Oppressions,” (ECO) taught by Rev. Dr. Gabriella Lettini. Both events were unforgettable. I met Starr King President Rosemary Bray McNatt for the first time. I felt star-struck!

We shared an Ethiopian snack in the sanctuary after the Threshold Ceremony, danced at Symposium, and visited the Faithful Fools in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district in ECO class. We laughed, cried, prayed, hugged, and shared gratitudes, while modeling “beloved community.”

“Leadership Along the Way,” taught by Tyson Casey, was one of my favorite classes! This class helped me become the best version of myself. Through daily journaling, visualization exercises, and a keen awareness of how I utilize my space, time, and energy, I gained a new perspective on life. During class, each student assumed a leadership role, creating a cooperative, democratic governance that was refreshing. We each kept a log that invited us to keep track of how we use our space, energy, and time in order to change patterns that no longer serve us. Personally, I found that I did not give myself enough time to decompress and have fun during my workdays. By completing the log, I was able to reconfigure the way I chose to spend my time in order to avoid burnout in my activism.

I also deeply loved this class’s “Personal Power Practice” visualizations, which helped me redefine how I view “power.” It taught me how personal power does not develop in a vacuum, but instead develops in relationship with others. It comes from my heart and empowers others around me. Likewise, the “Returning to my Root” exercises became a daily practice that I continue to this day. I return home to my breath and body as often as I can. I highly recommend this class to everyone!

Vanessa dances with her twin sister at Symposium 2020.