Saint Michael's Bio Student Allen Hubbard of Newton, Conn., Lands Article in Prestigious Journal "America"

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Saint Michael's bio student Allen Hubbard of Newton

COLCHESTER, VT (12/08/2010)(readMedia)-- While examining the life of Christian mystic, Teresa of Avila, who lived during the Spanish Inquisition, Saint Michael's College junior Allen Hubbard had ideas about how the darkness of despair can lead through faith into the rare moments that give us joy.

Mr. Hubbard, a biology major and journalism minor, is the son of Allen and Nancie Hubbard of Newton, Connecticut, where he graduated from Newton High School before coming to Saint Michael's College in Burlington, Vermont. In a course he took on "Christianity Past and Present" taught by Professor Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent, he wrote about the relevance of Teresa of Avila's autobiography for contemporary discourse on the human and divine.

Mr. Hubbard explained that Teresa wrote about having experiences during which she saw God, experienced being close to God, but also experienced God's absence-the dark night of the soul. Through this, he said, he understood something about both the rewards and difficulties faith brings to the human condition.

Hubbard focused in his paper on the importance of the 'dark night of the soul', "not as a religious aspect," he said, "but as a necessary component of being human and of having faith." He concluded his paper, he said, quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald "who said something like, even with faith you have a dark night of the soul-usually at 3 a.m."

Hubbard said he is interested in the inspirational qualities of faith in the dark night, and how that's channeled through art, especially literature. He has gotten very interested in the larger scope of science writing, and mentioned author Carl Sagan who says that the universe is 95 percent emptiness, but we associate the universe with being full, because that's what it means to be human.

Another of Hubbard's favorite authors is the neurologist Oliver Sacks, who, along with Sagan, have inspired an interest in neurobiology and in the idea of becoming a science writer, as a sideline to being a scientist or doctor. He is considering med school and graduate school in science.

Biology major, journalism minor

Hubbard is receiving great encouragement and opportunity in biology, as in religious studies. Last summer he carried out a funded, biology research project under the direction of Professor Mark Lubkowitz.

"Being on campus trying to isolate a protein transporter all summer," he said, "gave me a chance also to meet with my religious studies professor and slowly edit the paper." This semester he is taking a journalism course on nature writing.

Hubbard was a swimmer for the Saint Michael's College varsity team for his first two years of college.

Learn What Matters at Saint Michael's College, The Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college, www.smcvt.edu . Saint Michael's provides education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools to lead successful, purposeful lives that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael's College is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns. It is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nations Best 371 Colleges, and is included in the 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges. Saint Michael's is one of only 280 colleges and universities nationwide, one of only 20 Catholic colleges, with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Saint Michael's has 1,900 undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 100 international students. Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

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