Justice & Renewal: An Interview with
Jermaine Pearson
Kathy Luo
Born and raised in Chicago, Jermaine Pearson graduated from Columbia
College Chicago in 2010 as a Public Relations major originally
intending to enter the entertainment industry. However, after working with
incarcerated youth through a non-profit organization, as well as working
as a guidance counselor, Jermaine realized he was called to ministry as a
campus pastor. Jermaine graduated from seminary at Emory University
in 2016, started working as the campus pastor at Loyola University that
December, and began his position at Brown as the Associate University
Chaplain for the Protestant community in September of 2017. Interview
has been edited for clarity and length.
For starters, did you always feel like your faith would
be a big part of your job?
No. Faith has always been a part of who I am, but if you’re
talking about faith being integrated into my job, I didn’t
think about that probably until I moved to LA, ten years
ago. Oftentimes we look at spirituality as separate from other
areas of life—it’s rare to see ourselves actually working and
exercising in the area where faith and spirituality is tethered
to your profession and career. I didn't start seeing that until
after I had the year of service at the non-profit, where I knew
I couldn’t go back to just doing anything.
Working with students now, do you see similarities
between struggles students have now and your
experiences? Especially with Christian students,
it seems like a lot of us are still struggling to
understand how to integrate purpose and faith into
our careers and the school sphere.
I do. A lot of the things I do are career planning and soul-
searching, especially with juniors and seniors. You all come
here, very smart, and could major in anything that you want.
But maybe on the path you chose, something just doesn’t feel
right—and it doesn’t feel right because God is not equipping
you to do that, or God is developing other gifts inside that
would lead to a more fulfilling life.
14 Fall 2019
There are three types of careers, the three Ps: [the first is]
careers that are practical, stuff you do because you gotta make
money. There are careers of passion: what would you do if
money wasn’t a factor? But there are also careers of purpose:
what is it that God is calling you to do? I think many of us only
operate out of one, maybe two of those angles. But if you get
a chance to have a job that is practical, that you’re passionate
about, and that is purposeful, then you really got it. And it
doesn't always happen in your first 5 years post-undergrad.
I’m here at Brown, at 35, and I’m finally at a point where I
feel like I’m hitting all those buckets.
I feel like that leads into the thought, then, of what
the purpose overall is for a student at this time in
their lives. A lot of students are very interested in
this concept of justice—but how do you tie those
things into the mission of student while they’re still
on campus?
Okay, your first role is to get this degree. I think we all get
so caught up in other things that we tend to neglect the fact
that you came here for a reason. Because Brown has a lot to
offer, you can actually get lost here. You can end up doing
everything else except the work you got to do—so number
one, get your degree.
Number two, find ways to infuse justice into your passions. If
you know you’re passionate about music, join an organization
or club that focuses on social justice music or raising awareness
about certain issues. Social justice is extremely important, and
you all are the game-changers for the world—not necessarily
for the future, but for now. You don’t have to wait until you
graduate to at least start making change.
You all [at Brown] are lightspeeds ahead of where I was
when I was in college. Like, the kind of conversations that
I listen to you all have, whether in regards to social justice