Tucker Russell
Graduation Year
2025
Hometown/Where You Call Home
Dallas, TX
Major
Psychology
How did you hear about Covenant and why did you choose Covenant?
When I was 9 years old, my family took a road trip to Nashville. However, my parents knew about Covenant and wanted to stop by to look around. So, we went on a "detour" to Chattanooga to pay a visit (it certainly didn't feel like a detour to 9-year-old me). Flash forward several years to my senior year of high school, and Covenant was the only place I could really imagine going. After digging up more information on it and observing the strength of its psychology department, I decided to apply!
What aspect of Covenant do you like best?
Unequivocally: the professors.
What about the professors and/or academics has impacted you the most?
Throughout my time in Covenant's psychology department, its professors have not only nurtured my academic potential, but my potential to be a person whose style of engagement with the world reflects an inner kindness for, respect for, and genuine curiosity about the individual in front of me. The intense academic rigor of the psychology department (bolstered by each professor's extreme overqualification for the position they hold), paired with genuine interpersonal connection between myself and my professors, provided the environmental conditions requisite for the unhindered exploration of ideas, research, and application. I consider the marriage between intense, research-based academics and genuine interpersonal connection to be integral components of the Covenant experience.
What part of your major do you most enjoy or feel most prepared by?
I often think of the psychology major as the bridge between STEM education and liberal arts education (to all my fellow psychology majors, don't let anyone tell you that psychology isn't a STEM field, because truthfully, you do more math than biology majors and know more about experimental design than anyone on campus). This being the case, every psychology major graduates from Covenant with both tangible, quantitative analysis skills, and a deep, semantic understanding of course material; that is, psychology majors not only know math and meta-level concepts--they truly understand the mechanisms of both, and understand how they interact with, and relate to, each other. An education in psychology at Covenant focuses on this holistic integration of information from differing levels of analysis, and teaches you how to synthesize conclusions informed by this approach. The importance of this type of education emerges from an analysis of what most post-graduate work requires of an individual: decision-making that is informed, not by an ethereal sense of intuition, but by mathematics, statistics, experimental design, and prior research. Compressed into a sentence: the psychology major gives you the tools to detect patterns, analyze patters, and understand what they mean. The potential applications of this are endless (i.e., it applies to all areas of life, ranging from one's career to one's interpersonal relationships). What is life but a collection of patterns we have the privilege of identifying?
What do you hope to pursue after Covenant and how do you see Covenant supporting your future career or calling?
I hope to pursue a career in research!
How is Covenant equipping you for active membership in the church or discipleship within the body of Christ?
Covenant prepares its students for active church membership by providing a very formal education on the institution of religion itself--in this case, the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA). Through a variety of required core classes, students learn about the specific system of beliefs the PCA espouses, and expects its constituents to espouse.
In what ways does Covenant foster spiritual formation that stands out to you?
Importantly, mere education about the structure of a religious institution doesn't necessarily foster personal spiritual development (i.e., describing and experiencing an institution doesn't necessarily mean that you will be socialized into it). In my experience, spiritual formation doesn't occur within the clinical constraints of classroom doctrine, but within the context of affective, human relationship. In recognition of this, Covenant emphasizes community engagement in a variety of ways, ranging from campus-wide events to intentional one-on-one conversations with others on one's hall.
How has the Covenant community supported your development as a whole person?
In essence, my answer to this question is an aggregation of prior answers. Covenant's rigorous academics set me up to be competitive in a swathe of potential careers/professions; Covenant's structure fostered religious and spiritual learning; Covenant's community accelerated my interpersonal skills and development.
How have your relationships at Covenant shaped your expectations for the other communities God will call you to in life?
As my fellow Covenant students can attest, relationships that are the product of the Covenant environment are imbued with an otherworldly intensity that is uncharacteristic of the broader population's relational style. Recognizing this counterfactual produces a twofold appreciation and understanding: 1) appreciation for the fact that one inhabits a specific stratum of society that allows such deep connection to blossom, and 2) an understanding that once one leaves this particular stratum, the environmental conditions fostering such relationships are void, thus transferring the responsibility of creating such relationships to the individual. Overall, then, my expectations for other communities are characterized by a deep sense of responsibility and action; in a very real way, I'm not going to simply inherit the perfect community--it is my responsibility to create the community I wish to participate in.
What is your favorite memory from your time at Covenant?
During my junior year, I had the privilege of working with Dr. Washburn on some psychology of religion research; I treasure the memory of working with him on this project.