This year, Eastern established a new position: Assistant Chaplain for Faith Formation in the Office of Faith and Practice. The purpose of this addition was to expand Eastern’s ministry and faith formation past the typical campus experience and into the online academic programs.
The role has since been filled by Rev. Nichole Jackson, a class of 2012 Palmer Theological Seminary graduate with a Master of Divinity degree. Her education also includes a Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Science with a Social Work track from Rochester College.
Jackson has previously worked as a chaplain in the medical field in multiple settings, including end-of-life care, and had a part in past campus ministries. She also recently co-founded a church, Open Table United Church of Christ, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where she serves as co-pastor alongside her husband, Pastor Zack Jackson. The church is meant to be an all-welcoming environment for Christians of any intersectional identity. She is originally from the state of Ohio and is a mother to two young sons.
In an interview, Jackson shared details of her past experiences as well as her feeling of a personal calling toward her work. “I went to seminary very interested in campus ministry,” she said.
“I wasn’t sure where that was going to lead. I just knew that seminary was right in step … when I was doing hospice, that’s kind of when I was going through the ordination process and felt a really strong call to them. It’s very much for the same reason that I feel called to work with college students, because I feel like the church has the capacity to change the world when they’re listening to the call of Jesus,” she said.
Jackson stated that college students are at a very “particular time of life” in which they are finding their identities and places of belonging. During this time, they are finding how their gifts connect to the wider needs of the world. “[They are] really just asking, what is mine to do?” she said.
The intention behind developing campus and online ministry is to help students find exactly what is theirs to do, in that case, as well as where they are realistically able to share their gifts with the world. “I think that the position was added because the needs have expanded and the way that we do spiritual formation has shifted,” Jackson said, “and so I think they really wanted to be able to invest into … the growth that Eastern is experiencing.”
When asked what she may want students to know before interacting with her for the first time, Jackson said that students can “come as [they] are.”
“I’m very much interested in who students are, what makes them tick, how I can come alongside them to either provide support or guidance. It gives me so much joy to help people discover what their gifts are and how to use them,” she said. She emphasized her love for genuine connection with students: “I think as a chaplain, one of the gifts is, you meet people wherever they are.”
Between having a genuine care for students and a steadfast commitment to serving the Lord, Jackson appears to be everything Eastern needed in an assistant chaplain.
If students need to get in contact with Jackson, she is reachable via her Eastern email address (nichole.jackson@eastern.edu) or in her office in Walton.
Jackson’s past experience and education in her field makes her a perfect fit for the needs of Eastern’s campus ministry. Her role will promote further connection amongst Eastern students, their community and their faith, aligning with the school’s mission of faith, reason and justice.
