Last year, occupational therapy assistant major Hailey Erickson took biology from Professor Kelly McWilliams and loved the experience — so much, in fact, that she decided to ask McWilliams to be her Heartscan mentor.
HeartScan is a spiritual mentorship program for Union students and campus employees. Sophomores through seniors can join simply by asking an employee to mentor them in their spiritual journey. Students in the HeartScan program can receive worship credit for meeting with their mentor every week to discuss their goals in four areas: personal devotions, corporate worship, service and life purpose.
“At first I was really nervous to ask Professor McWilliams because it’s taking time out of her day,” said Erickson. “But she was so willing to do it. We’ve been doing it ever since and it’s been the best.”
McWilliams’ favorite part of teaching is the connections she makes with her students. She said, “The main goal of HeartScan is to walk with students on their faith journey. It is such an amazing privilege to be able to do that, and my students are helping me learn in the process.”
Erickson and McWilliams began by reading a devotional together each week. But eventually Erickson wanted to dig deeper into spirituality. She said, “About halfway through the semester I was trying to figure out my major. I knew I wanted to do occupational therapy, but I wasn’t sure which route I should take. I was praying about it and stressing about it majorly and I noticed that I turned to the Bible a lot. So, I asked Professor McWilliams if she could be my accountability partner for daily Bible reading.”
“Hailey wanted to read the book of Judges because she had never read a book of the Old Testament before,” said McWilliams. “When she said that, I thought, ‘Okay, there’s some pretty wild stories in there.’ We learned a lot together. The most important part is that she chose it; she wanted to do that for herself.”
“Before I would only turn to the Bible when I was under a stressful circumstance or I felt like something didn’t go the way it was supposed to,” said Erickson. “I would turn to the Bible and it would give me comfort, but I would not do that on a regular basis. By having Professor McWilliams as my accountability partner, I was able to start a habit where I read every day.”
McWilliams believes the freedom for students to develop their own spirituality is the most important part of HeartScan. “HeartScan is something that students choose to do. It needs to be a personal choice, saying ‘I want to know Jesus better.’ As soon as you choose that, then of course Christ is going to show up. And He does, in so many ways.”
