Name: Scott VanDerveer
Age: 36
Home Parish: St. Vincent de Paul, Albany
Seminary/Stage of Study: Third Theology, Blessed John XXIII National Seminary
Degrees: M.Ed. in religious education, Boston College
B.A. in journalism/mass communication, St. Bonaventure University
Work Experience: Middle school religion teacher St. Pius X School, Loudonville; high school religion teacher, North Cambridge Catholic High School (now named Cristo Rey Boston), Boston, MA; manager of foreign exchange students, EF Education; outreach coordinator, Abraham House Hospice; school bus driver
Interests: Travel, reading, nature, music, yoga, friends and family
Vocation Story:
Since high school, I have felt drawn to the priesthood. Because I was raised in a faith-filled family and had a beloved aunt who was a member of the Sisters of the Resurrection, I had always known that religious life was possible, but it was in my junior year of high school that I felt a stronger tug toward it. I contacted the vocation office of the Diocese of Rochester (where I was raised) and I chose a Catholic university where I could nurture the stirrings I was experiencing. That was almost 20 years ago.
In the years since I have worked in a variety of jobs, traveled to 15 countries during my two years in the Up with People program, participated in a year of AmeriCorps and lived for six years in Boston. Throughout that time, the tug in my heart toward priesthood continued, but the timing never felt right. I thought and prayed about a religious vocation and even talked about it with my friends, but I wasn’t yet ready to take a life-changing step toward it.
In 2007, I decided to move closer to my family in Troy, where my mom was raised and where I have many happy family memories from my childhood. I began teaching 6th, 7th and 8th grade religion at St. Pius X School in Loudonville, and I took a closer look at what it would mean to follow the pull I have felt for so long toward religious life. With that decision, I began an adventure to discover the path that God has envisioned for my life.
I spent a year at the St. Isaac Jogues House of Discernment (2008-09) where I lived with other seminarians from the Diocese of Albany who were studying at Siena College in preparation for the seminary. The space I had there to pray and live in community helped me better attune myself to God’s voice and gave me the courage to leave my teaching career behind me.
In 2009, I returned to Boston as a seminarian at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary, where I am now working toward a Master of Divinity degree and being formed academically, spiritually, pastorally and holistically.
Only by the grace of God and the continuing prayer and support of the good women and men of our diocese, Bishop Hubbard will ordain me as a priest in 2013. The mixture of awe, excitement and cautiousness I feel about all of this is hard to convey, but these feelings are contributing to the richness of this journey.
My life so far as a layperson has been full of ministry, faith and joy… but I have a sense that the best is yet to come.
