At the beginning of this semester, Reverend Y. Trevor Beauford was appointed to the position of Interim Chaplain and Director of Spiritual and Religious Life at Hamilton. As a former school teacher and church pastor, Beauford has more than two decades of experience in facilitating spiritual growth, offering pastoral care and providing strategic and administrative leadership.

Beauford jokes that he “kind of fell into higher [education].” He had always worked in partnership with local campuses through his work as a pastor at a local church and eventually became an Adjunct Professor of World Religions at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C. In 2020, Beauford began a role as Associate Chaplain at Trinity College in Hartford, C.T. From chaplaincy work, he transitioned into supervising Greek Life as the Assistant Dean and Director of Student Leadership Engagement and Greek Life.

Beauford says he was born in a “very faithful family.” When he was 14, he started “having questions about a lot of stuff” relating to his faith. He credits his passion for faith formation in spiritual development to “an amazing spiritual leader who let [him] have ques-

tions.”

In his role at Hamilton College, Beauford’s main priorities are providing support for programming, supporting leaders of spiritual groups on campus and “getting to know Hamilton students that may not ever step foot in the chapel.”

Beauford says one of the unique aspects of his previous position at Trinity was his involvement in student life instead of just spiritual and religious life, as he “met so many amazing students who would have never probably talked to me before.”

“Just because a student doesn’t come to the chapel doesn’t mean they’re not spiritual or faithful,” he says. Beauford told The Spectator he is trying to get into as many spaces with as many different people as possible regardless of whether they have been involved with the chaplaincy or not, to hear what they need and how to serve their needs. He is committed to doing “a lot of listening” to develop ways to continue to grow the spiritual and religious life department. He will also be making recommendations to the chaplaincy leadership about ways that religious life on campus can be enhanced.

One of Beauford’s upcoming goals is to “do a little bit of experimentation.” He says the chaplaincy is going to create programming ideas and see which ones the campus community resonates with. He hopes these events and programs will “both maintain our current chapel community and also grow and diversify it.”

As stated on the Hamilton College website, “religious life is largely open to a diversity of interpretations and expressions, even within a particular tradition, let alone with those outside that tradition.”

Beauford emphasizes his passion for working with students, especially those who are in college. “I’ve worked with this particular age group in a variety of settings for 20 years,” he says. “My first career was working with 18 to 21 year olds. I really do see the inherent good and value of students at this age group. And I hope that students will offer me the privilege of getting to know them without any expectation that you’re going to come to my programs.”

When asked about his transition to Hamilton in January, he jokes about a difficult adjustment to the cold weather and remote environment. “I didn’t even own gloves before,” he laughs. However, he is excited to embrace the winters here. “I grew up in South Carolina, so I’ve never been a winter sports person… like snowshoeing and things like that” he says. “So I hope to meet some people who could be like, ‘Let’s go… snowshoe!’”

Beauford wants to help Hamilton College students leave college with a spiritual curiosity in addition to an intellectual curiosity. “There are spiritual development models that say that when you are between the ages of 18 and 24, that is when sometimes you’re the most distant from your spiritual background if you have one,” he says. “But you’re also making the most critical decisions in your life. I hope to provide a space for those who want it to explore their faith.”

Beauford’s office is on the third floor of the chapel. The chapel is open every day from 7 a.m. to midnight. From 12–2 p.m. every day, the chapel will be open for students to drop in for a quiet moment, do a guided meditation, pray or pause for a few minutes during the busy day.