Mission
The four areas of Becoming Disciple Scholars’ mission include serving Latter-day Saints religion students spiritually, socially, academically, and professionally.
Spiritual: a forum to discuss and practice the principles of Disciple-scholarship.
Social: connections with students across disciplines and universities to diminish isolation and experience the joy of companionship
Academic: Resources to support religious scholarship, such as conference dates, calls for papers, book recs, etc.
Professional: opportunities for networking with fellow students and mentorship from established scholars in a variety of fields and professions
Board Members
Noah Adams
Noah is the founder and organizer for Becoming Disciple Scholars. At Duke Divinity School, he studied biblical interpretation and American religious history, especially religion in the American university. Beginning Fall 2026, He will begin PhD work at BYU studying how scriptural interpretation in the digital age impacts religious education. As a father of four, Noah’s life revolves around Pokémon, Chronicles of Narnia, and most importantly, lots of snacks.
Lara Buckwalter
Lara is an organizer for Becoming Disciple Scholars and current graduate student at Duke Divinity School. Her research centers on comparative approaches to the Book of Mormon and symbolic hermeneutics. After serving a mission in Hong Kong, she earned a degree in Chinese from BYU. She is a disciple of Jesus, a wife to Joseph, and a mother to eight children—she delights in mountain walks and the everyday holiness of family life.
Vision
By fostering life-long friendships, Becoming Disciple Scholars hopes to produce professional partnerships, collaborations on projects, and a more connected generation of Latter-day Saint scholars. In time, and with future funding, we hope to send members to present at conferences, edit a volume of essays about Latter-day Saint experience in religious studies, and develop this website into an archive of resources for all things disciple-scholarship.
Becoming Disciple Scholarships is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The opinions expressed here are the views of BDS members alone.
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Becoming Disciple Scholars 