Linda Naranjo-Huebl, Calvin English professor, finds the intergration of faith and academics to be a new but natural process.

Linda Naranjo-Huebl describes herself as a “complete newbie to the notion of faith integration into academics.”

“I never attended or taught at a Christian school before I came here,” she said. “It was entirely foreign to me.”

Yet the second-year English professor has found the transition from a secular institution to Calvin fairly smooth.

“I have always taught from a Christian perspective,” she said. “That’s who I am, but I never addressed faith issues in the classroom except as they were raised in literature, which they are a lot.”

The integration of faith into the classroom is almost seamless when you are talking about one of Naranjo-Huebl’s scholarship specialties — 19th-century women’s writing. “Most of it is Christian,” she said of this literature genre.

It becomes more difficult, but more important, when she is teaching multicultural literature, she said.

“I wasn’t ready for how little multicultural experience my students have,” she said. “Some who grew up as missionaries have a lot, but the vast majority have none. And very, very few students have experience with American ethnic groups. It’s rather hard to be insulated where I come from.”

And where she comes from is inner-city Denver. Naranjo-Huebl grew up in Denver, but her heritage dates back to the Spanish who first settled in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado among the Native Americans already living there.

Naranjo-Huebl is the first in her family to graduate from college and pursue advanced degrees.

“My family is very proud of me,” she said, “but in the Latino culture there is also some negativism about going into academia because it pulls you away from family and the culture.”

To some extent that is the case for Naranjo-Huebl, who is the only one of six siblings who has moved out of Colorado. She returns regularly though; her husband continues to live in Colorado for his job and to be near to the couple’s two daughters. She or her husband makes the 1,200-mile commute every two or three weeks.

Despite all of the complications, Naranjo-Huebl feels called to her teaching at Calvin. “People have asked me if I will continue on in this situation. The absolute truth to that is I will do whatever God wants me to do. I can make a big difference in the lives of students here. I see how enriched their lives are by studying this kind of literature — especially the multicultural literature. It’s so important to Christianity — to understand other cultures and learn something from them. I just can’t help but think that it is incredibly important here.”