Marvin Ernest Colin Higgins

2014 Douglas Street, Apartment #2

815-708-9408
swamiswayam@yahoo.com.au

Dear John Templeton Foundation, Wendy Cadge, PhD, and George Fitchett, D.Min., PhD:

I would like to apply for one of your Fellowships in your “Transforming Chaplaincy” program.
Herewith is my current resume/curriculum vitae and short answers to questions.

I am a 60 year old (birthdate: August 19, 1956) USA PERMANENT RESIDENT BY MY MARRIAGE TO
AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. I am a Bahamian citizen by birth and have lived in England, the Southern
Sudan, the Bahamas, Dominica, Jamaica, Florida and Illinois. I now live in Illinois and have been
here with my wife for the last five years. I was here for six years before that with my retired
naturalized American mother and USA Permanent Resident father. I plan to continue to be in the
US and also to retire here (my wife’s birthplace and place of life-long residence).
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I am pictured above, firstly, alone. Then in the next few photos with my US wife Laura and finally
flanked by my late mother Maria and father Winston. I am enrolled in and have been accepted
into BENEDICTINE UNIVERSITY’S MPH program (beginning studies pending the granting of a John
Templeton Foundation Fellowship). I will focus on Health Promotion and Dissemination of
Information.

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schang@ben.edu

Sue Chang, M.A. 

Program Manager

Benedictine University – Online Programs

Phone: (630) 590-2458

Email: schang@ben.edu

http://online.ben.edu/

I hold a BA in Mass Communication. It was received in 1978 from Florida Atlantic University,
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA...\..\Downloads\bwskotrn.P_ViewTran.htm

I received an AA degree in JOURNALISM from Palm Beach State College, Lake Worth, Florida, in
1976.

I attended, online, the HARVARD UNIVERSITY Extension School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. I

gained 4 GRADUATE CREDITS from the Spring/2016 online class taught by Professor Dr.
Christopher Queen, PhD – christopher_queen@harvard.edu - “World Religions.” I received a “B”
grade...\..\Downloads\Harvard World Religions Certificate front.JPG

..\..\Downloads\Harvard World Religions Certificate back.JPG

The following is an email letter to me from my Harvard University Extension School Professor Dr.
Christopher Queen, PhD., following my completion of his Spring/2016 class: “World Religions,”
with a “B” grade. I took the class for GRADUATE CREDITS.

Chris Queen <christopher_queen@harvard.edu>

To

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swamiswayam@yahoo.com.au

07/26/15 at 11:41 AM

Dear Colin,

Thank you for sharing your website -- it is very inspiring.  During your career as a yoga
teacher and ashram leader you have touched many people, I'm sure.

I have been reading Atul Gawande's "On Being Mortal," a book about compassionate
care and assisted living vs medical models of treatment in our final years.  As a surgeon
and professor of medicine in Boston, Gawande is also a spiritual teacher.  I highly
recommend his book.

My wife's and my parents lived to over 90 years (my mother died last summer at 100),
and we were intimately involved in the final years of each one -- a journey of deep
discovery.  

When I was in seminary, I took pastoral clinical training and worked as a chaplaincy intern
in a hospital.  I realized that sitting lovingly with dying patients was very hard and would
take years of practice.

I guess this was one of the reasons I moved toward teaching, which also took years of
study and practice.  But, in a way, I think "being with dying" is harder -- and something
that yoga and meditation can go a long way to help us prepare for, in ourselves and for
others.

With best wishes for your practice and your ministry,

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Chris

I was initiated in 1989 as a SWAMI (sannyasi/monk) - https://youtu.be/1okUaJBmm6g - by ISYVC

(International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre (sic) founder/director Swami Vishnudevananda
Saraswati, of Kerala, south India, author of “The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga” -
https://youtu.be/ve95NLXKIPA - and made DIRECTOR - https://youtu.be/8Ehz8gFy7Jw - of his
Bahamas Yoga Retreat - www.sivanandabahamas.org - an affiliate of his INTERNATIONAL
SIVANANDA YOGA VEDANTA CENTRE (sic) (ISYVC) - www.sivananda.org – which is itself an
international branch, founded in the USA, of the SIVANANDA YOGA VEDANTA FOREST
UNIVERSITY, Divine Life Society - www.dlshq.org - of Rishikesh, Himalayas, India, founded and
directed by the late Swami Sivananda Saraswati - https://youtu.be/P-f7jdq4fys - Guru of the late
Swami Vishnudevananda Saraswati. I served as director of the ISYVC Yoga Retreat from 1990 to
1992 with the name “Swami Swayamswaroopananda Saraswati.”

I was appointed an ISYVC GORAKSHANATH ACHARYA/spiritual guide and leader (one of nine
world-wide) by the late ISYVC founder Swami Vishnudevananda in 1991.

https://youtu.be/A6F_Zc42-Qc

https://youtu.be/jZaen82ZdiE

https://youtu.be/tEkRhd8Xs0k

https://youtu.be/pTJss00Fwl4

The foregoing are some YouTube videos of my Guru, Swami Vishnudevananda Saraswati of Kerala,
southern India. The last one shows MEDICAL PhD researchers from Yugoslavia, myself (shirtless,
bespectacled, dressed in yellow as a pre-sannyasi or brahmachari/celibate student, helping to
position the television set) and Swami Vishnudevananda Saraswati, with long, silvery hair. He had
been preparing for physical death for years and in months would be hit by several strokes and
begin daily peritoneal dialysis because of diabetes.

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I am pictured above in the middle of the back row with my YS graduating class of 1988. I was
awarded the YS (Yoga Siromani – Teacher of Yoga) and MY (Master of Yoga) degrees by the ISYVC
(www.sivananda.org) in 1988 and 1989 respectively. I studied in the Bahamas (YS) and Canada
(MY) with American, Israeli, Canadian, South African, British, German, and Spanish professors,
senior disciples of our founder/director/Guru Swami Vishnudevananda. Our curriculum included:
anatomy and physiology, Yoga and Vedanta philosophy, asanas/postures, pranayama/breathing
exercises, chanting and the Bhagavad Gita. I received the YS and MY degrees after completing
studies and practice at the ISYVC’s Yoga Retreat in the Bahamas (YS degree), and the Advanced
Teacher’s Training Course at the ISYVC’s headquarters, the Yoga Camp ashram, 8 th Avenue, Val
Morin, Quebec, Canada, J0T, 2R0 (MY degree).

In 1990, following my initial studies in Yoga with the ISYVC, I attended their three-week intensive
seminar (eight hours of breathing exercises, etc., per day) at the ISYVC Yoga Camp in Val Morin,
Quebec, Canada conducted by Swami Swaroopananda of Israel, a senior disciple of Swami
Vishnudevananda.

In 1991, instead of going to INDIA, I chose to be one of three day-time attendants for our Guru
(Swami Vishnudevananda) at our Yoga Camp ashram headquarters in Val Morin, Canada. My

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other two colleagues were women from New Zealand and Bosnia. Our Guru, in his early sixties,
had been partially paralyzed by several strokes and was preparing for death. He received daily
peritoneal dialysis treatments at home.

I was the MANAGER (sometimes in absentia) of the ISYVC’s Bahamas Yoga Retreat from 1993 to
2015. Currently I am in private practice as an ISYVC Yoga Professor At Large, and employee of
Amberwood Care Centre (sic), a retirement and rehab center in Rockford, Illinois. In 2013, I was
the Founder/Director of the online resource “YOGA FOR PEACE, JOY AND LOVE,” http://yoga-for-
peace-joy-and-love.webnode.com - http://yoga-for-peace-joy-and-love6.webnode.com - which is
a member of the Global Network for Spirituality and Health (GNSAH) of the George Washington
University Institute for Spirituality and Health (GWish). GWish
http://smhs.gwu.edu/gwish/about/dr-puchalski - was founded and is directed by Professor Dr.
Christina Puchalski, MD. (cpuchals@gwu.edu)

I am a paid REGISTRANT in GWish’s 15th Anniversary celebration, GWish’s Award for Excellence in
Interprofessional Spiritual Care dinner, GWish’s 8th Annual Spirituality and Health Summer
Institute (directed by Dr. Puchalski, MD, and Rev. George F. Handzo, M.Div., BCC) and the GWish
and Templeton Reflections Rounds Facilitator Training Program, only available to medical doctors,
nurses and chaplains (all in 2016).

My CLINICAL PASTORAL EDUCATION began formally, although unusually, in January, 1988 with my
enrollment with the world-wide charity: the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and
Ashrams (ISYVC).

..\..\Downloads\Letter of Recommendation from Executive Board Member.pdf

..\..\Downloads\swayamji.pdf

Krisna Darshan recommendation letter of April, 2016.docx

I say “unusually” because all of my knowledge, expertise and accreditation in this field is from 10
years of attending daily lectures by Swami Vishnudevananda and/or his senior disciples, his
international specialized guests from various medical, religious, scientific and social backgrounds,
from personal study with the ISYVC, and from “hands on” work experience with the American,
Canadian and Bahamian branches of Swami Vishnudevananda’s International Sivananda Yoga
Vedanta Centers and Ashrams (ISYVC), while being mentored and supervised by his senior
disciples.

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PLEASE SEE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR DR CHRISTOPHER QUEEN’S 2016 EMAIL LETTER
TO ME, ABOVE.

I served for 10 years, on-call for 24 hours per day, as Chaplain At Large, receptionist, office
worker, Yoga Professor/Instructor, cook, cleaner, handyman, baker and boatman at the ISYVC
Yoga Retreat, on Paradise Island, in the Bahamas. This included (with the exception of being a
boatman) the ISYVC’s centers and ashrams in Manhattan, New York City (various directors);
Woodbourne, New York State (director: Srinivasan); Val Morin, Quebec, Canada (directors: Swami
Shanmughananda and later Swami Mahadevananda); the Sierra Nevada foothills, California
(director: Swami Sitaramananda); San Francisco ISYVC, California (director: Swami
Sitaramananda); ISYVC Chicago, Illinois (director: Swami Vishnupremananda, ret.); and ISYVC
Montreal, Canada (co-directors: Sankara and Swami Rajeshwarananda). My initial full-time, 24
hour a day service for the ISYVC was from 1988 until 1992 in the Bahamas, but it has continued
for months at a time, under the same on-call conditions, in the US, Canada and the Bahamas,
until as late as 2012 (Yoga Retreat, Paradise Island, Bahamas – next door to the internationally
famous ATLANTIS HOTEL. Yoga Retreat director: Swami Swaroopananda; manager: Swami
Bramahnananda) – A total of at least 10 years of full-time service on my part with the ISYVC.

1603-1_certificateofattendance-1.doc

..\..\Downloads\NationalCatholicWIASSOC_1982_AOSWebEventFlier_National Call Centers

Provide Alternative Ways to Access VA Care_FINAL2.pdf

As mentioned already, I spent several summers on staff at the ISYVC’s center in Montreal,
Quebec, Canada, with co-directors Swami Rajeshwarananda, from Mexico, and Sankara, now
Swami Shankarananda, from Montreal – They are both now co-directors of the Rome, Italy, ISYVC
center - www.sivananda.org/rome - email: rome@sivananda.org; five months at the ISYVC Yoga
Farm ashram (with director Swami Sitaramananda – email: YogaFarm@sivananda.org) in the
Sierra Nevada foothills (www.yogafarm.org) of California; one week at the ISYVC San Francisco
center in California, under the guidance of Swami Sitaramananda; one year in the ISYVC center in
Chicago, Illinois (with director Swami Vishnupremananda); and several more years, beyond my
basic three, at the ISYVC ashram in the Bahamas - with director Swami Swaroopananda and
managers Sankara (from Montreal, Canada) and Swami Brahmananda (of Israel), email:
nassau@sivananda.org - My total time spent full-time on staff in a senior position with the
international charity ISYVC, founded in 1957 by Swami Vishnudevananda of Kerala, India, is 10
years.

Several of my supervisors and professors, senior disciples of our Guru Swami Vishnudevananda,
have since left to begin private practices in the United States, South Africa, Spain and Germany or

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retire (examples: Swami Sankarananda from South Africa; Swami Padmapadananda, Swami
Shanmughananda from Canada, Swami Kartikeyananda from New Zealand) but several remain on
the governing board of the ISYVC (Swami Swaroopananda, Swami Durgananda, Swami
Sitaramananda from Vietnam, my Sanskrit professor Swami Kailasananda from France, Swami
Sivadasananda from Germany) and they may be contacted at ebm@sivananda.org. I am known to
them as Swami Swayamswaroopananda, Swayam or Colin Higgins.

In 1991 I and eight others worldwide were made GORAKSHANATH ACHARYAS by the late Swami
Vishnudevananda, to assist nine MATSYENDRANATH ACHARYAS in running the ISYVC.

https://youtu.be/A6F_Zc42-Qc

I was in PRIVATE PRATICE as a Yoga Instructor/Professor and freelance newspaper editor in the
Bahamas from 1992 through 2002 (while also being manager in absentia of the ISYVC’s Yoga
Retreat), when my retired America-based parents came to live with me.

I was the sole, live-in care-taker for both of my parents from 2002 to 2009, and for my father until
2010 – (Please contact Dr. Phillip Arthur Dudley Higgins, MD, MBA, and my baby brother –
padhiggins@yahoo.com – 5306 Parliament Place, Rockford, Illinois, 61107 – Telephone 815-519-
0293).

After caring for my parents for several years in Rockford, Illinois, I returned to the Bahamas in
2010. I was office manager/Yoga Professor and Instructor/chaplain, at the ISYVC Yoga Retreat
(Please contact Swami Bramahmananda or Swami Swaroopananda at nassau@sivananda.org ) for
six months and afterwards returned to private practice for three months. I returned to the USA in
2011 for the interment of my parents’ ashes in Florida, where they had retired, and I was married
in Rockford, Illinois in 2012. My wife was part of a Baha’i group which used to visit my parents
and me several times in Rockford, Illinois, after my Baha’i membership was officially transferred
from the Bahamas to the US in 2005.

I have worked and volunteered here in Rockford, Illinois, where both of my parents died, since
2013 for Amberwood Care Centre, a retirement and rehab establishment, and the institution
where my father spent his last moments. He was predeceased by my mother, who died in 2009 at
home, in bed - http://www.amberwoodcarecentre.com/about-us - I was also employed in 2013 at
Presence Health Cor Mariae retirement and rehab center -
http://www.presencehealth.org/presence-cor-mariae-rockford-skilled-nursing-care-rockford. I
worked as a Chaplain At Large and in their (Amberwood’s and Presence Health Cor Mariae’s)
Activity departments. I worked closely with Cor Mariae Chaplain Rev. Fr. Joseph Bathke (rector of
Sacred Heart Church, 300 South Ridgeview Drive, Warrensburg, MO., 64093-1997 – Office: 660-

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747-6154), while we were employed together at Presence Health Cor Mariae in 2014 and 2015. I
left Cor Maria after about three years in 2015 - to focus exclusively on Amberwood Care Centre.

I have completed all of the APC requirements for chaplaincy board certification, am in good
standing with the Baha’i, Rastafari and Yoga (ISYVC) communities and have been a member of the
Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) since 2015. I was a participant in its 2016 webinar
“Serving on a BCC committee.”

1603-1_certificateofattendance-1.doc

..\..\Downloads\Rastafari - Christ in his Kingly Character.doc

I worked full-time for a total of 10 years, between 1979 and 2000, for the Bahamas Daily Tribune
Newspaper as a proofreader, reporter, photographer, the only sub-editor and a freelance features
editor.

Warm regards,
Marvin Ernest Colin Higgins

===============================================================================

SHORT ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS:

--------------------------------------------

MY MOST NOTEWORTHY accomplishments as a Chaplain stem from successfully running a four

and one half acre, 32 room, campsite ready, Yoga ashram, catering to as many as 300 live-in
residents from around the world, year-round. For almost four years, initially, I dealt effectively
with the daily and nightly exigencies resulting therefrom, as both Director and Chaplain. Later, for
several years, I was only chaplain, manager, general secretary and a Yoga Professor/instructor
there.

I have for about 30 years done the work of a chaplain, studied material that a CPE student would
study, completed advanced religious and medical study and practice, and worked in clinical
conditions to complete pastoral objectives, in the USA, Canada and in the Bahamas. (Please
contact Dr. David Allen, retired professor of Public Health at Yale, Harvard and Georgetown
universities, and/or Dr. Brian Humblestone, MD, Chief Psychiatrist of the Bahamas (ret.) and
senior advisor to the late Swami Vishnudevananda (both are at the Renaissance Institute and the
Christian Counselling Centre in the Bahamas, telephone: 242-327-8718 – email:

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cccbahamas@gmail.com ) - Prahlad, Director at the Yoga Camp, ISYCV headquarters, Val Morin,
Quebec, Canada (email: hq@sivananda.org) - Samantha Baney, RN, Administrator at Amberwood
Care Centre (sbaney@amberwoodcarecentre) and/or Sherry Head-Gillihan, Administrator at
Presence Health Cor Mariae, sherry.gillihan@presencehealth.org and/or Jacki Panattoni, Director
of Personnel at Presence Health Cor Mariae - jacki.panattoni@presencehealth.org - and/or
Chandra Rinehart, Director of the Activity Department, Amberwood Care Centre, email:
crinehart@amberwoodcarecentre.com.

I have been based in the USA for more than a decade and will continue my chaplaincy, research
and Yoga careers exclusively in America.

At the US, Bahamas and Canada ISYVC ashrams and centers and at Amberwood and Cor Mariae
retirement and rehab centers, I have counselled lovers, the parents of unruly children and their
children. I have dealt successfully and peacefully with a psychopathic and violent homeless adult
American couple, I have investigated several beatings and counselled the perpetrators and
victims. I counsel dementia retirees, I counsel regular retirees and rehab patients. In short, I have
been and continue to be, a FATHER, MOTHER and FRIEND to many adults from around the world
but mainly to healthy Americans from New York City and American retirees and rehab patients
here in Rockford, Illinois.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:

Some of my research topics, pursued alone and with others, are:

THE MARTIAL ARTS EXPERIENCE - THAI AND AMERICAN STYLES

MARCUS GARVEY AND THE BLACK STAR LINER

FILM IN AMERICA

FLORIDA GEOGRAPHY

SWAMI VISHNUDEVANANDA AND MARVIN ERNEST COLIN HIGGINS (SWAMI

SWAYAMSWAROOPANDA)

YOGA PRACTISE AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE BODY AND MIND

GROWING “OLD” IN AMERICA – AN ANCIENT/NEW PARADIGM

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SOME RESULTS OF LIVING IN COMMUNITY

HOW YOGA PRACTITONERS RESPOND TO INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP TRAUMA

RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY: SOME ASPECTS

BAHAMIAN SOCIETY: THE NINETEEN EIGHTIES

AMERICAN SOCIETY AND WORD-WIDE CULTURE

THE PINDLING COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO DRUG SMUGGLING AND GOVERNMENT

CORRUPTION IN THE BAHAMAS

YOGA, INCLUSIVITY AND ANCIENT/MODERN PARADIGMS FOR A NEW WORLD CULTURE

HOW SIR LYNDEN OSCAR PINDLING WAS PEACEFULLY AND DEMOCRATICALLY REMOVED FROM
POWER AFTER 25 YEARS OF CULTURAL, RACIAL, POLITICAL AND SPIRITUAL RULE

REPORTS FROM THE BAHAMIAN PARLIAMENT – BOTH GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION

My research experience is from my academic and extra-mural life at Palm Beach State College,
the Harvard University Extension School, Florida Atlantic University, my writing and editor’s
careers at the Bahamas Daily Tribune Newspaper and my careers as a Yoga
Professor/Director/Chaplain At Large, member of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta
Centers and Ashrams and a private individual. This is about 12 years, total, covering the seventies
and eighties. Since several of these careers extend to the present (Yoga Instructor and Chaplain At
Large), and span my lifetime, the time covered is actually from 30 to 60 years.

I worked with a legally blind African-American citizen in the late seventies to research and
complete a master’s degree dissertation in the Florida Atlantic University History Department
(Dissertation: “A COMPARISON OF THE PHILOSOPHIES OF MARCUS GARVEY AND MALCOLM X”)
and to enter Law school at Nova University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida as a disabled person.

My research education was imparted mainly by my professors at the mentioned American seats
of higher education (Harvard University Extension School, Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and
Palm Beach State College); by my Bahamian and British college-trained employers at the Daily
Tribune Newspaper, Bahamas (ecarron@tribune.net/rcarron@tribune.net) and by my
superiors/teachers at the ISYVC in America, Canada and the Bahamas (ebm@sivanada.org).

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The Tribune Daily Newspaper, Bahamas, was owned and directed by my mentors Mrs. Eileen
Dupuch-Carron (ret.), a London-trained lawyer, and her late British husband Roger Carron, a
former British military officer and London-trained lawyer. It is now run by their adopted son
Robert Carron.

Here are some examples of my research at Harvard University (GRADUATE LEVEL), the Tribune
Daily Newspaper, Bahamas, the ISYVC and privately today:

..\..\Downloads\Writings on my Gurudev.txt

..\..\Downloads\ADA351557.pdf

..\..\Downloads\ADA350979(3).pdf

..\..\Downloads\ADA349748(1)(2).pdf

Encounter with Mystery.docx

Religion. Scourge or Refuge.docx

..\Devotion to God.docx

..\Colin's Documents Office from downloads\Document 1(3).pdf

..\..\Downloads\The Peaceful Overthrow of the Father of a Nation.txt

Marvin Ernest Colin Higgins.txt

..\..\Downloads\ADA351860.pdf

The foregoing examples of my writing and research skills, from the Tribune Newspaper/Bahamas,
reprinted in the US Government’s Latin America Report, from my graduate Harvard University
class on Religion, and elsewhere, eminently show my research acumen, both in terms of
searching and finding, and being able to express my findings, using the written word. Dr. Rosanna
Picascia, whose name appears under my own on my Harvard University essays, and who was my
graduate Harvard University writing tutor during the religion course (picascia@fas.harvard.edu),
can attest to my research, leadership and writing abilities. Others are the American authors Carl
Hiaason, of the Miami Herald (author of “Striptease”) and Neal Donald Walsch (“Conversations
with God”).

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I was a co-investigator with Mr. Hiaason (and wrote for my newspaper The Daily Tribune,
Bahamas, while he wrote for the Miami Herald of Florida) in the Lynden Pindling investigation
into drug smuggling and alleged associated government corruption in the Bahamas. Mr. N.
Donald Walsch has a copy of my unpublished research manuscript on Swami Vishnudevananda,
my guru and teacher, and myself (Marvin Ernest Colin Higgins/Swami Swayamswaroopananda):
“In the Master’s Garden” ..\..\Downloads\Writings on my Gurudev.txt

TWO RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1) I would like to research the involvement (or non-involvement) of the country’s people of color
(dark-skinned Latinos, African-descended Americans, other discernably physically dark
Americans) in chaplaincy of any kind.

2) I would like to do research amongst those persons who state involvement in a religion, form of
spirituality or chaplaincy, to see what form it takes, and its intensity, or lack thereof.

These questions speak, not only to chaplains as Americans, but also to chaplains as mainly
Christians, Muslims, Jews or members of other off-shoots of the Abrahamic religions.

These questions will inform the work of chaplains by telling them, firstly, about the involvement,
or lack thereof, of the nation’s darker population. Secondly, it will speak to the outreach, or lack
thereof, of chaplains to our darker brothers and sisters, of all income brackets, educational
brackets, social brackets, etc.

Finally, the answers to these questions will hint at the strength or weakness of the Abrahamic
religions and philosophies in today’s world. It will examine the relevance of “Race” in religious,
spiritual and philosophical questions.

The answers to these questions will address the levels of importance and inroads into modern
culture, of non-Abrahamic ideas: such as those stemming from Hinduism, Pantheism, Paganism,
Animism, Buddhism, Science, Taoism, etc.

COLLABERATING INVESTIGATORS:

I would like to collaborate with Harvard University John Cowles professor of Sociology Dr. Orlando
Patterson, PhD, to whom I have already written and who is of mixed descent (mainly African) and
from Jamaica; Dr. Cornel West, PhD (also mixed but of mainly African descent) and to whom I
have written, and formerly with Princeton, Yale, Harvard and the University of Paris as either a
graduate or professor; my colleagues in the Activity Department at Amberwood Care Centre Tami

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Angel-Decker (of European descent); Chandra Rinehart, MA in Psychology, a European-descended
colleague and head of Amberwood’s Activity Department, with extensive experience with
African-Americans, and Susan Chang, PhD, head of the MPH program at Benedictine University.

I would also like to work with European-descended Dr. Professor Christina Puchalski, MD, of
George Washington University (Medical School), GNSAH and the GWish Foundation. I have been
in correspondence with Dr. Puchalski since 2016.

Dr. Professor Orlando Patterson, PhD, is of special significance to me. Besides being of African
descent, he is also of Jamaican descent (like my late father) and worked in government for former
Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley (like my father).

Also, I would like to collaborate with Dr. Professor Henry Louis Gates, PhD, of Harvard University,
to whom I introduced myself in 2016. He is the “Alphonse Fletcher University Professor” and
director of the “Hutchins Center for African and African-American Studies” at Harvard University. I
have already been in touch with Dr. H. Louis Gates, also of mixed (but mainly African) descent.

I myself am mainly of African descent, but also have European and Taino/Lucayan (Bahamian)
Indian ancestors.

WHAT I HOPE TO GAIN FROM THIS EXPERIENCE:

Mainly, I hope to become a better researcher and chaplain and be more willing to use research in
my day-to-to activities.

I hope to learn how to be a better listener and reader. I hope to be brought further abreast of the
latest medical and palliative care methods used in hospitals, clinics and similar settings.

I would like to be better equipped intellectually to serve all, especially the “lowest of the low,” to
use Mother Theresa of Calcutta’s apt words.

This training will influence me as a chaplain by firstly, furthering my research knowledge and
practice in the field, and next, giving me a greater store of current medical and palliative care
information. It will make me more sensitive to all of my clients, especially those who could use
my skills the most.

I plan on sharing my newly acquired knowledge and expertise with fellow chaplains and non-
chaplain colleagues by my own words and actions with them (in conferences, at work, etc.) and

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with my clients. I also plan to make myself available to lead workshops, consult, conduct
seminars, take part in conferences and mentor others in my field.

I hope to have the opportunity to present papers on the findings from my research, publish in
peer magazines, books and so forth.

PLANS FOR EMPLOYMENT DURING THE FELLOWSHIP/USE OF TIME:

I will not seek or accept employment during the two years of Fellowship. I will abide by the
Fellowship guidelines and refrain from working more than 10 hours per week. I am currently a
part-time employee at Amberwood Care Centre but, should I receive one of the John Templeton
Fellowships, I will work no more than the prescribed number of hours during my MPH course. In
short, I will be working 10 hours or less at Amberwood, I might be on unpaid leave, or maybe
unemployed, whatever Amberwood desires. I will devote the hours from eight to lunch (noon)
and then until dinner (three hours before sunset) to study, research and/or compilation of data.

UNIVERSITIES APPLIED TO FOR THIS PROGRAM:

I have applied to three MPH programs and to three universities in connection with the John
Templeton Foundation Fellowships: Benedictine University, George Mason University and George
Washington University (Milken Institute School). I have been accepted into Benedictine’s MPH
program. I am awaiting word on my George Washington University (Milken Institute School) and
George Mason University applications. I found Benedictine University and its MPH program, the
Milken Institute School (GWU) and George Mason University, listed among universities and
programs acceptable to the John Templeton Foundation and accredited by the Council for
Education on Public Health (CEPH).

The main reasons that Benedictine University’s MPH program is the best fit for me are: 1) it is
approved by the John Templeton Foundation/USA Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)
and 2) it is completely online (Milken Institute School, GWU, and George Mason have their online
MPHs too, which I am completely open to) and could be accessed from anywhere, perfect for a
husband whose marriage comes FIRST. Also, dissemination of Health Information and Health
Promotion, the stream I will pursue, is in line with my talents, training and inclinations. 3) I have
already been accepted 4) I could begin studies soon. However, I am totally open to doing either
George Washington University’s or George Mason University’s on-campus MPH programs in
Health Promotion which start 03/15 2017, because my wife and I would be closer to her aging
parents in Arlington, Virginia. Either one of the several study options would be perfect.

WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE WITH THE SELECTION COMMITTEE?

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Upon completion of the “Transforming Chaplaincy” Fellowship MPH degree, I will approach my
current employer, Amberwood Care Centre, and propose institution of a Chaplaincy and
Chaplaincy Research Department, which I would head. Since I am on very good terms with
Amberwood (my father spent his final moments there and I volunteered daily there for a year
after that) and since we only have hospice chaplains who come very rarely, I would propose the
change which would add an in-house chaplain for all (about 140 persons), including dementia
patients (of which my father was one for over a year) and also add a research chaplain: me. This
program could be implemented anywhere in America.

Twenty two references from around the world, who can attest to my being uniquely placed
(racially, personally, intellectually and spiritually/religiously) to be a leader in research, are listed
herein:

..\..\Downloads\References.txt

Best wishes,

Marvin Ernest Colin Higgins

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