God in the Garden

In the summer of his freshman year, Paul A. Smith went outdoors to do some gardening and found God. From that moment on, he has described himself as a man with a calling, motivated by a special force--"the kind of thing that has turned tentmakers into apostles."

At first, Smith says, he tried to resist the calling and the force that captured him. Coming from a scientific background, he was skeptical of the whole experience, and in any case, he was convinced that he just "wanted to say no"--marry, have two kids, live in the suburbs, and be a science professor.

But, the cailing has persisted. Next year, Smith will use a Rockefeller fellowship to travel to Sikkim, a tiny nation north of India, where he will teach science and mathematics to local schoolchildren. "It's a small school, akin to our little red school house," Smith says. He will live isolated in the rural countryside, without heat or hot water.

Although the Indian government-- which has governed Sikkim for the past five years--is usually reluctant to allow foreigners into the small country, Smith says the Indians desire for Western-style education will help him obtain a visa. "It's much better than just going there and knocking on some monastery door."

Smith says he has long been interested in teaching math and science as well as Buddhism. When the Abbot of Rumtek, a high Sikkimese religious leader, spoke recently at Harvard, Smith decided to combine the interests. "I was really impressed by him, and I just said right then that I was going to go there."

His stint as a schoolmaster in Sikkim will not be the first unusual adventure for Smith, who prides himself on experiencing a variety of activities.

Founder and captain of his high school math team--which won two California statewide championships--Smith is graduating with honors in chemistry and physics. He also produced this year's Lowell House opera, "The Elixir of Love," has played the piano since he was four, has rung the Lowell House bells for the past three years, has worked summers as a park ranger in the West and plans to go to divinity school when he returns from Sikkim.

In any case, Smith says he'll just play it by ear, convinced that the nature of his calling will somehow reveal itself "St. Francis changed the whole world," Smith points out, "and all he tried to do was fix a church."