When people walk into ISM Brewing in downtown Long Beach, they notice the friends they’re with, the drinks they ordered and the food they’re smelling. This is exactly the atmosphere that Cal State Fullerton alum Ian McCall wanted to create.
McCall has a lot to think about each day to keep his business running smoothly. There is the brewery itself, where more than a dozen award-winning craft beers are created and distributed; the kitchen and back-of-house, where Chef Robert “Bobby” Gill and his team prepare pub fare from scratch; and the customers’ first point of contact with the front-of-house team.
Overall, McCall is thinking about approximately 25 employees and the many moving parts that keep the business running. Managing it requires an understanding not only of business and hospitality but, most importantly, of people. For that last part, McCall’s education in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences prepared him well.
He majored in religious studies, which was previously known as comparative religion.
“I didn’t find religious studies,” said McCall ’11 (B.A. religious studies). “It kind of found me.”
After graduating from high school in 2000, McCall didn’t immediately jump into a four-year degree program, and he didn’t know what career path he wanted to take. He spent several years working and taking classes at different community colleges before eventually earning his associate degree from Golden West College in Huntington Beach.
While taking community college courses, McCall began working at Brewbakers, a small brew-on-premises brewery in Huntington Beach, where customers have an active hand in brewing their own unique beer. It was also where he met his wife, Lisa, who helped him get back on track toward a bachelor’s degree.
“She actually pulled all my transcripts together, enrolled me at Cal State Fullerton and got me set up with my first semester of classes,” McCall said.
Among that initial mix of courses he signed up for was a course called “Religion and the Quest for Meaning,” taught by Jeanette Reedy Solano, professor of religious studies. The course examines the “nature of religious experience as the human pursuit of meaning and transcendence,” according to the CSUF course catalog.
Up until this point, studying religion in an academic rather than a religious setting had not occurred to McCall.
“I was raised Catholic. Around 18, my mom and family really wanted me to continue, but I didn’t find the answers to the questions I had within the Catholic Church,” McCall explained. He ended up walking away soon after.
The option to study religion academically offered McCall something different. It gave him the opportunity to learn about many belief systems. It also encouraged him to delve into their histories while exploring subjects across the humanities.
“When I jumped into comparative religion, it was an opportunity not only to study religion from an outsider’s perspective, but it included all of the humanities,” McCall said. “Everything from history and anthropology to archaeology, philosophy and sociology.”
It was this range of humanities disciplines that further solidified McCall’s desire to pursue a religious studies degree.
Solano said McCall’s experience of discovering religious studies through an introductory course is one she has seen with other students.
“Most of our students who become majors follow a similar path. They discover the rich and vital academic field of religious studies in an introductory or specialized topic upper-division seminar and have an academic ‘aha’ moment,” Solano said.
At Cal State Fullerton, religious studies approaches religion through understanding rather than belief. Students examine different religious traditions, beliefs and practices from an academic perspective, with openness and a willingness to learn at the center of that study.
For McCall, learning to understand beliefs different from his own had a lasting impact that he has taken throughout his post-college life.
Read McCall’s full story on HSS News.