I have always been labeled “The Christian.” When I entered the secular community of Andover as a new Lower, I clung to this religious identity. It became my safe rock during a year of turbulent changes. I did not want to conform to the homogenous secularism that a private boarding school inevitably produces. As a result, my first impressions with fellow students come across as strongly evangelical.

Today, those first impressions are often impossible to overcome. Is it possible to...