By Abby Wooster | Staff Writer
As the Dec. 4 application deadline for the Summer Fellowship Program nears, prospective 2023 “fellow” interns gathered in the chapel on Wednesday, Nov. 9, to listen to their peers’ experiences in the program from previous summers.
The Summer Fellowship Program connects each student with a 10–12-week internship at a church, non-profit or camp around the country so that they can “explore the way in which God is calling them into the world.”
Potential candidates heard from sophomore Matt Cochran, who completed his fellowship with Calvin Crest, a non-profit organization near Yosemite, California. Calvin Crest hosts outdoor education camps for high school students, families and people with developmental disabilities of all ages.
For Cochran, the fellowship provided a space for spiritual growth. “Coming out [of the fellowship], I feel like I had a lot more experiences where I felt like I saw God moving and working,” said Cochran. “Also, I feel like I had [a] ministry impact on people that I hadn’t felt before.”
This is what Gracey Jo Gonzalez, the Fellows Programming Assistant, anticipates for her future fellows. “[Fellows] also get to form deep connections with people in a totally new place, [which] broadens their worldviews and their perspectives and increases [their] capacity for community,” she said.
The program partners with diverse sites in many states including Oregon, Idaho, California, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, New Jersey and North Carolina, which allows some students to experience living in a different state for the summer.
“Just like students apply to the program, sites apply to us to host a fellow,” explained Gonzalez. “So [we are not] sending people out to random places…[and] in most recent years, we’ve been able to send fellows all across the country.”
Not only does the Summer Fellowship Program provide spaces for spiritual growth and opportunities to live in new states, but it also pays each participant a stipend and—in some cases—internship credit.
For more information about the 2023 Summer Fellowship Program, click here.