The Great Plains Conference’s summer internship program is expanding in 2019 to include students helping to teach in confirmation camps.
Applications are now being accepted for the four internship programs – Micah Corps, Network Intern, Pastoral Leadership and the new Confirmation interns – at greatplainsumc.org/internapply.
The confirmation interns would work at both locations – Camp Fontanelle in Nebraska and Camp Horizon in Kansas – that already have confirmation camps in place.
These college students served as interns in the Great Plains Conference in 2018. Photo by David Burke
“We’re in the middle of conversations of what that would look like,” said the Rev. Nicole Conard, young adult and campus ministry coordinator.
The confirmation internships came about through some of the ministry action plans developed at the district level, Conard said.
The network internships are entering their second year. An intern would work within one of the growing number of networks in the conference to give the student work experience in a number of churches.
“The networks are going to really focus on how to reach this mission field,” Conard said. “Last year (a network intern) was a very new idea, and this year we have a chance to implement it.”
“We’re really focusing how to grow leaders and grow our own leaders,” she added.
Micah Corps, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, will get a bit of a facelift as well. The interns will continue to work on social justice projects such as immigration and poverty, but their placement will be “trying to match the interns with the district ministry action plans,” Conard said.
“It’s like a new generation of Micah Corps,” she added.
The Rev. Kalaba Chali, conference mercy and justice coordinator and adviser to Micah Corps, said the change was drawn from feedback from previous Micah Corps members.
“Many interns have indicated they have learned so much that they wanted to stay and help out in one location,” Chali said. “They can work with a group of congregations in justice ministry.”
The Micah Corps interns still will travel to Washington, D.C., Chali said, a visit that many interns have said is the highlight of the experience.
Pastoral leadership internships will remain the same as previous years, serving full time in a local church and receiving mentoring from a pastor.
For Youth Ministry internships this year, Conard said, the Great Plains Conference will provide matching funds for churches who want to hire their own interns. Those interns are also invited to the opening retreat, scheduled for May 20-24.
All of the interns will study a leadership development curriculum developed by the conference, Conard said.
“It really worked well last year in the pilot year, and we got some feedback to make it even better,” she said.
Internships continue through July 28.
The interns will be paid $9 an hour for up to 40 hours a week, with a 10-week schedule that concludes July 28.
The goals are to hire as many as four confirmation interns, eight Micah Corps interns, eight network interns and five pastoral leadership interns, Conard said.
These college students served as interns in the Great Plains Conference in 2018. Photo by David Burke
