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Yale Divinity School
409 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06515
Purpose of the Part-time Internship Supervisor Qualifications & Requirements
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Please see Part-time Internships for complete information.
Purpose of the Part-time Internship Program
Yale Divinity School invites churches and other institutions to share in the theological education and formation of individuals for ministry. Sites participating in the internship program represent a broad range of denominations, theologies and missions. They include parishes, social service agencies, prisons, campuses, and faith-based organizations. Students participating in the program are an equally diverse group. Each site has a trained supervisor who directs and supports the student’s experience and engages in theological reflection with the student. To become a supervised ministry site, you should be able to:
· provide significant tasks that a student can accomplish on a part-time and short-time basis;
· enable a student to function in roles appropriate to their status as students;
· give a student an opportunity to work with people on serious issues;
· facilitate a student’s learning through conversation and reflection; and
· provide opportunities for a student to gain new knowledge and experience rather than simply practice
what they already know.
As educational programs of Yale University, all internships must be open to all students regardless of sex, race, age, disability, veteran status, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. In the application you sign to have an intern (enclosed), you will be asked to indicate your compliance with this policy.
The student intern is expected to spend an average of 13.5 hours on site each week for two consecutive semesters, excluding most school breaks. This totals twenty-six weeks over the course of the academic year. The intern is expected to work under the guidance of a supervisor who is trained in supervision at Yale Divinity School (see below). Internships should be designed to teach students to reflect critically on the meaning and practice of ministry, and therefore include mandatory weekly one-hour sessions between student and supervisor. To complement their field learning, interns are also enrolled in a Practicum course at the Divinity School. (The Part-Time Internship is a course in the divinity school curriculum and should not be construed as a job. If what you want is to hire a YDS student as an employee, you should send a notice to our Dean of Students, Dale Peterson, at dale.peterson@yale.edu.)
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Supervisor Qualifications and Requirements
Committed and effective supervision is key to the success of supervised ministry. In order to maintain the integrity of the program, supervisors are expected to have certain qualifications and meet certain requirements, including:
· a minimum of three years of experience in a professional position which qualifies you to supervise students;
· at least one year in your current position;
· the ability to provide a structure that is challenging and educational, as well as the time to observe the
intern’s practice of ministry and provide concrete feedback on it;
· meeting weekly with the student for supervision and theological reflection;
· participation in fifteen hours of orientation and training in the skills of supervision.
Note: The orientation runs for five consecutive weeks from late August through September.
· attending at least one supervisor session thereafter each year. Times and dates for these sessions are
announced each summer.
Yale Divinity School offers financial aid to its part-time interns. Sites no longer contribute, directly to that aid, though the YDS Development Office may ask you for a contribution. Sites are encouraged to reimburse students directly for commuting to and from the site. This support sometimes makes a difference in their choices about where to intern.
An intern committee, sometimes called a lay team, is a group of laypeople/staff/clients who covenant with the intern to support his or her formation as a professional. Intern committees represent the site and their primary focus is educational; i.e. giving constructive feedback and helping to identify the intern’s particular competencies in ministry. The committee typically gathers on a regular basis, usually monthly, to meet with the intern.
In congregational ministry, laypeople contribute to the formation and education of future ministers because by biblical definition, the church is laos, the whole people of God, including both clergy and laity. Laypeople offer an invaluable perspective – the perspective from the pew – that the pastor cannot offer. Through dialogue with the intern committee, the intern learns how better to serve that particular congregation, and, indirectly, how to minister to all congregations.
In other settings, staff members, board members, and/or clients can make an important contribution. They can shed a perspective on the agency or organization that the director may not have. They can teach the intern the organization’s mission and history and explain what drives its work now. They can serve as “reality checkers” on the intern’s work within the organization.
Thus the functions of intern committees may include:
Welcome
Intern committees serve as supportive bodies by officially welcoming interns into the life of their sites. They might publicize the intern’s arrival with a newsletter article or through some other means. Some churches formally install their interns with a covenanting service during Sunday worship toward the beginning of the year.
Opening the Life of the Site to the Intern
Within the necessary time constraints of the part-time internship, interns should participate in as wide an area of institutional life as possible. To do so, they should become acquainted with a wide array of people and their projects and interests. Intern committees can facilitate these connections and introductions. They can also acquaint interns with the history, theology, politics, and culture of the site, familiarize them with the issues and concerns of the wider community, and inform them of special events going on. In churches, sometimes intern committees coordinate invitations for Sunday meals.
Feedback and Support
Intern committees serve as channels of feedback and reflection interns. It is important for committee members to have read the intern’s Learning Agreement in order to familiarize themselves with the specific expectations and responsibilities of the internship as well as the intern’s learning goals for the year.
Meetings of the intern committee provide a chance to share reactions and impressions with the intern in a group setting as well as through individual comments. It is important that any feedback be timely, specific, grounded in accuracy, behavioral rather than personal, and constructive. Effective feedback is neither indiscriminate praise nor criticism. Rather, it is based on thoughtful analysis of the student’s work. For example, in assessing an intern’s sermon, the committee might first ask themselves the following sorts of questions: What message did I take away from the sermon? Did I understand the sermon? Was it helpful to my life and faith? Different committee members will probably have different answers; this variety in itself is educational for the intern.
When offering feedback, intern committees should bear in mind that interns are students preparing for ministry. Expectations and standards held for someone already ordained do not necessarily apply. Comments should be specific enough that the intern can reasonably undertake areas of improvement. At the same time, intern committees should not hesitate to offer constructive criticism. As mutual trust grows within the group, any negative feedback should become easier to share. Ultimately, intern committees can become an opportunity for mutual ministry between laypeople and those preparing for professional ministry, as genuine dialogue about the nature of ministry and the work of the site takes place.
Committee members who serve for more than one year should bear in mind that different interns will be different. This year’s student may be quite unlike last year’s. The committee’s role is to enable the intern to become the kind of minister he or she is to be.
Reporting
The part-time internship program involves six reports: four Observation Reports, a Mid-year Report, and a Final Report. Intern committee members may submit up to two of the intern’s Observation Reports. They are also especially encouraged to participate along with the supervisor in writing the Final Report.
Interpretation
Intern committees function as interpreters to others in the site. Sometimes, when students fumble in their work, complaints arise from those who do not fully understand their role as members of a teaching site. The intern committee serves to remind everyone that the intern is not an employee but a student learning in their midst.
A Note About Confidentiality:
Intern committees function best if their discussions are understood to be confidential, including the supervisor in the circle of confidentiality whether or not the supervisor attends intern committee meetings. Committee members should agree not to share specific information with other site members or staff.
How to Apply for a Part-time Intern
If you are a new supervisor:
Get online and log onto www.yale.edu/divinity/sm/info_supervisors.shtml . Under “Form Links” click on Site Application. This will open a Word document. Type your information directly onto the Word document. Save this document to the document files on your computer. Send the document as an e-mail attachment to michael.giaquinto@yale.edu. Remember to sign and mail or fax the Agreement to the Office of Supervised Ministries.
If you are a continuing supervisor:
Get online and log onto www.yale.edu/divinity/sm/site_descriptions.shtml . Click on the denomination or ministry category appropriate for your site. Click on your site name. This will open a Word document (if Windows asks if you would like to open the file in Microsoft Word, click OK). Type in any changes directly onto the Word document. Save the updated document to the document files on your computer. Send the updated document as an e-mail attachment to michael.giaquinto@yale.edu Remember to sign and mail or fax the Agreement to the Office of Supervised Ministries, whether you make changes to your application or not.Your application will be posted on our website unless you indicate otherwise, and we will also keep a hard copy on file for showing to students. Since your application forms students’ first impression of you and your site, you will want it to be as complete and current as possible. You may check out other applications at www.yale.edu/divinity/sm/site_descriptions.shtml . If you wish to include information that you do not want available online, please mail it to us. For example, you are welcome to send sample newsletters, annual reports, and bulletins.
Office of Supervised Ministries
Yale Divinity School
409 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511
fax (203) 432-7475
phone
Mike Giaquinto: (203) 432-5314
Barbara Blodgett: (203) 432-6135
Our process begins with individual meetings between students and me to choose sites where they will interview. Students complete an application that is mailed to potential supervisors. Most students interview with more than one supervisor and most supervisors interview more than one student. You and the students submit your ranked choices by mid-March using the Placement Preference Form and then final matches are made. Once placements have been determined, you will begin the process of preparing a Learning Agreement with your intern. Learning Agreements are completed before the summer so that internships can begin promptly in the fall. The Quick Reference Guide to the Placement Process gives further details about how it works.
Please note that should students contact you directly, you should refer them to Barbara Blodgett, Director of Supervised Ministries. Agreements made outside the placement process will not necessarily be honored. This does not preclude you from encouraging students to interview for your internship.
Supervisors participating in the Part-time Internship program receive certain benefits, including:
• Auditing YDS courses
Simply let Barbara Blodgett know of your interest, and she will contact the professor to make sure the course can accommodate an auditor. See Course List for a list of courses offered at YDS.
• Use of Yale libraries
Go to the Privileges Office at Sterling Memorial Library (to the left of the circulation desk) and your name will be on a list. You will be issued a card free of charge that you can use at all the Yale libraries.
See www.library.yale.edu for all sorts of information.
• Payne Whitney Gym membership
Go to the Membership Office at Payne Whitney Gym and your name will be on a list. This privilege lets you join the gym at the faculty rate..
• 10% discount at the YDS Bookstore
This privilege is technically only available to members of the clergy and YDS alums (which covers most of you—for the rest, contact our office). Simply tell the cashier who you are. See www.yale.edu/divinity/sbs for hours and other information.
• Membership in the Ministry Resource Center
The MRC is part of the YDS Library, so your library card enables you to check out MRC material. This privilege applies only to you as an individual. We encourage your institution to join the MRC.
See www.library.yale.edu/div/mrc/.
--Last Updated 5/8/07