Written by Gabrielle Pruitt
The Harding University Career Center hosted the C-Harmony event Thursday, Jan. 27, to give students an opportunity to interview with multiple churches and earn an internship in youth ministry.
The title C-Harmony, not to be confused with the dating website E-Harmony, stood for “Church Harmony,” and 45 churches from all over the country came to hear from Harding students at this event.
Representatives from the various congregations met with students to interview them in a “speed-dating” style and obtained resumes in advance to evaluate the character of each individual wanting to be a leader for their youth group. Students met with representatives in 30-minute time slots for which they signed up online prior to Jan. 27 through Bison Career Search on the Career Center’s website.
This was the fourth year for the Career Center to put on such a project, and the numbers indicate a positive response. This year, the number of students, churches and interviews doubled. The students said they recognize how valuable this kind of experience is.
“I loved this opportunity, and I think a lot of students definitely benefited from it today,” junior Hannah Hughes said of C-Harmony.
Hughes met with eight different churches, praying about each of them. Having never interned with a church before, she talked about how anxious she was to hear back from them and said she felt confident in her interviews.
Junior David Schilling had heard about C-Harmony during his freshman year from a friend who had been involved with it. Realizing how helpful this sounded, he decided to participate this year and felt it went well, he said.
“I think the event is great,” Schilling said. “I like the idea of so many churches being in one place, looking for interns.”
Schilling said he encourages anyone interested in a summer church internship to attend. He said he believes it was excellent not only for the students but also for the churches. Both Schilling and Hughes said they felt the set-up of a “speed-dating” environment made it comfortable for conversation.
“Unlike real dating, everyone at C-Harmony seemed to know what they wanted,” Schilling said. “It felt like we were getting to know each other and negotiating terms.”
More than 300 interviews took place in a four-hour period. To have just one student out of that number hired to go and make a difference in the lives of a youth group would have made the event a success, Career Center Director Deb Bashaw said. However, she said she believes it is usually the life of the hired intern that will be changed because of the work.
“There is no way to measure the good that was done here today, but do I consider it successful? Absolutely,” Bashaw said.
