Written by Addi Province
The annual Youth Intern Fair was held in Cone Chapel from 1-3 p.m on Jan. 25. Previously called C-Harmony, the Youth Intern Fair brings in Harding students interested in being a youth intern and connects them to churches. Several different churches were represented, including Cross Point Church of Christ in Florence, Alabama, and Broken Arrow Church of Christ in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“This is my sixth year in full-time ministry and my first year with Cross Point,” Harding alumnus and Cross Point youth minister Jeremy Evans said. “This is my fifth year at this event. We have always found interns through Harding. The biggest thing that I always say is that I want someone that can come in and love on these students for 10 weeks. Whatever talents an intern has, the ministry will use it.”
Representing Broken Arrow Church of Christ is Emily Gillin, who was once a youth intern herself and is now Broken Arrow’s ministry coordinator.
“I was the youth intern at Broken Arrow for two summers, and I just made the transition to full-time staff,” Gillin said. “I think it’s cool to see somebody who doesn’t necessarily know that this is what they want to do, and through the internship, they see a passion for ministry.”
The Youth Intern Fair is conducted by the Harding University Career Center in partnership with the Bible Department. In the last year, Jacob Farr and Lara Lauterbach, directors of the career center, have taken over the project and brought new ideas into play to combat the declining number of students applying for internships in youth ministry.
“Scott Adair from the Bible Department came to me and said, ‘We have got to do things differently,’” Lauterbach said. “We really tried to look at it from the angle of ‘What is your willingness or opportunity to come serve in a church.’ Several students need a summer opportunity anyways. It looks great on a resume, and it’s great down the road for organizations to see that you have leadership experience. We really pushed that to students and made an effort to reengage them with the idea of service to others.”
Sophomore Gracie Steelman, along with three other Harding students, will intern this coming summer at West 7th Church of Christ in Columbia, Tennessee.
“I heard about West 7th through my friends that interned there last summer, and they recommended me,” Steelman said. “The youth minister texted me around the end of September and I heard back three weeks later. The interview process was pretty easy. It was very casual, more like a conversation. We just talked and got to know each other for like an hour.”
