Discerning my call to serve, part 2

As I promised in my last post, I will share a little bit more information about Episcopal Urban Intern Program.

EUIP is a year-long program that runs from late August this year until mid August next year. I will be living with the other interns in the program (there are six of us total) and we will be sharing three bedrooms and a common/kitchen area in a rectory on church property at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Hollywood. Each intern will have a full-time volunteer placement somewhere in the Los Angeles area.

For anyone who is familiar with EUIP (which you probably are if you’ve talked to me any time in the past two months), you might be saying to yourself “Hollywood? I thought she was going to Inglewood!?” At the time I applied to EUIP this winter, it was situated in the community of Inglewood. Starting with the 2009-2010 intern class, however, we will be situated in Hollywood. The set up is pretty much exactly the same as before and the congregation in Hollywood is very similar to the former one in Inglewood. Both churches are small, multicultural, bilingual, urban parishes. Both churches have a strong commitment to social justice. But the location in Hollywood is a bit more urban and the neighborhood is easier to get around. Thanks to the move, we will be situated closer to the metro and bus lines as well as grocery stores, cafes, etc. I was attracted to EUIP because of its connection to a bilingual urban parish with social justice-oriented roots, so I’m glad that part of the program is staying intact during the transition into Hollywood. I’m hoping that my year in LA, particularly at a bilingual parish, will help my Spanish skills. Being able to effectively communicate in Spanish would enhance my ability to serve those around me.

In addition to all of the info about the move to Hollywood, I also recently received a list of my roommates next year. Thanks to technology, we’ve all been able to “meet” each other before we actually head out west; I’m even Facebook friends with two of them (and we all know that means we’re true friends for life). In the first email we received a list of names and email addresses for all of the roommates and I have to admit that my inferiority complex kicked in as I read the list of addresses. Every .edu email address had major name recognition and so I just sat there thinking “how can I even be in the same program with people from these schools!?” Luckily, I got over that quickly.

I will say, however, that if the little information I know about my roommates is any indication, we will have a very interesting year. There are three male and three female roommates. We are a very diverse group racially, religiously, geographically, and educationally. I’m trying as hard as I can not to make any pre-conceived notions about my roommates, but when you only have a little bit of information and have to wait three months to meet them in person, it’s hard not to (at least for me). As fellow blogger Amanda pointed out to me, however, they probably have just as many pre-conceived notions about me as I do about them. I can’t wait to meet them and talk to them and get to know them in person, though. And here’s a fun fact for you: one of my roommates speaks Old English.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be starting to figure out where my volunteer placement will be for the year. I’m hoping to work with teenagers or young adults in some capacity, though I’m pretty open to different experiences. I will keep you all posted and, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them here or to email me.

Peace,
Jordan