Information for Current Internships

Information concerning current interns:

The Learning Covenant

Learning plans are central to reflective, student-centered learning.  The Learning Covenant helps structure supervised ministry by helping the student identify and be intentional about what they want to learn from their experience and the tasks and activities that will provide opportunities to learn those things.  It should be an organic–not rigid–document in that it will probably change somewhat through the internship as the student learns more about the site and themselves.  You might revisit it several times through your internship to see how you are doing or whether it should be tweaked. As a covenant, it is always interpreted through the negotiations of relationships among those invested in this student’s ministerial formation through supervised ministry.

Practicum

The purpose of practicum is to support critical, theological reflection on the nature, practice and context of ministry as experienced in the internship.  Practicum takes place in a collaborative learning community of student peers and is facilitated by a qualified ministry practitioner.  In this setting, students gain the experience of collegial support and feedback from their peers while building a foundation for lifelong learning in ministry.  

  • Syllabus and schedule
  • Practicum Facilitators
  • Practicum themes:  Rather than assignments, think of these as activities that enable students to participate fully in the next group meeting.      
    • FALL SEMESTER -
    • Sept 3    Bring Faith Time-lines and Create a Group Covenant 
    • Sept 10  Begin Site Identification
    • Sept 17  Continue Site ID
    • Sept 24  Learning Covenants
    • Oct 1     Maintaining Online Communities
    • Oct 8     Plenary RE:Curating an Online Identity
    • Oct 15   Story Telling and Narratives - how do we talk about who we are?
    • Oct 20   Trauma informed care
    • Nov 5    Advocacy and Activism
    • Nov 12  Plenary - Community Organizing
    • Nov 19  Mid-year Check in  
    • SPRING SEMSESTER (dates tbd)
    • Week 1 Looking back, looking ahead
    • Week 2 Site Organizational Structure
    • Week 3 Plenary - Site Finances, Budgeting with Benjamin Bruce
    • Week 4 Grant Writing 
    • Week 5 Administrative Policies/Procedures
    • Week 6 Leadership
    • Week 7 Plenary - Personal Financial Literacy
    • Week 8 Fund development/Stewardship
    • Week 9 TBA
    • Week 10 Plenary - Conflict Management
    • Week 11 Finding a Job, Launching a career
    • Week 12 Looking back, looking ahead - ending well.

Evaluations

Evaluations are submitted at the end of each semester by the student, supervisor, and theological mentor (if different from supervisor).  The time log is viewed and approved by your supervisor and the Director at the middle and end of each term.  Your time log must be up-to-date by the deadlines listed in the syllabus.  You can use any method or software app to keep track of your time. See Calendar of Events and Deadlines for actual dates.

How to Receive Your Stipend

Yale Divinity School ensures that every student intern receives at least $4,500 per year as a stipend for Supervised Ministry. In addition to that amount, sites are encouraged to help the student with transportation expenses. If you are receiving financial aid from your site that is not reimbursement for travel, you must inform the Director of Supervised Ministries because it affects the amount of your stipend from Yale. 

Payment details: Students will be paid approximately $285 on the 15th and last day of each month from September 15 through Dec 15 for a total of $2,250.  The process will be repeated for the second semester.  However, you will not receive your first paycheck until all of your paperwork is received and processed. 

If you have difficulty getting your check, contact the program directors (alison.cunningham@yale.edu for non-profit placements, jennifer.s.davis@yale.edu for parish/chaplaincy placements).  If you have trouble with Workday, contact Employee Services at 203-432-5552 or employee.services@yale.edu.