This new year of the Youth Internship Program (YIP) is off to a great start.
Our Faith Formation team includes me, our intern, Aimerance, and the Reverends Arran Thorpe, Geoff Chapman and Mary-Cate Garden. Our leadership facilitation team is led by Breanna Pizzuto of Talk Tools, and she will be joined by Susan Young and Mylène Côté.
The privilege is mine to introduce you to some of this year’s interns. Please meet:
Naomi is returning to YIP for a second year and is looking forward to building more lasting relationships. She is doing her work placement with the National Planning team for CLAY 2022.
Jane is a grade 11 student at Holy Trinity in Kanata. Some of her interests include interior design, architecture and culinary arts. She enjoys cooking, baking, taking photos, listening to music and watching movies. She is also a dancer, piano-player, oldest sister of four, and babysitter. This summer, she worked as a camp counselor at Circle Square Ranch at Big Clear Lake. Jane is looking forward to the new experiences and knowledge she will receive during her work placement at the Bishop’s office working with Heidi Fawcett on event planning.
Fares is a 17-year-old student at Brookfield High School and is from a family of seven. Fares likes to walk, ride his bike, swim and play video games. He also likes to watch Turkish TV shows and soccer. Fares is excited to be working at the Glebe Wellness Centre.
Étienne is a Gr. 12 student at Lisgar Collegiate Institute, where his primary academic interest lies in creative writing, a subject he hopes to pursue in university. He is fluent in English, French, and German and studied Latin at his elementary school. Étienne also enjoys athletics, participating in the school’s cross-country running, Nordic skiing, and track and field teams. As for employment experience, he once operated a local paper route and has also volunteered at a soup kitchen with his church. Finally, Étienne has a fascination for trains, and his obsession for Star Trek has resulted in him being the head of his school’s Star Trek club. Étienne will be doing his work placement with Centre 454.
Deborah is a Gr. 11 student at Canterbury High School with a passion for visual arts. She enjoyed art at an early age. Finding beauty in art forms leads her to find beauty in the world around her. Having grown up in the Christian faith, Deborah is looking for ways to help others through art. She is looking forward to developing her leadership skills and presence as a “strong female lead” and is inspired by her mom’s various roles in the local and national church. Deborah aspires to lead within Girl Guides of Canada. She is looking forward to working with a diverse group of people and hopes to strengthen her communication skills in her work placement as the YIP intern at the Ottawa Art Therapy Centre. In YIP, she hopes for new experiences and new relationships, to develop a deeper sense of faith and self-understanding with colleagues and mentors, and to have fun!
Claire is in grade 11 at De la Salle High School. She worships at St. Alban and St Bernard Anglican church on Sunday mornings. This past summer, Claire was a camper counsellor at a summer camp for children with autism. Claire will be the YIP intern for L’Arche, an international federation of faith-based communities, creating homes and day programs with people who have developmental disabilities. Claire is looking forward to learning with the L’Arche community and within the Youth Internship Program.
Aimerance is a YIP intern doing her placement with the YIP leadership and faith formation team. She is a student at the University of Ottawa studying Psychology. She enjoys reading, dancing, and having fun with her friends and family. She is passionate about helping others and sharing the gospel and the love of Jesus Christ with the world. She is looking forward to learning and experiencing new things this year with YIP.
Alexis is doing a second year with YIP. Her work placement is in the Enriched Support Program Department at Carleton University. Alexis thinks this is so amazing because she also goes to school there and is learning a lot of skills that will be helpful in the future. She is working with the most amazing people. Alexis is studying engineering.
In addition to being coached and participating in Faith Formation and Leadership sessions, each intern is offered the opportunity to work with their own Christian/work mentor. The idea for our interns having a Christian mentor/ work mentor comes from 3 places:
In their exit interviews, our first cycle of interns said having their own mentors would have made the program better.
We want to help develop inter-generational relationships between youth and adults. In our exit interviews, 60% of all our alumni rate their relationship with their mentor as very high and important to them.
Finally, one of lectures I attended during Ask and Imagine; hosted by the Faculty of Theology at Huron University in 2016. The research from the lecture was based on a 2004 study which looked at the factors that made a difference to the 19-21% of young people who continue to identify with the church after the age of 21. Spencer Edwards, a guest lecturer, stated that the number two factor was having adult Christian mentors engaging, connecting and relationship building with them.
Watch for pictures next month from our Faith Formation, Leadership sessions and maybe even a mentor gathering.
If you have any questions about the Youth Internship Program, please email me at [email protected]
Deanery of East Ontario — Church of the Nativity, L’Orignal