Three religion majors spent their summers working in paid internships. Lori King-Nelson, Shelby Nowland and Edward Fitzhugh had the opportunity to experience first-hand what it takes to run various church ministries.

"It was an exciting time of learning the inner workings of church leadership and stretching myself beyond my own comfort zone within the church and community." Said Lori King-Nelson, student.

Lori and Edward both worked at First Christian Church of Fort Worth and Shelby worked with Bread Fellowship. Their experiences ranged from coordinating volunteer training for the Read2Win program, attending meetings of the Homeless Coalition of Tarrant County, liturgical planning, worship set-up, preaching to aiding senior members of the congregations.  

The paid summer internships are a first for the religion department and are funded by a gift from the Templeton Trust. The plans are to continue selecting three religion majors every summer to participate in an internship. While all three students this past summer worked in churches, the internships are not limited to local congregations. Students may choose to work with non-profit or religiously affiliated institutions.