Twelve Ethnic Young Adult (EYA) summer interns, based at the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), worked in nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations in the nation’s capital for two months.

Young adults are selected annually from United Methodism’s five ethnic caucuses to participate in the internships. To qualify, applicants must be passionate about social justice and active in the denomination, according to the Rev. Neal Christie, program director.

Christie, an EYA intern in 1984, said the internship is The UMC’s only leadership-development program with a public policy and advocacy focus that reaches out to under-represented racial and ethnic young adults of color.

This year’s placement sites included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the National Council of Churches of Christ-USA and Justice for Our Neighbors.

The 12 interns represented 11 UMC annual conferences and all five jurisdictions. They included four African Americans, three Hispanic/Latinos and five Asian American/Pacific Islanders.

Interns also participated in weekly seminars exploring issues that affect racial/ethnic communities.

“For the first time, five of our 12 interns will receive significant college credit for their eight-week internship,” Christie emphasized. “This puts the EYA internship in another league when their universities trust our faith-based approach to leadership development, and our commitment to excellence in terms of intern placements, mentoring, community building, advocacy and organizing skills and evaluation.”

“Funding for the internship is very limited,” said Christie. “With increased funding, we could open the internship to many more students from Africa, the Philippines and Europe.”

United Methodists support the internships through the World Service Fund. The GBCS sets aside “a significant portion of those funds to strengthen racial and ethnic leadership ministries in the local church and conferences,” Christie said.

--Wayne Rhodes