Internship (Summer 2024) with Grace Episcopal Church (W&L Community-Based Learning)

This is a summer 2024 internship opportunity based in Lexington. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and positions are open until filled or May 6, 2024. To apply, attach a resume and cover letter here in Handshake.

Organizations: Grace Episcopal Church

Grace Episcopal Church is committed to Becoming Beloved Community, dismantling racism and nurturing racial healing and justice.

Internship Overview

The student will work with Dr. Susan Virginia Mead and Mrs. Carole Elmore.  Dr. Mead is researching and engaging in community organizing around the history and social issues related to Sounder, a Newbery award-winning book, written by a Rockbridge County native and inspired by a local educator of color.  Mrs. Elmore is the church Archivist.  

This work aims to better understand the life of African Americans in Lexington and Rockbridge County in the latter decades of the 19th Century up through the Jim Crow era.  One area of interest is the role played by local churches, especially Grace, then R.E. Lee, in racial justice and healing and in racial injustice and harm.  Under the direction of Dr. Mead, the student intern will examine parish registers and archives, newspaper records, and other historical material. The goal is to develop creative ways to engage the congregation and the wider community in understanding and reporting our history for the sake of racial healing and creating Beloved Community, or as one community member said, building a "Sounder" Community.

Qualification

We are looking for a student with an interest in a combination of the following:  history, applied sociology, social justice and community organizing, research and writing. We seek one who can follow and develop leads to tell a more complete and complicated history of race relations in the local community and at Grace.  We would prefer someone good at talking with new people, outgoing, able to work independently and collaboratively.

Timeframe

8 weeks from Tuesday, June 4th to Friday, July 26th, working approximately 25 hours a week. 

This internship is part of the Office of Community-Based Learning’s (CBL) internship program. Students will be provided guidance throughout the summer by CBL staff and work directly with their site supervisor. Students will meet with the CBL intern cohort once a week for training and reflection. This is an unpaid internship. However, students can apply for summer funding through Career and Professional Development Office (applications typically due winter term) and the Johnson Opportunity Grant (applications due January or March). Funds are limited and not guaranteed. This internship qualifies for EXP credit (CPD 451) through the CPD office. Sign up for the CPD Canvas Course (go.wlu.edu/Canvas) to receive alerts regarding summer funding and course credit.  

For questions, please email Bethany Ozorak, Associate Director of Community-Based Learning (bozorak@wlu.edu).