The Collegedale Church of Seventh-day Adventists is offering a program that will partner with 10 selected freshmen to help them choose their majors. It will offer life orientation and prepare them for career choices that enrich their passions while supporting their wallets.
This opportunity includes sessions on strength development, leadership education,
and discovering one’s identity and purpose to avoid changing one’s major three to five times as the average student does.
Students will receive more than one job shadowing experience that will be followed by a debriefing to compare which experience connected best.
Pastor David Ferguson, of the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church, said: “We want to guarantee internships for our students and connect them to our community, and the exciting part is local business folks want in.”
Church members are coming together to offer their expertise in their own fields, while some are opening up their homes as mentor families. The mentor family that will be allotted to each participant will provide a home-base where the student can be invited for meals, get rides to and from the airport or go watch a movie on a Saturday night.
“The kind of things that we’re getting into are so different from anything that happens in a classroom,” Ferguson said.
Leaders inviting interested freshmen to the upcoming brunch on Sept. 30. The brunch is by invitation only.
It will focuss on the value of joining and will begin the process of narrowing down to 10 students. As the program’s resources continue to expand, it will open with more momentum and entry spots in the Fall semester of 2019. Ferguson says the number one requirement is for hunger to develop.
“It isn’t how bright you are or what your GPA is; our task is to seek out those who are interested to engage deeply,” he said.
The biggest predictor of success in the program is drive.
The best way to get a spot is to show up, show interest and respond to emails. There will be a stand-by list throughout the year.
In the long-term, this opportunity is designed to prepare each participant for a life calling that will employ one’s gifts.
“There’s a great big story that is being told about God and you have a role to play in this story,” Ferguson said. “If you don’t snap into the spot that only you can fill, it doesn’t get filled by anybody.”
Interested freshmen can fill out this form to receive an invitation by email.