Whitworth’s Office of Church Engagement runs the Summer Fellowship Program, which places students with churches, camps, and nonprofits nationwide for 10 to 12 weeks to enrich their spiritual lives and hearts for community service. The fellowship comes with a $4,000 stipend, with room, board, and meals generally included.  

Two Honors students who participated in the Summer 2024 program, Vivyetta Hirschfelder and Melaina Kloberdanz, shared their experiences with me to help spread the word about this amazing summer internship and service opportunity.  

Vivyetta Hirschfelder, an Honors Sociology major with a minor in Worship Leadership, was a worship fellow at Sunset Church in Portland, Oregon. She “did a little bit of everything,” from leading worship to helping with worship tech, planning services, youth ministries, communications, video announcements, and more. This opportunity helped Hirschfelder see the full breadth of ministry and learn how every area in ministry is interconnected. This has opened her eyes to how she can apply her faith and studies outside of just Worship Leadership. Hirschfelder also emphasized how she helped make intentional space to build community within the church, which she sees as her most important contribution. 

Her favorite part of her experience was filming video announcements for the church, one of her many marketing duties. Hirschfelder is also a current ambassador for the Office of Church Engagement and is more than happy to talk to anyone interested in applying to be a 2025 Summer Fellow. 

Melaina Kloberdanz, an Honors double major in International Relations and Philosophy, was also a fellow this summer. She participated in a research internship using a sociological ethnographic lens to study church vitality and resiliency in Delaware, Ohio. Kloberdanz lived with a host family from the church she was studying and said it was fascinating to live in the Midwest and integrate into that culture. She found studying the church population, structure, and services as fun as she’d hoped. Kloberdanz linked the things she was learning in her Honors classes to the interdisciplinary research she was conducting and brought the things she learned from her research back to Spokane this September.  

Her favorite part about the fellowship was being so close to the East Coast, which allowed her to go on ‘side quests.’ One such side quest included driving six hours to Washington, DC, and getting coffee with Montana Senators from her home state. She also got roped into assisting the youth group at her church and got slime dumped on her head. 

These Honors students had nothing but good things to say about the Summer Fellowship Program here at Whitworth. Applications opened on October 18th, and the last application deadline is February 9th. It’s never too early to start thinking about summer internships and job opportunities.