C3I interns will strengthen churches and communities this school year

Back-to-school launches the second year of one of Fellowship Southwest’s most productive partnerships—an internship program in the Center for Church and Community Impact at Baylor University’s Garland School of Social Work.

Each year, Fellowship Southwest sponsors three scholarships for master’s-level students in the Garland School. Those scholarships support interns, who work in the Center for Church and Community Impact—C3I—two semesters. They conduct research on issues related to congregational ministry. They also make sure their research matters by offering workshops and writing articles that put vital information into the hands and hearts of church leaders.

This week, FSW’s executive director, Stephen Reeves, and founder, Marv Knox, joined the C3I staff online to meet the center’s five 2021-22 interns. The interns bring a diversity of skills, experiences and passions to their tasks, reported C3I Director Gaynor Yancey, professor of congregational and community health in the Garland School and Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary. 

This year’s interns, all in their final year of studies, are: 

• Cintia Aguilar, a dual-degree student earning a master of social work degree from the Garland School and a master of divinity degree from Truett Seminary, originally from Nicaragua who now considers Waco home. She will focus on ministry in Hispanic churches, and she is a member of Primera Iglesia Bautista in Waco.

• Kendall Ellis, a dual-degree student from Kentucky, now living in Virginia, where her husband is a pastor, but studying in Waco. She will research trauma-informed care in the church, and she is a member of Mount Hermon Baptist Church in Mosely, Va.

• Paige Grace, earning a master’s degree from the Garland School, originally from South Dakota who calls Waco home. She will examine substance use disorders in congregational settings and also churches’ response to mental health issues. She is a member of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco.

• Geneece Goertzen, a dual-degree student and longtime resident of Waco, where she is a deacon and Sunday school teacher at Calvary Baptist Church. She will continue the work she began last year as Calvary’s social work intern studying domestic violence and churches and finding paths to healing.

• Kathleen Post, a dual-degree student from Dallas who has lived in Waco four years. She is working on a congregational discernment grant, helping churches conduct “difficult conversations” on sensitive topics. She is a member of University Baptist Church in Waco.

In addition to Yancey, the C3I staff includes Mallory Herridge, assistant director, and Erin Albin Hill, coordinator of research projects.

“We’re grateful for this opportunity to work with the Center for Church and Community Impact and the Garland School again this year,” Knox said. “And we want folks to know we’re also grateful to the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation, whose generous grant—based upon their love for the church and compassion for communities—makes this collaboration possible.”