Youth Ministry’s Emily Harpole
Benedictine College
Emily Harpole is a current junior at Benedictine College from Littleton, Colo., and Gregorian Fellow studying Theology and New Evangelization/Catechesis with minors in Mass Communication and Political Science. Many of our Gregorian Fellows had opportunities to participate in valuable internships around the country. Here is her experience of interning as a Youth Minister at her home church, St. Mary Catholic Parish.
I spent a majority of my time with the youth; my main job was to prepare for and run the morning bible studies for both the high school and middle school youth groups. Wednesday mornings was for high schoolers and we took them on a “John Paul II Adventure” where we would go on hikes, float in tubes on the river, play sports, and do a bible study or apologetics talk somewhere along the way. It was beautiful to bring the virtues alive within the activities we were doing, and prepare the high schoolers to spread the faith themselves. I loved seeing them gradually open up to learning and applying virtue in their lives.
The two week-long summer camps were highlights of the summer. I had helped develop the middle school summer camp when I was in high school; we only had 30 middle schoolers then. It was incredible to come back four years later and see the camp had grown to 70 middle schoolers! I am very thankful I was able to see the fruits of my hard work.
Most of our high school campers were students from Spain who travel to our parish for a month each summer. Many of them had questions about Catholicism and we had great conversations about what we believe as Catholics and why we believe.
This past summer was an incredible experience. I am so thankful I was able to see how the Lord is working in the lives of young people and that He used me to play a little part of His work.
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