Div Dictionary: LPM

LPM (n): Leadership in Public Ministry, a course offering from Yale Divinity School that satisfies the internship requirement for M.Div students.

Like CPE, LPM is another acronymic way that divvies can spend a summer getting course credit and being paid for it. (LPM was also offered during the school year this year; it's slightly unclear whether that'll happen again.) In brief, students spend the summer being trained as community organizers, and then applying those skills in a variety of internship placements around Connecticut. Students in LPM are charged tuition for the three hours of course credit they accumulate, but they are also paid (in the form of a grant through the Financial Aid Office) for the internship they work.

ETA: My pants are burning. Turns out CPE does cover your internship requirement via transfer credit. Mea culpa; I misread an earlier comment. (Thanks for keeping me honest, Susan.)

From the LPM website:

Leadership in Public Ministry is a supervised ministry course designed to teach students how to work with others to create change in community. Students learn about how community leaders define leadership and how they become leaders. They also learn how to practice justice and use power in ways that are biblically based and theologically grounded. The course is now being offered in both the summer and the academic year. Both terms start off with a period of intensive classroom training and continue with work in a local site under the supervision of an experienced practitioner. This is combined with regular classroom meetings designed to enrich the concepts and skills taught in the initial training, as well as to offer reflection time for interns to share their experiences.

For years, the LPM team has partnered with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a community-based organization in Southwest Florida which organizes for worker's rights on the huge agricultural corporations there. The course culminates in a trip to Immokalee, which is where our intrepid LPM 2009 folks are right now. In a van. Driven by Susan O. (I'm somewhere between jealous and pity on that one.) In the winter of 2009, some of the CIW organizers visited YDS, and that's where the photo at right comes from.

(Photo bonus: Can you find your two BTFO 2009 leaders in the photo above?)

-Kate

(Photo bonus answer: No, you can't, because we're too small and blurry.)

And if we're talking about registering for classes ...

One more quick FYI:

The academic calendar for 2009-2010 is up!

AND

Online Course Information is open to look at fall classes! (Note: Div School courses are under "religion", NOT "religious studies.")

Please don't ask me how to log into OCI. I'm a Millenial; I didn't read the manual. I think at this point you can only look at where/when things are happening -- registration is for later. Lisa H. will walk us through registering for a class during her session at BTFO.

Please remember this about all course information at this point:

IT.

IS.

NOT.

FINAL.

For real, it's Saturday! I'm going to the beach!

-Kate

ETA: Lisa reminds me that it's easy to get to the Online Course Listings through Student Information Systems (SIS). Head here, and click on the OCI link at the left. No, you still can't register for classes.

Who's Who: Lisa H., Reigstrar

Our registrar, Lisa H., likes to joke that the admissions office’s job is to get students in the door, hers is to get folks out – and hopefully with a degree. Sadly, I don’t have any grandiose metaphor in which I compare Lisa to a website. Testimonial: my general experience with her has been more than pleasant; before I even met her she was watching my back as I tried to register for a course at the Yale School of Management. (Which didn’t work out – please come talk to me about the SOM’s whacky academic calendar before you try to take a class there - but which Lisa would have made happen if I so desired.)

Lisa performs all the normal duties you’d expect from a registrar – her office is where you’ll pick up transcripts, notify the school if you change your student status, and process the paperwork you’ll need to take a class pass/fail. You’ll also come to Lisa’s office to keep your student ID valid – Yale requires that you have a little sticker showing when your ID expires.

In addition, Lisa would like everyone to know that she has an open-door policy. No appointments are required to stop by and chat with her. While you will have a faculty advisor assigned, and the first stop you make for life-related drama will generally be one of the deans, Lisa is a great option to bounce course-related ideas off of, and her knowledge of the school runs deep – before becoming registrar, Lisa was bookstore manager for years, which is where this photo comes from:

Lisa is on the right, and is not a zombie. Incidentally, the guy on the left is our tech/web services dude, Brock H. (no relations to Lisa). I’ve never met Brock in the flesh, so I cannot guarantee that he is not a zombie. (There’s a joke in here somewhere about tech people spending too much time with their computers, but I’ll let that one slide for right now. There's also a joke about meeting zombies "in the flesh", but it's Saturday and I'm officially not working. DIY, kids!)

Lisa would also like me to serve notice that, in addition to making sure you get appropriately registered for classes, she’s available for any conversations you’d like to have about hot air ballooning or whales. (Not even Google Image can really combine these two like Lisa can.)

-Kate

New Faculty!

I wouldn't be surprised if we already sent you this in another email, but check out the newbies: Young scholars fill YDS positions*. I want to read all of Clarence Hardy III's and Tisa Wegner's books. (Not that I don't find Asian Christianity fascinating, it's just that I attended Chloe Faith Starr's lecture when she was being interviewed, and I feel like I have a grip on what she's about. Also, I have a not-so-secret crush on the American Southwest.)

New faculty have their own little orientation, but we hope they'll be joining us for some BTFO events. Just remember not to be too smug when you know where things are and they don't. We'll be doing tours of SDQ on Monday evening just so you know where the RSV room is.

-Kate

*No, it's not just you. That does sound like a "That's what she said" moment.