Student Leader Cohort
Join today by completing one of the following forms below:
Student Leader Cohort **STUDENT** Interest Form
Student Leader Cohort **MENTOR** Interest Form
Calling all high school students (9th-12th grade) who want to develop and use their God-given gifts with others and the Holy Spirit to transform classmates, the church and the world. The Student Leader Cohort is a new, flexible approach to developing student leaders based upon their interests and a format of events and small group time with a mentor.
Youth can choose which of the following areas they want to focus on as they develop their leadership skills:
- Annual Conference Session and Connectional Leadership. These students will discern and plan elements of worship and presentations to be given during the 2020 BWC Annual Conference Sessions on May and some may also choose to be involved with jurisdictional. Click here to see videos from youth leading at AC 2019.
- Compassionate Justice. Partner with one or more of the conference's eight social action teams and develop opportunities for youth to engage in addressing creation care (environmental justice), gender equality, gun violence prevention, immigration rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, racial justice, restorative justice, wealth equity.
- Mental Health. Building on existing initiatives like Stress Less and ROCK Cares, partner with mental health experts to develop resources and ministries that focus on improving mental health for youth.
- Project at Your Local Church or District. Students plan and craft a ministry initiative in their own communities with the support of a mentor.
- Young People's Ministries (YPM) Communications. Explore various mediums (social media, video, podcasts, newspaper, etc.) and develop content to be shared across the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Some content may be reporting on what is happening with youth in the BWC, others may be resources or opinion pieces.
Our Objectives:
- Students return to their churches equipped and passionate about serving in and through their local church.
- Students respond to God’s call on their lives by engaging in a specific program or project.
- Students are clearer about their unique gifts: whether it be in a ministry vocation or in some other calling (lay servanthood).
- Students of different genders, ethnicity, ages, worship styles cultures and varying church sizes, build a rich sense of community.
- Together, students fulfill many of the the Book of Discipline functions of Conference Council on Youth Ministry (CCYM) and gain an understanding of UMC polity within and beyond the BWC.
Costs
The cost to be a part of the cohort is FREE and some elements have a cost to them (usually to pay for food, facilities and/or lodging). If the church is unable to pay, scholarships will be available.
Questions? Contact Sharonda Jones, BWC Coordinator of Ministry Operations & Projects at (410) 290-7302.