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Seminarians Meet Political Washington
by Erica Newport
Dec. 2001
An exclusive Christian program in Washington lured seminarians from leading theological schools to participate in the National Capital Semester for Seminarians (NCSS) program at Wesley Theological Seminary. This past year was a great success because of the passionate and talented leadership of Shaun Casey, assistant professor of Ethics at Wesley, and Barbara Green, director of The Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy.
For one semester, students seeking insight into interactions between theology and politics gathered weekly by Wesley's bell tower, prepared for an adventurous afternoon. They traveled by shuttle bus and Metro to sites such as Senate Chaplain and Bread for the World.
Making these visits possible wasn't as easy as jumping on public transportation and showing up. Months before, Green was on the phone planning and coordinating site visits for the students, relevant to their study of ethics and public policy.
"You can plan as perfectly as possible, and things will still change
at the last minute," said Green. "That's life in Washington!"
Weekly, the students met twice for class. On Mondays, two sites were visited for an hour each. On one occasion, an afternoon was spent at National Defense University at Fort McNair.
On Wednesdays, the students met for a reflection seminar about the issues from their previous site visits. The students were expected to keep a journal about their experiences. They discussed and prepared for their next sojourn under direction of Shaun Casey.
Casey taught the course for the first time this past year and says there are two qualities about NCSS that has brought him back to teach again.
"The first, is meeting students from across the country that enjoy and are interested in theology and public policy," said Casey. "Second, I enjoy the scholarly side and getting to meet practiconers in the Greater Washington Area, who work at the intersection of theology and public policy."
Students took advantage of the social ethic internship opportunities available in the U.S. capital. Casey supervised and monitored the students' relationships with their organizations throughout the semester.
"One of the advantages of our program was that it allowed them to explore vocational interest through internships," he explained, "which provided them with hands-on work experience that they could not get in most seminary settings."
Program participant Yakeima McAllister, a student from Harvard University Divinity School, was interested in working in Senator Clinton's office and after she dropped by for a brief inquiry session, she found herself doing just that.
"I found it to be a pretty amazing, exciting, and gratifying experience for Yakeima and me," said Casey. "Senator Clinton's office was very pleased with her work."
"This experience is life changing for the students involved," said Green. "It is a joy to watch these young scholars change and grow as the semester progresses."
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