Site Work Details
Students in the Health, Wellness, and Spiritual Care Cohort will work four hours each week with organizations and ministries in their local settings that provide care to individuals and groups and cultivate or support wider networks of care, with particular attention to individuals and populations who are vulnerable or in crisis. This work may take a variety of forms, including initiatives that provide spiritual or pastoral care, address immediate material needs, or support individuals and communities through structural and programmatic responses to need. Students may pursue this work within a variety of organizations, including non-profit or civic organizations, faith-based organizations or ministries, chaplaincy programs, or community initiatives.
Faculty
Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethics Craig Ford will be the faculty co-leader of the spring integrative seminar for students in the Health, Wellness, and Spiritual Care Cohort.
Teaching and Site Supervisor
Rev. Maressa Pendermon is an ordained reverend in the Unity Fellowship Church Movement (UFCM) currently serving as pastor of Unity Fellowship of Christ Church, Greater Atlanta, Inc. ( UFC, Greater Atlanta). She is also a trained spiritual care provider having earned 7.5 units of credit in clinical pastoral education (CPE) through the Care and Counseling Center of Georgia.
Maressa is passionate about social justice ministry and does her work in community with traditionally marginalized and low wealth individuals and communities from a human rights perspective and through a womanist theological lens. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Albany State University Albany, GA; a Juris Doctorate from the University of Florida, College of Law in Gainesville, FL; and a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University. She is also certified as a master trainer and facilitator by the Interaction Institute for Social Change, Cambridge, MA.
Student Requirements
Cohort Meetings
Over the course of the year, students in this cohort will engage in contextual, theological, and personal reflection on their health, wellness, and spiritual care work. They will gain a deeper understanding of the spiritual and theological foundations for spiritual care ministries, local and global dynamics that impact systems of care, skills and practices for faith-rooted care, and the role faith communities play in responding to the needs of our society. This cohort is intentionally designed to facilitate the experience of Christian community with fellow students and mentors, while fostering critical reflection on the various personal, social, organizational, and systemic forces impacting the work of those in the cohort.
- Participation in this cohort also includes a fall semester reflection group and a spring semester integrative seminar.