Candler's YTI Aims for 4K with Third Crowdfunding Campaign
Candler School of Theology’s Youth Theological Initiative (YTI) is once again participating in a fundraising effort through Momentum, Emory University’s crowdfunding platform that debuted in 2015. This year’s campaign runs from July 3 through July 31, and benefits the YTI Summer Academy, which brings forty rising high school juniors and seniors to the Emory campus for three weeks of Christian theological education. Donations are fully tax-deductible. Learn more and give to YTI through Momentum.
The campaign will run during this year’s Summer Academy, with hopes to raise $4,000 to support student scholarships. In 2016, YTI reached 223 percent of its original goal, the highest percentage of any Emory crowdfunding campaign to date.
Established in 1993, YTI has now enrolled more than 1,000 youth from across the U.S. and around the world. During the Summer Academy, participants wrestle with deep theological questions in a supportive community of peers and are taught by seminary students and faculty at Candler. Diversity abounds, as participants are drawn from different theological and socioeconomic backgrounds. This year’s academy will bring together 36 scholars from five different countries, 10 different states, eight Christian denominations, non-denominational churches, and the Jewish and Buddhist traditions. Over half are students of color.
Nurturing that diversity is the reason YTI is dedicating the proceeds from this crowdfunding effort to scholarships, says the program’s director, Elizabeth Corrie. “The beauty of YTI is its diversity, and we cannot maintain that diversity unless we can make it economically accessible to everyone.”