Last summer, Quinn Arnold '23 interned for One Hope Tulsa, a non-profit located in Tulsa, Oklahoma focused on community development.

What did your internship involve?

“It is hard to sum up my primary responsibilities throughout the summer because every day my job looked different, and the programs that we ran changed almost every week. In short, I was mainly in charge of entering into relationships with people in the neighborhood, whether they were the kids in our programs, the families living in the neighborhood surrounding the Rose Bowl (the facility that One Hope is in), the members of the neighborhood experiencing homelessness, the middle and highschoolers that came around, the parents of the kids that came to our camps, or the members of the church that I was working with. I was also working the camps and programs that we ran, so some weeks I was in charge of a group of kids, other weeks I was a gymnastics coach, other times I was working one-on-one with specific kids to develop their skills in classroom engagement, and other times I was helping give music lessons. I helped with their homeless ministry, I completed various projects for the neighborhood, I helped run a middle school girls club, and was part of planning an event for the whole community. I would also canvas different neighborhoods and apartment complexes. I did a one-on-one Bible study with a member of the community, helped lead worship at the church that planted One Hope, and did block ministry which meant going to the same few houses every week and asking to pray with the families that lived there."

What was the most rewarding part of your internship?

“I think that the most rewarding part of my work is the way that it shaped and informed how I read the Bible. I learned more about justice, trauma responsive care, and how our God has a special interest in the poor and marginalized of our communities. I feel like in a lot of ways this internship restored my hope in the local church, and in some ways my passion for living the Christian life."

What are you taking away from your experience?

“My favorite part of my work is the lessons that I learned from it. I got to learn about trauma, resilience, homelessness, housing, neuroscience, justice, the foster care system, ACEs, para-church ministry, missions in a local context, mourning and lamenting but also praise and worship, and ultimately I just got to learn more about Jesus. I came out of this experience thinking differently and caring differently. It changed me a lot.”

 

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2022 issue of View Magazine.

Connect with us