Opportunities for Internships and Travel for Religion
Students
Increasingly, opportunities for cross-cultural experience are
coming to Indianapolis. As mentioned elsewhere on this web site,
Indianapolis is home to an increasingly diverse population of
people representing not only the ethnic and cultural communities,
but also the religious heritage of the world's major traditions.
Whether one wants to experience worship in a Protestant, Catholic,
or Eastern Orthodox church, a Hindu temple or Islamic Mosque, one
need not look further than the urban setting of Butler University.
However, there is no experience in this country that will
facilitate one's understanding not just of other cultures, but also
of one's own, in the way that is possible through time spent in
another country and culture. For this reason, Butler works hard to
provide the widest possible range of opportunities for students to
do precisely that.
Butler's study abroad program is closely linked to the Institute for Study Abroad,
which is housed in the Interfaith Center not far from the Butler
campus. In addition, external grants for study trips involving
collaboration with a professor are available on a competitive
basis. The Center for Faith and Vocation works
closely with Butler's Religion program to provide relevant
internships and travel opportunities that focus more specifically
on areas of interest to religion majors. Whether your interest is
in church ministry, religious publishing, inter-faith dialogue, or
something else, chances are that it is not only possible to arrange
such an internship, but that one or more students has already done
just the sort of internship that interests you, leaving a precedent
and established relationships that either the Department of
Philosophy and Religion or the Center for Faith and Vocation can
draw on to provide you with practical internship experience to
complement the academic side of your education.
The Center for Faith and Vocation, through the generosity of the
Lilly Foundation which provided the grant that established it,
provided several subsidized field seminars in religion, which
enabled groups of students to travel with faculty members from
Religion and other programs to interesting destinations such as
Nicaragua, South Africa, and Latvia. Another grant allowed a small
group of professors and students to explore aspects of how science,
technology and society intersect in India, with particular focus on
religion and contemporary practice of Ayurvedic and Western
medicine.
Whether encountering vibrant communities engaging matters of
social injustice, or traditional congregations struggling to
navigate the new situations facing increasingly secularized Europe,
whether standing at an important place of pilgrimage or a site
where thousands lost their lives in the Holocaust, students in the
Religion program at Butler have had their horizons broadened
through the opportunities for real-life experience that Butler
University provides.
In May 2012, Dr. James F. McGrath will be taking students on a 9
day trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. For more
information, please contact Dr. McGrath at jfmcgrat@butler.edu. A flyer
with additional information is also available, and the itinerary and other relevant details can be
found on the EF Educational Tours web site.