SERVEHERE Summer 2021 Kick-Off

After a year characterized by uncertainty, we are so excited to announce that we have officially kicked off the ServeHere Summer 2021 program with five incredibly gifted, Spirit-led women. What this year’s class has stepped into has not been easy. They have not only stepped into world-class internships, but they are opening up themselves to a program like no other. What we ask of our students requires a willingness to use every part of themselves to glorify God, process through some challenging questions of faith, and a complete surrender of their idea of success. 

Every year our inbox is flooded with applications of students who are rising juniors and seniors. We have multiple interviews with them and spend the spring praying for those who will join our program. This Summer’s class is made up of rising seniors and recent graduates of Texas A&M and the University of Texas. There are a wide range of passions and career paths ranging from accounting to nursing to education. 

A summer with ServeHere provides many learning opportunities. The students’ new classrooms are the internship placements where they are challenged to apply what they have learned in their field of study in order to make a real impact. They also meet one-on-one with a mentor and in weekly group sessions where they tackle a challenging curriculum designed to prepare them to lead a life of significance.

This summer, internship placements were made in five different non-profits around Austin. Most of these organizations serve populations that struggle with poverty. But their clients’ circumstances are very diverse — spanning the homeless, displaced and disadvantaged youth, young mothers, and villagers in Africa. We have also partnered with two incredible Non-profits whose main focus is on providing holistic women’s health care and promoting literacy across all age and people groups in the Austin area. 
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Our Summer 2021 Non-profit Partners
Mobile Loaves and Fishes – lifting up Austin’s homeless population
Texas Reach Out – providing post-prison transitional housing and support
The Source – providing high-quality, whole-person health services to women throughout Texas
The Archibald Project – using stories to educate people to care for vulnerable children 
Education Connection – helping children fight illiteracy and decreasing school dropout rates

Previous summers have proven that the work our students do inside these organizations is both interesting and valuable. They are given more responsibility than students in traditional internship roles. While they are developing job programs, micro-enterprise programs, after-school curriculum, engineering best practices, marketing plans, and telling the stories of the organizations and the people they serve — they are also sharing the love of Christ.
Our kick-off session gave our students a chance to meet each other, reflect on their past year, participate in group discussions, and contemplate their goals for this summer. Already it is clear that this is a very engaging group of young adults who are motivated to live a life of significance!