At Saint Meinrad, the summer season is when the youth conferences called "One Bread, One Cup" are in full swing. Now that it's fall, it's the season for applications from those interested in being college interns next summer.

In this blog post, we "borrowed" some content from an interview done in 2017 by two former college interns, Olivia Snyder of Floyds Knobs, IN, and Luke Messmer of Jasper, IN. They offer insights into what a college internship is like for the youth liturgical leadership conferences.

What is the conference like for the interns?

Olivia:  Something that I really enjoy about "One Bread, One Cup," as an internship program and as the conferences, is that everything is scheduled. Everything is very balanced in how it's scheduled. That's very reflective of the Benedictine way in monastic life. There's a good balance of prayer, and socializing, and learning.

What's the internship like when the conference is not going on?

Luke:  That's kind of the hidden thing that nobody gets to see until they've been in the internship. So, it would be a formation week, a conference, a formation week, two conferences, and then a formation week. But, essentially those formation weeks look like: We're taking classes. We are going on community outings; we're doing community-building activities. We're praying Liturgy of the Hours every day; we're going to Mass every day.

Olivia:  What I really appreciate about the formation weeks, as part of the internship program, is that we're growing as individuals, but we're also growing together as a community. So there's time for learning while we're taking classes. And there's time for personal growth and prayer. We have a quiet hour every day where we practicelectioand things like that that build up the internal. But we're also building a community of faith and living authentically with one another.

What do you enjoy about "One Bread, One Cup"?

Olivia:  One thing specifically that I love about "One Bread, One Cup" is that it takes place in the space of Saint Meinrad, and Saint Meinrad is such a metaphor for so many things. But I love that it's just slightly removed from the rest of the world, and a quiet place where you connect with your spirituality and with God. It gives youth that experience to kind of quiet themselves, so that they can hear the voice of God. It gives the interns that same experience.

Do you feel like each summer you've taken away something different?

Luke:  I think of my first summer. I learned how to be comfortable with myself and interact with other people, and being open to growing. Then, my second summer, I had to learn a little bit about how to lead the youth and be a bridge between the coordination team and the other interns.

Then, this summer, being the RA for interns, I really learned how to foster a community. And learn how to both be in a community and also enable that community to happen kind of distinct from myself.

(Applications for the 2019 internship can be found here:   OBOC College Internships)