Jamie Hofmeister-Cline ’11 visited campus Monday evening to speak about her experience serving as a Lutheran Volunteer for a year and to encourage graduating seniors to apply.
Although it is a faith-based organization, Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC) is not limited to those who affiliate with the Lutheran Church. This one-year service program across the US is open to all those who are willing to engage in open conversation on peace, justice, and faith, whether they are religious or not.
Placement organizations come from a diverse array of sectors including but not limited to health care, immigration, law and legal services, food and hunger, and the environment. Volunteers serve in 14 US cities, and live in community houses with other volunteers. This is one of the unique components of LVC; living together, the volunteers create safe communities where they can share, laugh, and learn with each other in their new and often very different positions.
Jamie served in the St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church in St. Paul, MN. Her responsibilities spanned a variety of tasks including serving on church social justice committees, hearing the stories of church members, and meeting with state legislators to encourage or discourage bills from being passed. Her experience taught her the “power of uniting people together” and helped her consider different directions for her future.
The application for the Lutheran Volunteer Corps is available as of October 1, 2013 on their website.
Applications for the first round are due January 15, 2014 and on April 1, 2014 for the second round. Jamie encourages interested students to apply by the first deadline if they want to have the best choice of securing a specific type of placement.
Davidson students who are interested in hearing more about Jamie’s experience can contact her at jahofmeister@gmail.com. She is also currently participating in AmeriCorps and can share her thoughts on that program as well.