In a season when young leaders are craving meaningful spiritual experiences and churches are seeking ways to engage young people, an opportunity like Cultivate is a win-win for everyone involved.
Cultivate is a summer internship program that gives students a chance to develop leadership skills in a ministry setting and grow together with other young leaders. Some join Cultivate with a clear sense of call; others join knowing that they want to do something to change the world and impact the church, but they aren’t sure quite what it is. Whether they come with a clear sense of call, or come just to explore, the experience connects them deeply to the life of the church, and to the God who calls, equips, and sends leaders into the world.
Meet Abby & Naiima
Abby and Naiima are just two of the several young people from across churches in Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey who participated in Cultivate 2025. Their stories bear witness to the Holy Spirit’s movement in the lives of young people and the churches who invest in them.
When Abby Clark was in the eighth grade, she was deeply moved by a confirmation class trip to St. George’s Historic UMC where she witnessed the reenactment of a historic moment in Methodist history when African American worshipers stood up for their rights to worship, even as they faced discrimination from white churchgoers.
“I was sitting there and I was crying and I was like, wow, I want to be a part of this. I want to make a difference,” she recalls. After the reenactment, she spoke to her pastor, Rev. Joe Monahan of Medford UMC, about how she could get involved.
A year later, in the summer of 2025, Abby participated in Cultivate—an eight-week summer internship program that gives high school and college students a unique opportunity to gain leadership experience in ministry settings while exploring the calling God has placed on their life.
Naiima Jabati, a college sophomore studying psychology at UPenn and longtime member of Crescentville UMC in Philadelphia, learned about Cultivate when her Sunday School teacher, Sue Snyder, saw an ad in the Digest and brought it to her attention. Naiima’s experience of feeling deeply valued and included in her church growing up motivated her to participate in the program. She wanted to create the same experience for other children and youth at her church.
A Unique Experience for Every Young Leader
Cultivate offers young people and local churches the chance to craft internship experiences that match their own interests and contexts, while also participating in common activities that provide structure and the opportunity for reflection.
Naiima’s internship, focused on organizing a mix of church and community-based weekly events for the young people in her congregation. “I decided to basically curate different events that incorporated the youth but also just like understanding that they also can connect to the greater Philadelphia community and creating a sense of inclusivity,” she shared.
Naiima was inspired to focus on inclusivity in part by her younger sister, Naomi, who has autism. Educating people about autism is a passion for Naiima; alongside her Cultivate internship, she also worked at an autism research center last summer. Naiima was able to integrate this passion into her internship experience. She gave a presentation to her congregation about autism and took the young people from her church to visit the sensory rooms at Lincoln Financial Field. The trip was a highlight of the summer for the youth of Crescentville UMC.
At Medford UMC, Abby was one of two Cultivate 2025 interns, alongside fellow high school student Lukas Risser. For both Abby and Lukas, leading worship and creating wrap-up videos for their mission trip and Vacation Bible School were part of the internship experience. And, to Rev. Monahan’s surprise, both
jumped at the opportunity to preach a sermon! Beyond those common experiences, the interns forged unique paths. For instance, Abby wrote for a daily devotional that Medford UMC publishes online, a ministry in which she continues to participate.
Following God’s Lead
In addition to hands-on experience in their local ministry settings, Cultivate interns meet with their internship mentor or supervisor weekly and spend time with others in the program to reflect on what they are learning and where God might be calling them. For Naiima, these weekly meetings with her peers were one of the most meaningful elements of the internship. “I was able to see how other people were creating changes in the church settings they were working with and also just growing in faith and learning more,” she shared, adding that learning different approaches to reading scripture deepened her faith.
For both Abby and Naiima, the Cultivate internship offered space and time for listening to God through hands-on experience, reflection, and community. Both students learned more about themselves and where they sense God calling them.
Naiima, who is confident that God has called her to pursue a career in clinical psychology, shared that Cultivate helped her recognize her giftedness as a leader: “I have agency. I can take control of things and do things on my own and I don’t always have to rely on somebody else taking initiative. …I was very proud of myself with just being able to do things that I wouldn’t have seen myself doing a year ago.”
As for her ministry in the local church, Naiima is still discerning what shape it will take. She wants to be active and involved, and she remains open to how God will lead her.
For Abby, Cultivate solidified her sense of calling to local church ministry, although she too remains open to exactly what that will look like. Her wise words echo what many seasoned pastors have experienced: “I didn’t really understand for a while that I was meant to do this,” she shared, “I just feel it strongly and I know it’s something that I have to continue and if I don’t continue it, I will be drawn back to it.” Abby is currently considering her next steps – whether that is another internship, going to college for ministry, or something else.
A Gift to the Church
Cultivate’s impact was felt not only in the lives of the interns but also in the life of the church at both Crescentville and Medford UMC. This was the second year that Medford UMC participated in the program and Rev. Monahan shares that it was a wonderful experience: “The level of pride that a congregation feels in seeing young people from their church stand up and do stuff is so huge. … It’s a boon to the whole system.” Medford UMC’s Cultivate experience has since become a launchpad for the church to imagine new ways of equipping and empowering young leaders.
Snyder, Naiima’s Sunday School teacher and Cultivate supervisor, also witnessed the program’s impact on the whole congregation. The puppet camp and show gave young people who were usually hesitant to be seen a way to participate creatively from behind the scenes. Younger children began to look to Naiima as a role model, and even staff from the Eagles reached out after the group’s visit to share how impressed they were with the church’s youth—evidence of Crescentville UMC carrying its heart and faith into the wider community.
Cultivate: A Win-Win for Young People and their Local Churches
Naiima and Abby had very different Cultivate experiences. The two students crafted experiences that fit their gifts and allowed them to explore their unique callings from God. Yet both students—and their supervisors—agreed that Cultivate was an experience they would recommend to any student who was considering it, and to any church.
On a practical level, Rev. Monahan points out, Cultivate is a great way for churches to invest in a young person at a very small cost and the model works even for churches that only have one student. “The cohort that the annual conference provides enables them to connect with other students their age,” he said, adding, “the decision to invest in them just makes all the difference in the world.”
For Naiima and Abby, the experience deepened faith and created confidence that these young leaders will carry into their future callings, no matter the shape those callings take. “Having something to look forward to, something to be a part of, I just feel like I was doing good in the world,” shared Abby, “It meant so much. And on top of that, I was growing a connection with God and with the world and it was just so beautiful.”
Naiima’s words to students considering Cultivate are clear and to the point: “Take advantage of the opportunity,” she said, “There’s nothing for you to lose.”
Their experiences point beyond two individual internships and toward a larger truth about what is possible when the church chooses to invest in the faith, gifts, and leadership of young people. When we cultivate the young people in our midst, we are partnering with the incredible work that God is already up to, and we all win.
The next round of Cohort applications are due April 15th. Make a decision to cultivate a young leader in the life of your church and witness the power of the Holy Spirit as God works in and through them. Learn more and apply here.