Welcome Yolanda

Yolanda will be with the Council during the 2017-2018 academic year as an intern through Duke Divinity School. She introduces herself below:

My name is Yolanda Santiago-Correa. I am originally from Bayamón, a metropolitan city in the island of Puerto Rico. I am in my third – and last – year of the M.Div. program at Duke Divinity School after having graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico.

As part of the M.Div. program we are required to complete two placement of field education that would complement our hopes in ministry and form who we are outside of the classroom context. When I was completing my application process this year, I asked to be put in a context that would challenge me to see the work of ministry in a new lens; outside of the parish. Having worked in parish based placements before, I saw the need to expand my work outside of the wall of the church; to bridge the gap between what the church says it is and does, and what is actually happening when we leave the service on Sunday afternoons. As a Latina, community has always been essential in my development, therefore, it is imperative for me that what I do in ministry connects with what my people are experiencing in their day to day lives.

My hope is that through interning with the Council of Churches for the academic year, I will be able to engage in these difficult conversations and further learn ways to do the work that our Lord Jesus Christ commissioned us to do. I look forward to meeting and working with diverse individuals that will challenge me to grow as we learn from each other. There is much work to be done but I am confident that one step at a time we can produce the breakthrough that we hope to see.