faith_in_action

Applications for the Summer EYA Internship Program now open!

Alumni Estefany Sanabria shares about her summer as an EYA intern and encourages young people to committed to justice to apply!


EYA intern 2018 Estefany Sanabria

When my pastor first told me about the Ethnic Young Adult (EYA) program, I became excited and I saw it as an opportunity to finally put my knowledge into action. As a girl, my congregation would always participate in protests and community programs where we were able to help our neighbors and to bring justice into our community. The EYA program encompassed all of these into an 8-week faith journey.

The EYA program gave me the opportunity to live in a new city, Washington D.C., and to meet people my age who felt the same way about social justice. We were each placed into unique organizations that were created to do justice work. I was placed at RESULTS, an organization made so that ordinary people, like me, could use their voice to influence political decisions that would help bring an end to poverty. At RESULTS, I was able to see all of the hard work people from all over the world would do to come together and to take a stand and talk to congressional members about the importance of stopping hunger. I would go into the RESULTS office from Monday to Thursday to learn, research and voice what poverty and hunger meant. On Fridays, all of the EYA members would get together and we were able to share our findings and see what we could do, as community leaders, to bring social justice into the world and into the United Methodist Church.

The 2018 Ethnic Young Adult Interns stand in front of the United Methodist Building in Washington, D.C.

The 2018 EYA Intern class.

I was a part of the EYA program during the summer of 2018, but the program still impacts me to this day. The summer of 2018 was very impactful to me and to my peers because this was the summer in which Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to be in the Supreme Court of the United States. I remember the day clearly, and I remember the big crowds that formed outside of the Supreme Court building for days. This building, as you may know, is right next to where we were living for the summer. I remember a few of us, in our pajamas, going out there and into the crowd where we were able to hear and see Bernie Sanders, not even 30-feet away from us, speak about the injustices that this decision could bring into our country.

This is one of the times where I was able to see that my voice mattered. This experience, and the many we went through as EYA members, has pushed me to continue to speak up against unjust political practices. The EYA program has pushed me into the comfort of being able to share my story and put my knowledge into action. Just this year, I was able to go into the CBS studios to be interviewed by Different Drummers, an organization that brings into light the many different ways in which our community members work to bring justice into this country. I wouldn’t have had this opportunity without the help of the EYA program and for that, I am thankful.

Apply today to be an EYA Intern!

Applications open until March 15. Program dates: June 5- July 31, 2021