The Economic Justice Program: UUSC from an Intern's Perspective

What does a seminarian do for the summer? Try to gain experience in the field of ministry that will be a part of her vocational path!

At least, that is what I am doing. I am a student in the Master of Divinity program at Boston University School of Theology, and I am working as an intern in the Economic Justice Program of UUSC. Since I can envision my future ministry as ecumenical/interfaith human rights and development work, the UUSC Programs Department has been an exciting and challenging place for me to serve and grow this summer.

The Programs Department has been quiet today, as the entire JustWorks crew -- Kim, Nguyen, Shayla, and their two interns, Sean and Sam -- left this morning for the Civil Rights Journey, a weeklong journey through the heart of the South to trace the movement for racial equality and justice in the 1950s and 1960s.

My life was affected by a similar trip (The Majic Bus Civil Rights History Tour) when I was a Louisiana high school student back in 1998, and I hope the participants in UUSC’s camp have the same kind of awakening that I did. I remember being absolutely floored when I realized how little time had passed since the firehoses and guard dogs were turned on students demonstrating in Birmingham, that it had been only thirty years since Martin Luther King, Jr., fell on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

It happened when my parents were my age! It made me wonder what injustices continue at the turn of the 21st century -- how far have we really come? These questions have fueled my own struggle for justice ever since.

It is heartening to work for an organization that seeks to uphold human rights in so many different ways -- through direct experience and transformation, as with the JustWorks camps, by partnering with organizations worldwide that strive for economic and environmental justice, civil rights, and disaster response, by educating the general public and UUSC’s constituency through publications, and by advocating for justice on many different levels.

I am becoming ever more convinced that such a comprehensive approach is necessary, albeit challenging to envision and manage.

Just this morning, I spoke with two of our program partners in Mexico who are working to unionize laborers in the maquiladora industry and to educate workers about their rights as employees. From a cubicle in Cambridge, I’ve been able to touch base with passionate people in the Yucatan and Puebla, folks working side by side with and for the exploited campesinos, peasants, and laborers of Mexico. It is clear that this internship will be a further awakening for me -- how well-intentioned faith groups in the Global North support and constructively partner with those people and organizations working for change and upholding human rights worldwide.