THE FIELD EDUCATION EXPERIENCE AT-A-GLANCE
- Required of all MAPS and MDiv candidates, a field education experience is typically done in the second year It starts in September and ends in May.
- Students devote 10-12 hours a week, exclusive of travel to and from the site, for 29 weeks over the course of the academic year. The specific weeks are negotiated with supervisors but normally allow students breaks during exam periods.
- Student pastors participate in the same program as other students; they find themselves a mentor for the year and develop goals for their continued learning and formation.
- Students and supervisors develop a detailed learning agreement (the Learning Covenant) over the summer prior, coordinating the student’s objectives with the needs of the site and providing a basis for a shared evaluation of progress at later points in the year.
- Learning covenants are designed primarily for the student’s education and formation and only secondarily for meeting the needs of the site.
- Students and supervisors meet one hour a week throughout the year for supervision with theological reflection. They jointly submit evaluations at mid-year and year-end.
- Students normally receive a monthly stipend (taxable and subject to Social Security) from the site.
- Students enroll in a two-semester concurrent course sequence called FE210/FE220 for which they receive six academic credits when both semesters are completed and all program elements submitted.
- Supervisors attend two seminars in supervision over the course of the year.
EXPECTATIONS OF SUPERVISORS IN FIELD EDUCATION
Field education supervisors:
- are theologically educated and/or ordained. Normally they shall have served in ministry at their site for three years prior to hosting a student.
- have the interest and capacity to supervise and mentor a student for an academic year, creating ministry opportunities appropriate to the seminarian’s status as student, providing guidance, regular feedback, and periodic evaluation.
- have the support of their congregation or organization to give the time needed to the program.
- do not normally relate to the student in some additional way such as pastor, counselor, or family member, preventing role confusion and conflicts of interest.
- devote an hour a week to supervision with theological reflection on the practices of ministry.
- develop a learning covenant with the student, complete a mid-year evaluation of the experience along with the student, and provide a summative final evaluation of the student’s learning, achievements, and growth.
- facilitate the student’s completion of assignments from the concurrent field education course.
Benefits for supervisors during the year they serve in the program include:
- library privileges at PTS.
- auditing privileges, pending faculty approval, for courses in the PTS curriculum.
- credit toward a course in the PTS Continuing Education program.
- possibility of earning one CEU through supervision seminars.
- complimentary lunch before each supervision seminar.
- a community of colleagues and a chance to change a life.
