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Who we Are
The YTI Summer Academy gathers forty-eight rising high school seniors from across the country at Emory University for a three-week experience in Christian theological education. Our goal is to cultivate public theologians for the church and world.
The YTI Summer Academy is organized around five fundamental curricular aims:
- Youth will be affirmed in asking tough theological questions within the church, i.e., without having to leave the church to do so.
- Youth will be guided in exploring quality theological literature, including classics of the Christian faith tradition, the Bible, and other resources.
- Youth will learn how to engage, analyze, and address global issues from Christian theological perspectives.
- Youth will join adult participants in shaping and being accountable to a residential covenant community.
- Youth will experience a variety of ways to worship together as an ecumenical group, including worship with local Christian congregations and other religious communities.
Youth participants, "scholars" as they are referred to through the three weeks, are recruited nationally through congregations, schools, YTI alums, and the Emory University Admissions Office. Applicants must be current high school juniors with a strong academic profile and a desire to be challenged spiritually and intellectually. We strive for gender balance, racial/ethnic diversity, and denominational variety.
The three-week summer academy is the centerpiece of YTI. All our efforts and energies flow through this central event. Through this experience, we hope that young scholars will "fall in love with theology" as a life-long pursuit, and find ways to live out their ethical and faith committments as they move along their vocational paths.
YTI is a residential learning community grounded particularly, but not exclusively in the Christian faith tradition. We congregate but are not a "congregation," "Vacation Bible School," or "church camp." We engage in theological education and discernment of vocation but are not a "seminary" in the conventional sense. We are an ecumenical academic community that promotes faith seeking understanding.
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