The Warner Fellowship in School Chaplaincy at The Hill School is supported by the Douglas A. Warner, Jr., Chapel Program Fund. A number of boarding schools offer internships to recent college graduates interested in exploring the profession of independent school teaching. In the Warner Fellowship, The Hill School offers an analogous opportunity to recent seminary graduates who have an interest in the specialized ministry of school chaplaincy.
Background
The Warner Fellow will typically hold an M.Div., M.A.R., or the equivalent from an accredited seminary and will have completed at least one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education, preferably in a hospital setting. Ordination, or being in the ordination process, is not a prerequisite, though such candidates may be given some preference.
Duties
At The Hill, the Fellow will take part in the teaching, dormitory duty, and athletic commitments that typify traditional boarding school faculty life. Formally put:
As pastor and teacher, the Warner Fellow is to love and serve the people of The Hill, nourishing and strengthening them for this life and the life to come. The Fellow assists the Chaplain in providing pastoral care and spiritual leadership to the students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the Hill community, and in supervising the School’s spiritual life programs.
Thus, the Fellow will:
1. With the Director of Vocal Music and the School Organist, advise the Chaplain in planning and preparing the School’s public worship, taking particular responsibility for some discrete element such as training of student speakers.
2. Preside and preach, as appropriate, at the School’s public worship.
3. Assist the Chaplain in visiting students in the Menkowitz Health Center.
4. Assist the Chaplain in visiting students and faculty, as appropriate, in the Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, and other local hospitals.
5. In consultation, where appropriate, with family clergy or other spiritual advisers, assist the Chaplain in ministering to pastoral emergencies in the lives of individual students and faculty.
6. Working, wherever possible, with the Director of Counseling, assist the Chaplain in providing pastoral counseling for individual students and faculty.
7. Fulfill denominational requirements for specialized training and general professional development.
8. Take part, as appropriate, in Pottstown ministerial activities, the Northeastern Independent School Spiritual Council, the Association of Boarding Schools, the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education, and similar organizations.
9. Teach two sections, ordinarily in the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy; a Fellow new to teaching will begin by team-teaching for a term with a faculty member.
10. Live on dorm or in faculty housing and fulfill the associated dormitory parent or supervisory duties.
11. Fulfill the usual faculty commitments for supervision of student activities.
12. Coach or otherwise assist the Athletic Department for two seasons.
Stipend and Benefits: The Fellowship is meant to cover two school years over a 22-month period, from August 15, 2012 through June 15, 2014. It carries a cash stipend of $30,000 per school year. The School also contributes a percentage of the cost of medical/dental insurance (in 2011-2012, 90%, or $397.56 per month, for a single person; 80% [$625.75] for parent/children; 70% [$710.27] for husband/wife; and 60% [$783.09] for families), pays the full cost of a life insurance policy, and pays the employer’s portion of Social Security and Medicare. Fellows who are over the age of 26, or have previous teaching experience, may also be eligible for the School’s defined-contribution retirement plan with TIAA-CREF. Day care is available on campus at a subsidized rate.
Room and Board: As noted above, the Fellow will, like most Hill faculty, live on the dorm or in another faculty residence, depending on the school’s needs in a given year. Thus housing is provided for the School’s convenience (and not as clergy housing) for the terms of the Fellowship. Meals in the Dining Hall are served family style, with faculty members at the head of the table, for lunch five days a week and dinner three days a week, the other meals being buffet style. Thus the Fellow will also receive meals whenever the School is in session.
The Hill School is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Please send (by USPS or digitally)
curriculum vitae, references, a one-page statement of educational philosophy, and a recent sermon to: Thomas Johnson, Dean of Faculty, The Hill School, 717 E. High Street, Pottstown, PA 19464,
tjohnson@thehill.org