By Meg Biallas Henry
Editor’s Note: This is the second in a four-part series featuring the 2020 cohort of Sacred Sector Fellowship, which equips current and recently graduated seminarians for service within the faith-based nonprofit sector. 2020 Fellows will begin with a weeklong learning intensive with Sacred Sector staff in June, and then complete a 9-week placement with a faith-based organization. Read the full series here.
Meet Yasmine Arrington
Yasmine Arrington joins Sacred Sector Fellowship as a 2018 graduate of Howard University School of Divinity. The author of a prayer journal for Christian women, Yasmine shared how she hopes to learn how the organizational life of a faith-based organization can lead to flourishing: “I am interested to learn how faith-based organizations use their teachings, prayers and/or meditations to be a catalyst for healing and hope in individuals’ lives; how they communicate their work to stakeholders; what resources they provide to empower, inform and educate, and what interdisciplinary methods they use to accomplish their mission with the population/s they serve."
Yasmine said that she feels called to serve in the public sector, specifically in public policy work. “It has been confirmed for me and affirmed in the Spirit and through others that the next part of my journey in service to God’s people will be as a public servant through policy work,” said Yasmine. “I see myself as a vessel for service to God’s people (all of God’s people), especially when they have needs in the spiritual, mental or physical realms (i.e. food, clothing, financial).”
Through the Fellowship, Yasmine will learn about the “Three P’s” – a framework for public policy, organizational best practices and public positioning, and how the three areas intersect. “I am interested in learning how faith-based nonprofits effectively utilize interdisciplinary approaches to solve the needs of the populations and communities they serve,” said Yasmine. “I am interested in learning about ways how I can apply the best practices [of faith-based organizations] both inside and outside of the church to create effective change."
In 2010, Yasmine founded the nonprofit ScholarCHIPS, an organization that provides college scholarships, mentoring and a peer support network to children of incarcerated parents, inspiring them to complete their college education. To date, ScholarCHIPS has awarded over $200,000 in college scholarships to 61 scholars.
Yasmine has been featured in a number of publications, including TeenVogue, Essence, and The Washington Post. Yasmine was born and raised in Washington D.C. She is a 2015 graduate from Elon University with a Bachelor of Arts in strategic communications and history.
Meet Hunter Hambrick
A recent transplant to Colorado, Hunter is a seminarian at Denver Seminary, where he is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree with a concentration in biblical studies.
Hunter applied to the Sacred Sector Fellowship as a way to continue his academic interest in the intersection of spiritual formation and public theology.
Hunter’s church commitments involve intentional living and neighborhood-based community development among underserved, urban families in the Denver area. Given his prior experience with a variety of Christian ministries and cultural contexts and his current interest in excellent programming and public theology, he hopes the Sacred Sector fellowship will foster a more faithful witness in himself and his host site, CrossPurpose, in Denver and beyond. Hunter shared: “I want to know how churches and faith-based organizations can better implement emotional health into their systems and practices.”
In particular, Hunter hopes to better understand how congregations, in addition to faith-based institutions, can work for the common good of cities.
"At the heart of collaborative approaches to community development lies the necessity for strategic, integrative approaches,” said Hunter. “This sort of multidimensional collaborative and outcomes-based approach to community development has proven consistently more effective in alleviating widespread poverty than has traditional charity work.”
Sacred Sector Fellowship is designed to help seminarians like Hunter address the complex legal, and increasingly diverse landscape and the challenges facing faith-based institutions today.
Prior to living in Denver, Hunter served as a youth pastor at his home church, The Life Church (Memphis, TN). His work there included regular preaching and teaching along with coordinating annual youth conferences, retreats, mission trips, weekly programming, volunteer training, curriculum writing and campus outreach. He and his wife, Cara, enjoy reading, cooking and social distancing with friends. Hunter is a graduate of Wheaton College (IL).
Meet Chloe Specht
Chloe Specht is a seminarian at Asbury Theological Seminary (KY), where she is pursuing a Master of Divinity.
A deep thinker, innovator, and a lover of curiosity, Chloe has a passion for helping others. “I am interested in faith-based nonprofits because I desire to analyze the needs of a community and identify the ways a faith-based organization can implement helpful resources,” Chloe said.
Chloe shared that she hopes Sacred Sector Fellowship will equip her in creating and managing effective systems, while maintaining personal and individualized care for those she is serving. “The work of nonprofits is vital to our society as these organizations are on the frontlines of empowering people into spiritual care, education, healthcare, stronger families, and more,” said Chloe. “My experience in higher education, nonprofits, and Christian ministry has forced me to develop an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving, and I'm glad for that. I believe that the best solutions are often interdisciplinary because human problems are complex and usually require multiple resources to meet the needs of the community or individual.”
Chloe currently volunteers in discipleship ministries, and she plans to pursue a doctoral degree and become a professor of biblical studies. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries at Mid-America Christian University in 2017. She is a native of Hickory, North Carolina.
Meg Biallas Henry is the Director of Communications for the Center for Public Justice.
WANT TO GET INVOLVED?
Know a seminarian or a faith-based organization? Connect them with Sacred Sector’s Fellowship and Community, designed to equip individuals and organizations to live out their faith-shaped callings. Email virginia.creasy@cpjustice.org for more information.
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