MCC, DFE, and Other Mysterious Acronyms

I finished my last paper for the year. Now if only my final presentation would write itself...

 Today, I want to give you a little taste of the world I like to call MCC.

That stands for Manhattan Christian College, in case you were wondering. 

And no, not Manhattan as in Manhattan, New York. Manhattan as in Manhattan, Kansas. Ya know, the "Little Apple."

Oh, you've never heard of it? Don't worry, neither has most of America.

MCC is a funny place. I know that no matter what I write on here about it, I can't win, which is part of what makes it so funny.

It's definitely funny because there's no good pictures of the actual buildings - only this sign.

I could tell you about how it's the college of my dreams and how I never thought such a place of community could exist on a college campus. And that would be at least partially true. However, I'd be in trouble with Jesus because I'd have the whole half-truth thing going on - otherwise known as a lie. So I won't go there.

I could also tell you what it's really like at MCC, and about how imperfect the people are (because, well, they're people) and about the shortcomings of this place. However, I'd be in trouble with everyone but Jesus and my wife for doing this. And I value my life (and my degree), so I'm going to plead the 5th... for now, at least.

Instead, I'll just leave it at this: MCC is a funny place...

 

The college I attend is a funny place for a number of reasons. One of the big ones, though, is that we like to take things that normal colleges do (mainly Kansas State) and MCC-ize them. 

Take, for instance, Skip Day. I love, love, love the idea of Skip Day. This is something that MCC definitely does right. However, if I remember correctly from my high school days, our skip day wasn't announced as a school event with activities to fill the day in place of class. In high school, whenever the day to skip rolled around for seniors, they just skipped, and that's all there was to it. But like I said, I love the way MCC does Skip Day. It's just an MCC-ized version of a normal school's skip day.

Something else that gets MCC-ized is the mandatory internship that all traditional students at MCC are required to complete. As a full-time student seeking a four-year degree at MCC, I am required to complete a 400 hour internship in my field of study. However, we don't call it an internship. It's our "DFE."

DFE. Sounds like it could be a school's chant at a basketball game...

D-F-E! D-F-E! D-F-E!

But I digress.

DFE stands for "Directed Field Experience." And if you're any good at reading between the lines, you can see exactly what DFE means. It's code for "you're doing a 400 hour internship the summer between your junior and senior year."

Yes, there are most certainly some differences between a DFE at MCC than an internship for most other schools. First of all, it sounds like you're talking in code when you're referring to it.

"Did you get the DL on your DFE for MCC at the PCC?" 
"Roger that."

Secondly, because MCC is really cool, most students intern at churches. This makes sense because most students want to work in churches in the future. The funny part about interning in a church, though, is that you usually get paid.

Yeah, I know. A paid internship. Crazy!

Unfortunately, not everyone gets this luxury, as some students, especially in the Family Ministry major at MCC, don't want to work at a church in the future. Thus, they're stuck working old-fashioned, non-paying internships at places that can't afford to buy you lunch, let alone pay you for an entire summer's work. Instead, you get paid with "experience." Which I guess is why it's called a DFE.

I've told you all of this to eventually get to a point. I found an internship for the summer! This was most definitely one of my goals for the year (Goal 71, to be exact). I will be working alongside two other MCC students (one of them happens to be my beautiful wife) at the Pregnancy Crisis Center in Wichita, KS. We're not really sure what we are doing this summer, though, and that's part of what I wanted to talk to you about.

We were recently informed that the woman who was going to be our supervisor, Karen, had a brain aneurysm that required emergency surgery. She's okay and in long-term recovery, but she needs all of the prayer that she can get. So would you pray for her? Even if you're someone who isn't into prayer, it would make my day if you could just take a couple of seconds and ask God to heal this woman. She is a humble servant of God who has a lot left to do in this world.

So although I have no clue what I'm doing this summer, I'm pumped about it. I'm excited to learn and excited to help change some lives in Wichita. I know God has some big stuff planned for us to do this summer, even if it is MCC-ized.
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Have you ever done an internship? What was it like? What advice would you give to those doing internships this summer? Let me hear about it (or anything else that's on your mind!) in a comment, an e-mail (awaller1990@gmail.com), or on the Life Before the Bucket Facebook page!