By Ben Gonzalez
For the first time in PT history, interns are working remotely to produce videos, distribute resources, and meet with children via virtually. While they are doing their best to be Together While Apart, it means interns don’t always get the typical experience of living in community with one another and bonding as a team. However, two interns do still get to see each other regularly in person: Cora Christensen and Bailey Snyder, who live together for the summer.
The two interns met in their first year of college through a mutual friend. “I was looking for a church, and Cora knew one, so I started going to the Wesley with Cora, and we became really good friends that way,” Bailey said.
The two interns, who are both juniors at Texas Tech, are serving their first summer at PT. Bailey is a speech pathology major, while Cora studies kinesiology. Cora grew familiar with Project Transformation in high school, when she saw PT’s mission in action at Laurel Heights UMC and knew she wanted to participate in it. She then shared her passion with Bailey, who applied with Cora around the same time.
“I really believe in the mission, and always saw it as a place that would be a really good fit for me,” Cora said.
“I liked PT a lot because not only is it God-centered, but it also uses the importance of literacy, which is important to me as a speech pathology major,” said Bailey. “Not only is it great that I get to do service with the church, but the power of literacy is amazing for language development.”
Cora’s site church is First United Methodist Church Georgetown, where she helps distribute food and craft supplies to PT families once per week. She says that her church is extremely committed to providing PT the resources it needs to succeed.
“They’re very servant-minded people. The volunteers are willing to come every single day to help level new books and make sure we’re getting the supplies we need,” Cora said. “It’s super exciting to see the growth happening at that church.”
Similarly, Bailey emphasized the commitment that her site church’s volunteers show in making sure that PT students get the most out of this summer. She works at Leander UMC.
“I have a fantastic team of volunteers…they take time each week to separate the books for the kiddos, so each kiddo receives their own bag with their name on it and book that was hand-picked by our wonderful reading volunteer,” said Bailey. “It’s such a good community of people.”
When they’re not doing distribution, Cora and Bailey are busy at home preparing online content for PT students to enjoy. They wake up each morning, boot up their computers and get to work creating videos that students can watch at home. But because they live together, they also get a unique opportunity to bond in person over their shared experience as PT interns this summer.
“On those really long days, when we’ve been on Zoom calls for hours and we’re exhausted, it’s not too bad because we get to complain to each other,” joked Cora, laughing. “But it’s also great for the videos we make, because we get to bounce ideas off each other.”
“We help each other film the videos a lot,” said Bailey. “And Cora’s just a really good creative partner. I think it’s just good to have someone who knows what you’re going through, and the amazing and hard parts of the job.”
Not only do Bailey and Cora talk to each other about their own videos, they make sure to watch the videos created by all the other interns across the country.
“We sit down at least once a day and try to watch all the PT videos, because they’re so good!” said Bailey. “And it gives us a little inspiration for what we want to do.”
When the day is done and the laptops turn off, the two interns get to spend time with each other like any roommates do: they throw themselves on their couch and watch home renovation TV shows.
“Shout-out to Hometown on HGTV, it’s so good,” said Cora, laughing. “That’s what we watch when we’re not on PT time.”
