What does OVC look like day to day, on the ground? Here’s a glimpse.
Every Monday-Thursday, you’ll spend the day at your service placement.
What do you do there? It depends on the placement. Here are a few examples:
Medical Clinic: Talk with patients to arrange appointments and check up on care; help a doctor or dentist provide care; support and even develop new protocols or programs for the clinic; learn the back-end procedures
You’ll live with 5-6 other Orthodox young adults at the OVC House in Boston or Pittsburgh. People have different work schedules, but you’ll see someone in the kitchen before you leave for work.
After work, maybe you’ll go to a local gym, scale a climbing wall, or head to a pickleball court.
Many cohorts find themselves gathered again in the kitchen to make and share dinner.
And you may close the day with evening prayer together as a community.
We have three retreats during the year. (1) Orientation takes place in August and lasts for a week. We prepare for service placements and community living. And we have fun. (2) The Mid-year retreat takes place in late January; we look back at what we have learned and plan for the second half. And we have fun. (3) The final retreat occurs in June; we reflect on the year and prepare for life after OVC. And, by the way, we have fun.
Every Friday, we meet for a full-day, interactive seminar. We dig into the meaning of our year together by exploring two big themes: (1) Orthodoxy & Service and (2) Community-based Leadership Development. In other words, we root our service in our faith, and we give you you top-notch professional development.
Throughout, we bring in local & national guest speakers, and we use the city as our classroom.
We introduce you to local parishes across jurisdictions at the beginning of the year. From there, each cohort charts their own path. Maybe you’ll all decide to go deep in one parish; maybe you’ll attend different parishes; maybe you’ll do a mix. We believe the Church is a hospital, our family, a mystical communion.
A year of service can be challenging, but at OVC you never journey alone. Our staff meet regularly, one-on-one, with each Corps Members. We connect you to a cloud of mentors–in person and virtual, clergy and laity, personally and professionally, for spiritual and mental health. We believe in holistic support. We believe in you.
“OVC has fundamentally changed the way I view service, community, and my relationships with others. I feel I have had more personal growth in just these 10 months then I have had through all of college.“
– Gavrielia
We have a 100% placement rate for alumni. Some took full-time jobs in Orthodox organizations, including the Neighborhood Resilience Project, Project Mexico, Antiochian Village, and St Basil Academy. Some are in front-line service positions–one at at homeless shelter, another at low-income housing development. Still others are linking their year of service to a previously chosen career path–one alum, a pre med undergrad, worked at a free medical clinic during her service year, then went on to medical school and was the featured student at her white coat ceremony; another who served at an after-school program in OVC then landed a job as a full-time elementary school teacher.
Curious? Have more questions? Complete the interest form.
Can you see yourself at OVC? Apply today for a year of service
