This year’s expanded scope allows for emerging faith leaders of any faith tradition to apply. The applicant may be any age or life stage, but must be in an educational program preparing them to lead as a faith-formed community leader. Odyssey Fellows are faith-formed leaders in houses of worship as well as secular contexts, convening community dialogue in some form. The strongest applicants will have some familiarity with the community in which they will serve/lead in 2022-23, and will articulate the particular challenges facing that community. Strong English language proficiency and a passport valid for international travel to the U.S., U.K., and Egypt are required. This year, we are particularly interested in expanding outside the U.S., particularly to emerging faith leaders in the U.K. and Egypt.

The Odyssey Fellows program partners with internship, residency, field/contextual ed. departments within theological educational institutions. Alternative arrangements and flexibility will be considered for students outside the U.S., and for students within non-Christian institutions.

First, we invite candidates to view trailers for films (long-form and short-form) across Odyssey Impact®’s catalog. Contact Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime (katie@odyssey-impact.org) if, after watching any of the trailers, you would like to view the entire piece. Odyssey Impact® specializes in presenting Award-winning films, accompanied by both toolkits and expert staff support to assist with screenings and events that help leaders and communities affect change on civic issues of concern.

Click here to read film synopses

Click here to view sampler playlist from Odyssey Impact® film catalogue

Please contact katie@odyssey-impact.org if you would like to view full versions of the films

The strongest candidates for Odyssey Fellowships will demonstrate desire to learn more/develop skills in reaching out across divides within or between communities. They will exhibit passion for and experience in ministry, in a faith or secular setting, related to particular justice issues that connect in some way with one or more of Odyssey Impact®’s documentary films. The successful candidate will propose a creative, achievable project to be completed in the 2022-23 academic year, that complement existing academic and vocational commitments, and will show interest in gaining fluency in using film to create the opportunity for dialogue, new partnerships and faithful action. Students beginning their academic program in fall 2022 will not be considered.

No, though Odyssey Impact® encourages emerging faith leaders to be media makers, this fellowship instead equips emerging faith leaders for fluency in using film for the purposes of healing and growth, and convening conversations on difficult civic issues across lines of difference.

No, the Odyssey Impact® Fellowship is more like a “booster pack” for your context in the coming academic year. Odyssey does NOT place you at a field/contextual education site or an internship. Instead, we seek to enhance the experience of the work you will do there, for both you and the community where you will serve. The $2,000 stipend is additional financial support for the Fellow as a student, and does not replace any compensation the Fellow is already receiving.

The Odyssey Fellowship is not intended to require much extra time commitment in addition to what you’ll already be doing at your contextual/field education site, beyond the required three in-person convenings (UK, Egypt, and Atlanta [U.S.]). Instead, Odyssey seeks to offer valuable support and training to students working at sites that would benefit from increased fluency in engaging media, and in convening conversations on difficult civic issues across lines of difference.

Both! Odyssey is excited to receive applications from a wide range of applicants, serving in faith-based or secular communities in which skilled, sensitive facilitation of some sort of community conversation (rather than providing individual spiritual care) is needed.

No interfaith or multifaith experience is required nor even necessarily preferred; Odyssey Fellows program is intended to support a truly diverse cohort reflecting a range of experiences and perspectives, including those emerging faith leaders without any interfaith/multifaith exposure.

For the purposes of this program, a difficult civic issue is any topic of public importance that is experienced, in a particular context, as divisive. For example, racial justice might be a hotly divisive topic for one context, but in another context, it’s private prisons, or political polarities, immigration. Similarly, a “line of difference” is highly contextual: religious tradition, political identity, race, sexual/gender identity, etc. The “lines of difference” can be within the community you serve, or between your community and another community (for instance, your congregation and another congregation which span a “line of difference”).

Certainly not! Odyssey will choose candidates proposing projects at sites which would clearly benefit from the opportunities afforded by a screening of one of Odyssey’s films. However, the Odyssey Fellows program is about the formation of media-fluent faith leaders engaging tough civic topics. We’re excited to help Fellows heal communities, lead well, and affect change. We encourage the use of films that fit the context and the need, whether they be from Odyssey or some other source.

Instead of a website application, applicants assemble the required components per the instructions within the Fellows 2022-23 Program Announcement. Please allow enough time to adequately think through your proposed project, and discuss with the person who will supervise you at your site next year!