Doing everything for God’s glory: Emmie Porter’s Spanish Internship at Christ Fellowship
Photo courtesy of Emmie Porter
Carolyn Christopher, Staff Writer
Internships provide a way for students to implement the knowledge they learn in the classroom to a position representative of post-graduate work. For many North Greenville University students, that work is with a Christian-based organization.
Emmie Porter, junior Spanish major at NGU, currently interns at Christ Fellowship Cherrydale as the church’s ministry assistant for social media and Hispanic ministry assistant. Porter has been studying Spanish for eight years and is now fluent in the language. This is her third year working with Christ Fellowship.
The Spanish services at Christ Fellowship Cherrydale began in Spring of 2024.
“[It was] very new, very exciting and I got involved immediately . . . I also need a Spanish credit for the school so I figured out I could work for the church and my class,” Porter said.
Porter works to create social media posts for both the Spanish and English audiences. All her work for the Hispanic church counts toward internship hours required to complete her degree at NGU.
“For the Spanish internship, I only count the hours that I do in Spanish . . . [With] the Spanish internship, the point is to practice Spanish: reading, writing and speaking. So, I can count mission trips. I can count the job and any interaction where I’m potentially using Spanish,” said Porter.
The most challenging part of the internship for Porter is the location of the church. Christ Fellowship is located 30 minutes from NGU’s campus. Porter has had to balance her work between in-person and virtual to make the best use of her time.
“Commuting has been difficult for me. I’ve always worked on-campus. So, trying to figure out, planning wise, working around my schedule, not working an hour here and there but working longer than it takes to go to a coffee shop to meet people,” Porter said.
Porter’s favorite part of her internship is experiencing Sunday morning Spanish services. She greatly enjoys singing along with the Spanish music and immersing herself in worship, especially in her second language.
“I love the Hispanic community and the way that they embrace everyone like family. It’s really special to be a part of a service in another language and help pray, hear the teaching and build community,” said Porter.
Porter finds the most rewarding part of her internship experience to be connecting with people through Spanish, encouraging and praying for them along the way.
Her greatest point of growth has been her ability to write Spanish. Because of her social media responsibilities, Porter has had to adapt to writing both professionally and casually to best engage the Church’s audience through social media.
“I feel like I’ve grown so much since the beginning of the semester when I was like, ‘I don’t want to publish anything without approval’ . . . so starting from there I’ve come very far with learning Canva and making posts and content creation,” said Porter.
Any job has its tough days. To keep herself motivated, Porter focuses on the people around her. She enjoys the Spanish community as well as her coworkers, who push her to keep going.
“I love people, and they’re truly fulfilling,” Porter said. “My boss is really encouraging and intentional. Every conversation is him asking how I’m doing, checking in, making sure that I know what I’m doing, that I’m prepared.”
The vastly diverse congregation of the Hispanic church results in a family dynamic. The members have more intentionality to communicate with and support one another because of their different backgrounds.
“Church really is a family to them. They truly do life together, which is a really beautiful thing to witness,” said Porter.
Porter noticed a slight difference between Spanish and English church communities. Spanish services in this area often have a more diverse group of people. Many people come from different countries and backgrounds.
Porter has found fulfillment and growth in her internship at Christ Fellowship Cherrydale.
