Help Victoria Go to Seminary
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Dear Friends,
I'm Victoria Poling, and I’m being called to become a minister.
When I first spoke from the pulpit in my faith community—Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship—the congregation surprised me. Members began asking “have you ever considered becoming a UU minister?”
I was startled by my gut reaction to this question, feeling both excited and terrified at the same time. Something in me was leaping to respond. Considering this step, I became aware of the ways I listen to you, my friends, colleagues, family, and members of my faith community. I noticed that you treat me as a person who can be trusted with your biggest life questions. You saw the potential in me to support you. In paying attention to you, I heard the call to ministry.
To have the capacity to respond to the call that has come from you, I will need a web of support and the confidence that you are backing me in pursuing this craft. I need to do this together with you. Help me seek the vision and training I need to support a just and joyful global community within a healthy interdependent web of life.
My life path has given me rich preparation for ministry to a community of people with diverse beliefs and values. I grew up in two countries, learning to appreciate different cultural ways of living as well as my family’s way. As a teenager, I fell in love with the Salish Sea and chose to study environmental science and ethnobotany in college, exploring how multiple ways of knowing—indigenous and scientific—are both simultaneously valid. In teaching history, teamwork, and marine science aboard tall ships, I have learned about the intimacy of living in close contact with people who share a vision for our work, and what sustains a healthy community where we can be both together and alone, giving and receiving each other’s gifts.
When it comes to service and ministering to others, I’m a facilitator and a witness, an ally and a mentor, and a tender and teasing antagonist in service to spurring the shedding and growth that we all need in order to realize our deeply held longings. In my Unitarian Universalist congregation I have contributed my gifts as a coming of age mentor for youth and in leadership on the board of directors. Feeling the pull for a quiet and soulful approach to spiritual practice I started a contemplative candlelight service together with a group of interested members. Going to seminary is an opportunity for me to deepen my craft and my practice of serving you and your spiritual needs.
A Master of Divinity is a necessary prerequisite for becoming a minister. While taking the first step of writing my application to divinity school, I was surprised by the cost of the 3–4 year degree. Out of a sense of responsible financial caution, I had my doubts about pursuing this dream. Becoming a minister will cost over $150,000. If I take out loans as a result of my education, it will limit my ability to go where I am needed to serve.
I already have two thirds of the funds secured, in part by planning on working part-time during my education, and in part from savings, a $6,000 grant from Seattle U, and family gifts of support. I will be applying for future scholarships in Year 2 and Year 3 of my education. However, the majority of the anticipated funds won’t be available to me until 2017 and 2018.
I need your help now to raise $6,134 to pay for my first quarter of tuition.
I’m deeply grateful to the board of directors at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship who have agreed to sponsor me as an aspiring minister. Reverend Bruce Bode and Reverend Florence Caplow have generously offered to support me as professional mentors. And I’m honored and so thankful to have my loving and supportive family behind me.
Will you say “yes” to show me your financial support for becoming a minister?
These are the total costs of a ministerial education:
Tuition, Fees & Books: $6,134 per quarter x 12 quarters = $73,608
Ministerial Credentialing fees & travel: $1,500
Modest Living Expenses: $25,000 x 3 years = $75,000
Total = $150,108.
And here’s what your individual gift will do:
$300 will cover books for one quarter
$50 will pay for my own sessions with a spiritual director as I develop and deepen my pastoral skills
$100 will pay travel costs to small congregations on the Olympic Peninsula who don’t have a minister where I can practice giving sermons as their guest speaker
$631 covers one credit of tuition (out of 108 credits)
Please give today to help me become a minister. You can show me your support in three important ways:
1. Make a donation to my GoFundMe campaign by September 30 to help me raise the first $6,134 in tuition & fees to get started on my first two quarters this year.
2. Share my campaign with friends.
3. Contact me about your ability to offer me a personal low/no-interest loan for a portion of my tuition.
In thanks for your support, you can receive one of a variety of thank you gifts listed to the right including poem prints, a sermon commission, and more!
Thank you for walking beside me as I begin this journey. Your support sparks my great joy.
With gratitude,
Victoria Poling
I'm Victoria Poling, and I’m being called to become a minister.
When I first spoke from the pulpit in my faith community—Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship—the congregation surprised me. Members began asking “have you ever considered becoming a UU minister?”
I was startled by my gut reaction to this question, feeling both excited and terrified at the same time. Something in me was leaping to respond. Considering this step, I became aware of the ways I listen to you, my friends, colleagues, family, and members of my faith community. I noticed that you treat me as a person who can be trusted with your biggest life questions. You saw the potential in me to support you. In paying attention to you, I heard the call to ministry.
To have the capacity to respond to the call that has come from you, I will need a web of support and the confidence that you are backing me in pursuing this craft. I need to do this together with you. Help me seek the vision and training I need to support a just and joyful global community within a healthy interdependent web of life.
My life path has given me rich preparation for ministry to a community of people with diverse beliefs and values. I grew up in two countries, learning to appreciate different cultural ways of living as well as my family’s way. As a teenager, I fell in love with the Salish Sea and chose to study environmental science and ethnobotany in college, exploring how multiple ways of knowing—indigenous and scientific—are both simultaneously valid. In teaching history, teamwork, and marine science aboard tall ships, I have learned about the intimacy of living in close contact with people who share a vision for our work, and what sustains a healthy community where we can be both together and alone, giving and receiving each other’s gifts.
When it comes to service and ministering to others, I’m a facilitator and a witness, an ally and a mentor, and a tender and teasing antagonist in service to spurring the shedding and growth that we all need in order to realize our deeply held longings. In my Unitarian Universalist congregation I have contributed my gifts as a coming of age mentor for youth and in leadership on the board of directors. Feeling the pull for a quiet and soulful approach to spiritual practice I started a contemplative candlelight service together with a group of interested members. Going to seminary is an opportunity for me to deepen my craft and my practice of serving you and your spiritual needs.
A Master of Divinity is a necessary prerequisite for becoming a minister. While taking the first step of writing my application to divinity school, I was surprised by the cost of the 3–4 year degree. Out of a sense of responsible financial caution, I had my doubts about pursuing this dream. Becoming a minister will cost over $150,000. If I take out loans as a result of my education, it will limit my ability to go where I am needed to serve.
I already have two thirds of the funds secured, in part by planning on working part-time during my education, and in part from savings, a $6,000 grant from Seattle U, and family gifts of support. I will be applying for future scholarships in Year 2 and Year 3 of my education. However, the majority of the anticipated funds won’t be available to me until 2017 and 2018.
I need your help now to raise $6,134 to pay for my first quarter of tuition.
I’m deeply grateful to the board of directors at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship who have agreed to sponsor me as an aspiring minister. Reverend Bruce Bode and Reverend Florence Caplow have generously offered to support me as professional mentors. And I’m honored and so thankful to have my loving and supportive family behind me.
Will you say “yes” to show me your financial support for becoming a minister?
These are the total costs of a ministerial education:
Tuition, Fees & Books: $6,134 per quarter x 12 quarters = $73,608
Ministerial Credentialing fees & travel: $1,500
Modest Living Expenses: $25,000 x 3 years = $75,000
Total = $150,108.
And here’s what your individual gift will do:
$300 will cover books for one quarter
$50 will pay for my own sessions with a spiritual director as I develop and deepen my pastoral skills
$100 will pay travel costs to small congregations on the Olympic Peninsula who don’t have a minister where I can practice giving sermons as their guest speaker
$631 covers one credit of tuition (out of 108 credits)
Please give today to help me become a minister. You can show me your support in three important ways:
1. Make a donation to my GoFundMe campaign by September 30 to help me raise the first $6,134 in tuition & fees to get started on my first two quarters this year.
2. Share my campaign with friends.
3. Contact me about your ability to offer me a personal low/no-interest loan for a portion of my tuition.
In thanks for your support, you can receive one of a variety of thank you gifts listed to the right including poem prints, a sermon commission, and more!
Thank you for walking beside me as I begin this journey. Your support sparks my great joy.
With gratitude,
Victoria Poling
Organizer
Victoria Poling
Organizer
Port Townsend, WA