The purpose of the Narrative Pedagogies Project is to cultivate youth for Christian leadership using the narrative art forms of storytelling, creative writing, and drama. It is a three-year research project funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. The project is oriented around four convictions:

1. Youth, like all persons, make meaning and construct identity through story.
2. Youth are inundated by media and culture with a plethora of narratives vying to shape their experiences.
3. The Christian faith tradition offers rich alternative narratives that promise to empower meaningful lives of vitality, compassion, and commitment to the common good.
4. Narrative art forms offer powerful educational methods that foster theological reflection, spiritual growth, and social empowerment.

The Project runs programs in Southern California churches, schools and community centers in which young people hear stories of faith and empowerment, critically reflect upon the stories of our culture, and create their own stories in service of claiming their voice, deepening their experience, and impassioning them as agents of change within our communities.

The Narrative Pedagogies Project is led by Dr. Frank Rogers, Director of the Narrative Pedagogies Project and Associate Professor of Religious Education, and Dr. Scott Cormode, Associate Professor of Church Administration and Finance and Assistant Dean for Institutional Research.

Dr. Frank Rogers		Dr. Scott Cormode

The project offers a three-week summer drama program in which youth engage real issues of teen life through improv, drama exercises, and playmaking. The program meets in August at Mudd Theater of Claremont School of Theology. Thirty youth from churches within the Pomona Valley will participate.