MTS 301 - Practicum
Required of second-year MTS students who are not doing the Independent Study Project, the Practicum involves a field placement for one semester in a setting appropriate to the student’s vocational goals, combined with a weekly seminar for the purpose of theological reflection on issues of lay ministry growing out of the field experience. Extended CPE taken during the academic year may be used as the field placement, especially for students considering ministry in pastoral care or as a chaplain. MTS students may elect to do the Practicum for a second semester.

MTS 401 - Independent Study Project
Candidates for the MTS degree who are not doing the Practicum are required to undertake an independent study in the second year. The project should be related to the student’s primary area of interest or vocational goal. Such a project will normally take the form of a major paper, but it may also take other forms, such as media presentations or annotated works of art or literature. The precise nature of the independent study project will be worked out in consultation with the student’s project advisor, who is to be chosen by the end of the first year of study. It will normally be done in the spring semester of the second year for three hours of credit but, for longer or more involved projects, may be done in both semesters of the second year for six hours.