Lutheran Leader Program Underscores Valpo Mission

Marking its 10th anniversary in 2006, Valparaiso University’s Lutheran Leader Intern Program is just one example of how the university seeks to shape the faith and skills of its students.

The program provides a full tuition scholarship annually to one Evangelical Lutheran Church in America student and one Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod student.

Daniella Trombatore ’05 assists a client at Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore.

Candidates are selected on the basis of significant leadership contributions to their youth organization on a district/synod, regional or national level.

Leadership development opportunities for students are integral to Valpo’s mission.

After four years on campus, Lutheran Leader interns are prepared to assume pivotal leadership roles in vocations such as banking, medicine, teaching, and church-related ministries.

Daniella Trombatore ’05 has worked at Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore since graduation. This fall, she will begin studying for a master’s degree in public health.

A pre-med major at Valpo, Trombatore always wanted a career in health care, but began thinking more about serving society’s marginalized through her experiences as a Lutheran Leader intern.

“Through the Lutheran Leader program, I learned the importance of being a servant leader,” she says. “The program develops a person’s desire and ability to discern the call to serve.”

Bill Karpenko ’61, recently retired director of church relations at Valpo, has worked with the interns since the program’s inception. “Their insight into and commitment to the Lutheran church is remarkable and heartening,” Karpenko says. “Their VU education is helping them to be real difference-makers in the church of tomorrow.”