Clinical Pastoral Education

Participants include seminarians, qualified laypeople, members of religious orders and other students who have motivation to minister and learn in a multi-faith, collegial and challenging setting.

• NYP Columbia University Medical Center
• Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
• Weill Cornell Medical Center
• Allen Hospital
• Lower Manhattan Hospital
• NYP Westchester Behavioral Health Center
• NYP Queens
• NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital

We offer Level I and Level II CPE training, as well as Certified Educator CPE. Our four CPE training programs include an intensive Summer Internship (11 weeks), an Extended Unit (30 weeks), and a year-long Residency Program.

Internships: The established rate of tuition for NYP’s CPE Internship Program is $800. A non-refundable deposit of $300 is due with your acceptance materials. The balance of $500 is due on the first day of the CPE program. People for whom the full amount of tuition represents a financial hardship are eligible to receive a partial tuition waiver of up to $400.

Residency Program: $300 non-refundable deposit due upon acceptance to the program. A payment plan can be established if needed.

There is no application fee for any of our programs.

Our priority deadlines are:

• Full-Time Residency Program: December 1st
• Full-Time Summer Internship: December 1st
• Part-Time Extended Internship: June 1st
• Fall Unit: July 1st

No. Unfortunately, we are not able to accept everyone who applies. Most years the number of applicants for our ACPE-accredited programs far exceeds the number of available openings. For this reason, we encourage you to apply early if you are interested in any of our educational offerings. Our programs often fill up well before the program start dates.

• Rabbi Mychal B. Springer (NYP)
• The Rev. Joseph Collazo (NYP Allen Hospital)
• Rev. CB Stewart (NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital)
• Lifeng (Jampa) Wang, (NYP Queens)
• Joel Berning (NYP/Columbia University Medical Center)

• The Rev. Ansia Chahoy (NYP/Weill Cornell Medical Center)

Interns and residents provide pastoral care in-person. Interns may shift to tele-chaplaincy if there are extenuating circumstances.

Educational seminars take place in-person. During the pandemic, educational seminars may take place on Zoom, when necessary. To inquire about the plan for a specific CPE program’s seminars, please contact [email protected].

We strive to make the ACPE experience rich and meaningful for each of our students and we do take requests for working in certain medical areas into account, particularly if a student has already completed at least one unit of CPE. However, other issues are taken into consideration when making clinical assignments, including the needs of the hospital and particularly the needs of the patients. Most students are assigned to work on multiple units and we do our best to make sure that the mix of units represents a wide range of experience with patients dealing with different medical or psychological issues. Your Certified Educator’s assessment of specific educational needs may also be a factor. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that students will be assigned to specific hospital units of their choosing.

Yes. All students spend some portion of their training time as the chaplain on-call for the hospital in which they are assigned. All students participate in the rotation for daily on-call while they are already on-site in the hospital. At the Manhattan campuses, all students also participate in the evening and weekend on-call rotations. While serving on-call overnight, students need to remain reasonably close to their clinical site and be ready to respond to pastoral emergencies that may arise during the night. Students should be able to reach the bedside of the patient within 30 minutes of an emergency call. Typically, students also spend some portion of their clinical hours working weekend days at their hospital site. Specific scheduling requirements and on-call procedures vary across the NewYork-Presbyterian campuses and are worked out in consultation with the Certified Educator at the start of the unit.

The hospital does not sponsor anyone for Visas. All international students are processed through ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care & Education. For further information please visit ACPE's website at: https://acpe.edu/education/cpe-students/the-international-student-visitor-program

Yes, you will need to supply a United States Social Security Number for hospital clearance. If you do not have one, you may apply for one by visiting the, Official Website of the U.S. Social Security Administration at https://www.ssa.gov or by calling Social Security at 1-800-772-1213.

The CPE internship consists of at least 400 hours of training, which includes clinical hours spent working as a chaplain intern on one's assigned clinical duties and required group/seminar time. Students also must complete regular assignments during their "off" time. The required hours of CPE do not include time during the day at the hospital to complete assignments. There is a considerable amount of written reflective work assigned during the unit. We strongly recommend that persons interested in the Summer Internship avoid other professional or academic commitments during the program.

One of the main reasons people take extended units of CPE is because they have major life commitments that prevent them from being able to do full-time pastoral training. Most participants work full-time or are in school full-time. Many have children or other obligations that make it difficult to do CPE more than part-time. For this reason, we make extended units as flexible as possible. While seminar/class times are set, clinical hours can be arranged according to your scheduling needs. Most schedules can be accommodated. Many students do their hours in the evening, weekends and sometimes on their regular days off from their full-time jobs, as long as the hours are consistent with the needs of the hospital (e.g., we do not have chaplains doing routine visits after 9:30 p.m.). Speak with the Certified Educator of the program that you are interested in attending to see what works for that campus.

While there is no housing available for part-time students, housing may be available for full-time summer interns. After acceptance into the program, a student may contact the NewYork-Presbyterian Housing Department to inquire if there are student rooms available for rent for the summer. However, please note that we do not provide housing, nor do we pay for or provide any scholarship funds for housing expenses. While many students are able to procure student rooms, we cannot guarantee availability.

Our second year residency offers opportunities to specialize in Behavioral Health and Pediatrics & Adolescents.