LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) - The International Center for Youth Ministry at Boyce College has formed an informal alliance with four international schools that is aimed at training career youth ministers through a combination of academics and hands-on experience.

Through the arrangement, Boyce College - the undergraduate school of Southern Seminary - has established Centers for Youth Ministry at Kiev Theological Seminary, Kenya Baptist Theological College, Mexico Baptist Theological College and Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary.

The foreign CYMs will function the same way as the center at Boyce College; students will receive academic training in youth ministry and will also serve at least 400 hours in local Southern Baptist churches. Churches have been approved as sites for the hands-on mentoring of budding youth ministers.

Leaders from Boyce College and its parent school, Southern Seminary, met with four foreign CYM directors in Louisville in August. CYMs in the Kiev and Kenya schools are already working with students, while Mexico will begin in two weeks and Malaysia next July.