“I am a southern college girl who loves Starbucks coffee and hanging out with my friends. I lived in Savannah, Georgia for 13 years before I moved to Knoxville to attend Johnson. I have now been in the Knoxville area for the past 3 and a half years and I have loved every minute it (for starters you get all 4 seasons of the year perfectly). Sevier Heights North is the church that I call home.
My journey to YOKE is a bit different. All counseling students at Johnson go through a class called Field Experience where every student is placed at a site (organization, non-profit, counseling centers) that deals with the human services part of our degree. We get hands on experience in order to see what it is like to be in the helping profession. It is the student’s responsibility to find their own site for the fall and spring semester before we get back to school after the summer break. That was a difficult road for me; God seemed to close the door at each organization I tried to contact. It was not until I came back after break that my professor, Dr. Nicole Saylor, gave me the option of YOKE. When she told me no one had requested to take the placement at YOKE, I decided to give it a try. Maybe God closed all the other doors so that I would walk through the one that was open. I followed through and was given the opportunity to be an intern at YOKE.
In my years at Johnson, I have only heard great things about this ministry. I have had many friends be a part of it and tell me about their great experiences. They talked about how much they had grown in their own faith while watching the lives of middle school students be transformed. Since I have been on the outside looking in, there has been a bit of a learning curve for me, but I have jumped right into the ministry and it has been a great experience.
During my time here I will be serving on the team at South Doyle Middle School and I will also be working on a new initiative to serve the parents of our middle school students. I am glad to be a part of YOKE and very excited to see what God has in store for this year!”