1. What inspired you to join VISIONS?

I’ve always wanted to work someplace like VISIONS, it was just a matter of finally finding it!

2. What experiences have shaped your passion for community service and youth development?

I was raised in a very loving, close-knit, and highly service-focused community.

I worked for years at a camp and conference center alongside a truly unbelievably devoted staff, who taught me the concept of working hard and giving more. In college, I was at a land-grant University, where my professors were invested in us as students—and dedicated to teaching and serving communities all over South Carolina—to raise the next generations of scientists and stewards of the natural world.

I have been taught and shown every step of the way that serving others and tending to the seeds of a positive future may be the greatest honor and blessing in this life, and I’m forever grateful for all who did so much to teach me that.

3. What is your favorite achievement?

My family and my friends know that I love them. Also, I caught a Yellow Bellied Slider underwater, and sure they might be kind of slow on land but they’re real zippy with the home-field advantage.

4. What is your favorite place you’ve traveled?

New Zealand.

5. What is the best advice you’ve received?

This is tough for me because I have been lucky to have received so much good advice. The one that comes to mind now is from Thoreau: “Behave so the aroma of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere.”

6. What do you hope to accomplish this summer?

I hope to challenge myself to be capable of more every day, and to encourage others to discover all that they are capable of as well.

7. What are you most excited about this summer?

Being back in Browning and seeing all the folks I have missed!

8. If you had to give one piece of advice or words of encouragement to someone on their first VISIONS experience, what would it be?

Remember as you work why it matters and who you’re doing it for. Remember as you play and explore (and work) to take moments to soak in everything around you. It will be in the past all too soon, and you don’t want to forget the special little details.