Hometown: Ripon, Wisconsin
Education: graduate of Macalister College at St. Paul, Minnesota
Hobbies: reading (mostly novels, cookbooks and nonfiction food writers); baking, especially bread; folk dancing; gardening; biking; hiking; and being outdoors.
Languages: proficient in German and studied Biblical Hebrew for four semesters
First day of service: Aug. 3
Length of service: one year
Service site: White Violet Center for Eco-Justice, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind.
What she’s looking forward to:
“Most immediately I’m looking forward to getting my hands in the dirt in the gardens, working with the alpacas and seeing how things run,” she said. “And just getting a better knowledge and understanding of how to grow an organic garden, especially of this size.”
“I’m really excited about the bees,” she said. “I hope to keep my own bees someday.
"From a very personal perspective I’m hoping to leave here with some knowledge that I can put to work in my own life, in my own garden and for my own needs."
Jessie is interested in how the justice piece is worked into this ministry.
“I have some basic knowledge on how the gardening aspect of it works, but here I’m seeing where that justice piece really plays out and then trying to formulate my own ideas of how I can work that through my own life.”
More about her:
“I’m very interested in food and food culture — what we eat, how we eat it, how it becomes accessible and figuring out what needs to be changed in terms of making things that are local and healthy accessible and affordable to everybody.”
Personal growth:
“I think there will be a lot of personal growth and that doesn’t necessarily relate specifically to the tasks that we’re each doing. That’s possibly going to happen without us even quite realizing it yet.”