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Community Partnerships

Thoughts from
Mercer Students

“Each day, the children were eager to see us when we arrived. Zeda, my seven-year old student, would always stop whatever activity in which she was engaged, run to me, and give me a hug. We all spent our times together as a group, playing basketball, softball, and Frisbee. I would often take part of the afternoon to help Zeda with her homework. She had a great deal of trouble at first, especially with math, and would often get discouraged and give up. However, I encouraged her to persevere, and we used crayons to make her tasks seem less abstract. Soon, she was adding, subtracting, and multiplying with proficiency. Moments such as these were the highlights of my Joshua House experience.”

Jake O’Neal

“I had forgotten how much fun being a kid truly is until I found myself running around the playground, throwing a Frisbee, playing on the slide, and playing tag. What a release after sitting at a desk taking notes all day! That day was the first day I truly bonded with the kids. I started to learn what each child is like, not just Amara. They are all wonderful, energetic, spirited children. These kids live in poverty, and the unforgiving world looks down on them for it. I want to show them that they mean something and that they can beat their circumstances.”

Melissa Miller

”Donnie turned to me and asked that I read it. I took it in my hands and received the greatest gift I may receive all year. “Suz, thank you for loving me, and I love you too” were the words on the page. He thanked me for something that I took for granted at his age: love. It was in that moment that I realized that my calling, my passion, my life is to love children. I have also always loved law and I feel that these two loves of mine, children and law, are meant to be married in a way that will prepare me to not only love children, but protect them as well. I want to work for the kids who don't have a voice and who don't see a way out of true hardships that I can't even understand. I don't need money, or a Lexus, or even really expensive leather heels...my happiness will come from...serious...work in the name of children.”

Suzanne Bottorff

“My parents have worked day in and day out to provide a better life for me. And through watching them, I developed the same habit. Despite some of the setbacks along the way, we have never lost hope. This is what Brandon and I share the most. We have both faced hardship in our lives, and we both refuse to cower before it. Instead, we work hard to make our lives better in every step we take. If there is anything Brandon has done for me, he has shown me that through hard work and love, all things are possible.”

Craig Head

Community Partnerships

Joshua House

985 Plant Street
Macon, GA 31201
(478) 741-2080

Joshua House is the after-school program of Out & Up, a faith-based organization that works within the Tindall Heights neighborhood adjacent to Mercer. Joshua House is a wonderful example of the community partnerships that can be forged to enrich the educational, emotional, and spiritual lives of the children of this community. Along with Mercer, a number of partners help Joshua House to perform its mission of providing after-school tutoring and a summer enrichment camp for elementary-aged students.

Here is what the Joshua House director, Tracey Muff, has had to say about Mercer’s relationship with the program:

“Through Joshua House’s after-school program, I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with Mercer University tutors for the past three years. Each year has become more and more successful. I am especially fond of the relationships that are formed between the students and their Mercer tutors. On a consistent basis, Mercer tutors display integrity, generosity, dedication, punctuality, and most of all, love! The tutors are assigned to work with the after-school students for one semester, but many of them continue to come back and visit students long after their requirements have been fulfilled. Our desire is to enrich our students through technology, social interaction, reading/writing skills, and the incorporation of the arts into their daily lives. The Mercer University-Joshua House relationship is extremely powerful and will continue to positively impact our students. Thank you, Mercer, for helping us to mold and shape our most precious resource—our children!”

Recent Mercer Work with Joshua House

In 2005, Mercer used its Community Outreach Partnership Center funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to equip Joshua's House with computers, desks and chairs, and telephone and Internet service.
In fall 2006, 20 FYS students worked with 15 Joshua House students to make digital stories about themselves. The Joshua House students wrote their own scripts and used computer technology to add pictures and music to their stories.
In spring 2007, 20 FYS students worked with the same Joshua House students to make digital stories in which they interviewed “The person I most admire.”
Since 2005, Mercer community workstudy students have tutored over 9,000 hours at Joshua's House.

How to Get Involved

FYS students wishing to do service-learning at Joshua House should contact Bobbie Shipley, Program Coordinator in Interdisciplinary Studies, (478) 301-2357 or shipley_be@mercer.edu. Students wishing to volunteer or work as community work study tutors at Joshua House should contact Ina Vaughns, Administrative Coordinator, (478) 301-5370 or vaughns_I@mercer.edu

Faculty and Staff Contacts

Dr. Mary Ann Drake
Chair, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
(478) 301-5616