My name is Matthew Wright; I’m a 2007-2008 Johnson Intern Program (now JSC) alum. The program came into my life as a possibility my senior year of undergrad at UNC, when I realized I needed space for discernment before dashing off to “what’s next.” I also wanted an experience that would ground me in “the real […]
Alumni Reflections
Alumni Spotlight- Eli Gemora
Hello! I’m Emmanuel (Eli) Gemora and I served with JSC from 2017-2018. I was part of the Carrboro House and worked at Compass Center. I now live in a household that values intentional community and work as a special education teacher in Oregon. Entering JSC, I was looking for a gap year where I could […]
Alumni Spotlight – Emily Gao
My name is Emily, and I’m a 2013-2014 member of JSC. My placement program was Project Access of Durham County—a non-profit that coordinates healthcare for uninsured patients. After the program, I started medical school, and am currently finishing my final year. JSC helped confirm my decision to pursue medicine and also introduced me to several concepts […]
Alumni Spotlight — Kirsten Chang
Kirsten Chang served with the 2017-2018 JSC cohort. I was at a JSC mixer event recently, and someone asked me, “What did you learn during your time as a Corps Member?” It was hard for me to answer. How do you distill a year’s worth of incredibly transformative experiences into a soundbite at a party? […]
Alumni Spotlight — Michael Mullarkey
My name is Michael Mullarkey, and I’m an alum from 2013-2014, back when JSC was JIP! I still remember one of my JSC interviewers asking me why I wanted to join the program. I had been out of college for a couple of years, sat at a lot of tension-filled kitchen tables as an intensive […]
Alumni Spotlight — Elizabeth Brewington
My name is Elizabeth Brewington (or Eliz the Woo Brew as I was called during my time at JSC). I served in Johnson Service Corp in 2017-2018 and lived in the Durham house (also known as the Durham Dames). My partner organization was the East Durham Children’s Initiative. During my time at EDCI, I help run their Youth […]
Alumni Spotlight — The Rev. Erica Long
I served with JSC in 2012-2013. During my time with JSC (JIP then!) I worked at the women’s halfway house at Freedom House Recovery Center. After my time with JSC, I pursued my dream to become a healthcare chaplain. I attended Harvard Divinity School and graduated with my master of divinity in 2016. During my […]
Alumni Spotlight — Jack Mitchell
My beginnings with the Johnson internship were marked by a whirlwind application process. I applied for the program almost exactly 18 years ago, just before the beginning of Holy Week 2001, and right at the end of the application period. I ended up writing the application on Palm Sunday. On Monday, I got an email […]
Alumni Spotlight — Jessi Wightman
After serving with JSC for 2015-16, I’m actually working on my third service year! I live in Minneapolis and I am serving as an AmeriCorps volunteer in a middle school. My focus is to support students learning English as a secondary language in their content classes. The middle schoolers make me laugh every day, and […]
Alumni Spotlight — Sarah Wolff
I started in JSC in 2003, which amazingly was 16 years ago. I don’t want to think too much about the fact that today’s Corps Members were in preschool when I was going through this experience! Like me, the program has changed a lot in those years: The program has a larger group of young […]