Susan Jones backpacked through Europe, slept in refugee camps in Asia and learned to carry firewood balanced on her head in Africa before following her passion back to Perry County.
Jones returned to Judson College, her alma mater, in 2007 to work as director of faith-based service and learning and recently took additional responsibility as assistant vice president for student services.
Though many schools now have service-learning programs, Jones said faith-based service-learning has a deeper component.
“Critical reflection about the service project and oneself is a vital part of service-learning,” she said, “but we also seek to reflect on what Christ’s message of redemption and reconciliation means as we interact with a world of overwhelming need.”
Jones, a Florence native, graduated from Judson in 2002 with a degree in biology and minors in chemistry and religious studies. She earned a master’s degree in global health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham before studying theology and missiology at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic.
Jones said she felt a call to missions and ministry at Judson while working on the same types of projects she now coordinates.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Perry County is among the poorest counties in the state with a median household income of just above $24,000 — about 40 percent below the state average — and 31 percent of its residents live below the poverty level.
Judson President David Potts frequently exhorts students and faculty to engage the community through service. Judson freshmen begin engagement before their first classes when they participate in Marion Matters each fall as a part of Welcome Week, working in groups with faculty and staff throughout the community.
“The work of faith-based service-learning at Judson College places students in dialogue with the poor of the Black Belt and in meeting critical needs of children and families, thus providing a hand up,” Potts said. “The beauty … is that … the giver and receiver are both blessed by the exchange. Students and faculty alike find meaning in authentic service — living the exhortation of Christ in the … Gospel of Matthew.”
Judson has been named to the President’s Community Service Honor Roll for each of the last four years — the highest federal award given to colleges and universities for service and civic engagement.
Through faith-based service-learning, Judson students have provided health care screenings, income tax filing clinics and GED preparation classes for the people of Perry County. Students have placed books in the hands of more than 1,500 local children and contributed countless hours to improving children’s lives through their work in area schools. Judson students also have given time for home-building through a local self-help housing program.
Additionally Judson faculty have taught classes at Francis Marion High School, giving high schoolers experience with college-level teaching and encouraging them to consider higher education after high school.
Judson service-learning has received grants from the Christ is Our Salvation Foundation and Mountain Brook Baptist Church, Birmingham.
Jones said she has three goals in service-learning — learn more about the community where one lives and the world, learn more about who God is in relation to what one has seen and grow in self-awareness and in ability to integrate knowledge and service.
Recent graduate Ashley Wigley Smith, of Hattiesburg, Miss., believes her college experience was enhanced through service-learning. “During my time at Judson, service-learning helped me combine the passion that I felt in the classroom with the compassion that I felt for the community,” she said.
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