Everyone has an intriguing story. Some people can tell tales of when they grew up, others are stoked on their current situation and opportunities while the rest keep working towards what they can (or can’t yet) see in front of them. But whatever it is, it only takes a few questions to find out.
So this is why I sat down with Mrs. Jessica Yonker. (She just became a Mrs. this past Sunday!!!) to hear her past, present and future story. Jessica started working with the Travel4Souls team on October 1st. She’s not even three weeks in and yet has already contributed her innovative sustainability ideas to our current projects. To get the full scope of how inspiring Jessica is, let’s start at the beginning.
Jessica was born 28 years ago in the cold, snowy land of Michigan. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in anthropology. Immediately following her graduation she began a year-long teaching fellowship at a successful charter school in Boston. “Generally if you’re in the public schools in Boston it’s because you don’t have enough money to get out,” she said. So the city created a public charter school for students who couldn’t afford a private education. “There was a lottery to get into our charter. Our goal was to get every child graduated and into college. These were kids who were years behind on their education. Every single graduate made it into college.”
Jessica With Two of Her Boston Students
As the year neared its close, Jessica prepared for a move to California where she would begin teaching classes to children and their parents at a local science museum. After teaching there for a year and a half, she journeyed to Germany with her boyfriend (now husband) and worked as a university English teacher. They originally moved there for his software engineering job. But once their time in Germany was up, it was her turn to choose the next destination.
So naturally, they ended up in another foreign country – this time it was Peru – where Jessica spent the next two years creating and cultivating a sustainability program to benefit the indigenous Quecha women. “It was an economic development project,” she shares. “For thousands of years these communities in the highlands were untouched.” But once the communities faced modern developments, the residents found themselves in need of cold hard cash. “They have a really strong weaving tradition and we wanted to help them take advantage of that and make a profit off their weavings,” Jessica explains. So she, along with an organization called Awamaki, purchased the finished textiles from the Quecha women and sold them online and in their Peruvian tourist shops. They then used the profits to continue the buying and selling cycle. When she left in January 2012 to come back to the United States, she trained a local woman to take over her position. This furthered the economic sustainability efforts even more.
In the Peru Marketplace!
When she came back to United States, Jessica took up residence right here in Nashville, TN. But her adventures definitely didn’t end there. She worked with the East Nashville Cooperative Ministry to write grant and assist in the food pantry and community gardens. Pretty cool, right? And now, we are honored to have her working here in our office. Well, at least when she’s in the country. As part of our Travel4Souls department, Jessica will lead shoe distribution trips in third-world countries and assist our international micro enterprise programs. Her first trip will be to Honduras this November. If you’d like to join the trip (or any other one for that matter), click right HERE.