Former Summer Staff Spotlights

For 45 years, Mountain T.O.P. has been developing leaders. One of our most transformative leadership development opportunities comes through serving on our summer staff. For approximately 10 weeks, college-aged staffers facilitate our summer programs. They coordinate home repair projects and Day Camp programs, guide teams of volunteers, write and deliver spiritual-life programming, lead their peers, partner with community organizations, among many many other things! For many of our staffers, this experience has heavily informed their vocational trajectory. We are immensely thankful for these 4 staffers who have shared their stories, there are certainly more to come!

Elise Fender Burns (2006, 2007)

My summers on staff were the first time I ever observed educational inequity in low-income communities. Working with day camp, I fell in love with children of Grundy County, and felt God calling me to work towards closing the opportunity gaps in education. I decided to apply for Teach For America. Teach For America is a very competitive application process, but I was able to leverage my leadership experience at Mountain T.O.P. to get accepted. Specifically, I remember in my interview they asked how I stay organized. I easily impressed the interviewer by explaining how I make a TDL and label each action item with A,B, or C- a skill I learned on staff! As a teacher, I used my summer staff skills every hour of every day! The call I felt on the Mountain to work in education never left, as I earned a graduate degree in education leadership. 

Now, I feel like God has brought my career full circle. I currently work as an Education Coordinator for the Center for Youth Ministry Training. I get to use my education leadership skills to equip youth ministers to serve- and many bring their own youth to Mountain T.O.P.! 

Elise Low Edwardson (2008 - 2011)

Mountain T.O.P. was instrumental not only in helping me hear my call to ministry, but helping me find the courage to say "yes" to God's call on my life.  Over the course of four summers on staff, I gave God more and more room to shape my vocational journey, eventually transitioning from a pre-med college student to a seminary-bound young adult.  Today, I serve as a United Methodist pastor in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The on-the-ground training I received at Mountain T.O.P. gave me skill sets that I use to this day in ministry, whether it's crafting creative worship experiences, mobilizing church leaders for ministry, finding new ways to empower our youth, or engaging our community in mission-minded ways.  Mountain T.O.P. taught me to approach others as Jesus did: with deep respect, love, and humility, especially amidst cultural differences.  I am forever grateful for my time at Mountain T.O.P.: a place God is using to make things on earth a little more as they are in heaven.

Ben Nichols (2013 - 2015)

I was a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 18-year old who was lacking a sense of purpose when I arrived for staff training in 2013. The theme we explored that summer was how faith is unmistakably intertwined with works. The scripture for the summer was James 2:14-17, the latter part of which says "suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead." What had been a thought, developed into a strong conviction over the summer of 2013 and the following 2 summers I spent working at Mountain T.O.P.: all people deserve to live with dignity in a safe home they can be proud of. What I learned on the Mountain T.O.P. has taken me to the "valley below-ow-ow-ow" in Denver, Colorado where I work at the local government level to help people find, maintain, and improve their housing situation. I've managed a home repair program similar to AIM in the type of projects we do and have responded to emergencies where people have been displaced from their homes. My time at Mountain T.O.P. helped me discover the passion I have for ensuring that people have a place to "keep warm and well fed" while showing others the love, compassion, and dignity that we are shown by our Creator.

Betzy Ellifrits Warren (1999, 2000, 2002)

Even though it’s been almost 20 years, I still carry many of the leadership skills and lessons from serving on Mountain T.O.P. summer staff with me. One of the most meaningful things I learned in those 3 summers on the mountain is that ministry is about flexibility. When I came to Mountain T.O.P. for my last summer on staff in 2002, I was sure I knew where I was headed in life: I was going to be an English teacher. During that summer at camp, though, several people told me I was called to ministry…something that professors and chaplains had also tried to convince me of. They were right. After a detour through UT-Knoxville for a master’s degree in English, I did finally answer that call to ministry. I had to learn to be more flexible in my plan, to go where God was leading me, instead of where I planned to go. My summers on Mountain T.O.P. staff introduced me to the commitment and sacrifice that ministry would take. It was a great joy to bring my campus ministry students to the mountain in 2018 and 2019. I will always treasure my times on the mountain!