by Maha Mohammed
June 18, 2008

Parker says that his previous interest in politics was, at best, minimal.

“I have never really considered myself being a politician until Boys State kind of introduced me to how everything works,” he says.
 
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by Natale Cleericuzio
June 11, 2008

Music has always been a strong force in Rev. Bryan Owen’s life, thanks largely to the influence of his acoustic guitar-playing father. After a difficult experience with his piano instructor who “had a pencil that she would chew on and…
 
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by Ward Schaefer
June 4, 2008

“Time waits for no man. / Time takes from those who walk slow along the wrong road.”

 
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by Jana Mertens
May 28, 2008

When Power APAC theater arts teacher Dorian Myers, 30, sits on the edge of the stage in the little APAC auditorium, it is evident that she is in her territory. Wearing dark pants and a shirt almost as bright as…
 
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by Kristen Phillips
May 23, 2008

“For me, I wouldn’t live anywhere else,” Alan French says from his house-turned-office on North State Street in Fondren.


 
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by Ward Schaefer
May 14, 2008

Though it’s hard to believe now, there was a time when Julie Skipper wanted nothing to do with Jackson. Skipper, a Meridian native, attended Millsaps College and graduated in 2001 with a degree in art history. “And then I decided I wanted to leave Mississippi and never come back,” she says with a laugh.

 
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by Anthony DiFatta
May 7, 2008

Immediately I knew she was a strong and intelligent woman. I was a little intimidated—especially because she was an accountant and lawyer. But after three years of dating, Melissa married me in 2000.

 
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by Ari Glogower
April 30, 2008

Our peripatetic protagonist, a Terry native and graduate of Byram High School, abandons his theater studies at Hinds Community College in 2000 to crisscross the U.S. as a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines.

Two years later,…
 
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by Maggie Burks
April 23, 2008

When your job requires you to drive across the southeast two weekends every month, it’s sometimes difficult to find pleasure in the monotony. But for Amy Steinberg, 23, the time she spends at the destination outweighs the stuffy car ride. An education fellow for the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, Steinberg travels to small, isolated Jewish communities in the South with the purpose of helping sustain Jewish life and culture. She leads services, interacts with families and teaches young people the mitzvot, or God’s commandments.

Despite the short length of these visits and long time between them, Steinberg says she can see the impact on the community and herself. “What I love most about it is the opportunity to make an impact in young Jewish students’ lives and whole community’s lives. The whole community changes when we’re there for a weekend,” Steinberg says. “… Just the chance to be such a resource to the people is something that’s so great.”

Originally from Memphis, Steinberg attended the University of Missouri where she began studying education, but quickly changed her major to human environmental science. “I was looking to teach more than just young students, and I wanted to be part of a whole family experience, not just students at a school,” she says.

When she graduated in 2006, Steinberg was unsure of her plans. She knew she wanted to go to graduate school, but wasn’t ready, yet. Family friend and Beth Israel Rabbi Valerie Cohen told her about the two-year education fellow position at the Institute, and Steinberg soon joined five other fellows traveling around the South.

Coming from a large Jewish community in Memphis to a much smaller one in Jackson was an adjustment for Steinberg, but she also had to transition to living in a new place about which she knew little. Being on the road so often didn’t help her transition, either, but Steinberg has made a point to stay plugged into the Jackson community. She says one of the major highlights of her time in Jackson has been Mal’s St. Paddy’s Parade. “It was definitely a hilariously fun weekend,” she says. “It was something I wanted to experience before I left.”

While the road does get monotonous, Steinberg and the close-knit group of other fellows try to make it fun, often stopping to take photos of peculiar road signs and venturing to places like the Chunky Harley Davidson Store and Jerry’s Catfish Igloo in Florence.

“People always say I should write a book,” Steinberg says, laughing.


 
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by Kelly Bryan Smith
April 16, 2008

Wade Thompson, 32, of Duvall Decker Architects, is one of the founding members of Jackson’s branch of the U.S. Green Building Council, a group of architects, interior designers and contractors he describes as “environmentally forward-thinking, passionate people.” Thompson emphasizes the importance of considering the lifetime energy costs of operating a building with new construction or remodeling. The high cost of green building is a misconception, he says, even if you aren’t spreading it out over the life of a building.
 
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