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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by Ward Schaefer
April 9, 2008

At the time of year when many high school seniors try to get by with the bare minimum, Matt Massingill, 18, does not seem to be suffering from “senior-itis.” As a service requirement for his senior project at Northwest Rankin…
 
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by Kristen Phillips
April 2, 2008

“Don'’t look like they did much of a good job."

The audience laughter that followed her delivery of that line was all actor Tarra Riggs needed to hear.

Just two years ago, Riggs…
 
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by Greg Williamson
March 26, 2008

Michael Rubenstein’s office in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame is cluttered with sports awards and pictures, and a little plastic sumo wrestler stands on his desk. Born in Booneville, Miss., he moved to Jackson for a state job in…
 
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by Ward Schaeffer
March 19, 2008

Don and Becky Potts’ backyard would be noticeable even without the horse. Behind their Fondren home, the couple maintains an elaborate garden and two greenhouses. Somehow, they also have room for Little River, their 7-year-old miniature horse.
 
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by Kristen Phillips
Photo by Nate Glenn
March 12, 2008

Go to college. Play basketball. Live out your dream.
 
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by Maggie Burks
Photo by Maggie Burks
March 5, 2008

Looking like a giant among the three-feet-tall first-graders pouring into the bright, sun-filled hallway of Clausell Elementary School, Principal Mitchell Shears steps into the main office where three students await his arrival. “I…
 
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by Ari Glogower
Photo by Nate Glenn
February 27, 2008

During the day, he’s Mr. Golden, the mild-mannered school librarian who dispenses copies of “Tuck Everlasting” and “Because of Winn-Dixie” to the book-loving kids at Peeples Middle School in South Jackson. Mr. Golden’s library is a peaceful world of words, a refuge for literary-minded students from their hectic and often stressful school days. But on nights and weekends, he’s Bruce, a jazz percussionist who trades in his Dewey decimals for complex polyrhythm and syncopated beats.
 
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by Sarah Litvin
February 20, 2008

The pink-and-blue (Calvin Clown designed) striped arms disappear beneath the table, drawing forth a plain-looking hardcover black book. “You don’t mind if I read?” Inky asks casually, waiting a second for my surprised, affirmative nod before opening his book to unleash a flame blazing from the page. “Jeepers!” he cries, shutting it with a start. “Must have been a cookbook.”
 
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