From the "Ouachitonian": Stephanie Westberg
January 01, 2020
For the last 22 years, senior Stephanie Westberg had been within walking distance of Ouachita’s campus. She grew up just four minutes away on Cherry Street. However, Westberg experienced Ouachita in a much different way than most over the past four years.
“My mom graduated from here so it was one of those why-not-go-to-Ouachita type things. I also have Celiac disease, which is an extreme food allergy, and it just seemed easiest,” Westberg said. “I save about $6,000 a year by living at home. Plus, everywhere else I thought about for college was going to be expensive because I would have needed an apartment from the very beginning to cook my own food and things like that.”
Westberg was an elementary education major with an overflowing heart for kids within her own community.
“My main involvement on campus is with Campus Ministries and Backyard Bible Club. Those kids are my passion,” Westberg said. “I’ve known since the sixth grade that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Teaching was just an idea as a stepping stone so that I could get a real job and then do backyard Bible stuff on the side.”
Over the summer, Westberg realized she couldn’t put her time in two places and give all of the effort she had to both.
“I felt that I would quickly run myself dry and not be fully committed to a job or to something outside of a job. I also feel as though I may not allow others to be fully obedient to what God has called them to do,” Westberg said. “We are to pray, send and go, and I feel we are all called to go and do everything we can. If I’m tying to do go and send myself, I may not be able to do both. I learn more and more every day about exhaustion and limits, which are for our own good.”
Westberg labeled herself as a teacher and educator; it’s what she was made to do. She quickly learned she was needed more outside of the classroom as her love for kids in the community grew.
“Working in the apartment complexes my entire life, I see kids at Sonic and Walmart, and I just love going up to them and hugging them. It sounds weird, but they are the reason I stayed an education major. I knew what I was learning in school would be something I could relay back to them,” Westberg said. “I miss them so much and had to give up seeing them daily for student teaching. I love them and want them to know there are opportunities out there, that I believe in them, that other people believe in them, that God believes in them, that generational poverty can end with them, that they can graduate high school and go to college and that they can be active members of their community.”
After graduation, Westberg planned to attend George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Her plans involved working ground level with ministry, working her way up to administration and eventually going into a church to mobilize members to do what we are all called to do.
“The church has a variety of people and so does the community. You bridge the gap, the church expands and ultimately so does the Kingdom,” Westberg said, “There is a passage in Ezekiel about this, but my thing has always been that Arkadelphia is going to know God sovereign when God changes this town through the apartment complexes, through my kids and through the Gospel. No one expects anything from these kids except bad things, but we’ve had so many of our kids become believers.”
By Amber Easterly
Photo by Andy Henderson
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