Add staff during a pandemic?

central area team

Do you remember your first day at work at a new job? Joining IV staff is a little different than the first staff meeting at your workplace. I first met the team I am currently on much like my two new team-mates met our team this week. Via Zoom call. I was actually working for a church at the time and still in the interview process with IV. In fact I was sitting in the office pictured in the previous post! What did my future team-mates think of me? What does a video conference call do for first impressions? I’m of the opinion that zoom does nothing positive for your appearance. Can I get an amen? I’m afraid its even worse during a pandemic (Covid-hair is nothing to write home about, let’s face it).

Just yesterday the GFM Central Team had its first meeting that included two new staff members! Linda and Josh, you have made our grid complete. A perfect 3X3! If you recall I’ve been searching for new staff at Washington University in St. Louis since last fall. It was important to find a candidate who would be a good fit for Wash-U. I had no idea that two such people would pop up on my radar! Both very much insiders to GFM, and to Wash-U! I knew of Josh Ho because of his involvement in the Graduate Student Fellowship there for several years. But I had a much more indirect path finding Linda Tuch.

Linda was very involved in GFM ministry in the Boston area while getting her masters and PhD (Environmental Sciences and Engineering – Harvard). She met her husband during those years in Boston. Andrew took a teaching position at Washington University which eventually brought Linda to St. Louis. Linda’s former staff member while at Harvard is now the national director for Faculty Ministries. She helped me connect with Linda and explore what a volunteer staff role could look like for her on our team.

The second new person to our team is Josh Ho – a recent Wash-U grad student himself. Josh’s grad work was in Developmental Biology. He’s hoping to work as a patents scientist and is prepping for the patent bar exam. He’ll be in the St. Louis area for the foreseeable future and has also applied and been accepted for a volunteer staff role working alongside Linda at Wash-U. Josh and Linda are both a terrific fit for graduate student ministry. George Stulac is our staff member working with faculty at Washington University. With these three staff Wash-U is positioned well. And the Central Area team really does seem more complete with Linda and Josh.

Pray for our work these days with graduate and professional students in the the four state area! The pandemic has made connecting with students a bigger challenge than ever. Building community and accomplishing a mission together in the university is changing with every month of this new experience. If you’re curious about how InterVarsity is moving forward check out our Ministering Online through COVID-19 page.

Consider joining InterVarsity for another one of it’s live nation-wide online gatherings this Friday night at 7:oopm central. Details are at the link above.

intervarsitylive