Geneva Women’s Tennis Player Katherine Deitrick Learns Life Lessons at McGuire Memorial Over the Summer - Geneva College
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Geneva Women’s Tennis Player Katherine Deitrick Learns Life Lessons at McGuire Memorial Over the Summer

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While most people shy away from working with the elderly or the mentally disabled, sophomore chemical engineering major Katherine Deitrick embraced this opportunity with open arms this past summer.

Deitrick worked at McGuire Memorial in their employment option center where she spent her days helping adults with both physical and mental disabilities to build life skills.

She had been aware of McGuire Memorial’s work but she never considered working for their Christian ministry until last spring.

“I thought it would be a good change of pace from my job last summer,” she says.

Growing up with an older brother who spent quite a bit of time at McGuire Memorial, Deitrick is no stranger to the types of disabilities that she came across.

“My brother, Mark, is a client at Memorial. When he was born he contracted the meningitis virus in the hospital where my mom had him. The doctors said he wouldn’t live past the age of 5 but he is 27 now,” she explains.

While working at McGuire, Deitrick spent her days helping the disabled who came to the Employment Option Center learn and develop social skills, physical abilities, and simple daily tasks such as feeding themselves. Some of the activities helped clients reach small, incremental goals, such as participating in a group activity for at least 10 minutes or make deliveries throughout the building for those with social anxiety. Other activities were big group projects like stuffing envelopes or making crafts for the big Christmas sale.

 “McGuire Memorial has given me a calmness about life. I guess, an openness for God’s plan because he really worked giving me the opportunity to work there. And to see how he can work in that job. Something you wouldn’t think would be that rewarding really was. An openness was really brought to the forefront of my mind,” she reflects. 

The openness that Deitrick mentions impacts not only how she sees her future, but also how she views and carries herself on the tennis court and her leadership on the team.

deitrick“When I play, I am more open to letting Him guide me, guide how I swing the tennis racket and where I place the ball and how I want to treat the opponent and myself on the court,” she says.

 “On our first day of team bonding, there was this little treasure chest that the guy who lead some of the bonding brought and there were all of the little symbols in there. I saw the lighthouse and I thought it was perfect— the lighthouse is a relentless shine, a guiding light that when it needs to be seen or when it is supposed to be seen it is seen, guiding you back to shore, to home. It is a sign of comfort and hope—I want to be a light to the team and help be a leader and helping to step up where I am needed or when someone needs help.”

Her job helped her learn how to better adapt to people’s different learning styles and be a more effective teacher and communicator with them.  She has learned to be able to say what she needs to say with clarity and love.

Not only has her life at Geneva been changed through this opportunity, but her relationship with her brother has been introduced into a new light and joy.

“I am able to pick up on some of the nuances with how my brother can communicate through a smile or scrunching his eyes, just seeing all that he is able to do—he can feed himself now,” she says. “Now I can see the agitation on his face or annoyance or just being happy if he is listening. It is really cool.” 

To Deitrick, joy and hope are the two biggest takeaways from her summer at McGuire Memorial.

“There was a really cool level of positivity and hope there, a hope in the littlest things. Having hope is everything,” she states.

This job helped her realize that everyone is a contributing factor to the work that God has set out for us, no matter what kind of setbacks, whether emotional or physical, might come in the way.

She concludes, “With my job, I am able to foster their learning so they can contribute to the world and the small community that they are in, impacting lives and growing relationships so that they can thrive and grow. And without them, our world falls apart. We need them to learn humility and calmness and communication.”

Sep 21, 2016