Former M.O.S.T. Scholar and Harding Academy alumna Claudia-Ruthie Austin will soon graduate from the University of Memphis with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. After a recent eye-opening journey to impoverished communities in Latin America, she has a clearer idea about what she will do with it.
“My church, Woodland Hills Church of Christ, made a mission trip to Honduras,” she said. “Over a week and a half in July, we visited low-income communities where we were able to spread joy by doing good for people.”
Claudia-Ruthie’s cohort of volunteers traversed the Honduran countryside delivering food and hygiene kits to underprivileged villages and visiting children in special needs orphanages, where her coursework toward a minor in Spanish made her invaluable to her team. While these and other acts of kindness were effective at spreading joy, Claudia-Ruthie was also deeply affected.
“I used to think ‘eye-opening experience’ was a corny thing people say after doing something they felt was profound,” she said. “But now I think it’s a useful phrase that makes a very specific point. For the first time in my life, I’m seeing cows and horses that were so skinny that I could see their ribs. Seeing families with young children that were so hungry they would walk across a busy highway for a bag of rice and beans opened my eyes to something new.”
The reality of extreme poverty in the Third World caused a shift in how she thinks of her future as a broadcast reporter.
“What I saw made me appreciate what I have in a different way, but it also made me want to look more closely into my community to expose any brokenness where I am every day,” she said. “As a journalist, I’ll approach local stories with a more nuanced and global picture of reality in my mind. I can call back to eye-opening experiences like these to become more aware of situations that need to be reported on for the benefit of my own community.”
She says she first began thinking about being part of a mission trip while a student at Harding, an experience made possible through seven years of M.O.S.T. Scholarship support.
“At Harding there were mission opportunities, but I never felt like I was ready,” she said. “But the students that did go gave presentations filled with stories about how impactful the experiences were. I realized I needed to go on a mission one day because of the impact that it had on these people. I wasn't ready then, but I'm grateful that Harding introduced me to the idea and when the opportunity presented itself again this summer, it was time.”
A highly motivated student, Claudia-Ruthie took dual enrollment in high school, and enrolled in college classes over the summer between high school and the Fall semester of her freshman year at U of M. Because of her turbo-boosted head start, Claudia-Ruthie will earn her bachelor’s degree in a brisk three and a half years. After her experiences in Honduras, she’s eager to start making her mark through careful reporting.
“Before this trip, my interests in journalism and where I wanted to go with my career were always changing,” she said. “Now I have a different awareness and a more specific need to figure out what's really going on within our societies and what we can do to make the world better for everyone.”
“When I look back at the path that led me here, I see that it started at Harding Academy, which M.O.S.T. gave me the opportunity to attend. The people who support M.O.S.T. as donors gave me an amazing gift, and I’m beyond excited to start giving back.”