By: Keiyunna Floyd
Leading College Students towards a positive path is a job but yet a joy for Lois Paney, who is an Intervarsity Christian Fellowship leader at the University of Mississippi.
"I really enjoy leading this group partly because I love working with college students and I love helping people to think about who Jesus is and what roll he plays in our lives," she said.
Paney, who first started working for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship after graduating college in the year 2000, is now in her 14th year on the Intervarsity staff.
"Intervarsity Christian Fellowship is a Christian Organization that invites everyone on campus to be apart of a multiethnic community where people can grow in wholeness and in fullness in Jesus," Paney stated.
Since moving from Auburn Hills, Michigan, where Paney worked for Intervarsity at Oakland University, she has now been on staff with Intervarsity at the University of Mississippi for two years.
Paney expresses the importance of college students having a spiritual life. "There are a lot of things that we put our time into. We spend time on academics, we spend time on things to grow our emotional and mental health, we do things to grow our physical health and I think that thinking about our spiritual health is a really important part of our time in school," she said.
For students like Jalen Neal, a Sophomore at the University of Mississippi, who has been under Paney's leadership for almost two years, has also taken on the leadership roll.
"The thing that drove me to become an Intervarsity leader was Lois Paney, the staff coordinator here for intervarsity. She played a huge roll in my life up to my decision of deciding to follow Jesus and from then on I've been diving in the word, study it, and just praying and knowing who I am in Christ," Neal said.
Neal gives great credit to Paney for his new roll as a Christian leader. "It's because of her. She asked me to become a small group leader. She was teaching me and guiding me along the way," he said.
Paney believes that college is the key time for students to think of Christ for themselves instead of Christianity being forced on them by their parents.
Students who have recently left home to start their college careers like Adam Goodson, a Freshman at Ole Miss, was introduced to Intervarsity Christian Fellowship by his peers.
"It was actually Jalen Neal who first introduced me to Intervarsity. He's my community assistant and we just began talking and he kind of spread the word about it," Goodson said.
Intervarsity Christian Fellowship is lead by several different leaders at different times of the week on campus to allow all students a chance to learn more about Christ. Small group meetings start on Mondays and end on Thursdays of every week that school is in session.
