By Moriah Sharpe, Class of 2019
At first, the Charlotte Fellows looks like a one-year commitment and experience. You do this program, work your internship, take classes, live with your host family, and then once the year is over, you stay in Charlotte or you move on. That’s it….right?
That’s what I thought. After all, I was only planning to be in Charlotte for a year: I was going to grad school afterward, and it wouldn’t be in Charlotte.
Yet I took Fellows with me when I finished the program - and I’m realizing it is still with me.
I moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area for grad school and was able to meet with the director of the Dallas Fellows, who in turn connected me with Fellows alums in the area. Later, I went to Kansas City to visit a college friend and spent the weekend with her and her Kansas City Fellows friends. I’d met Fellows from other programs (and had friends in other programs) during my Fellows year, but I hadn’t fully appreciated what it meant to be part of the national Fellows network. Thus, my first post-Fellows lesson was this: Fellows extends beyond your city.
As my first year of grad school progressed, the pandemic arrived in the US and I found myself doing grad school online a thousand miles away from all of my friends and family. I had just begun to make new friends in my program and at my church, but I didn’t feel close enough to any of them to be completely honest about how I was feeling. The remainder of my school career was - with the exception of one class - all online, and I spent nearly every waking hour holed up in my apartment doing research, classwork, and work for my internship and my TA position. I tried to fill up my days and minimize my free time, because it was in those quiet moments that I would be reminded of how lonely and miserable I was and how far away I was from everyone who loved me. But those who loved me made sure I knew I wasn’t alone. My close friends, all back in North Carolina, called, texted, and sent letters and care packages to remind me how much they loved me, even halfway across the country. Several of those friends were my Fellows back in Charlotte, teaching me my second post-Fellows lesson: Fellows lasts longer than just one year.
After graduation, I moved back to Charlotte. I grew up in Charlotte and spent my entire childhood dreaming of moving away, of getting out of the big city that at times could feel so small. Moving back to Charlotte not once, but twice, was not in the life path I’d planned for myself as a kid, but something kept calling me back. When I chose to go back the first time, I knew that Fellows would show me a different side of Charlotte. There were things I knew about Charlotte— this is where the affluent people live, these schools have better resources and programs, etc.— without knowing why they were so. Learning about the historical racial, economic, and educational inequalities that are still prevalent today helped me find a direction for my career. It was a combination of living so far away and the impact that Fellows had on me that brought me back to Charlotte a second time and that makes me want to stay. I am planning to go back to school for my PhD in criminology, and I hope to work on research and policy analysis in the Carolinas, addressing the injustices and inequalities in my hometown and region. This was my third post-Fellows lesson: Fellows teaches you more than you expect.
Since moving back to Charlotte, the biggest blessing has been community. Coming back to Charlotte meant coming back to my family and my friends, from college and from Fellows. Coming back meant I no longer felt so alone. Furthermore, my Fellows community also led me to my current church. I have attended majority (if not entirely) white Presbyterian churches my entire life, and that is comfortable and easy for me. When I started visiting churches in Charlotte, I felt a strong call to find a church that was racially diverse and intentionally multicultural. I knew a multiethnic church would be unfamiliar and challenging for me, but I felt it was where the Lord was calling me. I knew of Christ Central Church from Fellows and after visiting several churches, Christ Central felt like where I was supposed to be. Attending a Fellows partner church has shown me how wide the Charlotte Fellows network is; every time I go to a church event, I meet someone who was or is somehow involved in the Fellows. From our mentors to our employers to our host families, Fellows seemed big when I was in the program, but I’ve come to realize how much bigger it is than I could have ever guessed. It’s humbling to think about how many people were praying for us and working together to make our Fellows year as impactful as it was. My fourth post-Fellows lesson was this: The Fellows is bigger than you realize.
I was a Charlotte Fellow for just one year, but its impact has stayed with me beyond that. What I learned through the program has shaped my faith and my career path. My Fellows community, my friends and mentors, made me a better person and reminded me that I was loved even when I was a thousand miles away. My time in Fellows helped me find a church home, where I am learning and benefiting from being in a church community with people who don’t look like me and have different backgrounds than I do. I know the lessons I learned and the people I met in Fellows will continue to impact me the rest of my life. Thus, my fifth post-Fellows lesson is this: Fellows may only last for a year, but it will always be a part of you.
When I joined the Charlotte Fellows program, I knew I’d learn some things and make some friends, but I didn’t expect that the Fellows would still be impacting my life years afterward. The Charlotte Fellows gave me more and taught me more than I ever thought it would, and I am incredibly grateful to have had such an incredible and impactful experience.