The Future of Hope Institute allows high school students in the Knoxville area to have an opportunity to connect with their city. The program is specifically for rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have a desire to do well in school and engage their community. To kick off the program, students spend three days on a retreat in a city outside of Knoxville. This year, students spent their fir
st three days in Gatlinburg at Wafloy Mountain Village. The idea behind this “getaway” is to isolate students from the city as a way of stepping outside of our normal context in order to create a more intimate relationship with the Future of Hope team and more importantly, God. This occurs at the beginning the week-long experience as a way to set the standard of what’s to come. After returning to Knoxville on the afternoon of Day 3, students begin to be immersed in the city. Each day, students learn about community organizations and work alongside community leaders as a way of acknowledging and addresses social issues in the Knoxville area. They are guided by professors and staff of the Future of Hope team to discover ways of viewing these issues from a biblical perspective. This year, students had interactions with The Restoration House, Volunteer Ministry Center, Beardsley Farms, Mobile Meals, the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office, and the Knox County Health Department. Students also had meals, worship, and fellowship at a variety of churches in Knoxville. Towards the end of the week, the students were strategically placed in small groups for their projects, based on their interests. The goal of these teams is to design and implement a service project that benefits their community in a significant area, a major purpose of the Future of Hope Institute. The planning and completion of these projects takes place over an eight-month time frame. The grand finale of the program is a banquet where the teams of students exhibit their completed projects to a panel of peers and community leaders. Each participant who successfully finishes the program receives a $2000 scholarship to the college or university of his or her choice. Though this program has no focus on recruitment, those students who plan to attend Johnson University receive an additional $1000 per school year.
