Valerie Gibbs

Major: Theatre
Minor: Music
Hometown: Great Lakes, Ill.
High School: Christian Life School
Highlights: Freshman; moved many times with her Navy family; considers Virginia Beach as home; fervent advocate of service to others

What led you to JMU?

JMU is popular among students from Virginia Beach, and every single one of the people I know from Virginia Beach is in love with JMU. I had only heard good things about it, so I definitely wanted to check into it. I was especially interested in the music education program when I was looking at different schools, but it was a lot more than that, too. I love the student-to-teacher ratio and how it’s a big campus so there is a lot to do but you still get the smaller class sizes. When I visited, I loved the environment, how friendly everyone was. I knew this was the school for me.

Was a strong high school GPA a goal of yours?

It’s not that I felt a lot of pressure, but yes, it was. It was  real motivator for me, the whole idea of doing well even though we moved around a lot with my dad. I knew I was capable of doing well in school, and I just refused to settle for less than my best effort.

Talk about some of your service work.

I’ve been on several mission trips. In the United States through a program called World Changers, I went to Jackson, Michigan, one time and to Philadelphia another time. Both trips were similar to Habitat for Humanity. In Jackson, our 12-person crew totally redid this lady’s roof. There were holes everywhere in it, and her chimney was about to fall off. It was an amazing experience. She had a lot of physical problems and couldn’t be outside a lot, but sometimes she would come out and the smile on her face made all the trip expenses and the sleeping in cots and stuff like that totally worth it. In Philadelphia, we repainted a house. That trip was different because there were five houses on that same street that were being fixed at the same time. It was like a big party the whole time with the adults and their children running around playing and also helping us sometimes. The smiles on those faces were the most satisfying smiles ever. It was so powerful because it was clear that you had helped someone with such simple acts of kindness.

Did you do other service work?

We lived in Italy for two years during my sophomore and junior years of high school, and my church youth group there went to Slovakia and then to the Czech Republic. In Slovakia, we went to a school and built what they called an outdoor classroom that was a large octagonal table with benches that we built into the ground. We fixed their playground and did sports camps with the kids, too. The relationships we built with those kids were wonderful. The Czech Republic experience was probably the most amazing trip I have had. We did sports camps with them, and each night hosted an English coffeehouse that was very informal with card games and board games. The kids would just come and hang out and practice their English. So much learning happened there for those kids and for us, too.

Could you see yourself running some missions-related programs one day?

I just love service. I think it’s pretty much what fuels me. I love people. I will have to have a job where I am with people and we are helping people and building relationships.