William Townsend
Jackson Preparatory School | First Baptist Church Jackson
A Situation Where I Lived Out My Faith
My junior year, I wanted our football team to win the state championship. Our team had come so close to winning the championship in years past, which made me want a win so badly I could almost taste it. I worked hard and played defensive back in every game that year. Then, it happened. At the practice before our last season game, I broke my collarbone and had to have surgery. Suddenly, I was on the sidelines at the last game, the playoff game, and at the winning championship game. My collarbone was broken but I was also broken on the inside. Through this, God taught me these important lessons: winning football games is awesome, but winning as a Godly man in the game of life is more valuable; He cares about the details of my life; broken dreams and broken bones heal. Through this situation, I desire to finish strong—on and off the field. I want to have a Christlike champion spirit as I walk the halls at my school each day, on and off the football field, and as I go through broken, unexpected times as well. I desire to have His character, when life is good and not so good.
Activities and Service to Others
I am a member of the varsity football team and the track team. I have served on the student council every year since the seventh grade and am presently the Secretary of the Prep student body. I am Co-President of the Community Service Club. I am a member of the National Honor Society, Chess Club, Spanish Club, Mu Alpha Theta, and in the honors academic program. In my junior high years, I was honored to receive the Danforth Award and the Patriot Award. I received the Sarah Elizabeth Shelton award for leadership, academic, and school involvement during my junior year. I will be attending an International Global Leadership Summit in Shanghai, China this March. I was asked by Coach Horner to be a leader for the campus FCA during my senior year. I was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout last spring. I am a prayer group leader in my church youth group. I have worked with children at Casey Elementary School and organized a “Making a Difference Project” for children in Guatemala. This project involved co-leading a major leadership project to help develop a soccer program for needy children in Guatemala. I collected, packed, and delivered over 300 soccer uniforms complete with jerseys, socks, shorts, and cleats to enhance a soccer program there. I have served meals to homeless people at Galloway United Methodist Church and at the Stewpot. I served as a Senate Page at the Mississippi Senate in 2011 and as a Page to Governor Phil Bryant in 2012. I also served as a representative from Jackson Prep to the Governor’s Youth Summit in 2013.
Future Plans
For several years, I have sensed God leading me to pursue something in the medical field. My interests started with dentistry, but I also sense His leading toward some aspect of medicine. I believe God has inspired this sense of calling in me through the influence of several Godly dentists and doctors who talked with me about their faith while at work and about great mission experiences where they used their skills to change the lives of people and share the love of Christ at the same time.
