Encouragement – given at just the right time – can change a person’s life. Olivia Nunnally, nursing student at Piedmont College, know this is true – and she knows the encourager’s life can be changed as well.
On Saturday, Olivia held a recognition ceremony for those she has specifically encouraged for the last nine months. They are young women – and they are drug addicts. Olivia created a program for them called “Healthy Habits.” While teaching the class, she said, she also learned a lot about herself.
Healthy Habits is a program Olivia created as a part of her education experience at Piedmont College. The program she designed was for “rehabilitating drug addicts,” she said, “to teach them proper hygiene skills and teach them interview skills, to send them out into the world with the proper tools.” When she began teaching the Healthy Habits group nine months ago, she struggled for ideas on “how to engage them,” she said, but eventually she “just opened up” – which was instrumental, she said, in teaching “how to love yourself.” Her program graduates assembled Saturday for a brunch, received “graduation” certificates, and gift baskets from Olivia.
Ashley Cleere, Chaplain at Piedmont College, had a connection with Olivia’s program from the start. Cleere has plans for each student in the college to participate in “experiential projects” like Olivia’s that connect them with the community. She calls her plans the Compass Project and she says the three-project program will be a requirement for all students, beginning next year. Chaplain Cleere attended the “graduation” event on November 6, as did the Dean of Piedmont’s School of Nursing, Dr. Linda Scott, and Jackie Roberts – Coordinator of Drug Court for Habersham, Rabun and Stephens counties. Dr. Scott said that, on behalf of the college, she began collaborating with Roberts and the drug court as a result of Habersham’s Archway Program volunteers, who saw drug offender rehabilitation as a significant need in the county. Lupe Banda, Case Manager for Habersham County’s drug court system, like the other officials attending the event, is hoping another Piedmont College student will continue Olivia’s project.
The final part of the event on Saturday morning included Olivia telling each graduate that she is special. “I’m proud to call you my friend,” she said to one. “I can’t wait to see what God has in store for you,” she told another.
One of the graduates, Rebecca, said that having a drug addiction “is not a life. It’s an existence.” The entire rehabilitation process, though, she said – beginning with her drug arrest, and including programs like Healthy Habits – has allowed her to experience what she calls “divine intervention.”
