Q: What is your name, year, major, hometown and one fun fact about you?
A: My name is Steven Kyle Johnson, but I go by Kyle. I’m a junior Bible and Preaching Major. I’m a military brat but my family has lived in Tampa, Fla. for the past seven years. Going along with that, my fun fact would be that my parents are moving next month and they’re going to RV around America for a couple of years. Really, as of next month, I’m somewhat homeless. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but it’ll be fun.
Q: Why did you decide to come to Harding?
A: This question is a little bit easier for me to answer than others. I knew that I wanted to study Bible and ministry. My family lived so far down in Florida that anywhere I went would be far away. Proximity wasn’t really a factor; I just wanted to go somewhere to study Bible. My brother had come here for Honors Symposium so I did too. After going to that, I couldn’t not come here.
Q: What is your favorite memory while at Harding?
A: I could go a couple of routes with this question. Going overseas to Greece in the fall of my sophomore year was very fun. That was especially cool because it was a “Bible majors only” trip so there was a lot of focus. We went with (Bible professors) Monte Cox and Kevin Youngblood and those are some of my best mentors now. I’ve actually worked for both of them since. That was just a trip that gave me a lot of connections and inspiration. Then I was the assistant director for the Knights Spring Sing show last year. That was the most fun on-campus experience I’ve had.
Q: Where do you see yourself in five years?
A: Eventually, I want to pursue a Masters in Divinity and then I want to preach. I don’t necessarily want to preach as a 22 year-old, so coming out of school, I would want to be a youth minister or college minster. Five to eight years from now, I want to be preaching.
Q: Who is your personal hero?
A: I’ll have to be cliche and say my dad. We’re close in all of those “cool dad” ways, like a lot of kids are close to their parents. He specifically wanted to be a youth minister too, and we have the exact same personality type. We’re almost spitting images of each other. I get along with him really well because we’re so similar. I’ve learned a lot from him, like how to be myself but also be successful.
Q: What motivates you to work hard?
A: I’m obsessed with the Myers-Briggs personality types. My ENTJ personality, once you get to know it, is just this way. I get bored really easily, I don’t like playing video games or watching TV because I feel like I’m not doing anything. I have a very big desire to learn. I love learning random facts about people and I like learning about people’s stories as much as I like learning about the Bible. This gives me the desire to study, to work or even to run for SA president. I know I’m probably not the most qualified person but I know I can learn a lot from it.
Q: What is the first thing that you want to see accomplished?
A: A specific thing that I’ll be pushing is academic advising. The academic advising at Harding is bad. We started working with that in the SA this semester and Dr. McLarty knows that it’s an issue and he’s totally willing to work with it. That’s something that we’d start brainstorming about early on. This doesn’t sound as fun to the people reading the paper, but I also mentioned in chapel how I want to rely more on the committees and make public those who are in SA. A lot of the things the SA does will be more successful if the students know who’s in it and understand it more. I want to work on the legitimacy and image of the SA along with making the other people in the SA feel valued. You can improve the work that you’re doing, and that’s great, but if you’re not marketing yourself, then it doesn’t matter.
Q: If you gave an acceptance speech after winning the election, what would you say?
A: It’s because of how well I know you guys and your talents, potentials and strengths that this is such an honor to me. I know that at anything I do or am, there’s going to be someone out there that’s better than me. It’s humbling to be the representative of a student body that’s more mature, talented and spiritual and it drives me to work harder for a student body that’s so good. I’m going to mess up and I’m not perfect but I’m going to try really hard. I’m not going to give you empty promises that are not achievable, but I will promise that I will work really hard and try my best.
