{"id":70,"date":"2014-05-01T17:24:19","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T17:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/?p=70"},"modified":"2018-02-08T13:38:22","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T13:38:22","slug":"mission-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/mission-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"eichler-banner\"<\/a>Christina Eichler ’12 prepares for her 11-nation World Race.<\/p>\n

Tech Alumna contributes service and compassion in 11-nation World Race.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christina Eichler was homeschooled until college. At Tech, she studied abroad twice, was a College of Business ambassador, a student orientation adviser and participated in dozens of professional development events.<\/p>\n

Upon graduation, she was offered a full-time job in logistics with a 401(k) and benefits, rather than the internship she applied for at Ficosa International.<\/p>\n

She walked away from it all in January to go on the adventure of a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Eichler, economics and finance \u201912, is roughing it through an 11-month, 11-nation mission trip called the World Race.<\/p>\n

\"TTU13429-290\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI came from a small background. To be someone who\u2019s reaching to get 30 countries before I\u2019m 30 is amazing,\u201d she said. \u201cAll the things I didn\u2019t know were possible were possible. All I needed to do was ask for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eichler grew up in Lebanon, Tenn. She is tall and slender with slightly wavy, chin-length blonde hair that she frequently tucks behind her ear. When animated, her brown eyes and wide smile take up most of her face.<\/p>\n

She came back to Tech last fall to talk to a first-year experience course in the College of Business, to tell freshmen about how she adjusted to life at Tech and what she\u2019s been up to since graduating.<\/p>\n

There, she counseled students to take advantage of opportunities and told them it is OK to be nervous. She told them that when she enrolled in 2007, her biology course had more people in it than she knew, and since she didn\u2019t know what she wanted to do, she did everything she could.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I met Christina she said, \u2018Put me in everything. I\u2019m homeschooled and it\u2019s all new to me,\u2019\u201d said Amy Jo Carpenter, manager of the College of Business Student to Career program and instructor of the business first-year experience course Eichler spoke with.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking the right impression for the right reasons, she\u2019s the poster child for that,\u201d Carpenter said.<\/p>\n

Before she left, Eichler lived in a small white house north of campus with two cats and a dog, several mismatched couches and a whiteboard with a warning to put the bread away to keep the cats from eating it. She and her roommate advanced their house calendar so they could celebrate Christmas together.<\/p>\n

On the World Race, Eichler and her team of six other young women will work with impoverished people, HIV\/ AIDS patients, orphans and widows, prostitutes, refugees, migrants and at-risk youth. She will use her business degree, managing the team\u2019s finances across Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia and the Philippines.<\/p>\n

When she returns from the World Race in November, she will have been to 27 countries. But that\u2019s not why she wanted to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not learning to live out of a backpack. It\u2019s not going around the world. It\u2019s the message of pure, unadulterated love,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s telling people, \u2018You don\u2019t have to walk through life feeling alone.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about theology and different religions. It\u2019s something people are desperate to experience \u2013 this acceptance and love that we can share.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eichler felt that love at training camp \u2013 a weeklong preparation for the World Race. Most nights, racers sat around campfires talking about their lives, good and bad. Eichler compared it to thousands of dollars worth of therapy sessions at once.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was so much acceptance and so much compassion,\u201d she said. \u201cWe experienced a kind of love at training camp that people spend their entire lives looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TTU13429-209\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After camp, a coworker said Eichler would not like him if she knew more about him. They talked about their lives after work for two hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when it clicked. I don\u2019t have to go around the world to share this message of love, I can do this anywhere,\u201d she said. \u201cYou hear all the time that \u2018God is love,\u2019 but finally understanding that is like living your life in a black and white movie and then getting to live your life in color.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overseen by the non-profit Adventures in Missions, the World Race is a program where young adults travel in small groups to do charity work and spread their Christian faith. Since the program started in 2006, thousands have participated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going on this trip to mark off the countries on my list,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I signed up, I kept telling people, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m going to 11 countries and I\u2019m going to live out of a backpack.\u2019 It\u2019s so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her backpack, she will have a pair of jeans and a T-shirt; a pair of pink Chaco sandals; a sleeping bag, liner and pads; a tent; a small computer; a headlamp and her Bible. All racers must carry malaria medicine and anti-nausea pills. She refuses to leave her mascara and eyeliner.<\/p>\n

Her green, two-person tent has five small mesh pockets \u2013 \u201cshelves\u201d \u2013 two zipper \u201cdoors,\u201d and \u201creading material\u201d \u2013 the warning label. She called it her house and joked about needing photos for the walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s everything you need,\u201d she said. \u201cNot necessarily everything you want, but it\u2019s sheltered from the rain.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will be a very different life, and a very different home, from what she had in Tennessee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christina Eichler ’12 prepares for her 11-nation World Race. Tech Alumna contributes service and compassion in 11-nation World Race. Christina Eichler was homeschooled until college. At Tech, she studied abroad twice, was a College of Business ambassador, a student orientation adviser and participated in dozens of professional development events. Upon graduation, she was offered a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-70","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spring14"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1222,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/1222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}