Terra Sheppard, The Girl With A Powerful Purpose

Terra Sheppard, The Girl With A Powerful Purpose

Terra Sheppard is not your average college student she lives every day with a mission and has a focus to fulfill her purpose every day! Many college students go through the motions of college not really knowing who they are or what they want to be but this girl knows who she is and has a strong passion, which shines through everything she does. Bowie, Maryland native, Terra Sheppard is a transfer student here at Frostburg State University. She is technically a second-semester sophomore due to credits, majoring in mass communication with a minor in public relations. Life after graduation consists of returning back home in hopes of landing a job at a Public Relations firm. Terra transferred from Alleghany College of Maryland and before that attended Bowie High School where she was involved in her church community as well as a member of the poetry club. This new bobcat is already thriving on campus, as she is involved in the FSU marketing club as well as heavily involved in the organization ‘Generation Investigating in God’ also known as GIG. All throughout Terra’s life, she has always had  church to keep her centered. She recently found GIG through friends and has found her home away from home within it. Finding something to call yours is really important in college and in Terra’s case it helped her find out who she is and how to go about living every day. The organization, G.I.G. is in conjunction with the Baptist Student Ministry and gives students involved a place where they can be accepted and talk about God in a safe environment with fellow members with similar values and beliefs. Terra talked a lot about how being a member of this organization comes with a lot of stereotypes and how when you look at the organization people may not think they are whom they say they are but in reality Terra said, “we are students who love God and we just live our life through that.”

Terra’s journey to G.I.G. began while she was still a student at Alleghany College. Her long time high school friend Noelle, whom she has known since they were 14, introduced her to G.I.G. initially. Her story began when she attended G.I.G.’s international night which brings together many different countries cultures and food along with having different pastors come and preach. By attending that night she realized her purpose and found clarity into who she is and how she wants to live her life.  Terra said that before joining G.I.G. she wasn’t really strong in her faith but always was a Christian but never really used that to her fullest potential until G.I.G. and ever since joining she has been changed in the way that she has a better tolerance for people, she’s tried to love and forgive people and tried to do her best showing God through herself. She closed with this message saying that, “I think that everyone here on earth, we all have a purpose to serve God and I think that people don’t understand that or don’t see that cause of everything going on, but I just think that God loves us so much and we should show it everyday through our lives with how we treat people and how we talk to people.”