Who you are, where you are from and how you serve with the team at Hope for Miami?
My name is David Neverman and I serve with the Ready4Life team as a Health Educator, teaching healthy relationship skills to teens. I am a Korean adoptee and grew up in Southern California. I graduated from Virginia Tech and received my degree in History. I moved to South Florida in 2018 after my wife and I got married.
How do you think your skills/gifts, knowledge and interests equip you to do your tasks?
In my experience working with students, I have found a little empathy and compassion go a long way in creating the kind of environment where students learn and thrive. Someone once told me, “They won’t care what or how much you know until they know how much I care.” I love listening to students and offering them a safer place in class for them to explore and learn about themselves and their relationships. I enjoy and don’t take lightly the privilege of getting to be a part of their journey into adulthood. I also really enjoy and appreciate the organization of our team which helps tremendously with lesson planning, scheduling, and all the other administrative work we do.
What’s one aspect of Hope for Miami’s work that most encourages and motivates you?
I am really thankful for my team. Our program launched during the pandemic, a little over a year and a half ago. Every member of our team has endured a lot since our program started, professionally and personally. As we have walked on this journey together, I have seen each person on the team overcome many challenges and show incredible resilience. Their resilience and commitment to our mission and to each other have absolutely been a motivation to me. I would not be the person I am today without them. As our Project Director says, “Teamwork makes the dream work!”
Tell us something interesting about yourself to help us get to know you better.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I love food and cooking. Before the pandemic, I never really thought that cooking could be fun but I started reading cookbooks and watching cooking documentaries while I was in lockdown. As I’ve explored recipes and created dishes, it’s opened up a new life-giving hobby to me. Besides that feeling I get when I eat something delicious, I love how food can be a bridge between different people and cultures. I have this dream to create a ministry that revolves around gathering others around a big table full to the edges with good food from all over the world, with people from all over the world sitting together and sharing their lives over a meal.
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