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Summer camp prepares Autumn Moss for leadership roles

Parishioner wants to help others as nurse practitioner

Published: May 31, 2023   

By Malea Hargett
Editor

Malea Hargett
Autumn Moss usually can be found in the athletic training room at Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock before and after school where she has served as a student athletic trainer for the past two years.

Autumn Moss has nurtured her faith during school, on the weekends and during the summer.

The Mount St. Mary Academy senior is most proud of how much she has grown as a counselor for the past three years at Brookhill Ranch. This summer she will return as a senior counselor for 10 weeks in Hot Springs Village.

“It’s like my home,” the member of Christ the King Church in Little Rock said. “I love Brookhill. I started going to Brookhill when I was in seventh grade. Brookhill is where I found Christ. … At Brookhill, you learn what it is to be a leader, not a follower. When you are a leader you can show a positive influence over a group of people or even just yourself. I really learned what it is to have a relationship with the Lord at camp.”

Brookhill also influenced her to choose Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, where many of her “camp friends” will attend.

Every other Sunday, she teaches during Little Life at New Life Church, leading children in activities and Scripture lessons. 

Before and after school, you can usually find Moss in the athletic training room in the gym, where she ices down injuries or wraps a player’s wrist before a game as a student athletic trainer. Student trainers complete training and courses, including CPR and AED certification. For the 2021-2022 school year, Moss was awarded the Sara Fritz Outstanding Student Athletic Trainer Award. Student trainers are required to volunteer 80 hours during the school year, but Moss worked 200 hours her junior year.

“Girls will come in for something like PT (physical therapy) and maybe they just need some therapy on their arm, or they need ice or heat packs,” said Moss, captain of the softball team this year. “Sometimes when there are so many athletes that need help, Jeff (Stotts, athletic trainer) can’t always be the only one who can help them. So a lot of the SATs will jump in and help them.”

The experience over the past two years has pushed Moss toward a nursing degree.

“I knew from a little kid that I wanted to help people,” she said. “That drew me toward the nursing field. I hope to be a nurse practitioner in sports medicine in the near future.”

Moss has also made a name for herself as the Rockettes dance team manager. As a sophomore, she was looking for ways to get involved and the manager position was open so she applied. For each performance, she is on hand with her backpack of extra pants, lipstick and hairspray.

“I would say I am a pretty organized person,” she said. “Time management is really big … Since I am a senior there wasn’t someone who coming up after me that they had known yet, so I made them this book. I think I called it ‘The Manager’s Guide to Success.’ It has pictures of everything they can need and how to work the sound system.”

On top of her packed schedule, last fall, Moss stepped up as a Link Crew leader to mentor 10 freshman girls. The peer mentoring program was initiated in 2022 to help new students transition to high school.

“You walk through freshmen orientation, and you help them adjust to freshman year of high school,” she said. “You’re really a big sister to them, and if they have any questions about homecoming or football games or life in general, you are always that branch they can reach out to. I liked it because in my own family I have a little sister so it was a natural thing for me to do.”

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