Jessica Henry
Student Writer
Messiah alum, Gina Worthey. Photo courtesy of wortheysolutions.com.
Messiah alum Gina Worthey’s resume could intimidate even the most accomplished college student, but her outgoing, relaxed demeanor made it easy for students to engage with her during a leadership workshop held on Saturday. The workshop, sponsored by SAB, was the final event of SGA’s LEAD Week.
Worthey graduated in 2000 with a degree in sociology and has since gone on to establish her own business, a consultancy and training firm called Worthey Solutions International. Originally from California, she is currently based in Washington D.C. and advocates for marginalized communities.
Through an interactive session, Worthey gave both philosophical and practical advice to students about leadership, life and faith. She named three key points when it comes to those things—being uncomfortable, relationships and patterns.
Worthey believes being uncomfortable is a part of being a leader. “I take the purpose God has given me, and I make it work there,” Worthey said about speaking to different groups of people, some of which make her uncomfortable. “God has given you core essentials. You need to be able to take those core essentials to every environment you go in.”
“Tomorrow is going to come. The hour is going to change. The minute is going to change. What that meant for me is I’m not going to stay in this moment forever as uncomfortable as it may be,” said Worthey.
She acknowledged that the biggest battle you will ever face is the mental hurdle that comes with being uncomfortable. “When you get uncomfortable, that’s when growth happens,” Worthey noted.
Worthey also emphasized the difference between activity and productivity in the capacity of leadership. According to Worthey, activity is “being busy for the sake of being busy,” while productivity is “about progress.”
She encouraged students to evaluate the relationships in their lives to determine which ones are just activity versus the ones that are productive. She suggested leaving behind relationships that are not causing productivity.
“I build relationships for the purpose of having the impact that God has called me to,” she said.
Worthey also emphasized the importance of leaders taking the time to rest. “Life will burn you out—that’s a given. There’s a reason why Jesus rested. There’s a lot of wisdom in rest,” said Worthey.
Ultimately, she left students with the advice to figure out what rest looks like for them because the pace of life changes as you go through different seasons.