One moment Grace Swygert could be helping at The Generator as an AmeriCorps volunteer. Another moment she could be leading a support group for girls at a local Boys & Girls Club.
It doesn’t stop there. With summer break quickly winding down, Swygert has poured some of her energy into organizing a fashion show for next Saturday for Southeast Arkansas College’s Career Closet, which helps provide work attire for students.
“I wasn’t always too big on volunteering when I was younger,” the soon-to-be SEARK student said. “I realized our community has a lot of people who are just talking bad about Pine Bluff, but there aren’t too many people who are doing things to change it. You just can’t keep complaining about something you don’t want to change, and a lot of people do that.”
So many, however, speak highly of Swygert.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a day where she’s come in with an ugly attitude,” said Donna Ryles, interim executive director of The Generator. “I don’t think I’ve seen one. But I will say this: If I get in a fight, guess who I’m calling? She’s got plenty of energy, and she’s passionate.”
Jamie Gordon of the Boys & Girls Club of Jefferson County’s Pine Bluff Community Center location, was quick to note Swygert’s active nature.
“She actually has a passion for being a model for our kids,” she said. “Grace came to me one day and she mentioned, ‘I would love to be able to work with kids.’ It started out as not a partnership but it started out as, how can we work hand-in-hand with The Generator to provide services for our kids? … From there, she would come in on Thursdays, she would have story time with the kids, they would go over mental health and wellness, and they even started working on a girls club where they did affirmations and everything. Kids still ask when Miss Grace is coming back.”
Swygert’s passion for servant leadership is evident in the 22-year-old’s speech. Just four years removed from graduating Pine Bluff High School, volunteerism is her way to pour into the city’s young people, even if others don’t speak so highly of the place where she was born and raised.
During the past school year, Swygert tutored second- and third-grade children at Southwood Elementary through AR Kids Read, a literacy initiative.
“Being able to see them now — I’m not saying I taught them how to read like Einstein or anything, because it’s a lot of work that needs to be done — but I got a chance to see them learn certain words they didn’t know,” she said. “It’s incredible to see that, and it feels good to know you did that.”
Staying busy and serving others has also helped Swygert cope with the adversity she faced from the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The health crisis altered how high schools including Pine Bluff handled classroom instruction and how seniors experienced graduation.
But that was not the worst of it for Swygert, who finished with honors.
“When the year 2020 hit, a lot of things changed, like I was not in the best shape mentally,” she said. “I felt like I had lost myself, like I was in a funk. You know how, like, you’re in a funk and you just couldn’t find yourself anymore? I just wasn’t my creative, vibrant self. I didn’t know what was going on. It was a terrible year for me.”
The pandemic forced Swygert and other students away from school for at least a couple of months. It also made job searching tougher, and her sisters even had to take time off from work.
“My father actually died that year,” she said, noting he had succumbed to the effects of covid-19. “It was not a great time. I would never go back. I don’t know how to explain it, being trapped in the house didn’t make it any better.”
As for college, Swygert placed that on hold, not sure if she had the right focus to continue her studies with the stress of the pandemic weighing on her.
“I just thought I needed to go back on my time because I love to learn,” she said. “I believe in education, but I just wanted to go back when I wanted to go back, when I was in a better mental state, rather than straight out of 2020.”
Swygert will finish her yearlong appointment as an AmeriCorps volunteer in August. AmeriCorps, a government agency founded by President Bill Clinton in 1993, places about 5 million volunteers in community service jobs across the country, although they receive stipends.
Rarely do the volunteers serve in their own hometowns, but Swygert is the exception.
“The best part about it is that Grace is from Pine Bluff,” Ryles said. “A lot of times, we get people to come here from other places. But, it’s a different level of gratefulness when you have someone from your own hometown who wants to stay here and help in that capacity. We’ve been particularly happy about that piece of it.”
As much as Ryles would like to keep Swygert, Ryles reasoned: “Miracles have a time limit.”
The Career Closet fashion show is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. July 27 at The Generator, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Main Street in Pine Bluff. Admission is free.
Swygert received certifications in fashion and project management through Coursera, an online course company.
“I love to sew. I love fashion,” she said. “That’s my ultimate dream.”
She also is enrolling this fall semester at SEARK so she can become a dental hygienist by day. But in fashion, she’s found her craft by night.
“It helped me become who I am again,” Swygert said. “Little by little, I feel great. I feel unstoppable.”