Ghana, Thailand, South Korea. Krystie McCarson has been to them all. Now Teen Program Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Henderson County, McCarson says she loved traveling, studying and working internationally. In 2007, her plan was to come home to Hendersonville “for just a few months” to decide her next move. With a biology degree from Kentucky’s Berea College, a medical career seemed likely. But then she took a temporary job at the Boys and Girls Club, and, three gratifying years later, she’s still there. 

Most Boys and Girls Club kids come from single-parent homes and live below the poverty line. The club itself is located in a high-crime Hendersonville neighborhood. McCarson strives to provide attention, continuity and structure that extends beyond the typical work day—like attending football games or eating lunch with her kids at their schools. “All kids need basically the same thing—to feel loved and safe,” McCarson says. 

The club’s Girl Talk program brings high schoolers together with girls as young as 7 or 8. The older girls serve as mentors, and the discussion topics range far and wide. Under McCarson’s leadership, the teen program has been recognized as one of the best in the country by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. 

McCarson is still skipping med school. Instead, she’ll keep her job at Boys and Girls, and in fall 2011, she’ll start a masters in Social work and Counseling through UNC Chapel Hill’s Mountain Area program. “This is more than a job,” she says. “I’m part of a family.”