Aces of Trades: First Presbyterian's Kristin Ream living her dream
GRANVILLE – It took a little time, but she’s living her dream.
"My first dream was to become an Olympic ice skater," recalled Kristin Ream. "But that lasted until the first time I tried ice skating. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to go into teaching. I’ve always had in the back of my mind that I’d like to be a youth director. Faith has been an incredibly big part of my life’s journey."
Today, Ream is director of senior high youth and communications at First Presbyterian Church in Granville.
"I’m in charge of the church’s social media and email/print communications," she explained. "I also get to hang out with high schoolers! We have youth group weekly, and I get to meet with teens as needed and go to high school events, etc."
Ream spent the first 13 years of her life in Greensburg, Pennsylvania then moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where her father, the late Rev. Craig Sell, attended Princeton Theological Seminary.
"My father’s first call was to First Presbyterian Church of Granville," she said, "so we moved to Granville when I was a junior in high school."
Ream graduated from Granville High School in 2004, then Butler University in Indianapolis with a degree in elementary and special education. She later earned certificates in reading education and gifted ed.
"My first job was teaching gifted education in Lawrenceburg, Indiana," she said. "Then John (Ream) and I got married and moved to Seattle where he was employed with Boeing. I taught special education for four years and then was lucky enough to stay home when our boys were born. I loved being a stay at home mom, but John and I had always had a dream of opening a brewery, so we decided to take a leap of faith and start Trek Brewing Company when our kids were 3 and 2. We moved home to open Trek, and I became the preschool director at the Licking County Family YMCA."
Still, she added, "Always in the back of my mind, I’d think about becoming the youth director at the church because one of my closest friends and mentors, Sara (Sharp) Rodocker, was such an influential part of my life. I started having conversations with the church and it was honestly just God’s good timing."
Ream started at the church in August 2021.
"Kristin’s amazing and has such a heart for young people and a heart for God," assessed Sara (Sharp) Rodocker. "She’s full of love and light and has a great sense of humor. She’s very open and approachable and relates to many. She has a gift of making people feel comfortable and welcome and she’s a gifted conversationalist. She was one of my teens when I was doing the job she’s doing at First Presbyterian. I was on the interview committee at FPC when we were looking for a senior high youth director and when Kristin applied, I knew it was right. This is so amazing for me!"
"It’s the complete fulfillment of a call," Ream responded. "It’s the best fitting job I’ve ever had. It’s been such an incredible journey! To work with high school teens, and have faith and fellowship weekly, it’s a dream come true."
Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs – whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at advocate@newarkadvocate.com or 740-328-8821.
First Presbyterian Church is located at 110 W. Broadway in Granville. For more information, call 740-587-0178 or log on www.granpres.org.
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Aces of Trades: First Presbyterian's Kristin Ream living her dream
