:: Joe Davis | Student, Leader, Servant...

About Me

Welcome to my personal website! Feel free to look around and thanks for stopping by.

I've just finished my fourth year at Auburn University and have two more semesters before I graduate. For now, I have the great opportunity of participating the Research Experience for Undergraduates summer program at Auburn, which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. It has been a great learning experience so far and it's only halfway done! I am very excited about the upcoming year with all its challenges and joys. I have the great honor of serving as the president of the Auburn Wesley Foundation, a United Methodist campus ministry and I expect great things as I serve the Lord in that position. I'm weighing several options for life after graduation that include joining the work force, attending some sort of graduate school, or...maybe just a random adventure.

Student

I came to Auburn in the Fall of 2004 after graduating from Sumter Academy in York, AL, as the salutatorian of my class. I declared my major as wireless software engineering and have stuck with it ever since. Auburn University was the first to have a program in wireless engineering. In addition to the usual software engineering courses, the wireless program includes an electrical engineering track that educates students on wireless communications. I have greatly enjoyed my coursework the past four years and feel that it has prepared me very well for whatever path I choose after graduation. After my freshmen year, I was very grateful to be awarded the Vodafone-US Foundation Scholarship, a four year scholarship specifically for wireless software engineering students. I am a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society as well as the Upsilon Pi Epsilon computer science honor society.

Leader

In whatever place I find myself, I choose to be a leader and not a follower. I often feel that leadership is mistakenly equated with a list of positions that one has held. The best leader will have the longest list...but this is simply not true. Leadership is much more than a list. Rather, I feel that leadership is best defined not by the success of the leader but by the success of his or her followers. The best leader is also the best servant. In my time at Auburn, I have been a very active member of the Auburn Wesley Foundation, a United Methodist campus ministry, and have had several opportunities to lead...or serve there. I have led Bible studies, chaired the Worship committee for two years, and was recently elected to serve as president for the 2008-2009 school year. Leadership is a quality that I find comes naturally to me. In whatever capacity that I lead, my goal is not my own glory, but rather to serve those I have been chosen to lead.

Servant

I find the greatest joy in life while serving. The picture to the right was taken in Ixiamas, Bolivia. I lived and worked there in a Christian "internado" or boarding home that was operated by SIFAT, Servants in Faith in Technology, a ministry based in Lineville, AL, that seeks to share God's love in practical ways. In the picture, I am working a cement water tank that will hold rainwater collected from the tin roof of the internado. I first experienced the joy of serving in high school when I went on a week long mission trip to Honduras over Spring Break. I loved it so much that I went back for the next five years. My next service opportunity came after my freshmen year of college when I served as a construction site coordinator for Alabama Rural Ministries, a ministry based in Auburn, AL, that provides free home repair and childrens day camps in three rural Alabama sites. Throughout my college career, I've been able to serve on various local projects doing construction or just visiting at the nursing home. Last summer (2008), I had an amazing experience while serving in Monrovia, Liberia, where I assisted in the construction of a home for the displace elderly. Whatever path I choose after graduation, my goal is to use my education as a wireless engineer to serve the poor and less fortunate wherever the Lord would place me.