Spend five minutes with Brittani Hunt, and you’ll see she has a passion for helping people.
When she talks about the injustices that exist in today’s world, the tone in her voice changes – still quiet, yet stern. Empathetic, yet demanding improvement.
She says she’s a change agent – a person who creatively, intentionally and compassionately seeks to impact lives and make the world a better place.
She’s doing that at High Point University.
Hunt is the manager of chapel programs at HPU. In her job, she helps the Rev. Preston Davis plan and execute chapel programs, including weekly nondenominational chapel services and other multi-religious events. She’s in her zone here.
But it wasn’t always that way.
Before she came to HPU, she had a career that promised her plenty in the form of success, but little in the form of significance.
So she made a change that would allow her to find both.
The Road to HPU
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Hunt worked in banking before coming to HPU. She received her undergraduate degree in business administration from Tennessee State University, and pursued a career in banking for a few years, eventually working her way up to branch manager for a $93.8 billion financial services firm in Ohio.
That’s when she began to realize that maybe, she was called to do something different.
“My branch was situated in a unique location on a street corner,” Hunt says. “To the left, there was a low-income, impoverished community. To the right, there was the upper-middle class and on up. I began to feel drawn to the injustices of people and the issues that they carry. I think it was actually a homeless client that came in who really made me realize that there’s more to life than just banking.”
So she packed her bags in 2012 and drove to North Carolina to attend divinity school at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, about half an hour north of HPU. She’d never been to North Carolina before. Hunt had no ties, no friends and no family for hundreds of miles.
She’ll tell you that was a defining moment in her life.
“I pursued my Master of Divinity with a focus on youth and young adult development,” she says. “That’s when I began to hone in to my calling. That’s why I wanted to be connected to an institution like High Point University, whose bottom line are the lives of young adults, and helping them develop in a very transitional, special, formative time in their life.”
At WFU, she met her now-husband, Bradley, and learned about all that HPU had to offer. After graduating with her Master of Divinity in May 2015, she started working at HPU – as Brittani Chavious – in July, got married on a cruise in the Bahamas in August, and hit the ground running when classes started for the fall semester.
Major Impact
In a few months, Hunt has already impacted countless students at HPU.
She helped coordinate the first-ever Communion during the weekly Chapel services. She mentored the Board of Stewards as they raised $10,000 for the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program. And she’s organized a new alternative spring break offering called “God in the City: A New York City Pilgrimage,” launching this semester, which will give students a first-hand look at the many ways that faith inspires action.
In between all that, Hunt and other Religious Life staff help foster a welcoming environment for students of other faiths. Catholic students host Mass on Sunday, while Jewish students enjoy a vibrant Hillel guided by a Jewish life coordinator. InterFaith United offers an opportunity for dialogue for those who want to explore religious life. And in the MultiFaith Prayer and Meditation Space, Muslim, Hindu and students of other faiths come together for religious expression.
“We intentionally strive to create and offer something for everybody,” Hunt says. “The United Methodist Church is part of our tradition and it informs the way we do our weekly worship services. But at the end of the day, we really want students to know what it means to be the hands and feet of God, in whatever form that takes.”
Mentorship Matters
This past semester, Hunt led a small group of freshmen in a Bible study. That opportunity to mentor students and provide a safe space for them to talk, she says, was an encouraging confirmation of the work she’s doing at HPU.
Brianna Beard is one of those students Hunt impacted during the small group.
“Brittani is a strong, determined, caring woman and I aspire to be like her when I start my career,” says Beard, an elementary education major from Fairfield, Connecticut. “Her wisdom was exactly what I needed entering my first year of college. I looked forward to spending time with her in our small book group every week because she is a genuinely uplifting person.”
For some, it could be easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day operational tasks that come with the job.
But Hunt sees it differently.
“President Qubein talks about it all the time – the difference between being successful and being significant,” Hunt says. “For me, the difference is the ability to say, ‘There are tons of things in this world that I could do that would make me millions of dollars. But there’s something about this work that I know will be significant – something that will impact the lives of other people, walking beside them as they become all they’re purposed to be.’”