Javon Johnson is Temple Made through and through. Her family is a veritable parliament of owls in their own right!

Javon won't be the first in her family to graduate from Temple when she receives her bachelor's degree in Adult and Organizational Development on May 6 and she won't be the last.

Her older sisters Jalene and Jaslyn Johnson (collectively known as the JJs with Javon when they were growing up) are recent Temple graduates. Her brother Joshua Johnson is a freshman. Her father Jerome Johnson worked at Temple University Hospital (her mom, Dorothea Wescott, did too 20 years ago).

"Temple has always been a very large part of my life in some fashion. I love everything about Temple, but it can be hard going to school where everyone has known your siblings and sort of looks at you through that lens — that's been the way it has been since first grade," Johnson laughed. "I wanted to build my own path and, while my whole family is connected to Temple, I've still been able to forge the path that's right for me. There is so much diversity at Temple — in the student population, in the student experience — that I think everyone has the opportunity to make their time at Temple their own."

Johnson, 21, Philadelphia, began her career at Temple as a Secondary Education major after she made good use of Temple's former "Summer Bridge program," a program she attributes her early success at the University to, so much so that she became a classroom assistant to help other students acclimate to the college experience.

Helping others is a theme for Johnson's approach to life. She's been an academic coach, English classroom assistant and English and Spanish tutor in Temple's Russell Conwell Learning Center. She was also a tutor, mentor and community fellow with the Upward Bound program in addition to volunteering as a teacher's aide at John Welsh Elementary School in Philadelphia. 

It's that desire to help others — to help them achieve success and discover their best selves — that helped her discover the Adult and Organizational Development (AOD) program. AOD focuses on "applied communication." The degree is designed to provide students with the critical skills to construct and facilitate effective learning and affect positive change in organizational, community and professional contexts.

"I wanted to stay in the educational field and I definitely wanted to work with people. AOD provides me the opportunity to do both of those things whether it's through facilitations, mediation and conflict resolution, developing training programs, organizational consulting or educational leadership," Johnson said. "My plan is to become a facilitator within the Philadelphia School District, implementing and designing programs for students. There is a lot of focus in high schools today on prevention programs — bullying, conflict management, substance abuse — and I think that's where I can do the most good."

The book Difficult Conversations, which she discovered while taking a course in negation processes "turned my whole perspective around," she said.

"In conflicts, you have to learn to hear the other person, to genuinely hear their perspectives and that can be a very difficult thing to do," she said. "You can't always blame other people when problems arise. You have to take ownership of it, take stock of how you're contributing to the problem. Sometimes we create 'intention inventions' — we try to think for the other person and your own perceptions of a situation completely get in the way of resolving a situation in a positive manner."
 
Johnson likely never expected to use the conflict resolution and facilitation skills she has learned in her classes within her own family, but when a tragic injury occurred — her father fell from a balcony forcing early retirement and an ongoing rehabilitation process — those skills helped her through some very difficult times.

"At first it was devastating — there was a lot of pain and a lot of sadness and just a sense of not knowing what the future held. Initially, I had a very hard time with it," she said. "I isolated myself. I was even afraid to visit the hospital. My grades suffered, my connections with my family suffered."

As her father progressed, however, "I began to feel that as a family we could all work it out," she said.

"We talked to each other. We helped each other. We faced the challenges and worked through the conflicts together," Johnson said. "As we came together, everything changed. We supported each other emotionally and spiritually."

Johnson said being a part of the Temple experience at both the Main and Ambler campuses has opened her eyes to "different perspectives, ideas, cultures and histories."

"I've had the opportunity to find where I fit in the big tapestry of Main Campus and also taken on leadership roles at Ambler, where it feels like everyone knows everyone — Temple has been the best of all possibilities," she said. "As a Temple Made student, I aspire to enter the workforce with all of the knowledge and experience that Temple has provided me," she said. "I know I can thrive in creativity, intelligence and diligence in my profession."