By Susie A Wolfe
Brenna Renfroe was named library director for Pelahatchie, a town she knows well. She is the 2019 salutatorian of Pelahatchie High School (PHS). She also attended East Rankin for elementary and middle school.
“I will always be a proud Chief, because I had some amazing teachers, plus my mom, who encouraged me to grow and gave me the tools I needed to succeed,” Renfroe said.
“Being a librarian, you could say, is in my blood,” she said. Her mother, Eles Renfroe, is the librarian at Pelahatchie High School where she has been for the last sixteen years. “Libraries and books have always been my safe space. I want to cultivate that safe space for others.”
Renfroe grew up with a fierce love of reading. “My mom read aloud to me when I was very young. One of my earliest memories of falling in love with a book was when I was maybe five or six, and my mom read a chapter of The Hobbit aloud to me and my sister each night. It took me to magical, awe-inspiring places, and I have loved books ever since.”
“Collaborating with Brenna to build a high school book club feels like coming full circle,” Eles Renfroe said “We love books, and we love sharing our joy of reading with people. The Pelahatchie reading community is in good hands with the Renfroes.”
Mara Polk, Central Mississippi Regional Library System (CMRLS) Director, said, “Ms. Renfroe is energetic and eager to serve the community of Pelahatchie. CMRLS looks forward to her contributions to Pelahatchie and the field of librarianship.”
Renfroe said that her goal in the Pelahatchie Library is to encourage others to expand their horizon. “I want to work to get a wider range of patrons in the library, especially teens and young adults,” Renfroe said. “I want this library to be a place where they feel seen and welcomed, and that means having programs catering to them as well as materials in the library… to give them the same tools I was given in the hopes of setting them out on a similar path of growth and discovery.”
Renfroe graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) with a degree in English and a minor in history. “USM gave me the opportunity to study abroad in Seoul, South Korea for a semester, and that was the best opportunity of my life. I cannot overstate how much I learned about myself and the world through that experience.”
Renfroe began her love of travel in 2019 after graduation. She went on a family trip to Ireland to explore Dublin, Cork, Glendalough, Blarney, Rings, and Gallway. “I was instantly hooked and obsessed with travel,” she said. Her immediate family also went to Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in 2022, and she sees more travel in her future.
What was different about studying abroad, said Renfroe, was that as an exchange student, there from February until June, she had “complete immersion” in the South Korean culture. She lived on the Sogang University campus and visited historical districts, palaces, temples, and trendy areas of Seoul, a city of 10-12 million people. She described the city as old and new, with “dynasty history with 2050 technology.” On bullet trains, she and her sister Laura, also an exchange student, also visited outside areas and seaside towns.
When you visit the Pelahatchie Library, be sure to ask her more about her travels and tell her about yours!
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