For Emily Furr, a junior student-athlete at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, summertime is a time to share her skills with others. For the past two summers, Furr has served as a Baptist student missionary working with youth day camps in New York City and San Francisco.

An interior design major at North Carolina-Greensboro and a runner on the cross country team, Furr has devoted her summers to disadvantaged, neglected and abused children.

Most recently, she spent the summer in San Francisco, working as a camp leader, teaching arts and crafts classes in the mornings and assisting with field trips in the afternoons. Furr put her knowledge of art and design to work, teaching the youngsters how to make plaster handprints, picture frames, T-shirts, windsocks and airplanes made of Balsa wood.

"They made it such a joy to be there, and they always made me laugh," Furr said of the children.

Furr also shared her commitment to academics with the children. Furr earned the valedictorian title at Wilkes Central High School in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and she's been achieving high marks since then, making her a fixture on the dean's list at North Carolina-Greensboro.

While working as a missionary, Furr kept up her training schedule as she managed to fit in runs of nine to 11 miles each day.

"It was interesting running in San Francisco at first with all the hills. Some of the streets I ran on were so steep, the sidewalks were stairs. But by the end of the summer, I found routes that were less hilly, though it prepared me for running on hills this fall."

And the summer 1999 experience as a missionary in New York City prepared Furr for this summer's trip to San Francisco, even though the cities and her duties were quite different.

"Having to be in a new place and a new city where I don't know anyone at first, I really have to put my trust in God that everything will work out all right," Furr said.

That first year, Furr worked on the Lower East Side in New York City, where she was a jack-of-all trades, sometimes teaching all of the different lessons the camp offered as well as organizing the field trips.

"Most of the kids were from the housing projects, and the church we worked in was in a very run-down area," she said.

While the surroundings in New York and San Francisco were different from what Furr is used to, her work as a missionary comes as no surprise to those who know her.

"Emily's a genuinely nice person who's always willing to help someone out," said teammate Niki Adams, a junior at North Carolina-Greensboro. "Ninety-five percent of what she does is for other people."

And Emily's commitment to all that's important to her makes her a valuable team member.

"Emily doesn't do anything halfway," said Dan Dachelet, the North Carolina-Greensboro women's cross country coach. "She's very strong academically; she's our (student-athlete advisory council) representative; she was a walk-on as a freshman who's now running in our top five; and she's very active in her church. I don't know how she finds the time for all that, but she's happiest when she's occupied.

"I have a favorite quote, 'From those who are given much, much is expected,' " Dachelet said. "And Emily really embodies that."

But Furr doesn't think she's doing anything out of the ordinary by giving up her summers -- when she could be training, taking classes, earning money or relaxing with friends -- to help somebody else.

"I get asked, 'How can you give up a whole summer like that?' Well, I don't see it like that, because I have gained so much from my experiences, from the people I worked with to the kids I taught," Furr said. "(Those summers) are some of the most memorable times of my life so far."