Harris Feels at Home

When Kim Harris moved from a suburb of Washington, D.C., to Arkansas to compete for the university’s first-ever gymnastics team, it wasn’t just the slower pace of life that contributed to a case of culture shock.

Slower speech patterns and Southern drawls were equally perplexing.

“I did not understand the first hundred people I met,” Harris said, laughing.

Fast-forward to the present, and Harris couldn’t feel more at home. She even bought one recently, and clearly enjoys her life at Tyson Foods.

“They really take care of you,” she said. “They want to develop you as a professional and as a person.”

Currently involved in Tyson’s Any’tizer snacks line, Harris said gymnastics was her “only reason for coming down here,” though she was determined to move far enough from home “to see the world from a different place.”

Eventually sidelined by injury, Harris worked 20 hours a week in the UA women’s athletic department to retain her scholarship. She also held down part-time banking and retail jobs. That experience allowed her to narrow her focus while graduating with majors in marketing and finance.

“I like to be busy,” Harris said, “to have a lot of things going on in my life.”

It’s that way now, too. When Harris isn’t working, she serves on the steering committee of the United Way of Northwest Arkansas’ “Generation Give” program.

One of its main aims is to develop area educational programs, and it recently completed a Born Learning Trail at The Jones Center in Springdale. The trail features outdoor games designed to build pre-literacy skills in children.

Harris even stays busy in her downtime, knitting and crocheting “trendy, artsy-crafty stuff” like purses, beanies and scarves, something she began while recovering from wrist surgery at age 9. Harris said she’s sold her work in the past and hopes to do so again someday.

For now she’s busy balancing a professional life, completing MBA work at the UA, volunteering, and spending time with her friends and Shih Tzu puppy. All of that has changed her image of Northwest Arkansas.

“It’s an exciting place to live,” she said.