My name is Johnathon Cissom.  I live about 8 miles east of Ripley, Mississippi in the Mitchell Community.  My family has lived in this area for over a hundred years.  I am the oldest of 2 brothers and 3 sisters.  Yes, I know this sounds like a big family, but me and one of my brothers is full brothers.  The rest of my siblings are just half siblings.  On my father’s side of the family, it’s mostly German/Irish ancestry.    On my mother’s though, it’s mostly German.  My grandmother is from Germany.  She came over after World War II had ended.  She met my grandfather in Germany and got married.  While they lived in Germany, she had one of my aunts and after Papaw successfully taught her English, they came back to the United States.  That’s one of the things on my bucket list to do, is to visit Germany. 

I am a 1999 honors graduate from Pine Grove High School.  I attended Blue Mountain College in 1999-2000 and Northeast Mississippi Community College in 2003-2004.  I majored in Bible and Social Science Education and minored in music.  At Northeast, I majored in Political Science.  At, Pine Grove, I was a member of the National Beta Club, Future Farmers of America, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Annual Staff, WWAAHSS, Student Government Treasurer, and Hall of Fame.  I was voted Most Courteous and Senior Class Vice-President by my peers. 

At BMC, I was a member of the Mountain Breeze, BSU Freshman Council, Ministerial Alliance, and the BSU vocal ensemble, Reflections.

At Northeast, I was a member of the College Republicans and Sophomore Representative for the Student Government Association.

From the time I got out of high school, I have worked.  At Blue Mountain College, I done work study for Ms. Rheta Ann West & Ms. Imogene Hardon.  That job wasn’t paying my tuition or expenses, so I started BenchCraft, Inc in December 1999 in the engineering department.  The struggle between school and work was enormous.  So in May of 2000, I decided to quit Blue Mountain College and work full time.  I calculated the poly fabrication rates & costs for Polycraft.  Midway through the summer, I found out that with new progress in our polycraft programming, that my job will be done away with by August.  In August of 2000, I transferred to the Scheduling Department.  I scheduled production for the Ripley Motion and Quasar plants.  I really enjoyed that job and the people I worked with.  Then in January of 2001, I got the chance of a lifetime. I was promoted to Sample Coordinator.  I took care of every sample that left BenchCraft, whether it was a sample going to market in San Francisco, Tupelo, Minneapolis, Atlanta, or High Point; and special & photography samples for companies such as JCPenney, Slumberland, Levitz, and Rhodes.  I loved that job.  I got to go to market and I felt like I was a member of a huge furniture making machine.  Then in June of 2003, I was laid off due to lack of work.  I was devastated.  For the next 5 years, I worked, but not with the same umph as my BenchCraft days.  I worked for Sears, Haverty’s in Memphis, Gap, Tippah County Hospital, and Waste Management.  But in January of 2008, I got the opportunity of a lifetime, I was hired by Ashley Distribution Services as the office manager of the truck shop.  I handle everything from Human Resources to Accounting.  Ashley is a great company to work for.  I hope I’m here for a long long time.