Jennie Diggs has an adventurous streak.

The 24-year-old Mathews native went off to Honduras on a short-term mission trip not long after graduating from high school, and it touched something within her that just felt right.

So when she finished college, Diggs didn’t even think about a job close to home. Instead, she trained to become a United Methodist Church Global Mission Fellow and headed off to Nome, Alaska, to work with children.

Now, two years later, that mission is completed, but Diggs isn’t returning to Mathews. Instead, she has chosen to remain in Nome, beginning over the past few weeks to settle into a job that’s quite different from her previous one.

She’s working at a nonprofit, non-residential independent living facility, Arctic Access, where she’s helping disabled people and the elderly with various aspects of everyday living, such as dealing with Social Security or paying bills.

“There are unique challenges in Nome,” said Diggs. “So many things are compute...