“I love biology. Life, in general, sparks an interest in me. It’s a beautiful thing. I’ve been doing research at Jackson State since middle school through the Interdisciplinary Center for Nanotoxicity (ICN).

I really want to be a plastic surgeon. I used to watch the show, ‘Botched.’ On that show, two plastic surgeons would fix what unqualified surgeons messed up. The patients may have necrosis or other medical conditions, and the surgeons would try to help the patients feel better about themselves through plastic surgery. I started doing more research on plastic surgeons, and I saw myself in that position. Then I started shadowing a surgeon. Being able to interact with patients and actually change their lives definitely piqued my interest.

Some people only think of plastic surgery as liposuction or a tummy tuck, but it’s more to it than that. It is not all about looking pretty. Sometimes, people have real-life events and you can boost that person’s feelings about themselves. In the Jackson Medical Mall, where I shadow a surgeon, there were cancer patients who needed reconstruction on their breasts. And, I could see the progression while I was there. It changed their lives. Surgery can be a beautiful thing.”

– Lydia, graduating senior biology/pre-medicine major from Jackson, Miss.

“My mom and dad moved from Mexico to the U.S. to have a better life. A year after they arrived, my mom got pregnant with me. Because I was the first grandchild, my dad wanted his family and my mom’s family to watch me be born. So, they flew back to Mexico when my mom was seven months pregnant. But they knew they were going to come back to the U.S. They wanted me to get an education – something they did not really get a chance to receive.

My parents didn’t have the opportunity to graduate from high school. They were close, but they had to work to help their parents. That’s one of the reasons why they didn’t want me to have a job. I’d try to get one, but they wouldn’t let me, so I could just focus on school. I was able to enroll at JSU because I qualified for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and my parents have been paying for my education.

I’m about to graduate, and they are very proud of me. They joke and say, ‘When you become a doctor, you’ll be taking care of us.’ But I just want to be useful to them and try to give back a bit of what they’ve given me. I want all of it to be worth it.”

– Izury, graduating senior biology/pre-med major from Morton, Miss. by way of Mexico

“I started working at the Tommy Hilfiger in the mall during my senior year of high school. It was my first job, and I’ve been there ever since. I applied for it because my grandma told me I needed to get some work experience. Part of that was to get out of her pockets because she does almost everything for me. I needed to do something on my own and have my own money. I also needed to learn how to manage my money to be able to get the things I want, and that has helped me appreciate those things more. And I actually enjoy working. I come in early, and I stay late. If I could work every day, I pretty much would. That work ethic probably comes from my mom.

My mom was a single parent with four kids, and when I was growing up, we struggled a bit. But she made it work. She gave up a lot to make sure we had what we had. Even when it looked like it was impossible, she still got the job done. She’s that example of how I need to go about my life to get where I want to go.

In the future, I want to be a fashion designer and a business owner. I plan on being able to do more for not only myself but for my entire family. I have to do this for them. Failure is not an option because if it wasn’t for my family, I would not be at Jackson State. They paved the road. I just go the rest of the way.”

– Robert, sophomore business administration major from Memphis, Tenn.

“In high school, I was bullied for being queer, loud, and different. I felt like I never had a voice and, when I did have a voice, it was never as important as everyone else’s. Honestly, I believe it’s so important to make people understand that their voices are heard because for so long I felt like mine wasn’t and that it faded into the background. That’s why I am as outspoken as I am today. When I speak out, I know that someone feels seen and heard and that one day, they will have the courage to speak up about the things that they love and what other people may shame them for. Knowing that they have a voice and that their voice matters is why I want to be an educator and why I strive to be a better version of myself every day.

With my experiences, what I’ll bring to the classroom is allowing my students to be whatever they want to be. When you give a child the opportunity to cultivate their own thoughts and ideas based on what they like, it makes a difference. I want my children to be able to explore. For example, one of my students loves bugs. Bugs disgust me, but I didn’t want to shame him or take away something that interests him by saying they’re nasty. This may be the next archeologist or professional that is world-renowned for his work. If it makes you happy and feels right to you, then who am I to say this is wrong?

I’m currently doing my student teaching in the Hinds County area. On my very first day, a child came up to me on the playground and hugged my leg like she’d known me her entire life. That was the moment I said, ‘This is where I’m supposed to be.’ These students know nothing about me, yet they trust and love me, which really makes me happy. Even when I don’t feel like going, I realize these children need me just as badly as I need them. It’s so worth it to have wonderful students who are so smart and full of life, wisdom, and beauty. They’re the reasons why I get up every day.”

– Jamareous, senior elementary education major from Columbia, Miss.

“When I told my older brother that I was considering being a criminal lawyer, he told me not to do it, because it would take so much out of me. He loves me and he knows that I’m capable, but he doesn’t want me to put myself through the burden of having someone’s life in my hands. I’m a very emotional person, and it definitely would be heartbreaking if I lost a case like his case.

My brother has been incarcerated for about six years. But we feel that my brother did not receive a proper trial because he didn’t have good legal representation. He got a very high sentence – 48 years – but we’re still fighting for him to get proper legal representation so we can get him home. I’ve already been able to help him some with what I’m learning as a student and as an intern in the District Attorney’s office.

So, I haven’t ruled out being a criminal lawyer because the system needs more people to fight for those wrongly accused of crimes. In the judicial system, there’s definitely a lack of color, especially among women. And I’ve seen from the news and personal experiences that people of color are often misrepresented and given the short end of the stick. I chose to major in criminal justice so that I can be one of the people to make a change.

The situation with my brother has definitely been hard on our family. But my brother is actually the strongest of us all. He gives us our encouragement. He doesn’t want us to be sad. He just wants us to fight for him and let his kids know that he loves them and he’s going to come home to them.”

– Kansas, graduating senior criminal justice major from Biloxi, Miss.

“I own a Las Vegas-based non-profit organization called Make Your Difference. In the summer, I do the H2O (Help to Others) Water Drive. In the winter, I work with the Las Vegas Rescue Mission to do the Jamie Manor Warm Streets Blanket Drive. It’s named in honor of my dad who is a fallen police officer.

My dad passed away in 2009 when I was seven. A drunk driver ran into him on his way to one of his calls. I was a daddy’s girl, so we were very close. I wanted to do everything like him. He was a football player, so I played soccer. And he would teach me lessons like, ‘Words don’t mean anything. It’s all about your actions,’ or ‘If you don’t work hard in life, the world is going to chew you up and spit you out.’ Crazy things that you don’t tell seven-year-olds, but things you remember over time. He poured so much into this little person who was a sponge that by the time I got older, it was instilled in me. He was very big on making sure I had everything I needed before anybody could influence me any other way. He was a great person.

My mom is also amazing. She never let me miss a beat. She always made sure that everything was done, no matter what. When my dad passed away, she was like, ‘Okay, what’s next? You’re still going to soccer practice. You’re still going to Girl Scouts. You’re still going to do all the things you want to do because the things that happen to you don’t define who you are.’ She understood that I was her baby, and she was going to fight for me. I had great parents growing up, and that really aided me in being the person I am.

But I also have a huge support system. My dad has 10 siblings. My mom has two siblings, and my grandmother has seven or eight. So I have great aunts and regular aunts and uncles. Everybody kind of wrapped their arms around me. Whenever I have an event, like graduation, I know someone’s coming. Everybody’s going to support me. And when my dad passed away, I gained a whole police station as a family. So it was never like I was going to fall to the waist side when it came to anything. I had a huge village.”

– Jay’La, junior entrepreneurship major from Las Vegas, Nev.

“Growing up, I went to my fair share of different schools, and when you go to different schools, you see how people are treated differently. I didn’t like to see the autistic kids get bullied or be in a different class than us. I remember taking psychology and AP psych in high school, and that was one of the only classes I was truly interested in. I wanted to know why people think the way they think and do the things they do, while also raising awareness for mental illness. I think that’s what really motivated me to major in psychology. When I was young, I really didn’t understand why these kids had to go to different classes. Once you get to know them, they’re very smart, but I feel like people look over them, or down on them, because they have a disability, when really they’re just regular people. I think I want to do clinical psych to be able to work hand in hand with them and maybe counsel or give them therapy. That’s something that I’m really passionate about now.

My mom was an attendance clerk at my high school, but she acted more like a counselor. We had a very huge high school with international students and English Language Learning (ELL) students. A lot of the students really liked my mom. They were close with her, and she connected with them too. Especially the ELL students and the foreign exchange students because they can easily get looked over, too. She’s worked in public schools for a while, and she’s always kind of acted like the liaison for students in the school. When they felt like they couldn’t talk to certain people, she was always there, and I could see that she was really helping people. They looked forward to talking with her, and it kind of made their day. I didn’t even realize the effect it had on me until now. It was really cool.

When you’re working in psychology, you can get any kind of patient. I was exposed to a lot of different people, and I feel like it’s good to have a versatile platform like that. I would like to open my own private practice and facility that would aim towards people in need more, and go towards non-profits, so I can help people as much as possible without them worrying about finances.”

– Jada, junior psychology major from Grand Rapids, Mich.

“I really want to be an entrepreneur and own a gym. I want to help people work out and learn about the body. I got into fitness through sports, like football, boxing, and powerlifting. When you’re in football, working out is like second nature. I felt like I didn’t win the day if I didn’t work out. It was something that I had fun with, and I want to have fun when I go to work. I want a gym that’s almost like a hard gym and then has a commercial side to it. When you do powerlifting, you can’t go to a commercial gym to work out and deadlift. I want a powerlifting side where we can do hard workouts and be comfortable, and the other side will be a commercial gym for everybody else. We would want to reach everybody.

Actually, I just transferred back to JSU from another school in Texas. I left JSU in 2020 to play football out there. Once I graduate, I’m going to move back to Texas. I already have friends out there who are on the same page as me. Right now, it’s six people on the team, but sometimes it grows. I’ll discuss my idea with somebody, and they’ll ask if they can assist. And it’s not just personal trainers. I have people who do videography, which is good for marketing. I have people who are good with accounting. And I’m the CEO.

I know a lot of people who want to be entrepreneurs are just trying to get rich quickly, and they aren’t really focused on the process. They don’t really see the small steps, like making your first $1,000 or $2,000. But there are steps to it. You’re probably going to mess up like a hundred times until you get it right. And I’m not trying to live a fast life with a flashy lifestyle. I just want to be able to take care of my family, my future kids, and my kids’ kids. I want to set something up for them so they’ll be straight.”

– Alvin, senior business administration major from Hattiesburg, Miss.

“Bob Marley once said, ‘You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.’ Well, my family has been through a lot over the past two years. In March of 2020, I had emergency surgery and I was in the hospital for fifty days. Then I was in a hospital bed in my house for fifty more days. After the major surgery, I had to have nine procedures because I had infections. Then my dad had a stroke in July 2020 and lost all mobility on his left side. But he’s been doing physical therapy ever since, and his balance is back. He can walk on his own now. And my aunt Carol who brought laughs into the house and got us up moving every day passed away from COVID-19 in 2021.

There were just so many bad things that happened to us, but it made us so much tighter and so much more grateful for what we have. My mom has been great. She’s been chugging along through all this. We had a lot of support from our family and friends. And it made me so much stronger and more mature. It gave me a new appreciation for life. Now, I’m here playing for Coach Prime after I was just in a hospital bed a year and a half ago, lost 40 something pounds, and had a giant gash in my stomach. It’s crazy how life works.

There was a time when I was uncomfortable even thinking about it, but I have to speak it now because if I don’t, what did I go through it for? Who am I helping?”

– Matthew, master’s student in teaching from Haddon Heights, N.J.

“I’m actually in the process of writing a poetry book. Outside of school, that’s kind of been my focus lately. Getting into that creative mode and creating that. I started writing as a kid in my free time, but when I got to high school, I had different hobbies like playing sports and hanging out. So, I kind of pushed writing to the side. But in my senior year, when we were doing school online at home, I started to pick up my old hobbies and see what I really like. When I came to Jackson State, I met a friend who also writes poetry, so it helped to push me to keep doing it.

I like to write about my experiences and what I’ve been through. One of the poems that I’m writing is called 50/50. My parents have been divorced since I was in the first grade. It was really hard in the beginning, but I always knew it was better for them to be apart than together. My dad has been in my life the whole time, so I’m very thankful. My mom has been very helpful, too. So it’s like 50/50. And my mom is white and my dad is Black, so with that, I wouldn’t say I had an identity crisis but I did wonder where I fit in.

With my poetry, I want to open people’s eyes to different perspectives. When you read about other people’s stories, it broadens your view of the world and helps you think outside of yourself. I haven’t really thought about what I want to do with poetry long-term. Personally, I’ve never been through a long creative process, so this is an opportunity for me to do something that I actually have to put work into and create. I feel like it’s going to help me with anything creative that I want to do.”

– Abram, freshman civil engineering major from Houston and Austin, Tex.