“I grew up with my dad and stepmom back home in Nigeria. I really didn’t know my biological mom. My dad told me that she left when I was young. Like, after she gave birth, she left and never came back. But, I remember seeing her, about four times, and I feel like we had a connection going. But, I really didn’t know her. And, she died two years ago. Somebody called me and said that my mommy is dead. And it hurt, because I wanted to know her. I wanted to know the whole story from her side, not just my dad’s side. I wanted to hear what she had to say about it, but I didn’t have the opportunity.

I definitely have a passion for the arts, whether it’s music, theatre, acting, painting, drawing, or dancing. When I was younger, I did ballet. But now, I really just want to be able to use those things to share the gospel. A passion of mine is to be able to share the gospel with whatever gifts that I have. 

“I don’t know the specifics of my adoption, but I do know that my birth parents were dealing with a lot of drug-related issues. I have some memories of them, from going to visit them during the adoption process.

Kids would make fun of me, saying, ‘You don’t know who your real parents are.’ At first, it would bother me. But, as I got older, I realized that that’s really a slap in the face to my mom because I do know who my parents are. They’re the people that I have at home. I had to understand that people are going to talk about you regardless. And, I’m glad that my mom kind of taught me that. When I would go home and tell her what they said, she would say, ‘People are always going to talk about you. You will have to find a way to live on with that.’

My mom and dad did not go to college. But, my mom is a big advocate for doing the best that you can do and really advancing your education. She was always hard on us when it came to school. If you made anything lower than a B, she felt like you underperformed. You could have done better. I’m thankful to her for doing that. I have six older siblings, one by blood, and they’re all college graduates.

My mom was always supportive of me going to college. Not so far away from home, though. ‘Why don’t you go in-state somewhere? Why do you have to go all the way down there to Jackson?’ There’s no family down here. But, she raised me well. And, she trusted that I would make the right decisions while I was down here.

But, my story isn’t particularly special. Each one of us has gone through something. I mean, that’s just life. We are going to go through something. It’s just whether or not you’re going to be able to deal with it. And, we are all able to deal with it.

– Johnathan, computer engineering major from Chicago, Illinois. Johnathan is one of the five drum majors in the ’17-’18 Sonic Boom of the South Marching Band.

“I am from Jackson (MS). I went to Provine High School. What brought me to JSU was, first of all, my major, which is education. But also the Sonic Boom of the South.  I was introduced to the Sonic Boom when I was in eighth grade. I attended a trombone clinic that was hosted by a couple of JSU trombone players – one was a guy named Travis Pruitt. And through Travis I was introduced to my high school band director, who also played trombone at JSU. They both got me here and showed me the way. And, I fell in love with the school and the band when I got here.

My favorite experience in the band so far is being a Drum Major. This is the epitome of student leadership. I pride myself on being a leader and being able to perform with a high level of showmanship. That’s pretty much the best feeling.

But, my passion is education. People usually say they want to be a teacher because they love kids. But it’s deeper than that. You have to have a passion for education and a passion for knowledge to be an educator. I had a history teacher in high school who would sometimes stress herself out, a lot, for us to be able to pass those state tests. But with that, I saw her passion and drive. I looked at that and said I want to be a teacher one day to be able to impact students’ lives, and have them actually care about their education.

The obvious challenge is that there aren’t a lot of young black male teachers in the field today.  And, I want to challenge other black males to get in the classroom. Because we’re needed there. We have to see the importance of it and understand the impact that we could have.

Also, the other challenge would be, breaking the stereotype that black males are thugs and hoodlums. So, my ultimate goal is educational leadership. I want to start from the bottom with elementary education and just work my way through.

I want to be able to show other kids/students that you can get a good education and be successful and as for other black males, to be able to be that role model for them so they can see somebody that genuinely cares about education.”

                       – Tyler, senior elementary education major from Jackson. Tyler is one of the five drum majors in the ’17-’18 Sonic Boom of the South Marching Band.

“I am going to be Oprah! Something deep down in me is telling me I’m going to have her job. I like to talk. That has always been a thing of mine. Growing up, you have kids that can sing and kids that can dance. You have guys or girls that are very athletic. I wasn’t any of those kids. So, I thought I didn’t have a talent.

But it hasn’t been until the last three or four years that I began to understand that I have a way with people and that’s my talent. I like to talk, and I speak well. That’s my talent. In hearing Oprah’s story, I realized we have similar stories. She dealt with sexual abuse. So have I. I come from a very private family, and we didn’t really talk about stuff like that. So, I really didn’t know that people were being sexually abused like that until I got here.

The last Miss JSU, Destiney Lawrence, held a girls forum when she was Miss Sophomore, and we were all there, and we were able to open up. And I realized that so many people had dealt with sexual abuse, molestation or even rape. Just to be around so many people that have dealt with that made me feel more comfortable. That forum did a lot for me. Just to have that freedom to be able to talk about those things really did something for me.

Now, I want to be able to tell my testimony. I think, the more I’m learning about myself, and the more self-aware I’m becoming, I’m finding comfort in just standing on my own two feet and saying what I want to say. This is what I’ve gone through and I’m going to say it, because I can help somebody. I feel like I’ve had to deal with a lot of things, and I’ve come out beautifully afterwards. So I just want to be able to let other girls and women know that you can move forward.”

             – Alexis, senior biology/pre-dentistry major from Ridgeland, MS. Alexis is the ’17-’18 Student Government Association (SGA) President at JSU.

“I tell anybody that I’m probably one of the most fortunate people in the world, because I was raised by both my parents. I know how rare that is nowadays. With a two-parent household, you get the best of both. My mother is the best nurturer. There are things that she has taught me that my dad couldn’t. But there are also things my dad taught me that my mother couldn’t teach me.

So, no matter how hard a single mother or single father might try, it’s hard for them to play both roles. You really need both parents. Everybody that I know who’s from a single parent household wants that other parent there. They know that there is something missing. That’s why I feel fortunate – I have both parents and I have Jackson State.

My favorite thing about Jackson State is the motto, ‘Challenging Minds and Changing Lives.’ Some people think of it as just educational. Some people think it’s supposed to be just fun. But challenges are not fun. It’s not always going to be fun. 

And, as SGA president, I’ve been able to see some of the stuff students complain about, and yes, we try to fix those things. But those things are also the things that shape you for the future. For some students, the challenges deter them from wanting to give back to Jackson State or be involved with the university.

But, my grandma used to say, ‘The challenges that y’all face today, are ones we would have fought to have.’ 

So I love that Jackson State really has challenged me, in almost every way – academically, mentally, physically and spiritually. And everything helped move me in the right direction. Another one of my favorite things is the attitude that almost every alumnus I’ve every met has about JSU. That love that they have for this school is what drove me here. 

Jackson State is literally the only school I applied to. I had an aunt that went here, my uncle went here, my dad went here for a little while, and my brother and sister went here. And I hear  how people talk about other schools, but the way they raved about JSU made me decide to take a visit. And when I took that visit, during homecoming of my senior year in high school, the atmosphere here changed my life. And I said this is really the only place I want to be. So I wouldn’t trade these four years for nothing.”  

                                                 – Kendall, 2017 spring graduate, accounting major from Olive Branch, MS.

“When I was 12, both my mom and dad were incarcerated. My dad served four years in prison for drug possession charges. My mom was charged with manslaughter. She was driving a vehicle while under the influence. She had an accident, and her passenger was thrown from the vehicle and died. She served six years and six months.

My mom was a single parent with four children – of which, I’m the oldest. So, when both my parents were incarcerated, my grandmother had to take over and become our guardian. And, she was disabled. So when I turned 16, I had to work.

At one point, I actually had three jobs while still going to school. I was still a superintendent’s scholar and principal’s scholar. I was named Miss Seventh Grade at Nichols Middle School, then I won Miss Nichols Middle School. In high school, I became Miss Freshman, Miss National Honor Society, Miss Student Government Association, and Miss Canton High School. So throughout my years of working those jobs, I was able to make sure that all ends were met. And, I made sure my younger sisters and my grandmother were happy.

The way I got through that was building a relationship with God, and knowing that through everything I went through, he would bring me out. I live everyday by the scripture that says, He won’t put more on me than I can bear.

When I was running for Miss JSU, I was explaining to them that the reason I chose ‘Family’ as my platform, is because family means so much. Regardless of how your family impacted you, whether negatively or positively, they’re still the reason we are here today.

Although some of the choices my parents made hindered me in my life, it still ended up having a positive influence on me in the end.

Now, I’m the first in my family to go to college. So, like the old people say, I thank God that I don’t look like what I’ve been through. “

– Comelia, junior pre-math major from Canton.

My dad always told me that I was going to college and that he wanted me to be better than him. He would tell me the story of when he was at Jackson State and how he wasn’t a 3.0 student when he first got here. After seeing what he had to go through to make it to where he is now, he didn’t want me to go through the same thing. So, my parents pushed my sisters and me through school. I just think that they didn’t want us to go down a road that wasn’t going to advance our lives or make our journeys easier.

I transferred to Jackson State. My old school just wasn’t what I wanted for a college. It wasn’t what I thought I would see. When I came to Jackson State, I saw what I thought that I should see – the band, the football games, the morale, student leaders, and also the different opportunities that I have as a student through the College of Business. My experience at Jackson State has been awesome. I think that Jackson State has prepared me to go into the business world and use the skills that I have learned and the life skills that I have gained.

Everybody doesn’t have that extra push to continue to go through life and make a difference, whether it is within the community or within their lives. When I go back home, people always ask me to speak because I have a great story to tell. I came here as a transfer student, got in the College of Business during my sophomore year, and received an internship with KPMG, thanks to my professor. I became a student leader during my junior year, and now I’m the SGA vice president. I think that that’s a positive story. And, having the opportunity to talk to people about the seriousness of going to college is great. I want them to know what it is to be an African American in college and to understand that you don’t have to be a statistic.

My parents are very proud. They’re waiting for me to walk across that stage and be another Jackson State alum.”

– Isaac, senior accounting major from St. Louis, Missouri

When I was 15-years-old, I was sexually assaulted by a friend, and from that, I had a daughter. It caused me to lose my self-respect, and I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to go to college and do other things because I had a baby early. I wasn’t getting anywhere in life, and I lived in a small town that didn’t have a lot of things. That put me deeper in a hole, mentally and physically.

After a while, I had my second child. I had lost touch with the reality of what I was supposed to do. After I could not go to college, I felt like I wasn’t going to be who I needed to be. I had hit a dead end. It seemed like I wasn’t getting jobs and I wasn’t progressing.

After my third child, I decided that since I am their role model, I have to show them what a woman is supposed to do. So, to be an example for my three daughters, I came to school to pursue a degree to put myself in a better position for advancement opportunities. When I came back, I worked full time and took night classes. It was hard to balance going to school at night and having three teenage daughters at home. But, they loved it. They would write me notes and tell me that I am their motivation. That has helped me to strive to be better in everything that I do and to help my daughters succeed in life. One of my daughters will be graduating from Jackson State next year. I am thankful that I have my three daughters and that their lives are on track. They saw how I struggled, and they wanted to be better.

I get so emotional when I try to explain the feelings that I had during my situation. It brings back memories of not knowing where my life was going. But, I kept the faith and had a praying grandmother. Now, I am completely dedicated to God. He saw me through all of that, and now, I am stronger than ever. Sometimes, I can’t even believe how strong I am. I give other people encouraging words because I’ve been through times where I didn’t know where in the world I was going to get money from.

Now, I’m just thankful. All of this was divine from the Lord. He knew the steps before I did. I do accept that I had my baby early. I don’t advise that for someone else, but that is what he had to take me through to get me to where I am at now. My teenage pregnancy hurt me, but it motivated me somewhere in between to be successful. I started my own business, and I am in the process of writing a book about those struggles that I had – being a teenage mom, losing my husband, and losing my grandmother who was my mentor who raised me from a baby. Through it all, I have learned that you have to be patient and be persistent in your goals. Although something may throw you off track, you have to be focused and have God as the head of your life to help you through those stumbling blocks.

– Genice, JSU Class of 2009 and administrative assistant in Institutional Advancement