Spotlight on
Excellence
Student Profiles
Kimberly
Thornton, a junior, music education major from Detroit, MI,
was recruited to come to Alcorn State University and offered a
full music scholarship. She sings soprano at the Concert Choir.
Thornton was among other Concert Choir members who performed at
the presidential inaugural ceremony in Washington D.C. She enjoys
singing different types of music.
“I like gospel music of
course, spirituals, classical, and choral music,” said Thornton.
She sang solo “If I can help somebody” at The Spring Southwest
Mississippi Writing Conference with the choir Ladies in Order
of the Fine Arts Department.
She is
planning to graduate either in Fall 2006 or in Spring 2007. After
graduation she would like to start teaching music somewhere in the
South, preferably in Memphis, TN. Also she is planning to go back
to school to work on her masters.
Margo
McLeod, a junior, accounting and business administration
double-major from Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada, has a perfect
4.0 GPA. While in high school she searched for a University in
United States, preferably in the South with a golf team. Alcorn
State was a perfect mach for McLeod, she has got athletic and
minority scholarship here.
McLeod became a second president of
International and Multicultural Student Organization in August
2004. She has a lot of friends among international students and
American students, and of course she is very close with her golf
teammates.
“We are just like family. We spend a lot of time
together practicing, traveling going out for dinners, shopping,
celebrating birthdays, and watching movies,” says McLeod.
She
is planning to graduate in May 2007. After that McLeod wants to
get some work experience in accounting before going to graduate
school to work on her MBA. She raises her bar really high looking
at such schools as Harvard, Stanford, and Northwestern University
in Chicago, IL. However, she has all the ingredients for success:
she has perfect GPA, she was picked as this year’s Academic
All-American, and plays an active part in the university and
community life.
Lawrence
Woods, Alan Williams and Javeyeta Collier, all from Alcorn State
University were among six students who interned last summer for
the Army Field Support Command (AFSC) at Rock Island Arsenal in
Rock Island, Ill.
Lawrence
Woods, who is a senior, industrial technology major interned
in the Centralized Munitions Directorate, Joint Munitions Command.
He rotated through several different jobs during his experience
there.
“I’m trying to be a project manager,” Woods said while
completing his internship. “That’s my goal.”
In my next move, I
want to be an item manger.”
As an item manager, “I know that
every day that I come to work, I’ll be responsible for somebody in
the war, and of the soldier doesn’t get his ammunition, then I
fail. That’s important to me.”
Woods also has a desire to
deploy to Kuwait sometime in the future.
One of the things that
he likes about the army is the number of opportunities that are
available.
“I definitely would like to work for the army
because there are different avenues that you can take. There are
so many programs that you can go into, and the sky’s a limit.”
Alan
Williams, who is a junior, business administration major,
worked with AFSC’s Contracting Directorate.
I work with
different contractors every day that are doing things in Kuwait –
doing things all across the world. My business administration
background definitely helps me because in the future I want to be
in management,” Williams said.
“This is an experience of a
lifetime. Not only am I learning about the military, nut I’m
learning about military life and I’m learning about civilian life.
I am also learning about how corporate America works.”
Javeyeta
Collier, who is a senior, accounting major, worked with AFSC’s
Contracting Directorate. She evaluated and studied bid proposal
submitted by small businesses and contractors.
“Working for the
army – I know I contribute to the soldiers in the field in the
sense that we make sure that the government – the rates that they
are charged, the prices are fair and reasonable. And we make it
possible to have enough money to purchase the ammunition that they
have in the field,” Collier said.
She appreciated the efforts
that the program sponsors and command have made to make students
feel comfortable.
Marla
Hughes, a junior, computer science/mathematics major from
Liberty, Miss., interned for the U.S. Department of Defense in
Maryland this summer.
Hughes worked as a programmer, using
various programming languages, C, C++ and Java. Most of the
information she worked with was classified, she said. This was her
third summer interning there.
Hughes plans to join the
Department of Defense in the future as a full-time employee.
Carla
Hughes, a senior, criminal justice major from Liberty, Miss.,
interned for the FBI this summer. She was located in Quantico,
Va., doing research for the behavioral science unit. Hughes also
plans to pursue her further career with the FBI.
Chrystyna
Tate, a senior, technology education major from Chicago, Ill.,
interned for the Argonne National Lab and U.S. Department of
Energy, the Offices of Science, located in Darien, Ill.
“We
were troubleshooting and studying further development construction
of a Longmuir Through. We made sure that the barrier and the motor
of the through worked correctly,” she said.
In addition to the
research, Tate developed an education module for the same
topic.
Trinica
Wells, a senior, political science/pre-law major from McComb,
Miss., interned at the University of Arkansas the William H. Bowen
School of Law.
“Well, we studied one semester of law school in
a month. We also attended that Arkansas Bar Association meeting,
and learned what the law is like,” Wells said.
Wells was among
25 participants in the program. She was the only student from the
state of Mississippi. She is planning to attend Loyola School of
Law in Chicago, upon her graduation.
Natasha
Johnson, a senior, accounting/finance major from Indianola,
Miss., interned for the FBI’s Finance/Commercial Payments Division
this summer.
During her internship, she had a chance to learn
about some financial procedures in the FBI. After her graduation,
Natasha plans to be employed a full-time employee with the FBI,
and earn her Master’s in Public Administration/Economics
degree.
Elena
Chueva, a junior, communications major from Voronezh, Russia,
has been playing for Women’s Soccer Team for over 2 years.
“I’ve been into sports all my life. I can’t make it without
it. However, I’ve never really played soccer before I came to
Alcorn. I really enjoy playing and I am also great friends with
the girls in our team.” Chueva said.
Chueva
is multi-talented: she works as an on-air announcer at 91.7 WPRL
The Gold radio station and maintains her GPA as high as 3.93. Upon
her graduation she is planning to apply to either Law School or
MBA Program in Natchez, MS.
Aleksandra
Orlova, a senior, mathematics major from Voronezh, Russia, has
been dancing in the Golden Girls dancing squad for almost 2 years.
“It’s a great experience. We travel a lot with the Marching
Band. The most memorable trips were: the one to the Battle of the
Bands in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2003 and to a football game in
Washington D.C., in 2004.” Orlova said.
Her dream is to go to
the 5 year Master + Ph.D. program after her graduation in May,
2005, and to become a college instructor. She applied to several
schools but the one she set her hopes for is Boston University.
She’s got necessary teaching experience tutoring College Algebra
and Calculus at the department of Mathematics during last
semester.
Stephanie
Miller, a freshman, elementary education major from Biloxi,
Miss., is interested in teaching, childcare, business and biology
the most. Miller had a full academic scholarship. She wants to go
graduate school upon completing her Bachelor’s. She has a dream of
opening up her own child care center. She wants to develop a
curriculum for the center, teach kids and also manage the
facility. Having big family and dealing with her younger siblings
inspired her dream. Speaking of family ways, one of the reasons
Miller chose Alcorn State University is that her mother is an
alumnus. She told her daughter that she really enjoyed Alcorn.
“People at Alcorn are very nice, they really make this
campus.” Miller said.
Nathaniel
Hughes, a sophomore, nursing major from Starkville, Miss., is
not only an excellent student with full academic scholarship, but
a distinguished athlete, a “big play” receiver for the Braves, and
a trek runner.
“I had one of my biggest games at Southern
during my freshman year. It was very memorable. We won 36:34. For
a moment I felt like a professional player,” Hughes said.
He
was recruited by Coach McKenzie, but even before that he knew he
would come to Alcorn State University to continue “the dynasty” of
his grandparents, parents and many relatives Alcorn State’s
alumni.
Hughes wants to go to a medical school after
completing his bachelors, most likely to the University of
Mississippi Medical Center. However, if an opportunity to pursue a
professional athletics career presents itself he will pursue it.
Brittany
Villard, a freshman, music education major from Chicago, Il is
into music and psychology. She wants to combine these two subjects
in graduate school and to become a music teacher in future.
Villard plays clarinet for the Alcorn State Marching Band for
the concert season, and she is also in the marching band flag
court for the marching season. She is socially active and
interested in different aspects of university life. She is part of
college Democrats on Campus.
“It’s my second semester at
Alcorn but I am still learning things about university life and
all the activities. I just found out about National Council of
Negro Women and I want to become a part of this organization,”
Villard said.
Tiffany
Blackmon, a senior, biology/pre-medicine major from Greenwood,
Miss., is a senator of the Alcorn State’s Student Senate.
Blackmon is planning to participate in McNair Scholar Program,
University of North Texas, Fort Worth, this coming summer.
The program she looks at is Research and Biomedical Sciences
for Public Health. Blackmon thinks that this internship will be a
great experience that will prepare her for working on her graduate
degree in Public Health.
“I am interested in working in the
community, educating people from low income areas how they can
take better care of their health. I am still deciding what exactly
I want to do. I want some hands-on experience. That’s why
internships are important, they help you to figure out what you
want to do or don’t want to do,” said Blackmon.
Naheerah
King, a freshman, computer science major from Vicksburg, MS,
had searched through a lot of schools before coming to Alcorn
State University. She came here for a visit and was pleasantly
surprised to see that people on campus actually cared and were
interested in having her here as a student.
“I am glad I
didn’t go far away,” said King.
She
would like to spend this coming summer interning as a computer
analyst in Vicksburg, she wants to get some experience dealing
with computers, learn to correct computer problems.
King likes
to stay busy: she plays saxophone in the Band, and she is a member
of the Student Government Association (SGA). As she said, she
would like to be a part of as many organizations as she can and
definitely join a club that would help her understand her major
better.
