Keeping up with Jones

Everyday students on Southern University’s campus juggle schedules that include work, school and family life, three things that all require a hundred percent of a student’s time. But, what about those students that juggle all that and more?
Up before the sun rises, at work before traffic and off duty the next morning,, is just a typical day in the life of 23-year-old therapeutic recreation major Mia Jones.
Nicknamed the Busy Bee, Jones lives up to her alias by working just as hard.
A graduating senior Jones, works everyday to balance her career, school, work-study, internship and manages to maintain a personal life.
When asked about getting sleep she just shrugged and smiled, “I get it when I can.”
Jones, a Baton Rouge native, spends most of her days at the Baton Rouge General Hospital working with geriatric, acute and rehabilitation patients to complete her internship. As a therapeutic recreation major, Jones is required to complete an internship in order to graduate.
“My internship is a 14-week program, consisting of 500 hours, that’s forty hours a week ,” said Jones.
Jones is also registered for nine other hours of classes, including military history, abnormal psychology and African-American literature, giving her a total of fifteen hours of course work.
When Jones first arrived at Southern in 1997, she worked as a trainer for the football, basketball, volleyball, track, cross-country and softball teams. She served as a trainer until the middle of her junior year.
Along with being a part of the sports medicine faculty, Jones was awarded a four-year scholarship as an Army Reserve Officers Training Corps Cadet. Twenty-two students at Southern receive this scholarship.
ROTC is geared toward students pursuing a military career after college.
Jones is currently a military science fifth year, or a completion cadet, and will enter the Army medical service core.
“We have over 50 cadets and four completion cadets,” said Ned M. Toliver, the Southern University Army ROTC human resource assistant.
Toliver, who has been working for the Army for 25 years, has known Jones since she arrived a Southern.
“Within a year’s time five to six cadets drop out the program; there are only a few I’ve seen that work as hard as Ms. Jones. It’s pure determination,” said Toliver.
In addition to ROTC, which tacks on 26 hours to the regular academic curriculum, Jones is a resident assistant in Mary McLeod Bethune Hall. Bethune is an honors dormitory located in the front of campus.
“There are positions for 100 ‘RAs with very selective process. Our RAs, write an essay and go through an interviewing process,” said Marilyn Hill, director of residential housing.
Resident assistants are required to work a total of sixty hours a month and maintain a 2.0 grade point average.
Jones also makes time for a personal life. She is to marine Arman Douglas.
Douglas was deployed soon after the disaster in New York to Cuba but is now stationed in Virginia.
“We plan on getting married in the next month, before I graduate,” said Jones.
After graduation, Jones will be reporting to Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, Texas for officer basic training.
In all the aspects of her life- work, school, internship and personal life- Jones says the most important thing in her life is balance.
“The only way I could make it through is by making time for everything and balancing my schedule accordingly,” Jones concluded, “It’s all about knowing what you want and going to get it.”

Gallery • 1 Photos

Graduating senior Mia Jones studies while on duty at Mary McLeod Bethune Hall, where she works as a resident assistant. Photo by Willie Siglar II/DIGEST