Jessica Ransom, a Sophomore Agriculture Environmental Science major and track sensation from Houston, Texas, has been balancing life as a student athlete. She won Gold in the 400-meter dash as a Freshman and is continuing her quest to make history while balancing academics and student life.
Transitioning from Houston, Texas has not been a struggle for Ransom but she realizes that Alcorn State University is a very remote area where she must learn to survive. Despite the environmental change, she is excited to be around her culture and surrounded by people that will motivate her to excel in life. She has been able to balance her scholastic duties, track and student life. Ransom explains, “Managing your time is definitely the biggest thing that I’ve learned because if I didn’t have time management it would be difficult to get anything done between track, studying and being a part of extracurricular activities.”
This past Summer, she studied abroad in San Jose, Costa Rica for a month and a half with a host family. Ransom explains, “While at Universidad Veritas, I took classes such as Agriculture and Sustainability. They were very intense credited courses, so the Instructors didn’t want to overload us with too much because we were there for such a short amount of time.”
She also emphasized that she can use the study abroad knowledge learned to enhance her studies at Alcorn. Ransom states, “I learned a lot that was important to my field and it made me feel as though I got a head start because I learned information in Costa Rica that I’m just beginning to learn at Alcorn.”
Ransom plans on pursuing a Masters degree after her graduation from Alcorn but until then she is looking forward to a successful track season which begins January 3rd.