Photo by Trip Burns.
This May, Sarah Brown will be the first in her family to obtain a bachelor's degree. One of four children--she has three brothers, one younger and two older than she is--Brown, 21, is a general physics major and education minor at Jackson State University. She's also a Jackson native who graduated from Forest Hill High School in 2009. Brown originally wanted to go to Mississippi State University to study broadcast meteorology, but a lack of financial aid changed her plans.
In addition to her studies, Brown is active in several campus clubs: She's a member of the Student Government Association, the Meteorology Club and the JSU Society of Physics. She also volunteers at Stewpot Community Center, where she helps serve food to homeless people and has donated food and clothing. Brown figured out a way to balance everything while maintaining a 3.7 grade-point average.
"I'll go the coffee shop to study for six hours," she says.
Brown also has one more title to her name: Miss JSU.
People who know Brown gave her the idea to run for the crown in the spring of 2012. "I guess they saw something in me that exemplified a queen ... a woman of excellence and community service," Brown says. Her campaign platform was "Think Big."
Brown remembers the atmosphere on the night she was crowned last April, as she sat in a room with hundreds of people. "I was so nervous," she says. "All I remember is 'The next Miss JSU is (in my head I was just saying, 'please let me hear an S')--Sarah Brown!' I started crying. ... Everyone around me started crying."
As Miss JSU, Brown decided to make an impact not just on campus, but in the community as well. She started a tour of Jackson Public Schools called "JPS Girls Rock," to let girls know that they matter and that they, too, can make an impact in the world. When she visits schools, Brown gives motivational speeches and workshops to the girls.
"I just share my testimony," she says.
The workshops include self-esteem activities and a chance for the girls to tell their stories and seek guidance. Brown says the stories touch her soul, and she does her best to give them good advice. Brown plans to turn JPS Girls Rock into a non-profit organization, and she hopes to be able to organize a summer camp. The entrance requirement would be an essay titled: "What does it mean to be a strong, black woman?"
Brown's time as Miss JSU will end when she graduates in May, but she'll still be around campus. She has been accepted into the JSU environmental engineering doctoral program. Brown's career goal is to be an environmental hydrologist, traveling the world, researching ways to prevent global warming, and sharing her research with other schools and colleges.
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