By Danna Chavez Calvi '16
Alexis Jenkins is not the first to go to college – nor the first to attend Mason in her family. Living just a few minutes down the road in Burke, Jenkins’ mother graduated from Mason back in ’06 with a bachelor’s in Psychology. In May 2017, Jenkins will continue the family tradition and become the next member in her family to graduate from Mason while having had her own unique experience at Mason.
So what made her choose Mason? “I was here for the final four festivities [in 2006] and I just remember being so in awe, seeing her here,” she says, “so when I went to look at colleges Mason was the first one I considered.”
At first she admits, “I was really nervous about it.” She toured the campus at least three times before committing to Mason. She knew that being so close to home would probably mean she would not be living on campus and it could prove to be a disadvantage to her – nevertheless, “after having been here…I really can’t imagine myself having gone anywhere else.”
Though she has not lived on campus, she still describes Mason as having become her second home. “I’ve made a lot of friends and have a lot of faculty connections,” she says.
“A common misconception people from the area at least tend to have is that it’s too close to home and that they won’t feel like they’ll go anywhere or learn anything just because it’s down the road,” says Jenkins, “but for me, I feel like when I step on campus, I’m in an entirely different community. There’s more than 30,000 in one place…it definitely feels different from being at home or even out and about near my house…I definitely feel like I’ve grown a lot as a person being here, even though it’s down the street from where I live.”
Her experience has certainly been vastly different than that of her mother’s. Though unfortunately she has not had the chance to relive the hype of the final four festivities, she has had the chance to study abroad and experience world events in Japan.
During the fall semester of 2015, Jenkins had the opportunity to study in Akita, Japan, where she was able to put into practice and refine the Japanese skills acquired through her minor. She describes her experience as having been incredibly enriching and unlike anything else she had experienced before.
“There was only one other Mason student that went with me, so I was definitely forced to talk to other people and most of the other students I think were Japanese, so I was practicing my Japanese a lot,” she says.
“I also made friends with people from France, Australia, Romania and all these different places. So it was really cool and to be able to experience different world events together in this one place,” says Jenkins, “For example, my friends would comment and ask why Donald Trump was a thing, and then I would be there to hold my friend from France after what happened in Paris. It was really interesting to have these experiences with people from different places just all concentrated in one spot. We would hang out in the cafeteria a lot and just talk about everything, try to solve the world problems."
Akita is a mountainous, rural region in northern Japan, located approximately six hours from Tokyo. While in Japan, Jenkins was able to visit Lake Tazawa, the deepest lake in Japan, an old samurai village by the name of Kakunodate, a Sotomaya kitchen, a Buddhist temple, and even take a trip to Tokyo and Shibuya for Halloween weekend.
She is grateful for all the opportunities she has received while at Mason for they have allowed her to widen her world perspective. Having served as an Honors College student, Mason Ambassador, a member of the Black Student Alliance, a Patriot Leader, and created an a cappella group known as Mason Some Noise – she looks forward to what the future may store for her.