Alumni Profiles

B.A., Psychology, 2007

N.C. Campus Compact — AmeriCorps VISTA

Coordinator, Student-to-Student Literacy Program

To watch an interview with Jada, click here.

Jada Drew has the beauty of a professional model, the grace of an accomplished athlete and the intelligence of a true scholar. But those things are only tools that can help her accomplish her goal. And what is her goal? Simple: “I’m the one who’s trying to change the world. In one day!”

It might take her longer than that, but it can happen. Working for a better world began early for Jada. “My father is where it started, this caring about others, wanting to help others,” she says. “He was always trying to help. When I was young, I went with him to help people in independent living communities — he was building ramps for wheelchairs, things like that. And that’s where I learned to do everything, I mean everything, from insulation to cement to you-name-it.”

Jada went to Guilford College for one reason — to play basketball — but she stayed for another: community service. “When I was named a Bonner Scholar, volunteer work was part of the deal, and my work the first year [with Pathways, a program that helps homeless people] had me hooked for life. I absolutely LOVED Pathways.”

Her freshman year saw Jada as a leader for Pathways, but as a sophomore she took on more responsibility, as coordinator for the program. “I even helped institute Life After Pathways, a new follow-up program for homeless in the area.”

What happened to her basketball career? Her knees. She had four surgeries on her left knee, and then she tore her right knee’s ACL — the anterior cruciate ligament, the same ligament that had caused the problems on her left knee.  “It was a bad year for me,” says Jada. “If losing basketball wasn’t enough, I also lost my dad, who died of cancer that same year. But I’ll tell you this — community service, helping others, helped me.”

Her time at Guilford College saw Jada working with The King Campaign Foundation, a student-led community-service organization that she co-founded; with the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; and, of course, with the Urban Ministry-based Pathways programs.

“At Guilford College I was blessed with life-changing opportunities,” she says. She offers a long list of travels, presentations and service activities, including experiences in Nicaragua, Atlanta, Montana, Berkeley, Philadelphia, D.C. — the list goes on. Two of the most memorable, she says, were in Nicaragua and in Atlanta.

“We went to the mountains of Nicaragua,” she says, “where we helped make fertilizer for the local farmers. And while we were there, I went to the beach, and I’ll never forget it — at night I walked along the beach, realizing what country I was in and how I got there. I reflected on all the amazing opportunities I had been given at Guilford. And I realized that it was a defining moment for me. I would never be the same.”

Jada adds that the trip to Atlanta was equally significant: “I was a facilitator for the Best Practices in Psychology Conference in Atlanta, a developmental psychology conference where I also presented my paper, ‘How Service and Academics Can Affect a Person’s Goals,’ she says.” The combination of service and academics certainly has shaped Jada’s goals.

Currently she is serving a one-year commitment to AmeriCorps VISTA, the national service program designed specifically to fight poverty. She is developing a training model for volunteers at various community sites in the Greensboro area. The work involves creating a multicultural tutorial training rubric for after-school programs, helping immigrants and refugees; providing tutoring and enrichment at the Pathways facilities for the homeless; and working with newcomers to America — especially adult ESOL programs and services for Hispanic youth. All of this is really a continuation of the work she did while a student at Guilford College. It’s a way to take her projects to the next level.

But she’s leaving. “At the end of my contract, I’m going to Washington, D.C., to get a job,” she says. “I don’t know what the job will be, but it will be something in the arena of community service — something that I am passionate about.” Why is she going to D.C.? Simple — “It’s time to leave my comfort zone. Again.”

That’s one of the reasons she attended Guilford College in the first place — to be challenged on a personal level. “I could have gone to a state school, a large mainstream school with Greek life. Or a historically black school. But I wanted to get out of my comfort zone.”

Jada says that Guilford turned out to be more of a comfort than she had imagined. “I learned that the big schools might offer more organizations that support African Americans, but in the end it’s the quality that matters, not the quantity. As far as that goes, N.C. A&T State University and UNC-Greensboro are so close that it’s easy to join their activities if you want.” She also credits the personal support at Guilford: “When my father passed, it was amazing how the people at Guilford were there for me. Professors, advisors, students … and the workers in the cafeteria helped me. It was like family.”

She adds this overall observation: “Guilford College makes the students feel capable of doing anything. Anything. Large schools say ‘No,’ whereas Guilford says ‘Make it work.’ Guilford College is everything and anything that you make it. You have to do the work, but you’ll get the benefits.”