by: Lindsay Cox
Jacarra Lee, Chicago native and veterinary technology student at Parkland, is a recipient of the Outstanding Black Student Award. The award highlights the academic and extracurricular achievement of black students on campus in honor of Black History Month. Lee said she was surprised when she was selected for this award. “When I told my parents they were like, ‘Oh, we’re not surprised. That’s how you’ve been all your life,” she said.
When asked how winning this award made her feel Lee stated, “It made me feel better about what I was doing and more motivated, like I was doing something right.” Lee told the Prospectus that her first semester at Parkland was hard and overwhelming at times, but this semester is going a lot better for her.
In response to what Black History Month means to her, Lee said that, “I love Black History month. I think it’s important to put a spotlight on us and for us to get this time. I think a lot of people don’t know that when they brought us over here that they weren’t bringing slaves they were bringing over doctors and things like that and then turned them into slaves. We have a rich history and it’s important.”
When she was younger, her and her four sisters celebrated black history throughout the year. “Some people don’t have that, but my parents would make sure that we understood by having family reading night,” Lee said. “My favorite was this book that was like an encyclopedia filled with all the great things that black people have done. My dad would tell me to read it every night and share a person with my sisters. We would all pick a person and talk about what they did.”
Lee’s life goal is to own her own veterinary practice. Currently, Lee works at a bakery called Central Illinois Bake House. “It’s commercial, that’s why I’m there all of the time,” she said. Lee loves working at the bakery. After animal care, baking is Lee’s second passion. Her favorite dessert to eat is cinnamon rolls from the bakery in which she works.
When Lee does have free time, she likes to read and volunteer at the humane society. “I love animals, so that’s what my focus is,” she said. When volunteering at the humane society, Lee likes to work with the senior animals because they don’t get that many visitors. “I feel like it’s important; they are old, and they don’t want to be there,” Lee said.
“Don’t give up and work hard. Go for whatever you want. If it doesn’t work out the first time keep going and eventually it will”
Lee also informed the Prospectus about her most memorable moment at Parkland. “In my anatomy class, we were the first semester of our course being rewritten and my professor told me that I had the highest grade in my class,” she said. Lee couldn’t believe it, because she did not feel like she was doing well in that class at all. To make sure that she receives good grades, the veterinary technology student tries to stay on top of things and do her assignments as soon as she gets them. “I make time to sit down and study. I try not to fall behind,” Lee said.
Recently, Lee has been inspired by her mother. “My mom has been going through a lot lately, and she recently job got a job at the U of I. I feel like she deserves that. She’s been working her entire life, so it makes me think that if you really work hard that you can accomplish anything. She’s my biggest motivation in life,” she said.
Lee had some parting advice for new students. “Don’t give up and work hard. Go for whatever you want. If it doesn’t work out the first time keep going and eventually it will. My first test in anatomy wasn’t good; it made me want to drop out. But I didn’t and I made it,” Lee advised.
