Senior Spotlights:
Jerry Kelly
by Katherine Green ‘11
Staff Writer··································
You’ve probably seen Jerry Kelly around campus before, perhaps on your visit to the R-MC bookstore. Or maybe on your way to class you might’ve seen him leading parents and their son and/or daughter on their tour of the college. If you ever attended one of the many basketball games in Crenshaw gym, though, you couldn’t have missed him cheering. Jerry’s been an active member of the RMC Cheerleading Team since his freshman year and additionally, he is a gym manager in Crenshaw.
Jerry came to R-MC wanting to be a vocal music major because he has enjoyed singing since he was in the seventh grade. Jerry said the campus, the professors, and the friendly greetings from everyone he met are what made his decision in coming to R-MC. But something else was in store for him. In his freshman year, he took an Introductory Environmental Science course with Dr. Gowan. Jerry and his colleagues performed fecal coliform testing, as well as other pH and parameter testing in streams in Mechumps Creek and examined how bacteria affects our drinking water. The experience and work with Dr. Gowan influenced him to continue with Environmental Science to becoming an Environmental Science major with a minor in Biology.
For about one year, Jerry has been working at the Hanover Conservation District, which maintains proper land use and helps to conserve land and water use. A great opportunity arose when his boss introduced him to a non-profit organization, Chesapeake Bay, which he worked in an alliance with over J-term. Chesapeake Bay uses different policies to better land and water use. Jerry would like to work with National Forests and more quality testing at possibly Shenandoah National Park or North Carolina. “N.C. got its start in forestry,” he says. He might also like to continue with cheerleading and/or coach cheerleading in the future. Right after college, he would either like to take a year off and figure out if he’d like to go to grad school at possibly Duke University because he says, “They have an awesome program for Forestry,” or he might like to go somewhere out mid-west.
Jerry is part of many groups on campus including the Kappa Sigma fraternity, which he joined this past fall. Kappa Sigma’s see-saw-athon has been raising money to help Habitat for Humanity. Last year, he joined “One in Four,” which is an organization that tries to prevent sexual assault. He is also part of Alpha Phi Omega, a community service fraternity, which he joined his sophomore year. “The thing I enjoy most about Alpha Phi Omega are the cancer walks,” he says. Also, his sophomore year he joined “Music, Art, and Society,” which holds a battle of the bands and different musical events.
In his spare time, he likes to sing with the Chamber Concert Choir. “There’s a choir tour coming up after spring break in Cleveland, Ohio,” he says. He also enjoys hanging out with his Fraternity brothers and he likes many outdoors activities, especially hiking. His favorite food is tomatoes. He has six siblings: two older sisters in the Work force, an older brother in EMT, a twin brother in Aviation ordinance, a younger sister at Shenandoah University, and a younger sister who just graduated from high school. He has three pets: two dogs, a rottweiler and pitbull mix, a beagle puppy, and a cat.
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