MAY 25, 2017  |  By BRITTANEE WALLACE (BA IMC ’17)

Deshauntra Green, a junior from Fayette, Mississippi. Photo by Brittanee Wallace

Afternoon light pours into Coulter Hall, a second home for chemistry students like Deshauntra Green.

“Over the course of the three years I’ve been here at Ole Miss, I have been given such a sense of community.”

A Fayette, Mississippi native, Deshauntra is a junior Forensic Chemistry major. She minors in Math and is a part of the Grove Scholar program.

She gravitated to Ole Miss when she heard about the Forensic Chemistry program and how it was nationally recognized.

Then, on Deshauntra’s way home from orientation, she got a call from one of the deans of the College of Liberal Arts, offering her a chance to go to summer school before her freshmen year as a Grove Scholar.

“Sure, why not?” she answered.

While taking her summer courses, Deshauntra undoubtedly fell in love with Ole Miss.

Fellow members of the Grove Scholars were the first people she met at Ole Miss.

“They have become my best friends. We relieve stress together. We get each other.”

Gray Flora, current Direct of the GS, is a mentor to all of the Grove Scholars, gearing the students towards success. The class above Deshauntra’s class are her peer mentors.

“We are a ‘family’ and it has been beneficial to me in so many ways. I turn to my mentors for everything: how to apply for jobs, how to handle a program, how to deal with scholarships, how to plan our schedules, how to balance the load, etc.”

She dreams of becoming a toxicologist for either the DEA or the FBI.

“It just so happens that most Grove Scholars are really involved all around campus.”

Involved is an understatement for Deshauntra. In addition to being a Grove Scholar, she is a peer mentor for FASTrack, President of the Ole Miss chapter of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), Teaching Assistant for the Chemistry department, and works at the Jackson Avenue Center Mathematics Lab.

Deshauntra wants to see Grove Scholars’ profile raised on campus. “We were chosen. It has been an honor to be a Grove Scholar.”