Sociology major gives new meaning to multitasking

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By Joanne Nesbit
News Service

Community activist, top student, library supervisor: These are just some of the ways to describe Kalamazoo native and graduating senior Jaime Nelson.

(Photo by Martin Vloet, U-M Photo Services)

Nelson has felt passionate about community outreach since freshman year when she became affiliated with the Prison Creative Arts Program (PCAP). She says her work with a female prisoner and subsequent related programs at U-M has had a definite impact on her life and career choice.

"What I have learned working with PCAP has been the single most influential factor in my life," Nelson says. "I want to work with youth in schools, but not as a teacher. I want to give people access to creativity, which will culminate in self esteem. Self esteem—that's the door to success in or out of prison."

PCAP is just one of a long list of activities for Nelson, who has majored in sociology with a minor in urban and community studies. She has been central to the Restaurant Work Place Project, surveying Ann Arbor food establishment employees about working conditions and wages. Those results, and information she gathered from talking with Ford Motor Co. workers in Mexico, have led her to a new knowledge and understanding of the country's immigration programs and processes.

"There's not much our group can do right now," she says, "but we have ideas for the future."

Nelson has been instrumental in establishing the Worker's Center in Washtenaw County, now serving as an advocacy program primarily for Latinos but with a goal to have the center run by multicultural workers.

One of Nelson's favorite involvements has been with the Algebra Project, creating a gateway to technology for African Americans through mathematic literacy. "Blacks are being shut out of algebra," Nelson says. "Yet mathematic literacy is essential. We are working in the Ypsilanti and Detroit schools to improve success through mathematics."

As a member of Students Supporting Affirmative Action, Nelson has become acquainted with student organizations on the U-M campus with which she usually would not have contact. This has been a plus in her educational process and community activism work, she says, that only adds to her work with Project Community—a class combined with field work in Detroit.

"We're trying to put together a semester living/learning opportunity in Detroit," she says of the venture that is supported by the Ginsberg Center.

Nelson has participated in these projects, attended classes and worked 30 hours a week as the evening supervisor in the circulation department of Hatcher Graduate Library—all while maintaining a near perfect GPA.

And she's not done yet. With student loans to pay off, Nelson intends to stay in Ann Arbor after commencement, working her job at the library and picking up another part-time commitment to ease the financial burden, while finalizing plans for attending law school.