Erika James
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Erika James had mixed feelings about joining a sorority. She wanted the friendship and social events and community services. But she wanted to focus on her athletic training studies more. “I love athletic training,” Erika says. “I’ve worked with just about every athletic team on campus. That means attending their practices and games and being in the athletic training room even when no one’s there.” Erika wanted to graduate as soon as she could, knowing that she would be attending graduate school after. However, when she heard about a new sorority coming to the Nicholls campus, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Erika is now a member of Lambda Psi Delta, a multicultural sorority that will soon receive its charter. What won her over was what the sorority stood for — intelligence, cultural awareness, leadership, community service and female empowerment. “Mainly, I like that this sorority was multicultural at birth. It’s not just diversity that happened over time.” |
Working toward: bachelor’s degree in health sciences, with an athletic training concentration
Classification: senior
Expected graduation date: Spring 2009
High school: Huntington High School
Hometown: Shreveport, La.
Nicholls involvement:
Currently, I serve as the Interpersonal Relationship Specialists team leader for Student Educators and Leaders. Our team organizes programs and seminars that focus on healthy relationships, time management, stress, interpersonal relationships and overall wellbeing of students. I am also involved in Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship and the Nicholls Society of Athletic Training Students as well as Lambda Psi Delta Sorority.
I chose to attend Nicholls because …
… it has one of the best athletic training programs in the state. Initially, that was the only reason why I moved from Shreveport to Thibodaux. I have always been interested in sports and knew I wanted to become an athletic trainer. While in high school, I began helping out as a student trainer when I wasn’t cheering on the sidelines.
When I can find spare time, I enjoy …
… hanging out with my sorority sisters and reading novels. James Patterson mysteries are my favorite.
After college, I plan to …
… attend graduate school. I’m hoping to get accepted to either Temple or the University of Miami. My goal is to work in sports management. A dream job would be serving as an athletics director or sports manager for a professional team. Among the sports, basketball is my favorite. I also like football, but it’s hard for female athletic trainers to get jobs in that sport.
The Nicholls experience I will remember the most is …
… an outreach program I participated in with Chi Alpha over the Mardi Gras holidays. A group of us traveled to Texas A&M University-Commerce to help out its Chi Alpha organization. We baked cookies all day and handed them out on campus, forming relationships with as many students as we could.