Determined BSOS Student Plans to Be the Solution

On a campus of more than 25,000 students, making a difference often seems like a challenge. For junior government and politics major Charmaine Wilson-Jones, helping 25,000 people would be just a start toward her life-long goal of pursuing a career in the homeland security industry, working as an intelligence policy analyst. Charmaine became interested in homeland security issues during her internship with Congressman Matthew Cartwright of Pennsylvanias 17th district this past summer. Her major and work experience complement her many leadership positions on campus. Last year, as the Student Government Associations first director of diversity, Charmaine pioneered new efforts that aimed to engage all communities on campus and amplify student voice. She planned a Marriage Equality Rally, helped student organizations collaborate with one another and increased SGA's outreach efforts to the minority community. Charmaine currently serves as the chair of the Student Affairs Diversity Advisory Council, where she and a group of students advise the Division of Student Affairs on methods to increase the bounds of inclusion on campus and improve student life. She is also part of the START Diversifying Security Studies Program where she conducts terrorism research. Charmaine classifies targets in the Global Terrorism Database, which is viewed by more than 50 million people each year. Charmaines efforts have not gone unnoticed. She received the Department of Government and Politics Oppenheimer Scholarship, as well as the University of Maryland Incentive Award, which is a full four year scholarship given to students that have excelled despite facing significant adversity.

When Charmaines mother lost her job and became sick during her junior year of high school, Charmaine worked more than 30 hours a week to help with bills. Despite tough circumstances, Charmaine managed to maintain a high GPA and stay in the International Baccalaureate Program at her high school. Her family is now back on its feet and the situation showed Charmaine just how strong and resilient she could be. Even with a full course-load and her involvement on campus, Charmaine has traveled to Sierra Leone in West Africa 16 times and reads more than 30 blogs per day. She was also invited to the White House last month for President Obama's speech on the Affordable Care Act and sat in the second row behind Valerie Jarrett, Kathleen Sebelius and Dennis McDonough. As Charmaine looks forward to graduating and pursuing a career in homeland security, she will do her best to live up to the Colleges mission to Be the Solution to the worlds great challenges. My involvement on campus has fostered a passion within me to pursue justice and advocate for others wherever I go. In the national security field, this will be a guiding principle of how I conduct my work, Charmaine said.