THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 19, 1996 TAG: 9604180138
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEXIS M. SMITH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
TAMARA JONES, 21, a senior at Norfolk State University, was overjoyed when she received a letter from the University of North Carolina informing her that she not only had been accepted as a graduate student, but had been awarded a research and teaching fellowship - all expenses paid.
She was even happier when she was also awarded an $18,000 Hoeshst Celanese Fellowship that would help fund her five-year doctor of philosophy degree in the synthesis and analysis of polymers.
Sound complicated? Not to this young woman.
Jones is a 1992 graduate of Salem High School. She graduated in the top of her class and achieved her goals by ``staying focused, organized and not procrastinating,'' she said.
She attends Norfolk State University under full scholarship from the Dozoretz National Institute for Minorities in Applied Sciences.
When she interned last summer at the Kenan and Venable Laboratories in North Carolina, she investigated the environmentally safe production of polymers in liquid carbon dioxide. The process is designed to produce less toxic waste after making plastic.
She is studying chemistry with an emphasis on pre-chemical engineering. Her main interest is in solving problems for the environment.
Selected as one of three finalists from around the country by the National Black Chemical Engineers Society, she recently traveled to Detroit to present a paper on her chemistry research.
This week she traveled to Akron, Ohio, as one of six finalists for the 1996 Waldo Semon Lecture and Undergraduate Research Award Symposium and to present her findings on ``low temperature dispersion polymerization of methyl methacrylate in carbon dioxide using a poly (dimethylsiloxane) stabilizer.''
Jones' parents are Stanley, a project engineer with Advanced Engineering and Planning Corporation and Company, and Barbara, a Realtor with Leading Edge Reality.
``We're very, very proud of Tamara. From the time she was in the seventh grade she knew what she wanted to do, what classes she wanted to take, where she wanted her life to go,'' Barbara Jones said.
``She's always excelled in everything she's done. She likes problem solving so I think that is what drew her to chemistry. She doesn't only have book sense, she has good common sense - more than some adults I know.''
Her sister, Tara, 18, also attends Norfolk State University and is an honor student in chemistry.
Jones is a member of the Alpha Kappa Mu National Honor Society, Golden Key Honor Society, the American Chemical Society, the Chemistry Club and the National Society for Black Engineers. She was also elected first runner-up in the 1995 Miss NSU Scholarship Pageant.
After graduate school Jones' ambition is to become a college professor. She credits her high school chemistry teacher for making chemistry fun, thereby influencing her interest and setting her sights on chemistry as a major in college and graduate school.
Jones also encourages other students not to give up if they need funding for college, ``For people looking for money, there is a lot of there. Check your school databases, there must be thousands of opportunities, that's how I found mine,'' she said. ``On one database alone there were 450.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Tamara Jones, a 1992 graduate of Salem High, is studying chemistry
with an emphasis on pre-chemical engineering. Her main interest is
in solving problems for the environment.
by CNB