Senior education major Kamron Bracey finds footing at UM, inspires greatness across campus
Kamron Bracey arrived at the University of Mississippi as a shy but talented student who kept to himself.
“I was very shy,” Bracey said. “At first, all I used to just do is go to class, study hall and go to sleep. Now, I’m barely going home. I love it here.”
As he nears the end of his educational journey at Ole Miss, the senior elementary education major from Jackson said he’s found his niche. He’s also found many mentors who helped him grow into a leader. He said he’s thankful for them, which compels him to help others when he can.
“As I grew older, I wanted to help people with their freshman year, and I see it as helping them build from their freshman year so they could be successful the next four years and beyond,” Bracey said.
“I’ve just wanted to make sure my fellow students get involved, and stay and get involved. When they do, they’ll love it.”
This experience of getting out of his comfort zone made the shy student realize how good it felt to pass on some of what he’d learned about adjusting and being successful in school. He also worked with campus mentors to become more of a leader.
“As I started going through the years here, I figured out what I love even more than my major is that I love people,” Bracey said.
He’s teaching at Jim Hill High School in Jackson and aims to teach middle school one day. He also plans to return to Ole Miss to earn a doctorate and become a principal.
“These goals are a lot, but I definitely think I can handle them,” Bracey said.
Heading toward graduation, Bracey maintained a 3.69 cumulative grade-point average. While he’s worked diligently in the classroom, he’s also found other ways to stay busy on and off campus.
With a passion for diversity, equity and inclusion, he has served as assistant secretary for the UM NAACP and as a Mississippi Outreach to Scholastic Talent, or MOST, mentor. He has also served as a FASTrack peer leader and coordinator.
Bracey also is credited with social media outreach in the School of Education, and specifically recruiting and retaining students, especially students of color.
Suzanne A. Wilkin, academic mentor with FASTrack, met Bracey when he was a freshman and in her EDHE 105 class, and she mentored him in FASTrack. She remembers him as an excellent student who always participated in class.
She was excited when he applied and was accepted as a peer leader for FASTrack at the end of his freshman year.
“I was really glad to see him step into a leadership role,” Wilkin said. “I was even more delighted when he was assigned to my EDHE 105 class in the fall of 2018. It was a real honor to watch Kamron grow in that leadership role.
“His ability to connect with all the students in the class and to share his experiences was really amazing.”
She was thrilled to watch him find his passion and change majors from biology (with a plan to go to dental school) to education and now to see him plan to go to graduate school.
“I am grateful that Kamron will be continuing to serve in education,” Wilkin said. “He is an awesome person, and he is going to make a great educator. He’s an amazing young man.”
Story by Michael Newsom/University Marketing & Communications
