By Josh LaBella
Voice Reporter
During her time at Southern Connecticut State University, Westie Jamie Kelley has had a full plate.
Kelley, who is graduating in May, is majoring in both political science and history. She said she mainly chose Southern because it was affordable. Kelley said it was during her time in the freshman leadership experience, a program designed to develop new students leadership skills, that she met most of the people she is friends with today.
“That really set the tone for the rest of my time here,” said Kelley. “Southern felt like home.”
Kelley said she was involved in a number of leadership positions during her time at West Haven High School including being on the staffs of the school paper and the art and literary magazine.
“I also did the mock trial and debate teams,” said Kelley, “and a bunch of other stuff. But mock trial and debate were really the big ones.”
Kelley, who wants to go on to study law, said she has wanted to study political science since her junior year at the high school. She said in that class she worked on John Picard’s campaign as a part of a class taught by social studies teacher Mark Consorte.
“I just really liked the experience,” said Kelley. “Through that I got a side job at the registrar of voters during elections. So I used to work on the polls.”
Kelley said Consorte was just one of many influential teachers she had during her time in the West Haven School system. She said she decided to study history after taking a class her freshman year at Southern.
According to Kelley, at Southern she was vice president and then president of Pre-Law Society, where she helped the organization grow. She also served in the same roles in College Democrats – where she continued to work on campaigns.
“Being a part of that here was an extension of being involved in politics in West Haven,” said Kelley. “Through that I got involved in Hamden and New Haven.”
One of Kelley’s biggest roles has been being the president of the class of 2019, a post which she has held since her freshman year. She said it was one of the best things she had done at Southern.
“I like that through it I get to host events that are either educational or social for the students,” said Kelley.
As president of the graduating class, Kelley is charged with giving a speech at the graduation ceremony on May 24. She said she is still in the process of writing it.
“It’s really hard to write a culmination of four years of really intense years of education,” said Kelley. “There’s so many things that I’d like to talk about. But at the same time it’s really important for me to realize that it’s not about me. It’s about all of us [the graduating class].”
Kelley said being from West Haven has influenced who she is. She said one of the great things about West Haven is that people are really involved, do not take no for an answer, like to put themselves out there and have big hearts.
“West Haven is the kind of town where everybody knows everybody,” said Kelley, “and it’s not a bad thing. So when we branch out from West Haven and do other things – it’s good. I think that it has made me a better person because I was raised in a town that was so accepting and wanted me to succeed.”