Student Feature: Jedd Griffin

Jeddidiah Griffin, known as Jedd, is a freshman Biochemistry and Physics major with a not-so-typical interesting fact: he graduated from college the same time he graduated from high school.  To clarify, he graduated with an Associate's Degree in Art from Southwestern Community College, located near his hometown of Bryson City, NC. 

He says that it was not that difficult since he earned a two-year associate's degree over four years of high school at Swain County High.  "When I was in eighth grade, one of the high school counselors mentioned a girl that had graduated with an Associate's Degree the same month she graduated from the high school I was going to attend.  I said to myself, ‘I want to do that!'" said Jedd. 

Four years later, he accomplished it.  While it was an ambitious undertaking, the whole thing was paid for, even textbooks, by a program that allowed high school students to attend the community college for free.  "I spent a lot of time traveling back and forth from high school to college, but it wasn't hard, I just had to learn to manage my time.  It helped me prepare for the classes I take here, since I know more about college-level lectures and grading styles."

He took a lot of online and summer classes, and as a freshman at C-N, he has entered with 60 hours of college credit, making him the equivalent of a second semester sophomore.  With the large number of credit hours, Jedd says that he has more time to take the classes he really wants to take at C-N.

Aside from extra classes, Jedd also ran track and cross-country, started a rhetoric club at his high school, was student body president for three years in a row, was in the national honors society, science club, and was valedictorian of his graduating class. 

One of his favorite activities in high school was participating in student government.  "I liked being the student body president," he said. "I moved it from being a popularity contest to actually doing something."  Furthermore, he also re-wrote the school constitution as a sophomore, just because he could.

After his time at C-N, Jedd would like to receive his PhD in biochemistry and divide his time between lecturing as a professor at the university level and doing research.  He feels most at home in front of the classroom, and would like to teach in front of hundreds of students one day. 

He chose C-N to do his undergraduate study, he said that he liked that C-N was a small liberal arts college with a Christian reputation that was not too far away from his home.  C-N also has biochemistry major, something not commonly found at smaller colleges.  "I enjoy the academics at C-N, and working in the lab with Dr. Martino," said Jedd, referring to Professor of Chemistry Paul Martino.  "It feels more like "real science" than the regular science labs.  My favorite class right now is Microbiology."

Another interesting thing that people may not know about Jedd is that he worked at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park this past summer, digging ditches, catching and identifying salamanders and snails, weeding corn, and giving "bear talks" to tourists.  During his senior year, he worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory with molecular dynamic simulation.  Among his many hobbies, Jedd especially likes cultivating cacti; he even brought a pot of them to college to live in his dorm room. 

"When I was walking through Lowe's looking for compact fluorescent light bulbs (soft light), I saw a packet of cacti seeds.  I had seen the ones in pots, but not in seed form.  I thought, ‘This is the real deal!'" He also has a cat, Armandina, whom he named after the helpful Mexican at the Bryson Feed and Seed Store.

Jedd attributes a lot of his motivation for doing well in school to his mother and his family.  His mother taught at the same elementary school that Jedd attended, and pushed him to make good grades and reach his full potential.  She started habits early that continue to make Jedd a good student as well as a good person.  Jedd feels called by Christ to improve the lives of others in a concrete way, and he thinks that what he is doing right now has put him on the right path.  "I am open to wherever God needs me.  This is where I need to be now, but I am open to whatever."

As for some random facts about Jedd, if he could be anyone in the world for a day, he would choose to be Benoit Mandelbrot, who discovered fractal geometry which is what Jedd calls "the coolest thing on earth." In his free time, he enjoys running, cultivating cacti, and reading realistic fiction. If one food could describe his personality, he says it would be pears. "They just have an odd shape," he said, "and the smooth texture on the outside is different from what you would expect from the somewhat grainy inside.  They are usually sweet, and I just like pears."