C’niphia Jones ’14

As a single mother, my mother worked several jobs to make sure I had everything that I wanted and needed. In fact, it was her job that relocated us to Washington, D.C., from Nashville when I was 5 years old. In Washington, D.C., I attended a Catholic private school with the children of local senators. When I was 9 years old we moved to Tampa, Florida, where I attended public school for the first time. Less than a year later my mother and I were relocated a final time to Dallas, where we have lived ever since.

I currently reside in Denton, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, where I am an elementary special education teacher. I teach children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Cornell has taught me that I can do anything in a lifetime. I am not limited to completing just one career. It has also taught me the value of friendship. It was at Cornell that I met and became extremely close to some of my best friends and sorority sisters.  My fiancé’ was actually the first person I met at Cornell! Cornell also helped me to be confident with my identity as an African American woman.