Student Perspective

My Bulldog Experience: Arrington DeLars Ervin Sophomore, Biomedical Engineering Overland Park, Kansas

I am currently a sophomore at Mississippi State University. Originally, I’m from Overland Park, Kansas, which is also home to my 2019 Blue Valley Southwest High School graduating class. While at BVSW, I excelled as an athlete and a student leader, within both my school and community, but nothing was more important than getting a top-notch education. As a result, I graduated in the top 10% of my class of 299 students. The choice to attend MSU was easy. My grandmother and father both graduated from the university; therefore, I am a third-generation legacy student. Additionally, I wanted to focus my studies on biomedical engineering, as I aspire to work in the medical field either as a pharmacist or a physician, and I feel an undergraduate degree in this major from MSU will afford me many options.Two other key factors in deciding to attend MSU were the level of affordability and diversity. After exploring many different schools, ranging from Florida A&M, Vanderbilt, Howard, Kansas, Duke, and a few others, it was simply more affordable to attend MSU. The networking opportunities are very robust in Mississippi, which leads me to my final reason, diversity. My dad and I recently talked about diversity, and I shared with him that when I first came for my Bagley College Summer Bridge Program for first-year minority students, I only saw Black students and began to view MSU as if it was a historically Black college. However, when the fall semester started, I became the wiser. I saw more diversity in an educational environment than I had ever seen. After spending my life in suburban areas of St. Louis, Missouri; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Kansas City, Kansas; and often being the only Black student in my classroom, this MSU experience was new for me. Although I did not realize it was a deciding criterion at the time, it quickly confirmed for me that attending MSU was the right choice. Education is critical to any person’s success, and I have also come to realize the power of a good education can manifest itself in a variety of ways. I made the MSU President’s and Deans’ Lists for fall 2019 and spring 2020 which shows my academic success, and I aspire to continue academic excellence. In addition, I recently received the Omega Psi Phi Academic Scholarship, for which I am very thankful to have been chosen as the recipient. I deeply appreciate the investment they are making in me and other MSU students.