As for 21-year old Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC) Cambridge Campus student, Jessica Nelson, without a doubt knows what its like to experience an immense amount of pressure throughout school with the expectations of becoming a high achiever. However, Nelson refuses to let the pressures she faces throughout school, and just life in general slow.
Nelson is one of two children with her being the youngest. Her family consists of her older brother Derek and her mother and father, Valerie and Darin Nelson. While attending high school at Zimmerman High School, Nelson excelled at academics, as well as playing on the junior varsity soccer team her junior year. “I think I did so well in school because even though I had an enormous amount of pressure riding on me, I still received so much encouragement from my family I would have never even thought of giving up,” stated Nelson.
After her junior year in high school Nelson knew it was time to start visiting potential colleges that she might possibly attend after graduation. “At first it was extremely hard for me to decide on a school. It was my senior year in high school and I still had absolutely no clue as to what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.” says Nelson. When it came time to start applying for colleges, Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC) was only another name on the list of colleges Nelson had applied to during her senior year. She researched and considered many different colleges around the state—technical, community, and universities. However, when she had finally visited the ARCC Cambridge campus she thought that it would be just another college on her checklist to cross off and would be effortlessly ruled out. Although after taking a tour of the campus and speaking with several counselors and instructors, her feelings towards the college changed completely. The campus, instructors, and classes ARCC offered was exactly what she was looking for in a school, and was fortunate to live less than 30 minutes away.
The Cambridge campus’ welcoming environment was what initially drew her attention. She felt that both the staff and the students were more friendly on the Cambridge campus than any other colleges she had visited, and each letter she had received from ARCC was always personalized. “It was a nice feeling knowing that my opinions were actually valued and any questions I had were answered quickly and never judged-I actually felt that there was a genuine appreciation in my interest to learn as much as I possibly could about the school” expressed Nelson. After being impressed with ARCC it made her decision extremely easy as to which college she wanted to attend for the fall semester. “I love the small community feeling here. The experiences I’ve been through and the people I’ve met while attending ARCC have just been great, it’s only made me that much happier with my decision to attend ARCC,” stated Nelson.
Since starting college, Jessica has continued to keep an exceptionally busy schedule as well as an impressive GPA. Nelson is currently enrolled in four courses at ARCC as well as working two jobs, and is also a member of Phi Theta Kappa.
Currently she’s working full-time as a cashier at Casey’s, and the second working part-time as a nursery assistant at Plant Place until she finishes up the semester to begin working full-time at both jobs. “I’m extremely lucky in the fact that I really enjoy both environments at my jobs and what makes it even better is that the people I work with are amazing. Plus my job pretty much rocks at Plant Place considering I get paid to tan-so I’d like to think its a win-win situation for a summer job if you ask me!” stated Nelson.
To add to her already full schedule, she also helps out assisting a local softball team in Zimmerman as a base coach on Monday nights throughout the summer. “I’m always busy doing something, and I try to manage my time as best as I can so I can still have a social life and see my friends,” stated Nelson. Even dealing with a small amount of free time, she still manages to work on her hobbies making crafts such as ceramics, acrylic paintings, and blankets. When Nelson isn’t in class, studying, or working, she also enjoys spending her time taking advantage of the many lakes Minnesota has to offer and goes fishing. “Last year I remember being extremely excited when I found out I was going on a fishing trip to Mille Lacs Lake. A lot of my friends have been fishing there and told me I was guaranteed to catch a bunch of walleyes while I was up there. Throughout the whole fishing trip I didn’t even get a bite until the last day and it was a northern! I still was happy that I caught a fish, but I still have yet to catch a walleye on Mille Lacs,” stated Nelson.
Even after spending time enjoying her hobbies and managing to balance out her hectic schedule, she’s still been able to maintain a close relationship with who she describes as “the love of her life.” Nelson’s boyfriend, 25 year old Derek Zoerb is currently in the military and is stationed in Georgia for another month in a half while he completes his required basic training camp for the National Guard. Following Zoerb’s completion of basic he will be stationed in Missouri for an additional three months while he will be enrolled in the advanced military training program. Although it‘s been incredibly tough being so far away from her boyfriend and not being able to talk to him over a month, Nelson hopes that the time apart will only bring them even closer together. “If I wasn’t as busy as I am now I would probably go nuts spending my free time just thinking about how much longer he’ll be gone for, I don‘t understand how some of the military wives and girlfriends that have their husbands and boyfriends overseas deal with being apart from their loved ones for so long. I’m very thankful that he’s already halfway done with basic and will eventually be a lot closer to Minnesota, and me,” Nelson stated happily.
While her boyfriend is away, Nelson plans on saving up her additional income for a house that Zoerb and her plan to purchase once he returns back to Minnesota.As for the other half of Nelson’s future, her goal while attending ARCC is to complete her two-year degree with plans to then transfer to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with efforts to finish college with a four-year degree with a major in Medical Administration. “I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I finally knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I was working at Casey‘s and a customer and came in and we began talking about her job. I’ve always want to work in the medical field but knew I could never actually work in an operating room. When I learned about what a medical administrator does I thought-Hey! I could do that!” said Nelson. Once Nelson graduates college with her Bachelors Degree she hopes to begin her career working at the Mayo clinic in Rochester as a Medical Administrator.
“Although there is times when I start to think about how much free time other people my age actually have, I get a little jealous,” expressed Nelson. “Then I just take a look around and realize that all this time and effort that I’m putting into my future will eventually pay off, and be 100% worth it. I think the reason my parents have held me at a higher standard is because they’ve only wanted the best for me, and have known this whole time how much potential I really do have.”
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