Graduating senior wins year-long
fellowship
By Lynde Smith
Staff
Writer
With references like Purdue President Martin Jischke,
Rep. Greg Porter and former Indiana Attorney General Karen Freeman Wilson,
one Purdue senior didn't have too hard of a time getting one of the
nine governor fellowships.
Tiara Nibbs will be graduating in August with a
political science major and minors in communication and organizational
leadership and supervision. That is not her only accomplishment this
year, though. Nibbs will be serving as a fellow to Gov. Frank O'Bannon
beginning July 2.
Nine college students and recent graduates will
be spending a year learning how the state government operates as members
of the 2001-2002 governor's fellowship class.
The members of the 20th class will serve 12-week,
rotating assignments as executive staff in various agencies.
Nibbs said that she has met the governor through
different affiliations such as the internship, the Rose Bowl and the
women's NCAA Championship game. She said that Gov. O'Bannon knows her
name and face and that through this fellowship she will get to know
the governor and his family very well.
Nibbs has been involved in numerous activities
on campus throughout her four years here at Purdue. She serves as a
board member on the athletic affairs committee and also served on the
Senate Selection Committee for Jischke. Nibbs had also been a mentor
at the Black Cultural Center and she ran for homecoming queen.
Nibbs has participated in the Emily Mauzy Vogel
Leadership Conference and the Mortar Board Leadership Conference. She
has also sung with the Black Voices of Inspiration.
Outside of Purdue, Nibbs has been an intern in
the Indiana House of Representatives. During this internship, she worked
with Reps. Porter, Vanessa Summers and Jesse Villapondo.
Nibbs said the internship in the Indiana House
of Representatives was wonderful.
"It was good because it helped me see how things
worked," she said. "I was there first hand and able to be a part of
it."
In the summer of 2000 Nibbs studied abroad in Oxford.
She took a course in political science and another in communication
at Oxford University.
Nibbs said this was the best educational experience
of her life. She said it was a great opportunity to meet other people
from other cultures and see how other people live.
"It was such a neat environment to learn in," Nibbs
said. "Being at Oxford makes you want to learn"
Nibbs' parents are very proud of her accomplishments.
"She is a very driven, self-assured, focused young
lady," her mother, Anita Nibbs, said. "Tiara makes us very proud with
her interaction with peers and adults alike."
Tiara's father, Robert Nibbs, said that she has
always been a go-getter. He told her that she could be anything that
she wanted to be. He said that he told her to first, be happy, and second,
make a difference.
"She's never been afraid," he said. "She's always
been courageous to go and try things."
After she completes the governor fellowship, Tiara
plans on going to law school. She is hoping to attend Harvard.
"None of this would be possible without the opportunities
that I have been given and the people that I have met here at Purdue,"
Tiara said.
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