Adama Jones was an excellent high school student until the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world. After the pandemic, Jones could not see herself returning to high school. She courageously decided to disenroll and study intensively to earn her high school equivalency degree. 

She was a full-time college student within a month of stopping high school in her junior year.

“I had to believe in myself,” Jones said. “I was an honor roll student in high school and had a great rank and everything. So, dropping out of high school and taking my GED was the opposite of my reputation.

“I had to have the courage to leave that lifestyle,” she added.

Jones earned the President’s Award and will speak at Rowan College at Burlington County’s first-ever winter commencement for the STEM ceremony at 3 pm on Wednesday, December 20.

Jones is graduating with a 4.0 grade point average in Fashion Design while working toward her 3+1 bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. She works as an interior designer, preparing for a promotion. As a fashion designer, her work has been on the runway as part of RCBC’s annual fashion shows, Newark Fashion Week Festival and will be part of Atlantic City Fashion Week in February.

“RCBC definitely helped me with my technical skills. I knew how to sew. I knew how to make a mood board, but I think RCBC helped me mature my vision,” Jones said. “I feel that with my associate degree, I can enter the workforce now or into entrepreneurship with the skills I have.”

On campus, Adama was active in the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and clubs, including chess and crochet. 

“I think RCBC is very festive as a community college because most community colleges - they’re just classes, and that’s it. There’s not really a community based around it,” Jones said. “ I also like that RCBC is a community college because they’re not really inflated. They’re not fluffing up your experience in the sense that they’re not forgetting the academic part. They’re very proactive in making sure you’re on time with what you have to do.

“This is a very organized school, and they’re very involved,” she added.