Raksha Chatakondi

I have grown up in Mississippi my entire life and thought I always wanted to leave the state for college. When senior year came around at the Mississippi School for Math and Science, I attempted to do so and made a housing deposit to another university. Then I came to the Ole Miss campus April of my senior year to stay with a friend, and we were just walking around campus when I realized the atmosphere and welcoming feeling I felt here was not what I experienced at that the other campus.

Since my offer for the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College and scholarships were still standing, I switched everything over and ended up coming to Ole Miss—a decision I don’t regret! I started off as a biology major, but I needed to take an extra elective class during the second semester of sophomore year. One of my friends recommended the Exercise Science (ES) department because the classes were really interesting. I ended up taking the course ES 391: Trends and Topics in ES with Dr. Jeremy Loenneke. He was extremely knowledgeable, and I really enjoyed the way he taught. It was more of a discussion class and actually processing the material versus just memorizing the facts. I approached him about doing my honors college thesis research under his supervision. Once he agreed and I joined his lab, it reaffirmed my decision to switch to ES.

I now attend the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Medicine in Jackson! All of my ES classes have emphasized the muscles, bones and joints, and how the body moves. With my knowledge of exercise science and my love for kids, I would love to connect the two and ultimately go into pediatric rheumatology.

When I started working in the lab, I felt the family atmosphere of the ES program. It’s a lot smaller than other programs, and I really like that. I’m close to a lot of the professors already, even if I haven’t taken a class with them, just seeing them around the department. The academic adviser for the program is responsible for all of the students, and he takes a personal interest in all of us—another thing that really drew me towards the program. Every graduating student has to do a practicum or internship their senior year, so you are getting that “real life” experience in college. So, if you want to go into PT or OT or you want to go to medical school, there are so many different opportunities within the ES program that can really prepare you.

Don’t be scared of the opportunities you can get in ES program. There are a lot of things that the professors, advisers, and other students have experiences with, so if someone brings up an opportunity for you and you’re not really expecting it, take it and run with it.