Pictured Above: USF St. Petersburg sophomore Tijen Jones has an impressive career ahead of her and she hopes to broaden perspectives along the way.
Courtesy of Tijen Jones
By Trevor Martindale
Since her parents divorced 12 years ago, Tijen Jones has been wedged between Kansas, where her father lives and Florida, where her mother lives.
Jones and her mother both have seasonal affective disorder, a form of depression triggered by Vitamin D deficiency. Jones explained areas which bear less sunlight negatively affect her mental health.
Kansas’ dim environment compelled Jones to attend college in Florida.
“Overall, it was a better opportunity for me to move down here,” Jones said. “It was cheaper, I was able to get more light and just be happier in general.”
But the ideal weather was not the only factor that attracted Jones to USF St. Petersburg.
Since middle school, Jones has held a passion for speech and debate. She participated in competitive speech throughout high school and was on her high school debate team for her freshman, junior and senior year.
“Along with the help of my previous debate coaches, we found an ethics debate team (at USF St. Petersburg), which really confused all of us,” Jones said. “We didn’t know what it was, but I said ‘that is good enough’ and so I chose this university.”
As a sophomore interdisciplinary social science major and president of the Ethics and Debate Club, Jones plans to use her education and debate skills for her multifaceted career path.
Jones’ boyfriend, Marcus Rubenstein, believes her years of speech and debate will aid in achieving her career goals.
“Her public speaking skills will take her very far in life,” Rubenstein said in an email to The Crow’s Nest. “(The Ethics and Debate Club) teaches people to be able to listen to others, make a coherent judgement on what was said and respond with the best answer possible. She has those skills tenfold and will be able to use them in her careers as an advantage over others.”
First, Jones plans to attend law school and practice immigration law.
“I want to study immigration law because that’s something I’ve been really invested in, partially due to debate,” Jones said. “I feel like there is a humanitarian crisis, which can be helped through more immigration lawyers with a heart to help, rather than kick people out.”
Following an exhaustive legal career, Jones plans on earning a Ph.D. for a professorship and ultimately, a career in Christian apologetics – a defender of the Christian religion .
“Apologetics is the defense of faith,” Jones said. “You are utilizing the same skills you use as a lawyer in order to defend faith.”
But Jones does not plan to toe the line of the Christian status-quo. Her father, who played a major role in shaping her beliefs, taught her otherwise.
“I didn’t want to just take my dad’s word for why I believed in the Bible,” Jones said. “He even told me not to do that.”
Jones plans on bucking the orthodoxy she believes is detrimental to Christianity.
“I hear so many say ‘the reason why I am not a Christian is because of Christians’ and I understand that,” she said. “(Many Christians) seem to be close-minded. The Bible says ‘do not judge,’ yet it seems like that’s what every popular Christian does.”
Jones indicated her disdain for Christianity’s effect on politics.
“I like to separate my religious beliefs and political beliefs because I feel like there are two spheres: the individual and the public,” Jones said. “(As) an individual, I will guide my life through how I see the religion. My religious beliefs should not infringe upon others’ beliefs.”
Jones also expressed great displeasure with the gender disparities in contemporary Christian leadership roles, prompting her desire to intertwine feminism and Christianity.
“The idea of a male patriarchy is incorrect with what the Bible is trying to communicate,” Jones said. “I want there to be at least one woman in the field to tell other women that it is not male dominated.”
After she concludes her dynamic career, Jones hopes to make great legal and sociological accomplishments.
Through law, Jones hopes to help those who are most vulnerable to mistreatment.
“I (hope to) help everyday people that wouldn’t have been able to help themselves,” Jones said.
Through apologetics, Jones has a simple, yet challenging goal.
“I want to help open peoples’ minds.”
