Student Profile

My name is Stacey Oatis. I am 34 years old and have been married to Azri Oatis for 14 years. We have two wonderful children—Vivian (13) and Tyler (5). The family dog is a toy poodle named Romeo. I attended high school at Jacob Joshua (J.J.) McLain High School in Lexington. For anyone unfamiliar with town, it is located in the Mississippi Delta in Holmes County. This county is located just above Yazoo County. The school mascot for J.J. McClain was the mustang. My favorite subject in high school was world history. It is always fascinating learning about other cultures and how they advance through time. A majority of the assignments for history and other classes required large amounts of reading.

All the reading prepared everyone for the tests which were mostly multiple choice and fill in the blanks. My interests not only were academics but being involved in various other activities. I have always believed in a maintaining a balance between academics and extracurricular activities. While enrolled at J.J. McClain, I was active in many student organizations. These organizations included: Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Student Body Council (Treasurer) and the Student Welding Association.

Upon graduating, I attended Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi. My major at Alcorn was Computer Technology. I knew history was one of my favorite subjects in high school; but technology was always a part of my life. Each new gadget that was discussed in the local papers or television; I had to find an excuse to have it. The classes at Alcorn were relatively small and the professors knew everyone on a first name basis. The English course there was somewhat challenging and required a lot of time to prepare assignments. Other courses were less strenuous and didn’t require large amounts of writing. However, the English Composition did give me a foundation that was missing from my high school years. I was enrolled at Alcorn from 1994-1996.

After being out of school for 14 years, I decided to re-enroll and further my career. My interest was still technology but wanted a program that was more interdisciplinary. So, I chose Criminal Justice with an emphasis in Forensics at the University of Southern Mississippi. But first a little background on why I chose this specific field at USM. I applied and was offered a job with the South Mississippi Bureau of Forensics (SMBF). However, not completing my degree at Alcorn caused me not to get the job. Based upon that decision by SMBF, I decided to go back to school this past Spring. I finished the aforementioned semester with a 3.0 GPA.
I hope this course further develops my technical writing skills. The field of law enforcement requires not only technical skills related to computers, but requires writing various reports. My fear was that some of my reports would possibly lack the grammar that would be sufficient for my employer. Therefore, I hope to gain valuable knowledge that can be applied to my everyday work assignments.