Jada McQuarrie loves grunge music - she wears her Nirvana sweatshirt around campus, has a Pearl Jam ringtone on her phone, and plays bass in a grunge-sounding local band. She's also hitting all of the right notes in class. She earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average in her first semester, and is a new member of Onondaga Community College's chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society. "It's not something everybody gets. I'm proud of it."
The 21-year-old Syracuse native's path to academic success wasn't straightforward. She dropped out of high school during her junior year when Covid hit, even though she had been taking AP-level classes. She wound up earning her GED, and four years later decided to come to OCC. "Initially, I felt like I had no idea where I was. I was used to being in a school that was just one building. But about halfway through the semester, something clicked. "I started feeling comfortable around the 7-week mark. And I've always been a straight-A student."
She's a Humanities and Social Sciences major whose interests have evolved through the years. "As a teenager I got into psychology. At at one point I wanted to be a zoologist, and at another point I wanted to be a paleontologist. Right before I applied for college, I realized I liked research and wanted to be a scientific researcher. Now, with the eclectic information I'm interested in, I think veterinary would be a good career. We need veterinarians, I love animals, and I have a passion for the work."
There's more to McQuarrie than textbooks and lab coats. About a year ago, she joined the local band Redmug. You can listen to a preview of their song "Cigarette" on Apple Music. The band is working on a new album, and she's taking bass lessons next semester to sharpen her skills. "If music has guitars, bass, and drums, I'm usually going to like it. But generally, when I say I'm going to listen to music, I'm going to listen to Nirvana."
