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“It’s amazing how much my life has changed,” says Jigna Nagrashna, 19, a rising sophomore at Dalton State.

“I started eighth grade just one week after I came to the United States, not speaking much English,” says the native of India. “Now, I’m tutoring college students in the math lab.”

Jigna’s life journey has led her to crisscross the ocean several times. Born in France, she lived in both Belgium and in New Jersey before she turned four. Then she moved to India and entered boarding school before moving to Calhoun to be reunited with her mother in September of 2000.

“Moving to the U. S. was really tough for me because I didn’t know anything about the culture. But I was shocked by how everyone helped me out so much. All of the other kids at Calhoun Middle School really took care of me and helped me adjust.”

It was a teacher at CMS who inspired Jigna to embrace academics.

“I remember making an ‘A’ on a test, and the teacher said, ‘Girl, you are really smart,’” she recalls. “That made me realize that everything is possible in life. I started trying harder in school, and I made mostly ‘As’ and ‘Bs’ in high school.”

Jigna chose to come to Dalton State because of its strong academic reputation and to be close to home, near her mother and stepfather, making up for the years when she lived across the ocean from them and from her sister, Bijal, a Georgia Tech graduate who now works in Washington, D. C.

She felt immediately at home here.

“The professors at Dalton State are awesome,” she says. “I like the smaller classes we have here because it’s easy to communicate with your instructors. I’ve had a few bumps along the way, but I believe that everything is possible if you believe you can do well.”

Like she did in high school, Jigna has excelled at Dalton State where she’s also earned only ‘As’ and ‘Bs.’ Her love for mathematics was so obvious that she was asked to be a math tutor.

“Math is my subject,” she says, noting that she was approached by a professor to work in the math lab this summer and will continue to work there in the fall. “I’ve always loved helping people. It really makes my day when I see someone smile when they get the right answer.”

In addition to tutoring, Jigna is an Orientation Leader, mentoring new students who attend orientation sessions in the fall and spring. She is a member of the BACCHUS Peer Network, an on-campus organization that strives to educate students about the importance of drinking responsibly and/or choosing abstinence. And she works in a department store on the weekends in her hometown. In her spare time, she enjoys practicing yoga, a form of exercise and relaxation.

Interested in nutrition, Jigna enjoys cooking with her mom, whom she calls a “wonderful cook.” They enjoy traditional Indian foods and a diet that consists largely of organic fruits and vegetables and whole grains.

“I have a lot of goals for the future,” she says. “But one of my main goals is to help people who were like me a few years ago, who may have doubts about whether they can make it in life. I want to be an inspiration to other people like the teacher who gave me the encouragement to really change my life.”