Since September 2009, Pattie Jones has served as a mentor for HFCC’s “Inside Track” program and is currently the longest standing member since the program’s implementation. Each semester, Pattie and other mentors of Inside Track are assigned 10 incoming HFCC students, or mentees. Currently, Pattie is the Institutional Technician for the Inside Track program, and assists with the supervision and daily activities of nine mentors.

Pattie is also a full-time student at HFCC. In addition to graduating this past spring semester with an associate degree in business, she returned just three days later to pursue a degree in liberal arts.

“I am a pre-law, broadcast and telecommunications major,” said Pattie. “My goal is to become an entertainment attorney while simultaneously running my own company.” After HFCC, Pattie plans to transfer to Madonna University, where she will pursue a bachelor’s degree.

Along with her business partner, Christina Strong, Pattie co-founded Thullo Films, LLC, a film production company, and The Invisible People, a non-profit organization, and the duo have plans to release a documentary of the same name in 2012. Recently, they produced and directed an infomercial for the Inside Track program. Pattie hopes the infomercial will be shown on all of the monitors across campus.

“There is even a cameo performance of Elizabeth Preston, the Financial Aid Administrator, as well as one of the facilitators of the Inside Track program,” she said.

When she isn’t attending classes or helping both mentors and mentees of the Inside Track program, Pattie enjoys swimming, reading, watching old Hollywood movies, networking and thinking of new and exciting projects for her film company.

In addition to being alumni of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honors Society, she belongs to four other HFCC student clubs: Film, Law, Business, and Philosophy. Pattie enjoys participating in student clubs, though time constraints have prevented her from doing so recently.

“I am the mother of seven children,” Pattie shared, “So I am constantly busy.”

The Inside Track program has encouraged Pattie in several ways. Since becoming a student at HFCC and a mentor for the Inside Track, she has received several opportunities and met people that she may not have had a chance to. “The Inside Track program has been instrumental in my growth, not only as a student but as a person in general. The people who I share my time with inside the office are like family to me, and they bring so much to my life. I love the diversity of it all and could not imagine living my life any other way.”

Pattie cites Bia Hamed, Elizabeth Preston, and Dr. Lisa Jones-Harris as role models. “I would like to say thank you to each and every one of them. There is nothing in this world that could ever make me trade all the great experiences I’ve had while working at the Inside Track program.”